http://i.imgur.com/nycukyO.gif

Well... the Starmen hopefully will keep their side and start buying WiiUs

I predict that Earthbound will prove to be a bigger system seller than Pikmin 3 in NA. The NPDs should show a noticeable increase in Wii U sales.

You are vastly overestimating the amount of people who care about Earthbound. It's an extremely vocal, but fairly small fanbase. I don't expect Pikmin 3 to be a huge system seller either, but I really don't see more than a handful of people paying $300+ for a Super Nintendo ROM.

Will EarthBound outsell Pikmin 3? I kind of think so...

I think it would do better on 3DS.

Especially since it is just a ROM. I'll probably end up getting this, but I've been able to play EarthBound on my Xperia Play for the past year. This really isn't much different than that or playing it on any other emulator.

Yeah, if you're going to spend $300 you could probably buy a used SNES and Earthbound cartridge (possibly even with box & manual).  VC games are more like what you buy after you already bought the Wii U for some other reason.

Given the price difference, that wouldn't be hugely surprising. Cult classic for $10 is more appealing to most people than a new installment in a very niche franchise that hasn't seen an entry in nearly a decade for $60.

I'll be picking this up, if only because of all the gushing over how spectacular this game is, and $10 is a price point I can justify as an impulse buy.

Wonder what took them so long in making this available.  It's not like Nintendo gets a cut of the ridiculous resale price of the SNES cartridge.

I'm curious to know what changes were made (if any) to alleviate the supposed copyright issues the game has.

Restore points, Miiverse integration and off-TV play on the gamepad. Those are the differences and I think they are huge. Also, that bit about the manual being optimized for the gamepad is an additional perk.
As I keep telling those Club Nintendo surveys, the WiiU VC is the ultimate VC.

Oh ya, forgot to add, this version is legal!

Crap! Looks like I need to start getting the internet at my new place so I can download this sucker. Unless I bring my Wii U into work....

I keep getting various error codes when trying to access the e-shop...

Is one of the "OMG I'm getting used like I probably should be?"

As proven by Japanese on the Train you wouldn't need a screen for it.

Since I can't download the game right now I went and watched the ND Mini to get some hype going (as if I needed it for this title) and I must say..

If Trinnen ever gets canned from Nintendo, he'll have a decent career in the hand modeling business. Did you see how perfectly he highlighted that players guide!?

Same. Had to input my CC info four times cause of errors on the very last step.

Well at least actual downloading went pretty fast, less than a minute.

How long is this game? I am not sure if i should start it proper, cause i am already going through about four different plot heave games. Can i blast through within a weekend?

I will buy this tonight. If it doesnt live up to the hype I am blaming. Bill Aurion.

Dude.  I laughed out loud when he did that.  That was so hilarious.

Bought it. You have my money Nintendo.

... are still far inferior to the options that have been provided by emulators for well over a decade.

At least some of you got to purchase it. If I get home and can't get into the eshop I'm calling Nintendo and telling at them for not taking my money.

And this is coming from a guy who owns the damn cart, US and Japanese versions.

I'll buy it to support the release, I probably won't really play it for awhile though.

How many suckers are gonna support these outrageous prices!??



although I'm almost tempted to buy it just out of curiosity. $10.00 is hard to swallow for a NES game though, especially for one I will likely never really play.

Thats a very nice looking NES game :D

Never have I ever wanted to give someone ten dollars before.

If you have a WiiU and are not willing to buy this, please provide your NNID so I may flood your Miiverse with genitals.

first thing as soon as I get a points card in. 

NES games... SNES games, whatever.

$10 for a game that is almost 20 years old is just a little much if you ask me.
But this game has been on the most wanted list for so long, that most people wouldn't care if they charged $20. I just hate that Nintendo feels the need to keep the prices on these games so steep when I think these very same games might garner more sales and attention if Nintendo just made a few changes to the Virtual Console in it's entirety. starting with the prices of these games and going all the way to universal access of said games.

Virtual console could be Nintendo's trump card if they only treated it as one service across all Nintendo consoles. But stating this is probably akin to digging up a horse that was already beat to death and then beating it some more.

The only other way to play EarthBound is to pay over $100 for a used copy on Ebay.  Do you want to pay $10 or $100 for this game?  Those are the only options you have if you legally want to play Earthbound.  Even if you hate it, Nintendo's price on the Virtual Console is still the much better deal.

