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

[Kairon]

Wait wait! Uh... Zombies ate my neighbors! Solar Jetman! 1942! Jurassic Park!

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *thud*

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[couchmonkey]

Basically, everything about Nintendo's VC releases makes sense, business-wise.

The advantage to putting more games and better games up would be to increase customer satisfaction or increase demand.  But demand is already higher than supply.  Customer satisfaction?  Well, it seems to be mediocre with VC but it seems to be very high with Wii in general.

The advantages to putting out fewer games are:

- higher purchase rate for third party games (what WindyMan said)
- higher purchase rate overall (players are considering games they would have ignored if there were 100 games available)
- more long-term sales (the supply of classic games will last longer if they release them slowly)
- more opportunity for strategic releases (sure you could put every Mario and Zelda game on VC at launch, but then what do you release during the upcoming drought?)

It sucks for hardcore gamers but from Nintendo's perspective this makes perfect sense.  In the new year, if sales start drooping and the new game lineup is very thin, Nintendo should start pumping out some bigger titles on VC.  If it doesn't, then I'll join the complaints department.

Ian: I don't expect Nintendo to stop supporting VC in the foreseeable future.  I think this is Nintendo's iTunes.  It's a new platform for game sales, and I think it's going to carry over to future generations.  I could see Nintendo being greedy jerks and forcing people to re-buy stuff on the next console, but I think the VC will be there in one form or another.  I agree that physical games are nicer, though.  

[Ian Sane]

"Ian: I don't expect Nintendo to stop supporting VC in the foreseeable future."

Maybe not the VC itself but the Wii eventually will no longer be supported and since games aren't associated with an account but rather the system itself if your Wii conks out in 2015 then you'll probably be screwed.  But even if Nintendo didn't exist anymore I could still play my SNES games provided I could find working physical hardware.

Hell 1000 years in the future when archeologists unearth the lost civilization of America, scientists could probably find a way to get physical copies of games, movies, music, etc. to work.  All the papers will read "Scientists crack the DVD code, ancient films discovered."

[lastexit]

While it's true that the Wii will someday be replaced the VC could easily continue-on as it's essentially an online-store with some drm verification to authenticate files stored on SD (or future mediums).  Any online-device could be setup as backward-compatible for VC with little effort.  Also, expect somebody to hack the SD encryption or for it to be "leaked" should they stop supporting it.  

As for pricing, if you don't want the game don't buy it.  I think most price-complainers are collectors who MUST OWN EVERYTHING and are mad because they can't buy it all cause they're not rich enough waah waah wahh.  Five bucks is nothing for a game.  Stop complaining.  I'm certain that as time goes on you'll see more creative ways of getting games cheap and/or free.  Expect to see Nintendo sponsor contents and competitions with Wii Points as prizes. There are many tie-ins for Wii Points (nintendo currency) that will explain why this is setup as it is.  

The original premise of this thread is right-on-the-nose.  Nintendo agreed to let these companies take the early lead and this is part of how they got them on their system in the first place.  Also, this lets 3rd parties experience the VC as a revenue-generating business rather than just a neat thing Nintendo is doing and making money off (from console sales).  Ideally the trickle of back-catalog will last long enough to meet the inevitable NEW VC offerings.  This will probably take an entire year but ultimately Nintendo wants Sega and others developing new games for the VC in addition to homebrew-level playres and small startups.  If companies like Sega, Nintendo etc are creating new, quality titles for the VC this will make it a major major hit.

There are many tactics and strategies at play here and it's important to remember that the Wii has not been out for an entire month yet.  Most people, myself included, can't even buy one yet.  No chance.  Nintendo is wise to use this time to work out kinks and get feedback so as to be fully prepared when the roll-out's second phase picks up steam and you start seeing LTTP and other popular games show up on VC along with more online services, more big games, Wii channels, etc.  I suspect March 2007 will be Launch #2 for the Wii.

Lastly, don't forget the inevitable DS connectivity...

[segagamer12]

I still dont get the NEW VC games, you do realise that inorder for that to be possible they will have to develop them using whatever console they are emulating, and the N64 is the most powerfull they have, So you will see N64 quality at most.



