Topic: Official Virtual Console Mondays Thread

[Mop it up]

as opposed to pulling the plug on it and refusing to publish even some of its own games.

I find this statement to be slightly ridiculous. How is Nintendo "pulling the plug" on the Virtual Console service? Every game that they have ever put up for download is still available. What evidence is there that Nintendo is "refusing" to publish some of their games on the service? Just because they haven't yet doesn't mean they never will.

The thing to consider is that there are currently hundreds of games available across almost a dozen platforms. The virtual market is different from the retail market in that new games don't replace old games on the shelves, so the catalogue just keeps growing and growing, and a steady stream of new games probably won't get very many sales. Numbers are scarce, but the few sales figures released for Virtual Console show the games are selling just fine.

This service is going to be around for many years to come, and so Nintendo wants to wait to release the remaining games so they don't get lost in the sea of virtual releases which happen every week.

It looks like everyone really is ignoring the release of Mario Tennis on the VC. It's a shame, because it's a good game.

[Ian Sane]

I think VC releases were going to taper off a bit no matter what.  There is a finite amount of games that can be released on it.  Eventually Nintendo would run out of old games.  They might feel that having no new titles appearing on it would hurt it so they're stretching out the releases.

Nintendo probably also sees WiiWare and the VC as the same thing in that it is just downloadable content.  They want new content every week but they don't care what content that is, whether it be WiiWare or VC.  So they might as well save VC releases for weeks when there isn't much or any new WiiWare content.  From a marketing perspective they want to have something coming out each week.

[BeautifulShy]

Ian makes sense in this case. There is only a certain amount of games from the past that you can draw from yet when you make new content like Wiiware and DSiware there really isn't a limit. Also I know this happened in the past but when a big retail game comes out the VC and Wiiware offerings are slimmed down.

How many people picked up Sin and Punishment 2? It was released this past week.

Also the Pearl Harbor Wiiware game came out today and everybody was raving about the title pre launch.

[noname2200]

I find this statement to be slightly ridiculous. How is Nintendo "pulling the plug" on the Virtual Console service?

Perhaps that was the improper term.  However, Nintendo's support for the service has indisputedly withered; whereas we once received multiple VC games per week, we're averaging, what, a game a month this year?*  Despite the hundreds, if not thousands, of eligible titles not on the service it's become almost surprising to find any VC title listed on any given week.  The quality's there, but the quantity is not.  As to the rest of the post...

*I just checked: we've had 18 releases in 2010, so about 3/month.  That's better than I thought, so I may have to retract my comments.

I  think VC releases were going to taper off a bit no matter what.  There  is a finite amount of games that can be released on it.  Eventually  Nintendo would run out of old games.  They might feel that having no  new titles appearing on it would hurt it so they're stretching out the  releases.

Nintendo probably also sees WiiWare and the VC as the  same thing in that it is just downloadable content.  They want new  content every week but they don't care what content that is, whether it  be WiiWare or VC.  So they might as well save VC releases for weeks  when there isn't much or any new WiiWare content.  From a marketing  perspective they want to have something coming out each week.

 
  The inconsistency here is that Nintendo's Japanese VC releases  already dwarf those of NoA or NoE, but despite that Japan (to the best of my  knowledge) is continuing to receive a steady diet of new VC games, in  addition to the WiiWare and DSiWare games.  If there was uniformity  across the regions I'd be inclined to agree, but this is demonstrably  not the case. 

Also I know this  happened in the past but when a big retail game comes out the VC and  Wiiware offerings are slimmed down.

How many people picked up Sin and Punishment 2? It was released this past week.

Also the Pearl Harbor Wiiware game came out today and everybody was raving about the title pre launch.

The idea that VC and WiiWare are used to supplement the retail schedule had merit, but it's not consistent with Nintendo's behavior:  the Wii had some noticeable gaps in its retail schedule over the past 18 months, including January and February of this year, but as far as I can remember the biggest WiiWare/VC month was in March (Cave Story, Max & Magic Marker, Ogre Battle 64, Mega Man 10, Rage of the Gladiator, Rondo of Blood, etc.) which was the same month we received Red Steel 2, i.e. the biggest retail release pre-Galaxy 2.  If this idea was true, these releases should have been more spread out rather than clustered like this.

[TJ Spyke]

Actually, Japan has been down to 1 VC release (and sometimes 0) a week for several months, although I will say that Japan has 567 VC releases while North America has 359. I think Nintendo should let these Japanese text heavy games be released here if a publisher wants to, just put a warning like "Warning: This game relies heavily on Japanese text" to let people know that they may not be able to play it fully without some Japanese knowledge.

