GBA support on the Wii U Virtual Console was unexpected. Depending on what those games blown up into HD looks like, it may even be undesirable.  However, this price markup to play your Virtual Console games on the GamePad is ridiculous, as is that the only games right now that will support the feature are NES and SNES games.  That's a feature that should have been on the Wii U at launch.  Nintendo's merely making changes to a single emulator for each platform, & then repackaging it w/ the existing games.  Charging for this "feature" for each game you dare to desire to play on the GamePad (when "U playing all by Urself with the Gamepad" is one of Nintendo's big selling points with the Wii U) is pretty ridiculous.

I only have N64 game, Virtual Arcade title and WiiWare mostly.

Let me guess -- i should wait two years for Wii U VC rereleases and some most of them won't be converted.

Oh wait i also bought two genesis titles -- Street Fighter 2 with online and Monster World IV.

Yeah, i don't think i will see them on my gamepad any time soon if at all...

You paid to play your games on the Wii. You thought that the price was fair, otherwise you wouldn't have paid it. When you buy a boxed video game, you get only one copy of it. Why should a download game be different? I didn't expect Nintendo to give me Ocarina of Time 3D for free, nor do I expect them to give me Wind Waker HD for free. Why do you expect Nintendo to give you an enchanced version of a game you bought on a different console, for free?

1.  Ocarina of Time 3D and Wind Waker 3D are all-new retail remakes of old games, not Virtual Console games, so your analogy is invalid.

2. Because it's goddamn consumer-friendly, and these are all ancient games that we've been overcharged on already on the Wii. I know that's a foreign concept to a company that charges people multiple times for the same game on multiple platforms, but one could always hope.  On Sony's Vita, if I bought a digital PS1 or PSP title, they just work on the Vita (or PSP) with no upgrade fees (but with new features) despite being a new platform, and it's the same on the PS3 with PS1 titles as well

I shouldn't have to pay extra just to enjoy a feature I already paid $350 (+tax) to enjoy, and I certainly shouldn't have to pay extra for every game I ever purchased when Nintendo's merely changing a single emulator on each platform. If Nintendo was merely charging a flat $10 or so to transfer all your games over, fine. Whatever. But they're not, and I'm not paying the probably around $50 or so just to play old games on my Gamepad.

3. And to make matters worse, they're not even supporting all the platforms on VC out of the gate, and I bet games they've removed from the VC like the Donkey Kong Country series (which are among the games I'd want to play MOST only on the Gamepad) won't be elligible.

4. Those VC prices were never "fair", but unfortunately they were (and they still are) the only "legal" way to play those games so yeah I bought them.

I think it should be $1 across the board for all VC games

Oh goody! I get to pay $1 extra just to play SMB3 on my GamePad!!

Enhanced? What exactly are they enhancing? You mean I have to pay extra just to enjoy regular features on the console I already paid for? (Off-TV play, posting to Miiverse). VC games were already overpriced as is! The markup is ridiculous and I don't think there's anything wrong if people are pissed off by it.

If we have to pay $1 to upgrade of VC games, does that mean NES games will now be $6 on WiiU?

Um, the article says "Prices will be the same as they were on the Wii Shop".

People complaining about paying a dollar or a buck 50 for

a new emulator
save/load states
off-tv play
miiverse intregration
for a game you already own on a different system (probably multiple times) are quite ridiculous.  The sense of entitlement as a WiiU owner here is amazing. So just because you bought vc games for a completely different console, games that you can still play on your WiiU, it means that any new enhancements to games you own should be free? Enhancements that take money to develop (and no, it isn't just a switch that's flipped to make things work), test, and put up for submission. Suddenly it's anti-consumer to charge for something new. Did people really believe that their entire Wii VC library was going to be enhanced on the WiiU and for free? Never since the system was announced did Nintendo say your existing VC library was gonna be enhanced for free, so why are you guys spouting nonsense like,


"I already spent $350 for these features."


when you really didn't.


Also,VC games are not overpriced and whoever believes that either hasn't checked ebay prices of their favorite games of yesteryear or are too use to playing pirated roms on pc emulators. I will happily buy SMB3 for $5 knowing that

The games works every time I wanna play it and without glitches
I have save states
It's convenient
It's cheaper than a physical copy and more reliable besides
It's legal
For a game of that quality (that debuted at $50, 24 years ago) $5 is a steal.

