Topic: 3DS Vitual Console: Which Console and Game Should Be Available?

[MoronSonOfBoron]

I'm surprised no one here mentioned Faceball 2000.

[TJ Spyke]

A lot of VC games either have not made money or were barely profitable. First, Nintendo takes a cut (I think around 30%, which is similar to the other download services), then add in the cost of getting it rated (each region requires a separate rating, so you have to pay for ESRB, PEGI, OFLC, CERO, etc.), add in the cost of porting it and testing it and time for employees to do it, and some of the lesser known games would have a hard enough time just making a profit. Adding 3D may actually hurt sales since some people might not be willing to pay extra when they just want the game. Take something like Spelunker for the NES. It goes for $5. Right off the bat the developer only gets about $3.50 from each sale of the game. Assuming the game cost less than $250K, they had to pay $800 to the ESRB for them to rate it. They would need to sell about 229 copies to get back the cost for the ESRB rating, not sure how many to make a profit since I don't know how much it cost to port the game. Developers also want to make as much money as possible, which means spending as little as possible, and they would only add 3D if they think the amount of money generated would be increased.

[Mop it up]

I'm surprised no one here mentioned Faceball 2000.

I liked that game, but I don't think it has any chance of appearing on any VC service. As far as I'm aware, both its developer and publisher no longer exist.

[Kytim89]

What aboout games already rated by the ESRB and the others? For example, Minish Cap was rated by the ESRB in America, so would Nintendo have to pay to have the game rated by the ESRB again? I mean it is the same game, right?

[TJ Spyke]

Games that were rated by the ESRB before had to be re-rated for the VC, so I assume they would have to do that for any VCs service on 3DS too.

[NWR_insanolord]

Nintendo makes the rules for that, so they could always decide that publishers don't have to do that now.

[TJ Spyke]

Mop, I just checked and the publisher of the Game Boy version of Faceball 2000 still exists, they just changed their name. Bulletproof Software published the game, they have since changed their name to Blue Planet Software. They don't make games anymore, but they do exist (albeit with only 2 official employees). Whether they own the rights is unknown, they gave up the trademarks to the name back in 1999.

[AV]

why the hell is it so expensive to get a ratting from ESRB or whatever?