Topic: 3DS eShop to Be Added on Launch Day in Europe

[NWR_Karlie]

The system firmware will update out of the box for eShop support. UPDATED with NOA comment!

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/24837

Nintendo of Europe confirmed to Eurogamer that while the eShop and Internet browser functionality will not be pre-installed on the firmware for launch systems, it will be released on launch day as a system update.

Nintendo's 3DS preview event revealed that an Internet browser and eShop featuring DSiWare, 3DS download titles, and Virtual Console Game Boy/Game Boy Color would be part of the Nintendo 3DS functionality, but they would not be a part of the system at launch. The features would be installed through a firmware update available during the "launch window."

It is expected that Virtual Console titles Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX and Super Mario Land will be available once the eShop is active.

UPDATE: NWR contacted Nintendo of America for an official comment. NOA Spokesperson Charlie Scibetta had this to say:

“Games and services offered by Nintendo can vary by region. Nintendo of America will release additional information about Nintendo eShop, including timing, content and pricing, at a later date.�

[UncleBob]

It seems weird to have Link's Awakening and Super Mario Land out at the same time.  Honestly, SML isn't that great of a game - while Link's Awakening is the best damn game ever.  Hardly seems fair.  Wonder what the pricing will be...

[BlackNMild2k1]

better be $2-$3 a piece at most.

[Ian Sane]

It seems weird to have Link's Awakening and Super Mario Land out at the same time.  Honestly, SML isn't that great of a game - while Link's Awakening is the best damn game ever.

I'm sure whoever is making the call here just sees Mario and Zelda and figures that's the way to go.  Plus, logically it makes sense to release the first Super Mario Land before the sequels.  There is a chronological order to this.  Link's Awakening DX was a GBC launch game while Super Mario Land was one of the first regular GB games (and certainly the most marketable of those early titles besides Tetis, which Nintendo doesn't own the rights to).  They may be figuring they want one from each format so they might as well start at the beginning.

[NWR_insanolord]

better be $2-$3 a piece at most.

Prepare to be disappointed.

[TJ Spyke]

Link's Awakening DX was a GBC launch game

Almost, it came out a few weeks after launch. I never played the game before, the only portable Zelda I have played was the GBA version of ALTTP (well, I played a store demo of Phantom Hourglass and hated the gameplay). If the price is decent, I may download it.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Nintendo should be prepared to be disappointed if they try to charge $5 for a black and white game from 20-25+ years ago.
I won't be disappointed since I have no plans on buying any GB or GBC games, I likely won't even be interested in GBA games and even those games are pushing it at the $5-$6 mark if you ask me.

I know the VC hasn't done horrible over the past 3 or so years, but I think there is a reason that releases have slowed down to non-existant this past year and that is because prices for old ass games is too much when I can buy new games on my phone and play them wherever I want for a fraction of the price.

So unless they are re-releasing all these games in 3D then I don't see any reason for premium pricing on games that have long since made back their dev cost and are almost nothing but pure profit.

[AV]

Nintendo needs to learn from apple, that lower pricing will generate MORE sales. More expensive the more likely people will say ' I rather just play it on emulator for free'. How many $1 aps sold MILLIONS but if it was $10 or $5 it would sell a fraction. Cheap games make it easier to splurge on.


I enjoyed Alleyway on Game Boy, and for a $1 I'll buy, but for $5 I'll give it a second thought and NOT buy it because it is NOT worth that.

[HardcoreNintendoFan]

Cheap games= Sh...y gameplay. Wow we Americans have really been dumb downed.
 
I'm sad about being an American! Stand up!

[KDR_11k]

Apple benefits from the pricing on the App Store because they aren't trying to make games there themselves, they just take a chunk of what everybody else earns. The pricing there was a race to the bottom, now it has reached the bottom and the only way people can charge more than a dollar for their game is by going freemium. The pricing expectations on the app store are completely shot and I think the only real beneficiary is Apple who can sell the hardware by advertising tons of games and then makes a chunk off every app sale. A dollar per sale can pay for a minigame but making the kind of large game that's expected on consoles and handheld gaming systems isn't viable with that return. They don't make it up in volume either, on the App Store it's big news when a 1$ app sells 3 million copies. Nintendo can sell ten times that at thirty times the price with their big hitters, that's 300 times the revenue!

better be $2-$3 a piece at most.

