We store cookies, you can get more info from our privacy policy.

Episode 95: Mother Mother

by Patrick Barnett, Nicholas Bray, J.P. Corbran, Alex Culafi, Andy Goergen, Mike Sklens, and Scott Thompson - July 28, 2013, 9:56 am EDT
Total comments: 5

EarthBound is a game that you can now buy for less than $100.

Download in AAC Format

Subscribe to AAC Feed

Download in MP3 Format

Subscribe to MP3 Feed

Subscribe via iTunes (Please rate and review, too!)

You may have heard rumors of a game called "EarthBound" finally being available on Virtual Console. Apparently it's a big deal, and it's informed this week's entire episode. In our first segment, Alex, Nick, and J.P. discuss the pricing structure on digital games on Nintendo platforms. Is it fair that EarthBound costs two extra bucks? We will answer that, and other difficult questions.

Our second segment is a classic: What We've Been Playing. This time around, Andy, Scott, Mike, and 'Trick talk mostly about EarthBound and Animal Crossing but a few other games as well.

Our mailbag is pretty empty, and we could really use more questions from you. Please send them to us by clicking here. And if you have a moment, please rate and review the show on iTunes.

This week's episode edited by Mike Sklens.

Talkback

chilenozoJuly 28, 2013

I couldn't get the idea of he guy saying something about emulating Nintendo games vs selling them on the eshop.

1.- Emulated games are always free....so the only way for Nintendo to compete with is putting their games on eshop for free? Emulating can't be stopped.

2.- Nintendo gonna make money of their intellectual property through eshop anyways. Maybe a 5 dollar Earthbound will make more costumers  than a 10 dollar Earthbound...but as long as it sells a minimum projected from their own policies (including costs of porting the old games without glitches). It's ok for them. So I don't get who's losing in this argument? Nintendo is winning if they are selling more than the minimum...and in the case of Earthbound they are selling lots of downloads, consumers who have been waiting for this title are winning cause they are buying it. The only "maybe" is speculating about how many more ppl would buy the game if priced cheaper. But then Nintendo would expect to sell more units in order to achieve their $$$ target.

3.- While I was in college and had more money I also downloaded for free lots of stuff. But made myself the promise to buy things once I started working, which I've been doing successfully. I think that's ok, Nintendo maybe losing money with VC in ppl who's in highschool, College, etc. But I think Nintendo is selling lots of games through ehsop both in 3DS and WiiU, so I don't think they are worrying about that.

4.- The way Nintendo price their games is a topic of discussion. But certainly the numbers are in their favor, ppl buy their games man. The top selling games on the eshop are Nintendos!...only when ppl stop buying their games is when a price drop is expected.

5.- Why do I think some VC SNES classic are priced 8 bucks or more? To me is just intellectual property. Similar argument can be made when buying music. You pay 15, 20 dollars for music made decades ago, despite the change in format. Sometimes publishers made an effort and remasterize the old albums, but you can still find almost 100% copies of music now in CD format still costing more than 10 dollars. You can also drive a parallel with piracy and emulating. Everyone knows how to download music for free...yet still itunes makes money charging for music. In the case of Earthbound...that game sold pretty poorly in the West. So besides Miiverse petitions Nintendo had no assurance of how many copies they would sell through WiiU eshop, so in a way they were taking a risk, plus making sure that the game run smoothly on a VC (remember guys, some ports have been delayed on the WiiU cause of problems with the hardware...like D&D Chronicles of Mystara), and giving you the official Earthbound guide (gamepad optimized) online.

OMG I wrote a lot...but kudos to you guys for a good discussion (although a bit slow).

chilenozoJuly 28, 2013

-About Eartbound's online guide...
I think this is an issue with the Internet Browser. It is definitely a thing they can fix with a WiiU update. It would be cool that loading times get faster and that the browser doesn't reset back to zero when one goes back to the game. They need to assign some RAM from the WiiU to the Internet browser to save whatever one was doing and decrease the switch time between the browser and any game one is playing.

BTW: stop with the spoilers about Earthbound and the other Mother games guys!!...I'm just playing Earthbound and never played the other Mother games.

- If Earthbound WiiU sales make Nintendo happy. I bet we will get Mother 3. They know they can charge even more for the extra translation. But I don't think a serious company would pay ppl who did the translations for free. I bet they would hire their own ppl, maybe even those who translated Mother 2...I think that team did a pretty good job.

Quote from: chilenozo

I couldn't get the idea of he guy saying something about emulating Nintendo games vs selling them on the eshop.

1.- Emulated games are always free....so the only way for Nintendo to compete with is putting their games on eshop for free? Emulating can't be stopped.

2.- Nintendo gonna make money of their intellectual property through eshop anyways. Maybe a 5 dollar Earthbound will make more costumers  than a 10 dollar Earthbound...but as long as it sells a minimum projected from their own policies (including costs of porting the old games without glitches). It's ok for them. So I don't get who's losing in this argument? Nintendo is winning if they are selling more than the minimum...and in the case of Earthbound they are selling lots of downloads, consumers who have been waiting for this title are winning cause they are buying it. The only "maybe" is speculating about how many more ppl would buy the game if priced cheaper. But then Nintendo would expect to sell more units in order to achieve their $$$ target.

3.- While I was in college and had more money I also downloaded for free lots of stuff. But made myself the promise to buy things once I started working, which I've been doing successfully. I think that's ok, Nintendo maybe losing money with VC in ppl who's in highschool, College, etc. But I think Nintendo is selling lots of games through ehsop both in 3DS and WiiU, so I don't think they are worrying about that.