I am all for the creaton of new SNEs and Genesis compatible games, that dont look like crap, but N64 was terrible graphics even for 2d games. Except MKT which was right on the money.

I dont get excited for 'new' old games. but that could all change.

[couchmonkey]

Quote
Originally posted by: segagamer12
I still dont get the NEW VC games, you do realise that inorder for that to be possible they will have to develop them using whatever console they are emulating, and the N64 is the most powerfull they have, So you will see N64 quality at most.


I am all for the creaton of new SNEs and Genesis compatible games, that dont look like crap, but N64 was terrible graphics even for 2d games. Except MKT which was right on the money.

I dont get excited for 'new' old games. but that could all change.

That's crazy talk, Yoshi's Story looks awesome.  You may not like the style but the game has all kinds of cool special effects - but that's beside the point...

The more interesting point is, how will new games on the VC be developed?  I don't actually think they'll work on emulated systems...instead there will be a...a..."virtual Wii"?  Whatever it's called, there will be a separate category for new games, because one of Nintendo's goals is to allow developers to show off new ideas for the controller without having to have a big budget.  

[Ian Sane]

"There are many tactics and strategies at play here and it's important to remember that the Wii has not been out for an entire month yet. Most people, myself included, can't even buy one yet."

Maybe Nintendo is just waiting until more people can buy their VC games to unleash the big guns.  They probably figure that people are going to pay more attention to the just released titles than the ones that were already available.  So they wait until the Wii can be found in any store and then *bam* Super Metroid.

[Kairon]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
Maybe Nintendo is just waiting until more people can buy their VC games to unleash the big guns.  They probably figure that people are going to pay more attention to the just released titles than the ones that were already available.  So they wait until the Wii can be found in any store and then *bam* Super Metroid.

The dream lives on!

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

[JonLeung]

Quote
Originally posted by: couchmonkey

Quote
Originally posted by: segagamer12
I still dont get the NEW VC games, you do realise that inorder for that to be possible they will have to develop them using whatever console they are emulating, and the N64 is the most powerfull they have, So you will see N64 quality at most.

The more interesting point is, how will new games on the VC be developed?  I don't actually think they'll work on emulated systems...instead there will be a...a..."virtual Wii"?  Whatever it's called, there will be a separate category for new games, because one of Nintendo's goals is to allow developers to show off new ideas for the controller without having to have a big budget.

Yeah, new VC games can certainly be better than N64 quality.  Come on, the Wii has GameCube hardware.  And Wii hardware!  There could be downloadable games, and as long as they can fit in the space provided, they can most certainly look as good as Wii games.  Obviously space is the concern, you don't want something that would take too long to download and could sell on its own disc.  But given that most N64 games are something like 8-32 MB (with a few outside of that range), I don't see why you can't have a puzzle game where the gameplay takes up a few kB and several MB give it some N64/GCN or even Wii-quality graphics.

[segagamer12]

Ok what I meant was if its running ont the emulators which are hardwired into the system, then they are limited to using those. Unless they can figure out a way to allow Wii to access new emulators or Dl Wii compatible games directly, so far they HAVE NOT said this will happen. they have said that they are looking into it.

All I meant was if they are going to be limited to the emulators they will be stuck using the dev tools from those systems, which is very limiting. Unless they can allow GC or Wii emulators which we dont know if they can or will beable to do that.


and sorry CM but yuck to YS I hated that game.  

[UERD]

If the emulators really are bundled with the games (like was stated in another thread), the only real problem would be creating an 'engine' that runs on the Wii/"GCN+" architecture.

Besides, if Nintendo reps have said stuff about adding other systems possibly in the future, it's more than likely that the emulators aren't hardwired (or else they'd have to do it through a cumbersome firmware update, including people who might not even ever play the game).  

[segagamer12]

the EXISTING emulatrs are built in its evenin the blueprints the filed with US Patent office, I have the docs to prove this if yo want to see them.

That doesnt mean they cant add others but knowing them its not likely.

[TheJuggla17]

I just want to see Super Metroid on the Virtual Console.

[Ceric]

TheJuggla17 your Avatar is about 160x114 pixels to big.

[NWR_pap64]

BRING ON DONKEY KONG!