Honestly LA is worth 5$ easily.

[UncleBob]

Honestly LA is worth $5,000,000 easily.

Fixed that for you.

[BlackNMild2k1]

better be $2-$3 a piece at most.

Honestly LA is worth 5$ easily.

Maybe to those that cherish it, but the majority of people that won't be buying a B&W game for $5 don't care care what's it's worth. It's a 25 year old B&W game. $2-$3 is the most anybody should realistically be asked to pay for something like that.

Honestly a majority of people today can't/won't even watch B&W TV even if it was free. A large reason as to why AMC had to change from American Movie Classic to the American Movie Channel, no one wanted to watch old B&W movies all time, they had to adapt.

Just remember that if their GB/C games are $5 what do you think they will charge for everything else? $12 NGP? $10GBA? $20DS? $8GG?

I think their pricing structure should look like this:

Sys - Base-Max (Other systems when available)
GB - $1-$2 (Game.com)
GBC - $2-$3 (Lynx)
GBA - $4-$5 (Game Gear, NGP & NGPC, TG16, WS)

But if they do go with a higher pricing structure, and I'm sure they will, then they better atleast have a Steam like sales and bundling structure to keep people buying stuff or I am certain most people won't bother checking out the ~100% profit area that is the VC

[UncleBob]

Considering the DSiWare versions of Game and Watch games were $2, I think you're probably out of the ball park if you think they're going to be charging $1-$3 for GB/GBC titles.

$4-5 for GBA titles?  The GBA was pretty much a portable SNES - titles that go for $8 on the Wii.  Could you honestly see them selling LttP on the Wii for $8, then selling LttP+Four Swords for less on the 3DS?

[BlackNMild2k1]

That's the problem with the VC incase you didn't fully read what I said, the games are priced too high and NEVER go on sale.

I love LttP but I ain't putting down $8 to play it again. IF they offered it for $5 I just might buy it.
If they offered me a Complete Zelda bundle(GB-N64) for $30, I just might buy them all

[TJ Spyke]

Maybe to those that cherish it, but the majority of people that won't be buying a B&W game for $5 don't care care what's it's worth. It's a 25 year old B&W game. $2-$3 is the most anybody should realistically be asked to pay for something like that.

25 years old? I didn't know the Game Boy was out in 1986. LA came out in 1993. Besides, this is the Game Boy Color version (which came out in 1998).

[MaryJane]

The other thing to consider is market. I highly doubt Nintendo thinks tweens are going to buy GB games; they're for older people who loved the games and want to play them again, or missed out on some and want to play them for the first time.

Sure there might be some younger folk who love Zelda, want to play them all, and don't have emulators, but they're so few Nintendo can' count on them for revenue in the 3DS VC.

Us "older" gamers, who are more likely to have disposable income, and more likely to buy these game, would also be more willing to pay $3-4 for GB games, $5-6 for GBC games, and $7-8 for GBA.

Sure that's a little expensive, but how many of these games are you really going to buy? Spending $8 for 3 or 4 worthy GBA isn't that outrageous, and it's basically free money for Nintendo.

Just a side note: AMC sucks because it has commercials. They can call the channel whatever they want, but people much prefer to watch TCM (which shows a ton of B&W films) and FMC because they don't have commercials.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Maybe to those that cherish it, but the majority of people that won't be buying a B&W game for $5 don't care care what's it's worth. It's a 25 year old B&W game. $2-$3 is the most anybody should realistically be asked to pay for something like that.

25 years old? I didn't know the Game Boy was out in 1986. LA came out in 1993. Besides, this is the Game Boy Color version (which came out in 1998).

In my head, my argument spans beyond the portable B&W games Nintendo is selling on the 3DS. they are over charging for NES, SNES, Genesis and everything else. This can all be rectified through sales and bundles, but maybe just lowering the price permanently or atleast over time would help boost sales and attention of the VC.

If more games were selling better, then maybe more games would be released for the service. If the games were cheaper, then maybe more of them would sell.

[KDR_11k]

Link's Awakening is a large game, it's a lengthy adventure and very pretty by gameboy standards. I can see charging less for something simple like Pac-Man but LA is equivalent to the SNES.

[UncleBob]

That's the problem with the VC incase you didn't fully read what I said, the games are priced too high and NEVER go on sale.

I think the problem is that I asked what the pricing likely be and you replied with what you want it to be.

