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Revolution oldies not free News
Wii News by Games Industry.biz
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has denied rumours that the company plans to distribute its first-party back catalogue for free on the forthcoming Revolution console, but said that some old games may be used as bonus or trial content.
Speaking to a business strategy conference in Japan, Iwata touched briefly on the topic of the "Virtual Console" - Nintendo's name for the Revolution's ability to download and play the company's old titles.
Referring specifically to online rumours that the company would give away its back catalogue for free on the service, Iwata said that "we have no plans to distribute [our back catalogue] without a fee."
He would not be drawn on what pricing schemes the firm has in mind, but he did concede that some games might be used as promotional bonuses - for example, offering a free download of an old game with the purchase of a new game, or running special marketing campaigns which allow games to be downloaded for free for a limited period.
This is in line with Nintendo's policy on old games at present; while the firm makes a profit from the sale of its back catalogue through schemes like the NES Classics range on the GBA, it's also not averse to bundling old titles as bonus content with their modern updates.
Iwata made clear that the ultimate motive for the Revolution download service is to continue to capitalise on Nintendo's back catalogue, telling the conference that "we hope to create a system which allows both Nintendo and [third-party publishers] to make a profit by using [software titles] from the past."
Interestingly, the Nintendo boss also confirmed that Revolution users will be able to download demos for the Nintendo DS to the console and then transfer them wirelessly to their handhelds.
Much of the rest of the conference, however, was recycled material from Iwata's presentation at E3 in Los Angeles last month, with products such as the Game Boy Advance Micro and the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service for the DS, both of which made their debuts at E3, being unveiled for the first time in the Far East.
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Derblington
09/06/05 @ 08:10
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Could you not DL them to a mem card and distribute between your mates?
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Well.. what a shocker.
No-one ever listens to me. You'd have thought you'd all have learned by now, but nooooooooooooo - Nintendo's in it for the people! They love you! They're giving you hundreds of free games out of the goodness of their hearts, despite the fact that they're currently flogging them to you for 'extortionate-o-price'. Tch. I'm not bitter, though. |
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I'd love to play the games though, i don't really mind them bringing them out on the new systems etc. It's the cost of the them i'm flabbergasted by!
Is anyone actually buying the gba releases at £15 a pop or are they forming a protective layer over the DreamCast VMU's at the bottom of the bargain bin? |
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Markusdragon
09/06/05 @ 08:35
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I'm assuming that a half a million or so retrogaming fans just said 'Myeh', and went back to their chipped Xboxes loaded with classic goodness. This is going to seriously danage Nintendo's sales of the new console.
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Derblington
09/06/05 @ 08:36
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"This is going to seriously
danage Nintendo's sales of the new console." How so? |
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Well.. what a shocker.
No-one ever listens to me. You'd have thought you'd all have learned by now, but nooooooooooooo - Nintendo's in it for the people! They love you! They're giving you hundreds of free games out of the goodness of their hearts, despite the fact that they're currently flogging them to you for 'extortionate-o-price'. Tch. I'm not bitter, though. Yeah, right. What a sad little man you are. They in it for the money, moolah, dough(he-he), etc. They are not a charity, believe it or not. You do not have to buy the games or the console. There are other options:PS3 and XBox (who will have a free servive, I believe?) Online with Nintendo = Free - 24/7: No subscription, nothing, nada, zilch, zip...! Nintendo does not need you, or your money. |
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LittleJohn
09/06/05 @ 09:01
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I sold my SNES and N64, why? - To be able to afford the next gen console with next gen games. If i'd kept my SNES and spent all these years buying SNES games.... oh I can't even be bothered to finish this reply. Aghh!
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someone mentioned before would it not be cheaper to by a snes.
I agree, you can get each of the older consoels for cheap and have the games for keeps. not as something a card that can get wiped perhaps. in a way though this is much the same as getting a chipped xbox and downloading a nes and snes dvd with every availalbe game on it. either way N make no money from you. if they charge £2.50 a pop it will be good. if they chage £10 for data, no casing, promotion or media then it is a damn rip off. I am willing to bet that they will rip us off. |
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Markusdragon
09/06/05 @ 09:44
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"This is going to seriously
danage Nintendo's sales of the new console." "How so?" Because everyone I know was interested in getting the Revolution for one reason; free classic Nintendoey goodness. These are the same people that have been stealing these games across the net for years, and many of whom already have some form of dedicated way of playing them (eg. chipped xbox, gaming PC full of emulators, MAME cabinet, GP32 handheld, etc.). For them a system that would allow them to download large numbers of these classic games for free would mean for guilt-free bug-free replication of exactly what they're already doing. It's like legal mp3 filesharing. How large a percentage of people who regularly download have actually moved onto iTunes, the new napster, etc? People aren't willing to use a service unless it seems free if there's already a service that is free, regardless of legality. "Well, people do need some way to liken the Nintendo name to money. They don't have an 'S' in the name, after all." Nint€ndo?
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most recently on 09/06/05 @ 10:53
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Derblington
09/06/05 @ 09:53
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Markus - Right. So how will it damage their sales? Why would someone pay for the console to download free stuff when they can down load it and not pay for the console? If the console is cheap it will sell. If the console plays next gen Nintendo games it will sell. No one is going to buy it just for the back catalogue.