[noname2200]

Actually, Japan has been down to 1 VC release (and sometimes 0) a week for several months, although I will say that Japan has 567 VC releases while North America has 359. I think Nintendo should let these Japanese text heavy games be released here if a publisher wants to, just put a warning like "Warning: This game relies heavily on Japanese text" to let people know that they may not be able to play it fully without some Japanese knowledge.

I see.  I was under the impression that they were still getting steady releases, with the occasional double-down as well.  In addition to my underestimating NA's release schedule (see edits), it's beginning to look more and more like I was off-base!

[Mop it up]

We once counted up Nintendo's published titles that they have yet to release, and I believe the number was around 50. When trimmed to games that are possible/worthwhile, the number was something around 20. That isn't very many left for a service which will be around for the foreseeable future.

Does Nintendo have any control in when or if a third-party can release a Virtual Console game? I'm not sure how it works, but I didn't think they had any affect on whether or not other companies could release games.

[TJ Spyke]

In a way, they still are getting steady releases as it's a rare occasion that they don't get a game, they just no longer get that many. I won't go too far back, but all 5 weeks in Japan got 1 VC game each.

Mop, I don't know about VC games. Third party companies have confirmed though that Nintendo decides the price and release dates of WiiWare games, and I recall reading once about a publisher saying they submitted their VC to Nintendo and were waiting for Nintendo to release it. It's the same with Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, even iTunes. The company that runs the download service has final say over what gets released and when they get released.

I also wonder if Nintendo will ever support Virtual Console Arcade, I know a lot of people who haven't bought a Virtual Console game in a long time (and some never have) who said they would instantly buy the arcade version of Donkey Kong because it has the cement factory level.

[Stratos]

I'm ready to d/l VCA Donkey Kong and Mario Bros among others. I sure hope they don't judge sales of these niche VCA games to mean that no one wants them. People just want the good games to come out on the service.

[TheBlackCat]

I just beat Super Metroid again, on virtual console.  I was hoping to do at least 5 minutes faster than my best time, so I could beat it in under 2 hours.  Instead, I managed to shave a whole half hour off my best time, 1:35 with 100% of items.  I'm not sure I will be able to do much better than that without a lot of practice, although I could probably save a couple minutes by doing a bit better in the gauntlet and Tourian and another minute by abandoning the friends.

[Shaymin]

VC got a game this week! Ufouria from Sunsoft (NES import - 600 pts).

And Yet It Moves is the WiiWare release.

[noname2200]

VC got a game this week! Ufouria from Sunsoft (NES import - 600 pts).

And Yet It Moves is the WiiWare release.

I don't remember Ufouria, although it looks like we're eventually going to get a lot of Sunsoft's library.  But And Yet It Moves will so be mine!

[Art_de_Cat]

Glad to see another VC release, and it actually looks interesting!!! Plus And Yet it Moves came out?  I have been waiting for this one for quite a few months since they first showed trailers for it.

[Marty]

We've had Ufouria for a couple of weeks now in Europe, and this game is a definite recommendation. It's certainly on the short side, but the visuals have real pop, the music is catchy, and the upgrades are interesting and fun to use (One for instance is similar to the spiderball from Metroid, only 100 times more adorable). Whatever gripes you may have against the virtual console (and lets be honest, there's plenty to be had), allowing gamers to go back and play gems they may have missed like Rondo of Blood, DoReMi Fantasy, and Ufouria, has got to be it's most redeeming quality.

[broodwars]

Always good to see the VC get something, though this isn't a game I'm interested in.  More stuff from the SNES and N64, please!

[Mop it up]

I'm just hoping that these Sunsoft releases are leading up to Blaster Master 2 making its way to the Virtual Console, that was my favourite Genesis game.

[Stratos]

I thought Blaster Master 2 was an April Fool's joke?

[Mop it up]

No, that was Blaster Master: Destination Fred, an "NES revival" of Mega Man 9 sorts. Blaster Master 2 is very real and was released only on the Genesis.

[Retro Deckades]

We once counted up Nintendo's published titles that they have yet to release, and I believe the number was around 50. When trimmed to games that are possible/worthwhile, the number was something around 20. That isn't very many left for a service which will be around for the foreseeable future.

Do you have a link to that list? I am curious about exactly which games are still left unreleased.

[Kytim89]

They could always allow localization for games outside America and this might help boost releases for a short period. Also, we also have Mishief Makers if al else fails.

[broodwars]

They could always allow localization for games outside America and this might help boost releases for a short period. Also, we also have Mishief Makers if al else fails.

Stop trying to bring logic into this.  We're talking about Nintendo and the Virtual Console, where movements are more easily predicted by consulting the position of the stars and the phases of the moon.