$10 seems steep to me as well. I own the original cartridge on SNES so I probably won't download this unless it goes on sale which I'm not betting on. Of course, if Nintendo released a physical copy on 3DS...
http://i.imgur.com/PUw1RZM.gif

which is why I stated that "most people wouldn't care if they charged $20"

I realize this game has been hard to come by legally, but my rant was more over VC as a whole, I was just using this thread to vent.

Just downloaded it; I might just do an all night session and see how far I can get just too see if they changed anything.

I've played the game many many many many times before and can probably breeze right through it, but Earthbound is such an awesome game that I'll likely spend hours talking to everyone in Onett just to reminisce. :)

Free phone games have kids so spoiled these days.  I agree, I wish the game was cheaper, but $10 is fair.  Nintendo would give away it's games too if it could charge you $50-$150 a month to use it's products.  Jesus.

My biggest issue with the VC in regards to pricing is the entire "NES Games = $5", "SNES Games = $8" idea.

NES Yoshi is *NOT* worth the same as NES Super Mario Bros. 3.

With that said, what's with Nintendo charging a $2 premium for Earthbound?

I understand that Earthbound has a certain value to it because of it's limited availability.
But the difference between VC and cell phone games that you can buy for $0.99 is that the VC games were made and paid for decades ago. They've already made their budgets back. At worst it takes a small team at Nintendo to "optimize" a emulator and add in a few features for each game, but the game is already made. $10 for such a product just seems greedy, especially when you would have to buy it several times to play it on multiple machines between TV and Portable screens.

It's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and with how people have been begging for this game for years, I'm surprised they didn't charge more.

I don't get how people can think that just because something is old, means it should automatically cost less. Do people complain when a movie is released on DVD or Blu Ray for the same price as a new release?

The game costs $10 now, it used to be what, $50-$60 when new?

Took the words right out of my mouth. If it's a very good, quality game, and the people want it, how in the hell is it "greedy" for them to charge $10 for it?


You fanboys have been wanting this game for years and when you finally get it, you bitch and moan that it's too expensive? Gimme a break.

Is it that something should cost loss less or that people want it to cost less? Everyone loves a good bargain.

Capitalism at work.

Nintendo could have easily found a way to charge more.

That stupid Mona Lisa is so old. Da Vinci made back the cost of his paint and canvass, like, ten times over already. Why the heck are ticket prices to the Louvre so damned expensive? Why the heck should I have to pay, like, $8.99 or 40 Euros or whatever for a poster with Mona Lisa on it?

If there was a new rpg game that was released today for the first time that had 16 bit style graphics and they were charging $10 for it, none of you would say jack about it. It's only because they game is old and most of you have played it that you're griping about the price.

I've NEVER played it and I've always wanted to, so $10 for a new gaming experience ($5 off thanks to deluxe credit deal) is a good deal.  I will for sure get my $10 worth back in entertainment value.
Compare that to Contra 3, a game that I have played and beaten more times than I can count. I will NOT be buying that game any time soon because I've played it to death. So, $8 or whatever they decide to charge is not worth it for me. But, I'm not going to sit here and argue the point that the prices need to be lower across the board. If you've never played Contra 3, I would say it's worth paying $8 for you to play.

Where does it end, anyway?  $5 too much? how about $3? How about .99 cents?  How about they give YOU money to play it? 

$10 is too much for a digital download of a game I already own a physical copy of. It's a good price for someone who has never played the game and wants to, even if they're just checking out what all the fuss is about. If Earthbound was one of the $0.30 games, I would have bought it, maybe if it was a few bucks. $10 can get an entirely new eshop game so it's harder for me to justify double dipping even if the game is as amazing as Earthbound.

Still, and I admit this doesn't make sense from a financial standpoint, I would pay more than $10 for a physical copy on 3DS. I'll go the extra mile (and dollars) for physical media.

Here's my problem with this argument: PSN and XBLA are full of $5-$15 new titles of comparable quality to full retail titles like Earthbound was.  As those games become increasingly common, it makes less sense for these 20-30 year old VC titles to be in this rigid 8-year old pricing scheme.  This is especially true since, as previously noted, there's an awful lot of crap on the VC priced the same as some of the best games on the platform.  I paid the $10 for Earthbound because I feel Nintendo justified the value proposition, at least at first.  However, the more I see the massive slowdown in the game when more than 3 sprites are on-screen (a faithful reproduction of the original version's issues), the less that price seems justified to me.

It seems to me that if Nintendo wants to keep charging these premium prices for decades-old games, the least they can do is make them play the best they can play on their given hardware.  As it is, it's becoming increasingly harder to defend these practices, especially with how terrible Nintendo is about releasing VC games in the first place.