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most recently on 09/06/05 @ 10:54
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I can understand that Nintendo wants to make money (I do have more than one braincell). But since any one similarily equipped(ie, more than one braincell) with a PC and intenet can play the games for free, albeit illegal, I think this is just plain stupid. Give all NES, SNES, N64, GB and GBC games away for free gods damn it. It's a neat marketing strategy. The only games I might consider buying are some N64 ones since I've yet to see a decent N64 emulator. But now that the PS3 is powerfull enough to make a fry up I'm sure that will change. And what sort of signal is that sending? If you want to play Nintendo games for free, buy a MS or Sony console.
Ahhhhrrrggghh Nintwits! |
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Markusdragon
09/06/05 @ 10:03
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"Why would someone pay for the console to download free stuff when they can down load it and not pay for the console?"
Why would people spend $1000-$2000 on a MAME cabinet to play games they don't legally own? Why would people spend £100 on a handheld that has a catalogue of games you can count with your fingers, but a homebrew community that's produced a full-speed Megadrive emulator? It's amazing how much people will pay for hardware, but how little they'll be willing to pay for software. |
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"a homebrew community that's produced a full-speed Megadrive emulator"
Hello Markusdragon ^_^ I presume you're talking about the GP32. Alongside the PSP and Xbox, they'll provide half the service Nintendo is offering for free. The legality of emulators may be in question, but I don't think most gamers will give a toss. |
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I personally will not pay for five, ten or fifteen year old data. If they offered an online buying option where you'd recieve the cart, manual and booklet, then I'd pay.
But no way in hell I'm paying for mere data of old games. When I pay money, I want to feel like I actually own something I can hold in my hand. |
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Derblington
09/06/05 @ 10:25
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Markus - all of your examples have unique selling points. The 'pay for the Revolution just for free downloads vs. play for free' doesn't.
edit: plus you've gone completely off point.
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most recently on 09/06/05 @ 11:27
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Markusdragon
09/06/05 @ 10:46
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"Markus - all of your examples have unique selling points. The 'pay for the Revolution just for free downloads vs. play for free' doesn't.
edit: plus you've gone completely off point." I have? I thought I stayed pretty much on the dot; people are willing to pay for hardware, but not for software, and therefore by charging for the software, the revolution is missing out on a large userbase, mainly the very userbase they were aiming for by bringing up the concept of alllowing you to play old classics on it in the first place. The revolution is predicted to be the cheapest of the next generation consoles, and you wouldn't have to mod it in any way to play the games, that's a considerable saving. You wouldn't have to mess around with a LAN, or spend hours trying to get a particular emulator to work, only to find that the game you want to play isn't supported, or plays, just very slowly and glitchily. Unlike with a MAME cabinet, it's not going to burn a hole in your bank account, there's no assembly required, and lets face it, playing N64 games with a keyboard is just frikkin' impossible. You can't emulate well without spending cash in some manner, and for many, it just isn't worth the effort. The revolution would offer an experience through the TV, with controllers (A mean feat to set up with a PC) for an amount of cash even the 'amateur' retrogamer could afford. Edit: Oh, and hey JHuxley ^_^.
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most recently on 09/06/05 @ 11:50
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Right.. reason gb version of nes games are 15 quid:
1) the cost of the cartridge is quite high 2) Retailers take 55% of the price of any game Now bearing in mind these games will be on the web.. This says to me a max of a fiver. But why not wait and see? For some of the games i didnt play first time around (yoshi, etc) I'll quite happily pay a tenner for, if only because i know they'll last me a looong time. |
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stormcr0wfleet
09/06/05 @ 12:53
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carnt you already do this with emulators on the xbox?. and for free too :). i carnt see this making more people buy the rev, we buy next gen consoles for next gen games dont we?. not to replay all the oldies from 10 years ago.. i have my mobile phone for that ;).
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Carrybagma
09/06/05 @ 13:31
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I suppose it all depends what they charge for them, eh? I might pay £1 to give some SNES stuff a whirl, but Nintendo are as hard-nosed as anyone else, so maybe it's too much to hope for. Maybe if the Microsoft 'Marketplace' idea is successful, Nintendo will loosen up a bit.
One cool thing may be the ability to download to Revolution and transfer the same games to the DS, but will Nintendo do anything that might make piracy easier? No. |
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ProfessorLesser
09/06/05 @ 15:35
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/eats words
/consults probability charts /reads '1' EDIT: Khanivor "Sounds like Nintendo has some serious corporate issues." This rumour is a result of web-mongering, not official statement. Ninty have about the best organised business hierarchy in the industry.
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most recently on 09/06/05 @ 16:49
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captain-future
09/06/05 @ 17:16
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so where's the news?
Ninty will give away something for free - when hell freezes over. BRAUAHAHAHAHAHA! seriously, they cashed a whopping 19 EUR for their classic nes-ports-for-Gameboy... |
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"I personally will not pay for five, ten or fifteen year old data. If they offered an online buying option where you'd recieve the cart, manual and booklet, then I'd pay.
But no way in hell I'm paying for mere data of old games. When I pay money, I want to feel like I actually own something I can hold in my hand. " What he said. Though... aren't manuals and booklets the same things? |
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