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69 Comments
- EbenieRosa, on 10/12/2007, -1/+39I wish however they would mix it up just a little, the most dominant formats on the VC are TurboGrafx 16 and Genesis, I want more SNES and N64!
- Jrr6415sun, on 10/12/2007, -2/+27this is all common sense. VC cost too much anyway.
- SkippyDoorknob, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26Light grey text on a white background - brilliant website design...
- LaGStAr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16@armbar
Don't talk down to the Noid - thetanbark, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Interesting read? I can't even bare to read this light text on white background. Please--stop the low-contrast trend, you're not winning any readers!
- se1zure, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14While I agree with the article, and I have yet to purchase any VC games (and probably won't purchase any other than maybe goldeyeye), you can't deny that this would be the title and description is Sony did this:
"Sony : Screwing consumers, not releasing promised VC Games
Sony, what is wrong with you? First you make consumers spend $600 on a console, then you don't even release the VC games you promised since day 1? YOu make people wait for their game?? WTF SONY!? WHY are you SO GREEDY!!"
But nintedo gets complimented for using smart buisness tequniques... lol. - armbar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Oh, it was consistent all right, but the games were all 3rd-party retardation, like the Domino's Pizza game and Toobin'
- mirzmaster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9For those having difficulty reading the low contrast text, here's the article in full:
-------------------------
At this point in time America has roughly four pages of classic Virtual console games, however this is only two pages more than the system in America launched with, with less than 30 Virtual Console games available for download many question exactly what Nintendo is doing, I'm here however to defend, explain and otherwise rationalize this as the most logical, profitable, and wise decision that Nintendo could ever make.
For those of us who are not intimately familiar with how the Virtual console and it's downloads work here is a brief summary, every Monday (In America) approximately 2 to 4 Virtual console games are released, Generally it's been a mix of 1 or 2 Genesis Games, 1 TurboGrafx 16 and 1 NES game, however it varies greatly, and although this is a steady rate, many people are questioning why many AAA titles are not available. Aside from obvious reasons for third party titles not being present (liscensing, time, etc.) , this does not explain why Nintendo themselves simply did not have available all of thier AAA software available, surely many argue that they are losing out on Money, and infact arguably they are, atleast in the short term, however not in the long run.
Imagine if Nintendo released 1 day every game you wanted to buy at once, although it would create a brief but intense online shopping spree (one infact that Intendo's server's themselves many not be prepared for) Consumers would lose interest shortly thereafter because they would have been able to take thier pick of the hottest titles, going back only because they knew what they were loking for. Sometimes the best strategy for any product is an incremental release, take for instance the iPod, Apple incrimentaly increases not only space, but adds features, modify's the Products appearance and all the while manages to recapture the market because each go around, while they improve, they do not add every and all features they could.
Many people I'm sure notice that the games available on Virtual Console, although good, are not the best of the best, but that about every monday there is a classic killer app released in each bunch, this balances the overal presentation of each batch, and for many each group contains atleast one unfamiliar game, which they may infact read up on, and download out of curiousity (I myself have been quite taken with the Turbografx 16 Shooters as I never had a chance to own the console), The less a person has to choose from will increase the liklihood of an impulse buy on a piece of software that more than likely would be unsold if no other options ae in place (The same principal is used in many other products including movies and games that are "filler" during a quiet season, or an area of slow releases).
Another advantage is that Nintendo for the most part manages to keep a relatively close lid on the upcoming titles for the week after next ( I myself have gotten the ritual of checking every monday at 2.00 PM), even if someone does not check through the Wii browser, it gets discussed online and overall creates more hype/buzz for not only the Virtual console, but the Nintendo Wii itself. Although there are going to bge those who will simply wait for the titles they want, others will simply try games as an impulse buy (and as ar as impulse buys go, these are relatively cheap being between 5 and ten dollars).
One other aspect of Nintendo's online strategy that I'm not sure if people noticed (or if they have, how come it gets discussed so little) is the fact that Wii Points can only be purchased in groups of ten, and quite often you will have a remainder of 200-400 Wii points, if you want to purchase a game that is say 500 Wii points, you will at the very least have to purchase 1000 Wii Points (10 dollars), and with your new remainder the cycle then continues, infact I would even venture to say it's wise that Nintendo's, unlike Microsoft's Points, are not offered at a discount when bought in bulk.
Although many of us still cannot seem to wait for that one special Virtual Console game, I for one look forward to seeing what comes out this Monday, each one after that. - subtle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Why Nintendo releases only 2 to four Virtual Console games Every Monday.
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Why kids no can read very good no more, and right, either. - rr525356, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I haven't been on the shop channel in weeks because there isn't anything on there I want to play. You'd think they'd at least release a second n64 game. Also, how many titles are out there for all consoles? 5000? It could take a decade at this rate.
- l1ghtm4n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"They're just ROMs. There's no real development time beyond the original creation of the emulators. They just dump the code and upload it."
This isn't necessarily true, especially for AAA titles. If you follow the emulator crowd at all, you'll see that because of the hardware consistency in the console world, developers can throw some hardware tricks into the game code which are difficult for an emulator to recreate. - billybob476, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8AVOID THE NOID!