I take issue with that statement simply because $10 is smack dab in the middle of the range of Comparable Quality.  So what your saying is in Earthbound's Peer group their are $15 games and also $5 games.  That makes Earthbound at a Median price and not a premium price.

IF Earthbound is as great game as everyone has been told then the $10 price point is fair enough within the peer group your giving it. 

June 5th, 1995 was the last release of this game in America.  Now that would put someone who was born the Day it was released at as 18 Years old.  They are going to College, here in the States they are considered an adult for most thing.  Have some of their own money to make bad decisions with.  The whole point being their is a fairly large group of people who have heard the Earthbound Mythos but have not been able to legally play the game. 

$10 is just a shade above eating at Fast Food for most places.  Definitely a sit down restaurant.  $10 can be the cost of a SINGLE Skylander. 

So here's a question for you is Earthbound worth more than a Skylander?

I still argue that it's a premium price for what's pretty much just a ROM dump.  You want a more apt comparison?  Fine, I can go onto PSN right now and buy the considerably newer Psychonauts (another cult classic game that failed at retail) and Persona 3 FES for $10 each.  Final Fantasies 4-9 on the PS1 are also $10 on PSN, and non-Square Enix PS1 games are commonly priced at $5.99.  Are you going to tell me that an SNES game should cost more than a generation-newer PS1 game, or for that matter that a ROM dump of a 30 year old NES game like Ice Climbers is worth just $1 less than a ROM dump of Resident Evil 2 on the PS1?

Like I said, I paid my $10 for Earthbound, and aside from the slowdown issues I don't have much of a problem with the product.  However, Nintendo's VC pricing in general makes absolutely no sense when you look at the competition, both on and off Nintendo's digital download services, and I don't think Nintendo's justified the value proposition of their premium pricing.

Not just here, but I get a giggle whenever people use the qualifier "legally" or when they talk about how the VC games are available free through emulation.

Someone remind me again how piracy on older titles doesn't hurt publishers?

All those examples reinforce the $10 price.  In fact I would argue that Psychonauts is a rip off at $10 because its been relatively easy to get it for vastly less than that.  In fact I have 2 copies and I paid all of $5 total. 

The only thing your argument breaks down to is:

Earthbound is older therefor it must be cheaper.

Its software there is literally no damage to the actual product by aging.  Unlike Physical goods.  Which is why in general older is less expensive.

Final Fantasy 4 was released in 1991 and its on Super Nintendo Entertainment System, PlayStation, WonderSwan Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Virtual Console, FOMA 903i / 703i, PlayStation Portable, iOS, and Android.  There has been no shortage of platforms and way to get that game.  In fact I'm sure some of those are cheaper then $10 but by your argument it should be cheaper than Earthbound.

Final Fantasy 5 the game was made in 1992 but its first NA release was 1999.  Not real shortage of options their to experience it.

etc. etc.

Earthbound is being priced the same as games who have had Multiple re-releases with no enhancements from around the same timeframe.  They as well should be ROM dumps for all intents an purposes.

The price is currently fair market value.  The next time they release Earthbound not so much.

I won't download it for $10 because I already have a cartridge copy and, well, don't a Wii U.  But it's $10 for a game where the only other legal way to obtain it is at least $100.

My only beef with this is that Nintendo will charge a premium for some VC games but otherwise doesn't take into account the true market worth of the game.  Some NES games are far too primitive and, to be frank, shitty to cost $5.  VC prices should take into account the actual demand for the game and should have sales like Steam or GOG have.  Now such a setup would allow Nintendo to also charge a little more for the really good games that are hard to come by in their original form.  Though with Earthbound Nintendo is kind of trying to just get the part they like in charging a premium without offering discounts on other titles.  Still $10 is totally worth it.

The most overpriced VC game is probably Super Mario Bros, not because it's a bad game but because it's so common.  I've gone to flea markets where copies of SMB (usually with Duck Hunt) are going for 99 cents because the seller always has a big pile of them.

I've gone to flea markets and have seen sellers with the SMB/DH cart for as much as $20.

I didn't bite.

Minor quibble but, it's not a ROM dump. It is enhanced with all those Wii U exclusive features. It is not comparable to, say, throwing an mp3 up on rapidshare or whatever.
Now whether you appreciate the Wii U features or not is a different discussion and basically comes down to the same assessment made by thedefalcos above as to whether the particular offering has value to you.


You know, now that I thin about it, all of the arguments pro or con about VC pricing basically boil down to that  personal value assessment. So, I declare this thread trite and meaningless.
You're welcome.