Complaining that you have to pay a measily $1-$1.50 for enhanced versions of your favorite VC games is dumb. If off-tv play, miiverse, and save states aren't worth four quarters to you, don't pay for it. Geez, VC prices aren't even increasing once it hits the e-Shop.

That PSP/Vita/PS3 analogy is apples and oranges.  PSOne games are the only ones that work almost universally reliably across those platforms and only recently with Vita.  All PSP games do not work on Vita, regardless if you own it digitally and for the UMD transfer system in Japan, publishers were charging waaaay more than $1-$1.50 to convert the physical license to digital. Besides, the PS family of systems are only emulating 1-2 systems (PSONE and PSP), whereas Nintendo's VC is emulating 9 (if you count the handhelds).

TL:DR


WiiU's VC service features sound great, Miiverse integration was a nice surprise
Getting charged $1-$1.50 vs. regular price for games I choose to purchase again on a new system is nice
VC games prices will remain static
Complaining about choosing to re-buy games you already own multiple times on different systems is dumb. Especially when you are currently not locked out from enjoying your VC library on your WiiU.




Folks are never happy unless everything is given to them YESTERDAY and for free.
 

Dude, we're talking about Nintendo charging money for you to play games with the Wii U's controller. Last time I checked, that was a selling point of the console, not an excuse for microtransactions.  And I'm not paying Nintendo probably the $20-$30 or so to "enhance" (  ::) ) a portion of my games to allow me to use the controller of the console I'm playing them on (or, for that matter, to even let my Wii U know that these games exist on the console, since Wii mode is partitioned off the Wii U OS).

And as I said, though, the big problem is that they're charging for these games individually rather than a one-time transaction to pay for a new emulator that would cover your entire VC collection.  This just reeks of nickel & dime-ing people because Nintendo knows its fans are that gullible.

The selling point of the GamePad was to play Wii U games with it, not Virtual Console games. And it's not fair to make someone who owns 2 games pay the same as someone who owns 200 games. It's a minor fee to have a game get upgraded. This sounds like people bitching at a studio like Warner Bros. letting you pay $5 to have the DVD copy of your movie be exchanged for a Blu-ray Disc copy of it.

The people who own 2 VC games probably don't care about playing them on the GamePad.  The ones who own 200 probably do.

I always thought Virtual Console games were overpriced which is one of the reasons I never bought any (I also have most of the ones I would want anyway). Still, I don't have to buy them so overpriced or not, it makes no significant difference to me.

Charging more for the enhancements is kind of lame from a purely consumer standpoint, but entirely expected. Nintendo is putting extra work in so i can see why they would charge. They could have been dicks and made people rebuy everything at full price... and people totally would too. Really, if I had any VC games, I would pay the extra $1+ specifically so I didn't have to open the Wii channel to play them. I'm living life in the fast lane. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Personally think that Nintendo is overcharging for the WiiU VC games and that the upgrade charge is a big F U fans.  Now I will say if that same charge was instead to make the games playable on your 3DS ok thats a little different. 

I'm just floored that the 3DS did it better than the WiiU.

eShop fully integrated with DSiWare: Check
Cool Useful Stat Tracking: Check
Digital BC integrated into the Menu System: Check
Interface Responsive: Check

I expected the Wii U to be on par or better.

How are they overcharging for Wii U VC games? They will cost the SAME as on Wii.

Hence Overcharging.

Maybe for some games (like Golf), but $5 for something like SMB3 or $8 for SMW is not bad. And it's even less plausible to call them overpriced on Wii U considering all the enhancements they will have (like Off-Screen play and Miiverse support).

I feel bad for all you people who can't deny yourself a new version of the same game. That itchy cold sweat you feel when looking over your catalog and it not being complete.

The dread...The absolute dread...

Sorry Nintendo, but I'll take my dollar to the nearest strip club thank you very much.

Personally, I thought the VC games were overpriced on the Wii so they're overpriced on Wii U by default. Then again, I bought Super Mario All-Stars on Wii like an asshole so I may have no idea what overpriced means...

Anyway, DSiWare was integrated into the eshop far more smoothly because it was probably planned that way. It was likely a testing ground for what the eshop became which thank glob for that shit because the 3DS eshop rofl-stomps DSiWare. I'd blame Nintendo's lack of foresight for the issues they're having with transitioning VC from Wii to Wii U. No surprises there since Nintendo tends to do that.

