Nintendo Seal of Quality

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Nintendo's Official Seal of Quality in NTSC regions

Nintendo's Official Seal of Quality in PAL regions.

HES seal to mimic the official Nintendo Seal of Quality.

The Nintendo Seal of Quality is a gold seal that was first used by Nintendo of America and later adopted by Nintendo Europe which places it on any game licensed for use on one of its video game consoles, denoting that the game has been properly licensed by Nintendo (and in theory, been checked for quality). It is a golden starburst seal that says inside "Original Nintendo Seal of Quality" for PAL regions or just "Official Nintendo Seal" in NTSC regions. The starburst is circular in PAL regions such as Europe and Australia, while it is in the shape of an ellipse (oval) for NTSC regions.

One of the major reasons for the Video Game Crash of 1983 was customer dissatisfaction with a large portion of the introduced games. They were considered technically poor, tasteless or both – a particularly notorious example is Custer's Revenge. Many games were simply commercial tie-ins, little more than ads. The 2600, the biggest console on the market, had no lockout device, so anyone who could get programming tools could make and market a game for it. Games were rushed to market, resulting in poor titles and low consumer credibility.

Gamers understandably were wary of game makers when the Nintendo Entertainment System came out. The 10NES lockout chip solved the problem of controlling access to the console (for the most part), but there was the issue of customer confidence – the market had been burned, and was wary of being burned again. So Nintendo introduced the Seal Of Quality to show gamers that the games had met quality control standards. It was mainly a marketing ploy, but it worked – consumers were reassured, and the NES became a great success. Publishers were encouraged to create high-quality titles in other ways as well. Each publisher was only allowed five releases per year, so effort was put into making those few titles successful.

The original North American, Nintendo quality seal (1985-1988).

Originally, for NTSC countries, the seal was a large, black and gold circular starburst. The seal read as follows: "This seal is your assurance that NINTENDO has approved and guaranteed the quality of this product". This seal was later altered around 1988; "approved and guaranteed" was changed to "evaluated and approved." In 1989, the seal became gold and white, much like it appears today, with a shortened phrase "Official NINTENDO Seal of Quality." The symbol remained unchanged until 2003 when "of Quality" was removed.

Companies like Australian Home Entertainment Suppliers Pty. Ltd. who released products unlicensed from Nintendo made their own seal (to deceive less discerning customers) and printed them as stickers so new and old stock could be sold with the newly fashioned logos.

The Nintendo Seal of Quality is still used today, with all Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo GameCube games bearing it on their packaging. Again, however, it has recently been changed to read simply "Official Nintendo Seal" rather than "Official Nintendo Seal of Quality."

When the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality was used, the meaning of the seal was explained as follows: "This official seal is your assurance that Nintendo has approved the quality of this product. Always look for this seal when buying games and accessories to ensure complete compatibility with your <insert name of Nintendo system here>."

The current Official Nintendo Seal is explained as follows: "The official seal is your assurance that this product is licensed or manufactured by Nintendo. Always look for this seal when buying video game systems, accessories, games, and related products."

Aside from being more general in its description, the Official Nintendo Seal does not vouch for quality like the old Official Nintendo Seal of Quality did. This change may have been made to prevent Nintendo from being associated with any negative criticism or legal liabilities from products made by a company other than Nintendo, be that due to controversial content, software bugs, or just lack of quality. Examples include the universally panned Superman 64, and the controversial Conker's Bad Fur Day, which was developed by former Nintendo second party Rareware (now controlled by Microsoft).