There is the possibility of Nintendo using EarthBound's VC sales as an indicator for whether it is worth it to finally officially release the rest of the series in North America.  But there is a problem with that - EarthBound's VC release is a Wii U exclusive and the Wii U has a pretty small userbase.

Looking around at other sites I see not only the complaint about pricing but that there are people that want EarthBound but only own a Wii, not a Wii U, but cannot justify buying a new console for a VC release.  EarthBound's sales are limited by the size of the userbase of the Wii U and it cannot realistically be expected to increase that userbase.  So the sales might not reflect the true demand of the franchise in the West.  The game would almost certainly sell better if it also had a Wii VC release.

Another reason why VC prices would be more justified if VC was a universal account based platform exclusive to all Nintendo systems.

And I'm not even gonna address some of the ridiculous "comparisons" someone had made earlier in the thread.
Not done others have obviously realized that this issue is now than just the cost of Earthbound, it's with VC pricing in general. Some games are obviously worth more than others, but the general pricing for the majority of these game is too high.

i wonder if the 2$ difference is a part of some settlement Nintendo made over some of the rumored legal issues this game had so they could rerelease it in the first place.

Nintendo has been on the record since announcing EarthBound for the VC about that: there never was a legal issue.

And if you can't see that older=less valuable, you haven't seen a Used Games shelf in your local GameStop in a while.  Scarcity and unreliable hardware are usually the only things that maintain a game's value, which is why games like EarthBound retained their value.

sorry, typed this from my phone... spell check and swype can be a pain at times.

exactly. Earthbound will get away with it's $10 price tag now, but what about when Nintendo releases the same game on 3DS for $10 and then again won the Wii2U for $10 again.
I know some of you are willing to spend $10 or more for your practically unaltered digital copy, but that doesn't mean that Nintendo isn't still charging more than they should be.

but from a marketing perspective the whole one size fits all approach works much better from a marketing perspective then a case by case scenario like what your proposing

granted some leeway would be nice(as seen with GB games) but still.

and nintendo has been kind with the upgrade thing

With the way Wii U is struggling, they should be offering everyone that upgrades in the first year the opportunity to do it for free. That would require every Wii owner with a VC collection that would want it to be semi-portable around the house to go out and buy a Wii U.

and who proposed a case-by-case pricing scenario?
I think they should be universally cheaper all around.

black and white peasoup gameboy rom dumps cost how much now?

I think the variable pricing model used for GB and GBC games would be good. Stuff like Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Mega Man games are worth $5, but most of the NES titles on there aren't.

Considering how much money it probably costs Nintendo and third parties to put their games onto the Wii U VC there are times when I wish Nintendo would offer a Steam-style discount around say the couple days before and after thanksgiving. It would be nice if there was a unified eShop system account as well. The ability to remote VC titles on my 3DS XL would be nice, too.

Anyone wanna bet the game goes to #1 on the "all best sellers" category of the eShop charts? It's already #17 after just a day and a half. The top sellers (except Super Mario World) are 30 cent games, with Super Metroid #1 right now.

I have a feeling that sales will be highly front loaded unless there's a sale. As an EarthBound lover, I have to admit that it IS a niche. I just hope enough people discover it to warrant an eShop release of the sequel.

I was thinking maybe it was $10 because they released the guide with it (albeit not included in the download but on the Wii U site).  Shantae was released for standard $4.99 on the 3DS and that has a ridiculously high market value. 


I wanted to buy this as the first non-Wii VC release but the reality is I'm not a big RPG fan and the extra $2 is making me think twice before picking it up. 

If you're not a big RPG fan, you made the right choice. Earthbound is a wonderful cult classic, but if it's not your type of game, all the praise it gets isn't going to change your mind. $10 is a lot for something you may not (and probably won't) like.

This thread just keeps ticking in the back of my head what Iwata said about the phone market eroding game prices.

I dunno smallshark' I'm not really into RPGs either but I'm obsessed with earthbound. I know I played it back on SNES but I can't remember if it was before or after Mario RPG. Either way, it left an impression on me to this day.

I can name all the RPGs I've played and completed in my gamer life and earthbound and xenoblade are the only two traditional RPGs I've played and liked, and I'll be honest xenoblade has its moments tasty make me want to stop playing.. Earthbound however, I'll never tire of.

Exactly, people don't seem to value the contents of the game anymore. They want 99c-$5 max, regardless of how much content or how great it is.

Just having a digital distribution model shouldn't mean that the prices have to drop to rock bottom. You are meant to be paying for the game, not counting how much it costs the company to distribute. That said, having a selection of games around $2 would not hurt Nintendo.

