Topic: I think I know why Nintendo is holding back VC games

[Svevan]

I think there's more to it than Windy's simple, but mostly accurate reading. Only Nintendo knows how many games they're selling, what their full release schedule is, etc etc. They've got a plan, and even though I hate it, I have to wait to find out WHY they're doing what they're doing.

Nintendo is wise to give Sega a boost on VC because, geez, they just released most of these games on PS2. Count me out of the $8 Genesis VC realm, count me IN to the Genesis Collection on Sony's machine.

[Sabe002]

They are saving the great games for when there is a shortage of new Wii games. Nintendo has stated that. I think they will come out with the better games when there a fewer "new" games. That makes sense, but it would make sense now too!

[Kairon]

THIS is exactly why Nintendo of America is doing a slow release strategy:

Quote
Japan VC ranking 12/8~12/14
1. Super Mario brothers
2. Super Mario World
3. Super Mario 64
4. Mario Brothers
5. Donkey Kong Country
6. Puyo Puyo
7. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
8. Bomberman '94
9. R-Type
10. The Legend of Zelda

If third parties want to sell AT ALL, Nintendo has to give 'em a chance first.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com  

[Crimm]

I see what you're saying but I think their motives are simply this: They don't want to compete with the Genesis titles AGAIN.  They let Sega exhaust their top-tier titles and then they start with the SNES stuff.  People who wanted those Genesis games will already have them, and wont have to chose how to spend their points.  

Of course, that cuts both ways.  Sega gets the benefit of not having to re-enact the early 90s console war as well.

[Smash_Brother]

But why skull-f*ck Sega in Japan, though?

It's Sega's "home turf" as well.

[Kairon]

Not really. The MegaDrive got its butt kicked by Hudson/NEC and their PC Engine in Japan.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Luigi Dude]

Yeah, the only time Sega was ever popular in Japan was with the Saturn for awhile.  So the only games Sega could release for the Virtual Console that would do very well in Japan would be their Saturn games, but that will never happen since it's impossible to create a Saturn emulator.

[Crimm]

Maybe because NCL still hates Sega.

[segagamer12]

Errors reported so as loyal Sega fan I must correct said errors.



Plus I have input releting to thread honest.



First off why the hell are peopel STILL complaining about the cost? have ANY OF YOU, who complain about the cost, even tried collecting old NES, SNES or Genesis games? HAVE YOU? NO! Because if you had you would know that Gunstar Heroes is a 15.00 Genesis game, Mario 64 goes for 12.00 THE VERY LEAST, TG16 games are RARE AS HELL, and other than Aletered Beast and Sonic are the only Genssis games released so far you can get bellow 5.00. Golden axe suuaaly goes fro between 8 to 10. F-friggin Zero is also an 8 dollar SNES titled used most places.


Holy friggin crap shut up already. Th VC games are a bargain, a fu$&ing bargain compared to the ACTUAL games. EVEN the CLASSIC NES games are 10.00 for GBA aand started at 20 and still sold pretty decent. Sonic Classic Genesis also sold at 20.00 for GBA.

Goto any friggin used video game store that SELLS Genesis and SNES stuff check out the prices and then stop complaining. Zelda on NES us ususaly 8 dollars on its own and VC lets you have it for five. GBA relese for same game was 20 and Zelda Collectrs edition is close to fifty everywhere I see it.

DAMN Shut up about the prices. if its too high then dont pay it. But your not going to find them anywhre else exzcept PS2 compilations for cheaper. If you got a Ps2 get those, if not shut up.


AS for Sega vs Nintendo, Sega, like it or not, has been selling alot of games lately and Nintendo got shafted with GC and I think they are trying to get on thier good side so they can get thier GOOD games on thier system that might sell.


Also Sega is an American company. It was started by Americans and it is RUN by Americans. Even since they merged with Sammy the US headquarters still makes most of the decisions. Sega Japan is thier JAPAN equivelant of Nintendo America. Except Sega Japan actualy makers thier own decisions and NOA doeas what big brother says.

Sega America and Sega Japan are almost 2 seperate companies. Sega America does the BULK of thier development even.  Also there is the fact that IN JAPAN Genesis (Mega Drive) didnt even make an impression. OUt of the 30 Million Genesis consoles sold world wide, 18 Million were US, the 10 Million Europe, what does that leave Japan?

Sega even knwos Japan isnt rhie home terf. It ever was. All it is now is HQ for corporate offices, Nothing more nothing less. Sega has always had an American mentality as it was started as American company.