[Kytim89]

They could always allow localization for games outside America and this might help boost releases for a short period. Also, we also have Mishief Makers if al else fails.

Stop trying to bring logic into this.  We're talking about Nintendo and the Virtual Console, where movements are more easily predicted by consulting the position of the stars and the phases of the moon.

If Nintendo wants my money, they are doing a piss poor job of getting it. That is for sure! I mean I find it surprising that they are all about the money but drag their feet to pursue it. The virtual console seems like it would be the perfect play ground for return on investments for Nintendo. For the exception of licensed titles, there is very little to no obstacles to putting games on virtual console and almost pure profit on their part.
 
I would love to have TMNT: Turtles in Time for both the SNES and arcade and the arcade version of TMNT on virtual console.

[broodwars]

If Nintendo wants my money, they are doing a piss poor job of getting it. That is for sure! I mean I find it surprising that they are all about the money but drag their feet to pursue it. The virtual console seems like it would be the perfect play ground for return on investments for Nintendo. For the exception of licensed titles, there is very little to no obstacles to putting games on virtual console and almost pure profit on their part.
 
I would love to have TMNT: Turtles in Time for both the SNES and arcade and the arcade version of TMNT on virtual console.

I hate to do this, but in Nintendo's defense it's probably not as profitable as we like to think.  For one thing, these companies have to pay the ESRB to rate the game.  Then add on any licensing fees and the cost of programming and testing the VC version to make sure no new issues occur.  Oh, and let's not forget that Nintendo created a pretty horrible online means of selling new titles with the VC store, where new titles pop up on the not-so-front-page for about a week and then are never seen again.  So unless you have a pretty big AAA VC title on your hands, it's probably not going to get noticed let alone sold.
 
Put these factors together, and I'd be surprised if a great many VC games are as profitable as we'd like to think they are.

[Kytim89]

If Nintendo wants my money, they are doing a piss poor job of getting it. That is for sure! I mean I find it surprising that they are all about the money but drag their feet to pursue it. The virtual console seems like it would be the perfect play ground for return on investments for Nintendo. For the exception of licensed titles, there is very little to no obstacles to putting games on virtual console and almost pure profit on their part.
 
I would love to have TMNT: Turtles in Time for both the SNES and arcade and the arcade version of TMNT on virtual console.

I hate to do this, but in Nintendo's defense it's probably not as profitable as we like to think.  For one thing, these companies have to pay the ESRB to rate the game.  Then add on any licensing fees and the cost of programming and testing the VC version to make sure no new issues occur.  Oh, and let's not forget that Nintendo created a pretty horrible online means of selling new titles with the VC store, where new titles pop up on the not-so-front-page for about a week and then are never seen again.  So unless you have a pretty big AAA VC title on your hands, it's probably not going to get noticed let alone sold.
 
Put these factors together, and I'd be surprised if a great many VC games are as profitable as we'd like to think they are.

What can they do better? Something like a shopping cart would be nice and would help avoid back tracking through endless pages of titles just to get one game to download.

[broodwars]

If Nintendo wants my money, they are doing a piss poor job of getting it. That is for sure! I mean I find it surprising that they are all about the money but drag their feet to pursue it. The virtual console seems like it would be the perfect play ground for return on investments for Nintendo. For the exception of licensed titles, there is very little to no obstacles to putting games on virtual console and almost pure profit on their part.
 
I would love to have TMNT: Turtles in Time for both the SNES and arcade and the arcade version of TMNT on virtual console.

I hate to do this, but in Nintendo's defense it's probably not as profitable as we like to think.  For one thing, these companies have to pay the ESRB to rate the game.  Then add on any licensing fees and the cost of programming and testing the VC version to make sure no new issues occur.  Oh, and let's not forget that Nintendo created a pretty horrible online means of selling new titles with the VC store, where new titles pop up on the not-so-front-page for about a week and then are never seen again.  So unless you have a pretty big AAA VC title on your hands, it's probably not going to get noticed let alone sold.
 
Put these factors together, and I'd be surprised if a great many VC games are as profitable as we'd like to think they are.

What can they do better? Something like a shopping cart would be nice and would help avoid back tracking through endless pages of titles just to get one game to download.

I actually really like how the PSN store is set up with all the different categories of games (New arrivals, demos, Minis, etc.) on the left, and searching for a game takes you through a series of thumbnail screens where you select the system; game type; its alphabetical category; and then you select the game within its alphabetical order to open a page with everything in the store related to that game.  It's a logical setup and best of all, it's really fast (less than 5 seconds between page loads, though the thumbnails take additional time to load). 
 
In my experience, it takes at least 30 seconds to load a page in the Wii Shop, and I have broadband.