- TheWorm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Whow else wants mario kart?
btw, ithought i would mention im commenting from the wii for the first time - eatingbrb, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9They're just ROMs. There's no real development time beyond the original creation of the emulators. They just dump the code and upload it.
- ZorboMan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6@eatingbrb
I've only downloaded one game so far, but it looks like they put in quite a bit of effort when it comes to the documentation and presentation. It doesn't appear to be documentation just taken directly from the original manuals either. - kotatsu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Nothing new here, just stating the obvious.
I do with they would ramp it up a little though. A trickle is fine as long as the trickly has some quality, and the past 2 weeks have been dismal. Come on Nintendo, where are Pilotwings, StarFox 64, or Super MarioKart? - maxx77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Looks like a good article, although the guy spells it as "ninendo" in the title.
- ahawks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Isn't working on me.
I want VC games so I can play the games I knew and loved - a nostalgic thing.
Old games that I have no memory of playing will just look horrible to me, so there's no way I'll buy one on a whim. I don't care about NES Tennis or any turbo graffix games, or genesis.
I want more (good/well known) NES games, and I want some SNES and N64 content! - Fractl, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5" Imagine if Nintendo released 1 day every game you wanted to buy at once, although it would create a brief but intense online shopping spree (one infact that Intendo's server's themselves many not be prepared for) Consumers would lose interest shortly thereafter because they would have been able to take thier pick of the hottest titles, going back only because they knew what they were loking for."
If you write an article like this you should really take the time to proof-read it. - maxx77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Stupid Digg, bumped me out of my own message while in the middle of typing it. Anyway, I just read the article and I don't think he quite hits the reason why NinTendo releases their VC games the way they do. Each game has to be cleared in several places, both legally and through the ESRB. On top of that, if you dig through each VC game on the service, you'll see that there's a custom Wii-centric instruction manual created for every game. Besides all of that, Nintendo has to actually play test each game. They can't just dump a rom onto the service and expect it to be perfectly emulated. It takes time to QA each title. Obviously, Nintendo would want to space their titles apart and not release them all at the same time, but I think it's more of a logistics issue than it is a market strategy.
- Massif, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I agree it makes sense for Nintendo, they'll make more money this way. However, I still think it's silly to have synthetic release dates that create synthetic hype.
"Alright! A game that I played 10 years ago is coming out next week!" - Elranzer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4VC is too expensive. I am, however, prepared to pay for N64 games (and have purchased Super Mario 64 since Day 1). PC console emulators (including on the Xbox) still do not have N64 emulation quite right (nor PSone). Emulation perfection seems to stop at the 16-bit era. To me it would be worth it to pay for perfect N64 roms (and be able to re-download them for free whenever).
Just... where are they? - victorcgalanis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3it's a simple strategy: keep'em hungry and keep'em coming back for more.
- Eastlygod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Well, they're still not going to lose money on you then are they? If all the titles are out now, you would buy the one's you want, and that's it. Instead, they're just going to get your money when the games are actually released, and not now. Your money will still be theirs, and they're making more money off other people in the long run.
- eonblu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I wish they would give us more screen shots or even video previews of the VC games. I've never heard of a lot of these games and, honestly, 3 tiny screenshots and a description that could have been taken right from the game box just aren't enough. Sure, I could go online and find everything I need, but by then my interest is gone.
- Sakumi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I dislike their whole attitude on it personally. Not the fact they are spacing it out, it's the face they're not releasing several 'key' titles til later dates in hopes we buy filler games. Sorry, I didn't like 'Baseball' for the NES when it came out, why would I buy it now?....
- tchawla, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Actually, the strategy isn't working on me. I keep holding out for better and better titles, and refuse to spend my money unless I see something worthwhile.
- newbay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Nintendo are making a big mistake, people were initially hyped about the VC, and some, myself included had set aside hundreds of dollars to build a library of their favorite games on one system, but with the complete lack of decent titles, we might as well just plug in the old consoles because VC is not living up to expectations.
to make matters worse, the rest of the world have it good compared to Nintendo Australia, we have received 1 NES title for the past 2 weeks, Mario Bros last week and now Xevious , while I am vaguely aware that some decent upcoming titles are rumored, it is getting to the point that I am not interested any more. - whiledo, on 03/25/2009, -0/+2Speaking for myself, I guess I do understand why they do this. For some reason, I have bought TWO VC titles. I know I could just download an emulator and get them for free. I have no idea what lures me to buy them on the Wii and play them with my wiimote. I just do. And it's FUN.
Back years ago when I DID have an emulator on my PC, I downloaded all the thousands of ROMS all at once. I fiddled around with a dozen or so of them, playing them for about a minute each. Then I got bored and didn't touch them again. I didn't even bother installing an emulator on my PCs since then.
So it does make sense, from both a money-grubbing aspect and a customer enjoyment aspect. - SweetsGreen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3maxx77>
QA my ass. I was playing SMB, and on the first board of the 2nd world I got stuck in mid air...and had to wait for the time to run out. I don't ever remember that bug on the NES.