So it makes more sense they would try and sell thier games here because everyone knwos they dont have prayer in Japan.  Saturn was thier only hit in Japan and it didnt take long for PS to over shadow that.  

[NeoThunder]

ok, let me offer a rebuttle for the above statement...

first of all, the license that you buy on your Wii is more limited to that what you get at a used game store.  If you buy games online and download them...then get tired of them, you can't sell them.  With a used game it has value and can therefor be sold again.  As well as you can only play your VC games on the one and only Wii that you downloaded them to, i'll admit that isn't that big of deal considering most of us don't play retro games on different systems.

second is used game store can't make the games....as we all know.  If they only released so many games on the system, the less there are the more valueble that game is, and as time goes on the stock pile of those games will only go down since they never make anymore.  Not to mention that these games at used stores cost what they do because of course....they buy them from people.....so they have to of course charge even more than that to make a profit, again, we all know this....I'm not trying to say no body is aware of this but I only say this cause it brings me to the third.....

which is third, ALL money that nintendo gets from VC sales is profit....period.  There is no cost of manufacturing or parts, and for nintendo and third parties, this is a second chance to make money on a product that is done and over.  So to argue that Nintendo for some reason must charge near the same for them in a used store is stupid.  From a marketing standpoint in my opinion, the best thing you want to do is sell it at the lowest cost possible that everyone is willing to pay.  All you have to do is look at wal-mart and know that this method in fact does work.  

So in my personal opinion, I do believe if you were to lower the cost of VC games, given the choice between used games and VC, I'm sure if the cost difference is fair enough rather than close to the same, people would go with a clear choice of downloading it at a lower cost.  After all, I'm sure Nintendo would rather make some money than no money, cause of course they make no money if someone buys it used.  Plus if you can get 2 games for 6 dollars, or just 1 game for 5.  Clearly the 2 games for 6 is a win win situation, even though it's only a dollar more, you take and add it up and I believe they would make more money than their method currently.

[Smash_Brother]

Ageed, Neo.

The VC prices are still too high to be reasonable, IMO.

[Luigi Dude]

It still doesn't change the fact that you can get games on the Virtual Console for much cheaper then you can at a used videogame store or ebay.  Some of these stores are still charging around 20-30 dollars for the popular SNES games like A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario RPG and one store was even charging 50 BUCKS for Chrono Trigger.  

So being able to download those games for only 8 dollars is a very reasonable deal to me, when the only other alternative is spending about 3 times as much per game.

[Kairon]

Paper Mario on the N64 runs for about 35 to 40 bucks on Ebay. I'll take this $10 dollar version, thank you very much.

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[NWR_pap64]

I certainly agree that the prices for the SNES and N64 games are good, especially for the very rare, hard to find ones. I mean, I would be willing to drop 10 bucks on the great N64 games.

But the prices for the NES games are a bit too much. I mean, who in their right mind would pay 6 bucks for Mario Bros.?

[The Omen]

It's all averaged out.  Say you buy A Link To The Past for $8.  That's a bargain, right?  Now you "overspend" on say, Mario Brothers for $5.  You just spent $13 frigging dollars for Mario Brothers AND A Link To The Past.  Sounds good to me.  

[Kairon]

I spent $15 buying River City Ransom at Funco Land.

$5 is MORE than worth it for Kickle Cubicle.

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com  

[Ceric]

Actually I hate to say this but the Music industry is now the abnormality for something going from "physical" to "digital."  Have any of you tried to buy and e-Book?  I got a PDA and didn't thought reading on it would be terrible but then I tried it with some of the books that have gone on the public domain, War of Worlds is one of them and a pretty good read, and found I preferred it.  I could read in any light condition.  It keep my page and was lighter then the bigger books. I was interested in getting one of Raymond Feists newer books so, I go looking for it as an e-Book.  I found it was offered.  For about a dollar cheaper then they hardback.  Rip-Off... so I went looking at other ones.  They were all like that even when the paperback was already out.  Thats a rip-off.  I like the format but its digital not physical.  Not nearly as durable and now way to get it back if my computer dies.  Not to much some of the DRM on it.
Well it seems the VC is using a similar model but with fixed average prices.