Yes to all of this.
Thank you, Razorkid. Could not have put it better myself.

Basically your paying to upgrade , it's optional and if u want to not pay you can play in wii mode
. I rather a flat fee depending on how many games I have . This is really ugly and I agree with both sides so ill probably pick and choose any games I may want on wii u mode now if I even bother . What about games taken off shop and wii ware I guess those games are forever on wii mode .
If you let me play virtual console on 3ds for that $1 than its more bang for my buck

That's a great idea Adolp Vega. If only Nintendo could work it such that once you own a VC game on one platform, each additional platform is an extra dollar. That way I could easily see myself "upgrading" the majority of my VC library every five years as new consoles come out. I have no problem with what I see as this convenience fee to renew my VC library "licenses" for future consoles: I anticipate that this $1 will not just let me get a Wii U version of my VC game, but that I'll have a compatible version of the game when the Wii U 2 comes out and no longer supports Wii backwards compatibility.

We all vote with our wallets.

Doesn't mean we waive our right to complain. Doesn't mean we're ungrateful because we complain.

Well I was expecting Nintendo to just make you buy the game again outright at full price to play it on the Gamepad screen so this is certainly a much nicer way to do it.

But the whole real reason that the Gamepad functionality was not there was because Nintendo stupidly packaged each game with the emulator.  Their own short-sighted stupidity created a technological hurdle to get Gamepad support that should have been ridiculously easy to do.  To fix it obviously costs money so they pass that cost on to us.  I get it but it's dumb.  We shouldn't have to pay for Nintendo making a mistake that pretty much no existing person with a basic knowledge of videogame emulation would make.  Converting these games to work on the Gamepad should not ever have been any more complicated than merely updating the emulator for each system (arcade would still have to be contained obviously).  No redownload, no payment, no waiting to see which games Nintendo chooses to do this with.  The slightest intelligent design and EVERY VC game works on day one.

In the "working around nailing your own dick to the floor" sense, they're actually doing this pretty much the best way they can.  Now are they smart enough to seperate the roms and the emulator this time or is this just a problem waiting for the next generation?

I love that my reaction and a lot of other people's is "I expected it to be a lot worse."

It'd be nice if the upgrades were free, but I understand the extensive process Nintendo goes through to test these things isn't cheap, and honestly I'm more than willing to pay the asking price to get the new features. Then again, I've rebought a fair number of NES games on the 3DS, so I've already proven myself to be willing to let Nintendo take advantage of me.

That doesn't excuse the fact that people are complaining at the level they are. Didn't we just recieve some good news here? Before this Direct, we had no info or news about WiiU's VC or how Nintendo was going to handle games rerelasing that we already owned on Wii's VC. It could have gone horribly, but all that's happened is we get charged a pittance to upgrade what we already bought or pay the regular (unchanged) price for it new. Like Ian Sane said, this is literally the best we could have realistically hoped for and we got it. Yet folks first inclination is to complain?

As far as I'm concerned, Nintendo (incredibly and surprisingly) addressed ALL my questions and concerns regarding the WiiU up through E3. I saw nothing but good news all around and the WiiU VC announcement was part of that. I don't know, I prefer to discuss the positive in announcements like these instead of nitpicking and blowing things out of proportion when that energy could be focused on issues with the system that aren't being addressed (lack of western 3rd party support for example)

Prefering to discuss the positives in announcements doesn't mean we have to discard the criticisms that come with it. There will always be criticism with Nintendo announcements and I don't think the criticism here was any more intense that it is in other places. Just because Nintendo addressed all YOUR questions doesn't mean it addressed the concerns of all users for the service.
Wii VC came at launch with 12 games from 4 systems. Wii U VC came two months after launch with a drip feed of 1 game per month until July with an unspecified number of NES and SNES games coming after that. Then GBA games at a later date.


I don't want to completely crap all over VC, but right now, as is, it's pretty underwhelming. I hope things get better and we get more systems and newer games.

My problem with Wii U VC is not the price, and seriously 99% of the complaining folk don't even own a single VC game.

It's one dollar or five dollars who cares.

I just want all of my purchased games with miiverse and gamepad support and freed from ghetto wii mode right now. I'm ready to pay for it if you do it today. Now. For all of my games.