But in reality this guy is right about N not wanting to give people too many choices. Nobody would buy the crappy games if there was every single game available all at once. - Topher06, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The reality of it is that Nintendo is hoping you "Forget" just how much you have spent buying individual games at $5 a pop over a period of a year.
If ALL games were avialable at once, someone might balk at spending $300 to get all their favourite titles at once, but by trickling games out on a weekly basis, people will be more willing to buy a game $5 at a time. In the end, many people might end up spending more then $300 in a year.
I for one, whenever I manage to get around to buying a Wii, will buy a couple of titles at first, but I almost expect that once there are a certain number of titles released, and sales of individual VC games start to drop, Nintendo will no-doubt release game bundles. Like get all the NES Mario titles for one price or get 10 top favourites of the SNES lineup in one package. It does not sense for Nintendo to sell individual games indefinitely, and eventually people will complain about the excess cost in getting individual games $5 at a time once they realize they blew $600 .on VC games in year.
That, or Nintendo will release a disc of favourites that you can buy at a store. I mean, not everyone has an internet connection or has one going to their living room. Nintendo will want to appeal to those that want to play the old games, but cannot do so online.
Nintendo's strategy will change dramatically WHEN someone releases an easy to install emulator for the Wii that makes the VC concept obsolete. They will most likely switch to a subscription model where you can play the entire library all you want for a monthly fee. - trib4lmaniac, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@EbenieRosa: If you are the author of this site, please make the text a bit darker; it's burning my eyes!
- ModernTenshi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I can't stand to read articles from this site. So many grammatical errors, it's astounding.
- SweetsGreen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2maxx77>
I was kinda joking. I work in development too, and I know things slip past the QA dept.
I was just venting. - Gerz1219, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6Golly gee, Nintendo sure is clever at finding ways to rip off consumers! It sure is ingenious of them to make sub-par titles available first, so that people will buy the AAA titles when they're released several thousand Wii points down the road! And their carnival ticket method of online sales, with no discounts for buying in bulk, can't be beat (except by the company they ripped off)! We should build a golden altar to Nintendo for making overpriced 15 year old >1 megabyte ROMs available to the masses, even though they've been fully emulated and available online for a decade!
That was one of the most sickening, fanboyish defenses of a ***** rip-off business model I've read in some time. The entire library should been fully available at launch, and NES/SNES games should have cost about $2 each. - deadlikeoscar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm sure the ESRB would be a little miffed if they had to rate all of Nintendo's, etc. games all at once as well. Not the major reason though
- mrRB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dangit, man, stop raping commas! You can't have an entire paragraphs composed of run-on sentences! And what did brackets ever do to you?
/grammar nazi - mrRB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Given the money they'd lose on, say, $20 a month fees on bandwidth alone, it's not very likely. If they do do it, it'll be expensive.
- chadu, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6this is so ridiculously obvious... does everyone that has a blog think that they have original ideas? jeezus. blogspam.
- mrRB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1RE: WeeklyGeek: Nothing to create, sure, but they still have to check all the old games for coding errors. Not to mention bandwidth, storage space, and *profit*. There's not just some big red button somewhere that says "MOVE TO WII".
- NeoKamek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Lamed for the stupid redirect that takes me to a page telling me how to write articles with you.
- mrRB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You paid for a software license for their repsective consoles, yes. Not to play it on a console that hadn't even been thought up yet.
Nintendo could probably release an add-on that lets games play through the USB port, but there's not much money in it, and people would just hack it for PC. - SirBriggs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Very interesting spelling and grammatical errors.
- WeeklyGeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I agree. interest in the VC is going to peter out as people see that there's really nothing on there to buy. They aren't going to wait around for Nintendo to get their asses in order and release something that costs them ZERO dollars to create and distribute. It's arbitrary how they are holding back games, and eventually users are going to get savvy about it.
- maxx77, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Sweetsgreen, just because you found a bug doesn't mean that they didn't QA the hell out of the game. I work for a software company at the Help Desk. I deal with both our development team and our customers. I know first-hand how much QA testing goes into our products. Despite that, we don't have unlimited resources or time, so a lot of bugs do slip past us. I take calls every day from customers who found some odd little quirk that we would have never caught.
Nintendo absolutely QA's everything they put out. The company has a very low tolerance for mistakes. (insert Virtual Boy joke here if you like) Given what I know of the company, I'd say they quite possibly have the best QA in the entire software industry. It's impossible for even them to catch every bug though. How often have you had other games crash or lock up? How often has your PC frozen up? It happens. There's no way around it. Faults are all built in to the equation. (insert dated Matrix Reloaded reference here) - loof, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I love the noid!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Didn't I already pay for these games once?
- mrRB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"The entire library should been fully available at launch, "
Say, where do you think they'd get the bandwidth to support tens of thousands of people downloading? They couldn't even keep up with what they had at launch.
@se1zure: How would they know if you have the original game? And why would they give you *something you already own* for free? - furatail, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have to agree with the captain obvious comment.
- IzeasGT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Long Tail, people? As mentioned in the comics?
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