4.- The way Nintendo price their games is a topic of discussion. But certainly the numbers are in their favor, ppl buy their games man. The top selling games on the eshop are Nintendos!...only when ppl stop buying their games is when a price drop is expected.

5.- Why do I think some VC SNES classic are priced 8 bucks or more? To me is just intellectual property. Similar argument can be made when buying music. You pay 15, 20 dollars for music made decades ago, despite the change in format. Sometimes publishers made an effort and remasterize the old albums, but you can still find almost 100% copies of music now in CD format still costing more than 10 dollars. You can also drive a parallel with piracy and emulating. Everyone knows how to download music for free...yet still itunes makes money charging for music. In the case of Earthbound...that game sold pretty poorly in the West. So besides Miiverse petitions Nintendo had no assurance of how many copies they would sell through WiiU eshop, so in a way they were taking a risk, plus making sure that the game run smoothly on a VC (remember guys, some ports have been delayed on the WiiU cause of problems with the hardware...like D&D Chronicles of Mystara), and giving you the official Earthbound guide (gamepad optimized) online.

OMG I wrote a lot...but kudos to you guys for a good discussion (although a bit slow).

As I said a few times, there are ways to compete with piracy outside of pricing it for free. With movies and music, I dont pirate because Netflix and Music Unlimited make things easy for me and offer a reasonable price. With VC games, all Nintendo is doing is taking a ROM, making sure it runs right, giving it off-TV play, and releasing it for 5 dollars. I can already play emulated games on a DS and emulated games on my TV, so all you're offering me is paying 5 dollars for the exact same thing I can get elsewhere for free. If Nintendo added some kind of concept art or bonus features or included the Earthbound guide, that's when the VC games feel like something more than "just a ROM that costs money".

chilenozoJuly 28, 2013

Quote:

As I said a few times, there are ways to compete with piracy outside of pricing it for free. With movies and music, I dont pirate because Netflix and Music Unlimited make things easy for me and offer a reasonable price. With VC games, all Nintendo is doing is taking a ROM, making sure it runs right, giving it off-TV play, and releasing it for 5 dollars. I can already play emulated games on a DS and emulated games on my TV, so all you're offering me is paying 5 dollars for the exact same thing I can get elsewhere for free. If Nintendo added some kind of concept art or bonus features or included the Earthbound guide, that's when the VC games feel like something more than "just a ROM that costs money".


But see, here's the problem. YOU find the pricing of Netflix convenient. But I have met ppl who don't, who think their library is pretty crappy and still download movies through piratebay, and there are tons of website that offer series or movies streamed for free. Those site are there cause there are a "market" of ppl willing to get stuff for free. Therefore what I want is for you to realize that this is your own preference, there is a line to be drawn, and I think that line is drawn by the market. If Nintendo's pricing sucks (and all what that involves, quality, how cheap was to convert the game, etc.), then they will suffer the consequences. Music has been stored in computers for a while now, most of the 10 bucks CD are samples from music stored digitally, and I bet the cost won't change that much in the future. Cause when things become digitally most of the cost are on the service (servers, network, etc) but most is on THE INTELECTUAL PROPERTY!! (workers at Nintendo)...that's what you are paying. Modern copies of 50+ years old books don't become cheaper with time either, a hard copy may cost 100 bucks or more, once they scan them (big deal right?) and make it accessible to you they lower the price a bit and that price stays. Similar to Nintendo, SNES cartridges are expensive, but now the give you a ported working version of the ROMs for a cheaper price, that the market likes, otherwise ppl wouldn't buy them.
Imagine if we wouldn't pay intellectual property. Name a game, music, creator that can create originals every single day....it's impossible. So what they do is, create something, and wish that something keeps feeding them (copies) until they manage to create the next big thing that will keep them bringing food to the table. Of course this example is oversimplified, but divide those 10 bucks for all the development cost and money that workers of Nintendo, who go through periods in which they create nothing, deserve.

- BTW I agree with the digital account problems though, for me that's a huge turnoff from Nintendo to people who are technologically savvy. Everyone knows that it is not rare to have hardware problems, and with Nintendo you are exposed to lose hundreds if not thousands of dollars cause their archaic system.

ejamerJuly 29, 2013

Quote from: Webmalfunction

As I said a few times, there are ways to compete with piracy outside of pricing it for free. With movies and music, I dont pirate because Netflix and Music Unlimited make things easy for me and offer a reasonable price. With VC games, all Nintendo is doing is taking a ROM, making sure it runs right, giving it off-TV play, and releasing it for 5 dollars. I can already play emulated games on a DS and emulated games on my TV, so all you're offering me is paying 5 dollars for the exact same thing I can get elsewhere for free. If Nintendo added some kind of concept art or bonus features or included the Earthbound guide, that's when the VC games feel like something more than "just a ROM that costs money".

Piracy has become fast, inexpensive, easy, and safe for end users.  Although I understand your argument, saying that a legitimate business needs to compete with an illicit one puts content honest creators/providers at a severe disadvantage. Any innovation offered will either restrict user access/rights or quickly be copied and provided for free by pirates.


Comparing to music/video streaming services isn't really fair in some regards - the way games are consumed tend to be different, at least for the games I prefer - although perhaps the game industry needs to move in that direction to stay viable.


This doesn't mean Nintendo's pricing/content strategy is a good one... but taking a ROM, making it run right, adding off-TV play and then ensuring proper licensing and industry-standard ratings are applied before providing the game over a convenient delivery service is certainly worth $5-10 to some people.

Share + Bookmark





Related Content

Got a news tip? Send it in!
Advertisement
Advertisement