Edit: This was suppose to be posted about 2 hours ago

[Arbok]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ceric
I was interested in getting one of Raymond Feists newer books so, I go looking for it as an e-Book.  I found it was offered.  For about a dollar cheaper then they hardback.  Rip-Off... so I went looking at other ones.  They were all like that even when the paperback was already out.  Thats a rip-off.  I like the format but its digital not physical.  Not nearly as durable and now way to get it back if my computer dies.

Yep, I'd agree there. After all, Apple charges $13-15 for movies, and I can't imagine spending that type of money versus a DVD considering the limited use I would get from it. The music industry is in, a lot of ways, ahead of everyone else here. However, that's also largely due to them being much easier to digitally pirate then other mediums.

[Ceric]

Quote
Originally posted by: Arbok

Quote
Originally posted by: Ceric
I was interested in getting one of Raymond Feists newer books so, I go looking for it as an e-Book.  I found it was offered.  For about a dollar cheaper then they hardback.  Rip-Off... so I went looking at other ones.  They were all like that even when the paperback was already out.  Thats a rip-off.  I like the format but its digital not physical.  Not nearly as durable and now way to get it back if my computer dies.

Yep, I'd agree there. After all, Apple charges $13-15 for movies, and I can't imagine spending that type of money versus a DVD considering the limited use I would get from it. The music industry is in, a lot of ways, ahead of everyone else here. However, that's also largely due to them being much easier to digitally pirate then other mediums.

Very Very True.

[segagamer12]

Ok if you think there is NOT COST in dsitributing these games your an idiot end of discusion. I am not going to be the one to breakit down so I wont even try.  

[Ian Sane]

Regarding the prices I think they're usually too high.  These are supposedly the STARTING prices.  Yeah for some games the prices are a bargain but not for others.  Super Mario Bros can be found at a flea market for less than a buck.  Dragon Warrior IV is a little more obscure and selling that for even $20 would be a bargain.  But $5 for something like Tennis or Soccer is a damn rip-off.  The starting prices should be lower and then the prices can vary based on the title.  I can't find Gunstar Heroes period, let alone for $8.  But Sonic the Hedgehog is at every EB for less than that and in that case I get a physical copy that won't disappear if my console breaks.  Remember that Nintendo at some point will stop supporting the VC so you run the risk of all your games being gone if your Wii breaks in ten years.  With cartridges the games and system are seperate so one can break without the other.

I think Nintendo's logic for holding back VC games is more selfish.  Virtually all of the NES games released thus far are in Animal Crossing.  In other words they're games many of us probably already have and don't need to buy again.  But the VC is a new concept that we want to try out.  We want to buy some games.  So Nintendo limits it to the scraps we otherwise would never buy in hope that with nothing else we'll bite on some of the weaker titles or a game we already have.  I think Solomon's Key, which may have been Tecmo's choice to release, is the only NES game that hasn't been re-released recently.  Everything else is an Animal Crossing title or it's Zelda, which is available both on the GBA and on the Zelda Collector's Disc.  Super Mario 64 is on the DS of course and I figure the two SNES games are just there to demonstrate that, yes, they have SNES games so people don't ask why a whole system isn't supported yet.  Hell Sim City is technically playable for FREE on Maxis' web site (or was last time I checked).  So we have two games on the Nintendo VC systems that haven't been re-released recently.  That doesn't seem like just a coincedence.

[segagamer12]

true Ian, for the most part I agree. But that didnt stop me from getting Zelda which i have on NES, GC, and GBA anyways. Also NEs was the best game system ever regardless of what crap they through out there peopel will buy it for nastalgia sake.

Most of the sports games I didnt like but Blades of Steel and Techmo Bowl I did plus RBI Baseball and World Cup Soccer/Super Spike Vball




Maybe we should al start a petition to Nintendo on what games we want to see released.


Ill make the list, everyone copy paste it and send it off to NOA via email and print it off and mail to NOA offices. then we migth get heard. We need to organise peopel so if yo elect me to be your leader I will get things doen. Thats a promise from a red blooded republican you can take to heart it wont get broken. Read my lips on that one.

[Ian Sane]

"We need to organise peopel so if yo elect me to be your leader I will get things doen."

What's your policy on...uh...lunch?

Oh and I want Jackal on the VC.  And Code Name: Viper.  Hell pretty much any game by Capcom or Konami should be available.

[Kairon]

Jackal! Super Spike VBALL!

/discorporates

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[segagamer12]

free food for everyone compliments of NWR, I think Johnny will pay for it.

I will get that list sent off to Nintendo tonite.


I am adding Nightmare On Elm Street to list cuz thats a game I really want on VC.