But with this scheme it's obvious i am in for a long wait and that some titles won't be converted at all.

And what about WiiWare?

WiiWare would take a lot more work, outside of the few games that only use physical controls.

Any idea on how much the other Virtual Consoles will cost?

Genesis: $1.50
Master System: $1.00
TG-16: $1.50
N64: $2.50
Neo Geo: $3.00

If they gave some of these multiplayer VC games online play, I'd be leaning more toward tossing them a dollar a game...

Just played a bunch of Balloon Fight, using:
save states,
Miiverse,
controller customization,
WiiU Pro controller support,
Gamepad off-TV play,
two player support with
the Balloon Trip mode.


Friends, THIS is the ultimate in Virtual Console service. I am so sold. Nintendo can charge whatever it wants. All I will say in reply is, thank you sir, may I have another.
There simply isn't enough time left in my life for how much fun I am going to be having with the Wii U.

I would have paid full price for Off-TV play on a lot of games I already own, so in my case this is better than I would have expected. I'll probably end up spending the same amount with these upgrades, but I'll get more for it.

Sometimes Nintendo setting the bar insanely low works out for them.

Wait, so you're saying I can't play my VC games on my Wii anymore.  They are going to disappear!?  But I just got some of them last month!  This is an outrage...  Wait.  They're still fine.  Oh. 
Okay, so you're telling me I bought old games from the 80s and 90s for the Wii, got to play them on Wii and then they don't transfer to the Wii U!  That's somewhat disappointing!  I expect at least one generation of backward compatability from my consoles thank you very much.  If I lay out FIVE WHOLE DOLLARS for Mario 3, one of the best games ever, I expect to be able to play it on at least two seperate systems across over a decade of support or I will feel somewhat let down!  Wait, I can do that.  Oh.
Hmmm.  What is everyone crying about again?  Oh I see.  Nintendo didn't personally tuck you in last night and give you a kiss goodnight. 

If you take inflation into account, VC games are actually cheaper than they were six years ago.

Why would you think Neo Geo games would be more than N64 games? The likely reason SNES is $0.50 more than NES to upgrade is because SNES games cost more on the VC. N64 games are $10 while Neo Geo games are $9, so I would expect Neo Geo to be less than N64.

Zieborn is rocking the suburbs with KNOWLEDGE.

It just seems that SNK would charge that much for their games.

Nintendo determines the prices for VC games, always have. Besides, SNK hasn't released any of the Neo Geo games on VC, D4 Enterprise did all the work.

So on a whim I decided to turn my Wii U on for the first time in a month to see just how much Nintendo's "enhancements" (the vast majority of which I don't want or need) would cost me for JUST my SNES and NES collection? The answer? $49, close to the cost of a full game, and that's assuming that de-listed games like the Donkey Kong Country games would even be eligible.  No, Nintendo. No.  I am not paying you almost $50 for the "privilege" of playing a portion of my VC games on the controller the Wii U came with. You can go **** yourself.  "George Banks is saying 'NO!'" I'll just continue to give that money to Sony, who for all their faults at least understands the concept of an account system.  Hell, I have dozens of digital PS1 and PSP games (which are fully compatible on my Vita, my PS3, & my old PSP) I should probably be playing anyway instead of old NES/SNES games.

I wouldn't have had much issue with a small one-time fee to cover all of my VC collection, but I'm not paying you $50 for part of it on a single device. Your loss, Nintendo.  Meanwhile, my Wii U returns to being powered-down and collecting dust.

The Wii VC games are already compatible with the Wii U; you're paying for new functionality. What new functionality has Sony added to those PS1 classics over the years? Sony half-asses those, to the point that some of them are basically unplayable, while Nintendo goes above and beyond to make sure their releases work, which isn't cheap. If you don't think it's worth a dollar or two to get Off-TV play, save states and control customization, then you don't have to pay it.

Graphical filtering options and Analog Stick support on games released during that Dualshock transition period. Along with graphical filtering options of their own, the PSP games also have enhancements to let you map button commands onto the right analog stick (which, for some games, means you can emulate dual analog support) & rear touch pad (which, naturally, the PSP didn't have).

And no, I don't think it's worth an additional $1 - $1.50 per game for Off-TV play, because that's why I already paid $350+ for a Wii U.  A one-time fee to cover everything would be one thing, but for the amount of money I would have to pay to "upgrade" just these NES and SNES games, I could practically buy a new game.