With all this talk of market value, here's what a loose cart would cost you (VGPC average) for each of the games currently on Wii U VC:

Balloon Fight (NES) $13.00
Donkey Kong (NES) $23.49
Donkey Kong Jr. (NES) $10.00
EarthBound (SNES) $176.41
Excitebike (NES) $3.99
F-Zero (SNES) $5.27
Ghosts 'n Goblins (NES) $9.45
Ice Climber (NES) $12.70
Kid Icarus (NES) $11.44
Kirby Super Star (SNES) $30.33
Kirby's Adventure (NES) $10.28
Kirby's Dream Course (SNES) $10.50
Kirby's Dream Land 3 (SNES) $44.82
Mario Bros. (NES) $15.99
Mega Man (NES) $43.77
Mega Man 2 (NES) $17.86
Mega Man 3 (NES) $16.32
Mega Man 4 (NES) $23.69
Mega Man X (SNES) $28.00
Metroid (NES) $11.56
Pac-Man (NES) $9.00
Pilotwings (SNES) $5.87
Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream (NES) $9.54
Solomon's Key (NES) $5.00
Spelunker (NES) $5.25
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (SNES) $12.15
Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES) $10.69
Super Mario World (SNES) $10.52
Super Metroid (SNES) $36.84
Vegas Stakes (SNES) $1.56
Wrecking Crew (NES) $9.99
Xevious (NES) $2.56
Yoshi (NES) $4.86

Nice. I paid less for Mother 1+2, Mother 3, and Earthbound VC, versus what an EB cart would of cost me. Good thing I already have the cart from the 90s.

Sorry for the bump but there isn't a thread in the console discussion, and if there's  board strictly for VC games, I haven't seen it.

Great read regarding EB's localization. Reading this just reminded me one of the reasons I hold this game dear to me and have for so long; it's not just a fun game but it has heart and it really shines through, not just via the story but through the stories behind developing the game itself. I feel like there just aren't many games out there, even the biggest selling or best known titles don't have heart the way EarthBound does.

Mike realized the power of PSI Heart!
The enemy dropped a present. There was a Cookie inside. Mike took it

PS, I'm Mike :P

It isn't lengthy compared to today's games, but it's long for an SNES game. I'd estimate around 20 hours for a first-timer, and there isn't much in the way of side stuff to extend that either.

Unless you're seeking out some of the rare items, like Poos sword that can only be found in one particular part of the game by battling one particular enemy. Trying to get that sword adds a few hours if you don't really know what you're doing :P

I've been grinding a lot so I'm probably not going to make that 20 hour mark.

So with all the buzz about EarthBound I decided to load up my old cartridge and give it a go.  I had only played once before and my save battery died and though I had a friend replace the battery on me I never went back to playing until now.

It's a fun game with a cool style.  I like how the whole area is connected without a world map, which aside from Pokemon is not something I think I've ever seen in a 2D RPG.  I also love how when you level up enough the enemies run from you and you can instantly kill them.  Not only is it good for saving time but it's also a good indicator of whether you've leveled up enough.  If they're running from you, clearly you can move to the next area.

Though for all the progressive elements like those the game has some archaic design that would have looked out of place even when it was released.  I don't like the Dragon Warrior style battles.  They're visually dull and claustrophobic.  But what is really annoying is the limited inventory.  I've never played a game where my weapons and armor eat up inventory slots.  Then you also have storyline items and duplicate items don't stack and it seems it is a constant chore to make room.  I guess the logic was that you're supposed to be carrying this stuff in your backpack and it adds a sense of realism to it all.

Other than that, though, the game is really cool.

But if it's your first time playing then you have no idea the 1/128 items exist, unless you're following a guide...

Which ninty was nice enough to provide for "noobs" :p

You mean that online guide? That thing doesn't even load for me.

Unless you were watching North American version of Nintendo Direct you wouldn't know it even exists. I certainly didn't.

I kinda expect manuals to be on a Home menu. They didn't include manual there, they just scanned guide book into pdf file and uploaded it to a site.

Ironically enough whenever I need to look anything up I hit the home menu, tap the browser, and then tap Search and it automatically put EarthBound as the first part of my search query and then I just type the rest.  Though the only thing I've looked up so far is items.

True. Does the book mention the 1/128 items?

I guess I could answer that by checking out the guide, but... eh.

It mentions them in one of the city preview/"newspaper" articles. Though they give the wrong location for the Gutsy Bat - it's in the final two rooms before the final boss.

$10!?!?!?
For a videogame????
In 2013 AD?????????????????
What the fuck, Nintendo???????????
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