Personally, I don't think the pricing is *that* terrible on the VC.  My biggest gripe as far as pricing goes is that it's a flat price per system.  The NES Donkey Kong is the same price as Elevator Action is the same price as Pac-Man is the same price as Xevious is the same price as DK Jr. Math is the same price as ... Super Mario Bros. 3?  The Legend of Zelda?  Kirby's Adventure?  That doesn't make sense to me.

Of course, if Nintendo sold the worst titles at t $1, then sold SMB3 at $5, people would really complain.

Besides, don't worry about the games going on sale on the VC.  That's why you get your points cards on sale.  Even before I stocked up on points through Pepsi, I found a bunch of 2000 points cards on sale for $7 each.  It's not too uncommon to find them buy-two-get-one ($13 each).  Very rarely, they might come up BOGO.  At $13 for 2,000 points, an NES game will run ya ~$3.  That'd be $5.20 for your Link to the Past.

[TJ Spyke]

I have never managed to come across points cards on sale, I would love to get some cheaper.

[BlackNMild2k1]

That's the problem with the VC incase you didn't fully read what I said, the games are priced too high and NEVER go on sale.

I think the problem is that I asked what the pricing likely be and you replied with what you want it to be.

I had already stated what pricing I would like and followed it up that it will likely be higher than that., Then you asked if I can see them charging more for a Wii VC game and then charging less for the 3DS versions.

Could you honestly see them selling LttP on the Wii for $8, then selling LttP+Four Swords for less on the 3DS?

to which I replied that the problem was that the Wii VC games already cost too much and never go on sale.  I thought that had originally answered your question.
If they changed the pricing of the VC games I would expect that to stretch across the eShop which will hopefully replace the WiiShop and all the pricing will be aligned.

And the problem with finding points cards is that is not a sale for everybody. Not everybody like to commit to buying the points before they have a game they want to buy. I, like most people, would just want to enter the shop, see a game I like and buy it right there on the spot. Nintendo is losing out on alot of business by not taking advantage of us impulse shoppers by advertising games we might be interested in as being on sale or for a new low price. Most of us are not gonna be scouring the stores and the internet looking for discounted Wii Points card that I currently have no intents on using.


Not all of us are the biggest Nintendo fans in the world with the desire to collect all things Nintendo.

[Adrock]

And the problem with finding points cards is that is not a sale for everybody. Not everybody like to commit to buying the points before they have a game they want to buy. I, like most people, would just want to enter the shop, see a game I like and buy it right there on the spot. Nintendo is losing out on alot of business by not taking advantage of us impulse shoppers by advertising games we might be interested in as being on sale or for a new low price. Most of us are not gonna be scouring the stores and the internet looking for discounted Wii Points card that I currently have no intents on using.

Completely agree. I was 200 points short when Shantae: Risky's Revenge came out. If there wasn't a Gamestop right around the corner from me, just buying the game would have been a major pain in the ass. And even then, I was stuck with 1800 points I didn't know what to do with. Might Flip Champs was good and Soul of Darkness was worth $5 (nothing spectacular but good enough). Still, I would have rather just purchased Shantae and possibly Mighty Flip Champs right then and there and not be saddled with the extra points. I think I still have 500 points and nothing to buy.

[UncleBob]

Not all of us are the biggest Nintendo fans in the world with the desire to collect all things Nintendo.

Maybe you should be - then you'd pick up Nintendo points on sale in advance.

Completely agree. I was 200 points short when Shantae: Risky's Revenge came out. If there wasn't a Gamestop right around the corner from me, just buying the game would have been a major pain in the ass. And even then, I was stuck with 1800 points I didn't know what to do with. Might Flip Champs was good and Soul of Darkness was worth $5 (nothing spectacular but good enough). Still, I would have rather just purchased Shantae and possibly Mighty Flip Champs right then and there and not be saddled with the extra points. I think I still have 500 points and nothing to buy.

Can't you buy points directly on the system without having to go to that Gamestop down the corner?  And I'm not 100% sure about the DS store, but can't you buy 1,000 points directly from the store instead of having to buy 2,000 at a time?

[NWR_insanolord]

Yes you can. In fact, I don't think I've ever used a Nintendo Points card to add points to my DSi; I've only bought them direct with a credit card.

[KDR_11k]

In Europe they sell cards in 1000 point increments.