And Miiverse integration. Don't forget that. It's wonderful.
Go spend the 30 cents on Balloon Fight and you will see.

Broodwars, you didn't pay 350 dollars for Off-TV for a Virtual Console that did not exist at the time. If you did, then you're an idiot, because the only one who promised you that for free is your own mind.


Stop bitching, dude. If you don't want the Off-TV play and MiiVerse integration, keep playing through Wii Mode. The option is there for people who want it. I, for one, will do it for select games.

I refuse to give Sony any credit when it comes to old games until Final Fantasy V works the way it's supposed to. If I have to choose between paying a little more to Nintendo for games that work right or paying Sony a bit less for games they obviously did no testing on at all, I'm going to take the former every time.

This is actually what I had expected to happen regarding the Wii U VC. I did not think there would be GBA games on it though, that's a little odd, especially since there is still no word of GBA on 3DS.

Not saying this would make a big difference, but I think it would be cool if Nintendo tried to reward the early adopters (whom they make the most $ off of) by at least offering a limited time to update their VC games for free.  Something like free for the first 6 months of the Wii U life and then charge for all updates after that. 


Maybe that would push people with Wiis that have a big VC collection to upgrade to the Wii U soon to take advantage of the change. 


Sony doesn't do everything right.  But allowing the classics to be played on PS3 and PSP/Vita was brillaint.  The VC would have much more value to me to be portable rather than tethered (within 20 ft) to a tv, but not using the TV. 

"Because titles are being reworked for off-screen use on the console's GamePad controller"

Oh please. "Off-screen play" should have been a native feature that was built-into the Wii U's OS. There is no reason for it to be a per-game feature.

Ah the myths of inflation. That doesn't apply to digital content.

And in Europe it's going to be 50hz again. Pass.

I think what is most disappointing thing about this announcement is that in the era of steam (which always reworks it's emulators to work with new operating systems for free), this confirms that you need to pay money to continue to access your VC games on future Nintendo consoles.  Because it's very unlikely that the Wii U replacement has a Wii mode to transfer Wii saves.  Thus, if you don't pay up and transfer, the Wii U will be the last operating system you will get to experience your current VC games on.


It'll be interesting to see how Sony/Microsoft do their exchange.  My guess is not as harsh since they already allow you to use an account which can be accessed on multiple systems.

I will begrudgingly pay the additional fee to play virtual console games on the Wii U Gamepad. 

I don't like it as a consumer, but it doesn't surprise me there's an additional fee being tacked on to upgrade, considering work had to be done on nintendo's end to update these virtual console titles. 

Another thing that has to be kept in mind is that they've only announced this for NES & SNES games so far, so there's no telling when or even if the other systems (Especially the non-Nintendo ones) from Wii virtual console will get the same treatment, and i'd certainly expect a higher cost for Nintendo 64 games.

I get the whole Nintendo didn't promise anything argument, but the cost argument is a little sketchy. 


Nintendo had to emulate these games anyway for the Wii U to ensure that they were able to bring in new customers and have a service for the Wii U.  So while it did cost them money, it certainly didn't cost them anymore to make the emulator for people that already owned the games since they had to do it for people that don't own the games.  The kicker is they aren't charging the new audience the fee (because NES games are still $5, etc.).  They are only charging this to the existing customers that have supported this service since day one. 


It's little things like this why I stopped supporting the virtual console service after I bought 40+ VC titles on the Wii. 

That's like getting mad because you bought a game on release day and a year later, a Game of the Year Edition comes out for the same price. Or that you bought a game that later received a price drop. No offense, but I'm not especially sympathetic. You got to play the games sooner. You paid what you felt was fair at the time and others did not. If those holdouts now feel the prices are fair, good for them. They got to save some dough. Don't act like you didn't get what you paid for at the time you paid for it. Nintendo didn't have to do this at all. They could have forced everyone to rebuy everything at full price. Backwards compatibility, hardware or software wise, is a perk, not the entire point of a new platform.

This. I get that supporting backwards compatibility for a new system is desirable and something that fans of the system hope for when supporting the successor of their favorite gaming system.  But ultimately, it is not the reason you are buying the new system for. You can already enjoy the games you like on your current system and buying the new doesn't destroy the old.


Backwards compatibility has always been a bone console makers threw to their user base to help them make the transfer to the new system faster and smoother with retail releases. With digital libraries across all  gaming platforms growing exponential each year, it's going to be really interesting to see how everyone handles it. For example, Sony hasn't had a problem transferring over licenses for PSone and PSP games to newer systems due to an account based system and a (I'm assuming) universal emulator that works across all those platforms.  But what are companies gonna do for their digital only libraries like XBLA, PSN, and WiiWare? I suspect that, regardless of account based systems, none of that stuff is gonna transfer over to the new systems. If they do, it's either gonna be behind a pay gate or your gonna have to dig a little (for WiiWare, very little) in order to access it.

Actually that is the only reason I became a PS3 owner.

Blu Ray player for me. The games weren't there for me at the time in 2007 when I got one, but I really wanted to watch HD movies on my new tv.

Maybe not directly, but definitely indirectly. The cost of tweaking and testing the game go up, as do server and bandwidth costs. They have pretty big margins on these, so they'll still be profitable, but not as much so.

Lol, not quite the same.  Some of these are 30 year old games.  I'm not sure I'm paying to get anything in advance or enhanced.

They can't force me to buy anything.  Which is why there's no point in quoting your whole response or trying to respond to anything.  As I said, they certainly don't owe me anything so no point yelling at me like I'm a teen asking for a free lunch everyday.  It's all about value in when a consumer is spending their money and the value here falls short to me. 


I used to be a heavy user (40+ VC games in the first 2 years of the VC) and then I realized that Nintendo hadn't released a comprehensive plan about being able to keep the games over time.  You can talk about backwards compatibility being a perk, but digital changes the game.  Steam goes out of your way to make you feel like you own the game and they are doing you a favor by keeping it on their servers so it'll always be there.  Nintendo makes me feel like I'm renting it and they'll charge me more to keep using it if they feel like it. 


I haven't purchased a VC game in about 5 years because I don't like their approach.  If you do, good for you spend away.  Since I stopped purchasing VC games, I've picked up a Genesis, N64, NES, and Dreamcast and most of the games that I've ever wanted to play.  I'm happy with my own VC plan.

I would argue there's no guarantee that any digital service (Virtual Console, PSN, Xbox Live, Steam) will always be there.  Just because Steam makes you feel secure doesn't mean it's more secure.  It just means they do a better job of making you feel you own the product.

I understand your personal reasons for not feeling the price to update your VC games is justified, but you still have just as much access to your VC games as you did before, and don't lose anything if you decide to stay as-is.  Everyone else can have the opportunity to pay a marginal fee to update product to have additional features.

Steam is actually less secure than Nintendo's system, because it requires you to be connected to the server to play anything. If Steam goes away, all your games go with it. You have your Wii/3DS/Wii U games for as long as you have the system they're on.

Valve has said that if Steam ever shut down, they'd send out a final patch to remove the online validation.

It's still BS that they have it at all. If my Internet connection goes down, I should still be able to play any Steam games I bought.

Which is easy to say now, but it doesn't guarantee that they will want to or be able to do that if and when it were to happen.

was offline mode disabled or something?

I haven't played a Steam game in a loooong while....

The principle is the same. A GOTY Edition includes content that someone who bought the original release would have to pay for separately. If you want the extras of the Wii U Virtual Console releases, you're going to have to pay for them. You want the prices for Wii U Virtual Console games to be adjusted to what you would have to pay if you upgraded. Well, that's not how that works. I understand what you want, but I disagree with it.

Sigh. You nitpicked one line then took it completely out of context. Nintendo didn't have to offer the upgraded version to Wii owners. In fact, Nintendo didn't have to offer the system transfer at all. To clarify my comment you quoted, Nintendo could have forced every Wii Virtual Console customer to have to rebuy all of those games at full price if they wanted those games on their Wii U. Happy?

What I don't understand is that you say that Nintendo doesn't owe you anything, but you're still complaining about value. You bought those Virtual Console games on your own volition. Considering you bought over 40 of them, you must have thought they were a good value. I don't see how value is now suddenly in question. You can still play them on your Wii. If you performed the system transfer, you can still play them in Wii Mode. You don't need to upgrade. It sure was nice of Nintendo to give you the option though.

I just checked. Its still there and still works.  Don't know why everyone thinks with Steam you have to have an Internet connection.  While I am sure some games require it Steam in general does not.

Having GBA games on the Wii U indicates to me that will get a unified system account between the Wii U and 3DS either this spring or some time before or after this year's E3 conference.

I know what a game of the year edition is.  To my knowledge there is no additional content to these "editions" if you want to call them that.  Additional content would include levels, characters, new res'd backgrounds etc.  Let's just spell out what is new.

Social Integration that all $.99 apps have. 
Off screen TV play. 

Clearly these things have value, just not enough to me to justify paying the $60+ that I'd have to pay to get all my games up and running in Wii U mode.  To me that is not a nominal amount for relatively few features that I don't really care about.  And that is exactly how it does work.  I don't purchase things everyday from companies I don't feel provide enough value for their products.  Some of them stay in business so they must convince some consumers to purchase their products and those customers found value in them.  Sincerely, if you think there is enough value and want to upgrade go ahead.  I'm not trying to convince you not to, conversely I doubt you'll convince me to upgrade all my titles. 

See, I don't think I'm taking you out of context at all.  Your first post came off like I should thank my lucky stars that Nintendo is giving me options.  Well if I believe this is so poorly implemented that I don't intend to use it, why would I care that the option is available at all? 

I buy stuff all the time that I regret purchasing later.  Some of the VC games I feel like I got my value out of and others I don't.  The problem is I never really felt like I got more than I paid for.  As a business owner, I like it when my customers feel ecstatic to do business with me because I'm providing strong value worth more to them than the money they pay me.  This leads to future business and loyalty. 

What makes Nintendo more money?  Micro transactions for anything that adds value or providing an excellent service and improving it over time.  The question is impossible to answer, but I left VC and I'm not coming back.  Had Nintendo offered this upgrade for free, I'd probably start purchasing VC again because I'd know it always have a home on a Nintendo console and they would throw in free upgrades from time to time.  As it stands, I'll probably never play the VC on another console since it's >99% likely that anything in Wii mode will not transfer to the next system.  To be fair though, I probably will buy the $0.30 games since I think that is too much value to pass up, but that is a special case. 

Have you considered only rebuying some of your old games at the discounted price? You can buy the ones most important to you for a lot less than the cost of rebuying everything. If I weren't the hoarder I am there'd be a bunch of my old VC games that wouldn't be worth $1-2 to bring over.

Cost of what I have: $23.50
Cost of what I want to upgrade: $11.50

Cost of what I'll be able to upgrade: $2, maybe $3.50 (most of what I want to bring over is Square RPGs, and that'll be brought over shortly after hell freezes over).

A Game of the Year Edition typically includes most if not all of the DLC that was released for the game. That's a lot of additional content. So... no, it doesn't sound like you know what a Game of the Year edition is at all.

As previously stated in this topic, I've never purchased any Virtual Console games. I'm only buying Super Metroid in May because it's 30 cents.

Not my intention. I was pointing out that it's silly to expect Nintendo to charge new Virtual Console customers the upgrade fee. However, you don't think you should have to pay the upgrade fee because Nintendo had to do the work anyway to bring the Virtual Console games to Wii U. Therefore, for anyone who wants the Wii U Virtual Console games, either nobody should pay the upgrade fee or everyone should. Am I getting that right? I think I am.

Look, I'm not trying to convince you to pay the upgrade fee. Pay it, don't pay it. I don't care what you do and I don't know where you got the idea that I do. I simply disagree that Wii owners shouldn't have to pay the upgrade fee. Of course, they should... if they want the extras, but they certainly don't have to because they can still enjoy their games without ever considering the extras at all.

That's why I brought up the GOTY edition analogy. The Wii U Virtual Console games are like the GOTY edition with the extras included. Wii Virtual Console customers can upgrade if they so choose, but they should have to pay for the extras. We obviously disagree on this which is fine. I was merely explaining why I disagree.

I think what smallsharkbigbite was trying to say is that there is no additional content to the VC games themselves, with the "editions" he referred to being the VC games. So they're not similar to GOTY editions because they don't have additional game content, just additional system features. It's basically like paying for backwards compatibility, like if Wii Mode cost money to activate.

I agree it's a little steep, however I expected something like this to happen, and it's one of the reasons I never bought VC games.