VC sales generate USD 33m

By Games Industry.biz Published 29 November, 2007

Probably because it all costs lots.

Nintendo has said that the Virtual Console service for Wii has so far generated JPY 3.5 billion (USD 33 million / EUR 22.3 million) for the company.

Shinji Hatano, licensing director for Nintendo, revealed the figure during a recent press conference to mark a collaboration with NTT for broadband internet access for the home console, reports IGN.

According to Nintendo, 7.8 million items have been downloaded over the service, which offers old games from Nintendo and other publisher's back catalogues, priced between EUR 5 and EUR 10.

GamesIndustry.biz has so far generated FACT.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Cloudane #1 4 years ago

    I hope Nintendo actually use the money from their profit to make the VC better but then again, I can only see them all laughing with glee and running around the Nintendo HQ with money flying everywhere.

  • blender #2 4 years ago

    rumour is they spend all vc proceeds on drugs and hookers

  • mentalabhoration #3 4 years ago

    Yen, Dollars, Euros? wheres the Queens Sterling?

  • agparrot #4 4 years ago

    Well, as much as my Wii is getting some fresh loving with SMG inserted into its' slot, I can confidently say that the amount of money I, personally, have contributed to the VC so far is £0.00

    Until the prices become a little more pocket-friendly, I feel that it is going to stay that way for the time being.

  • Wyrm #5 4 years ago

    Guess VC prices aren't gonna get sensible anytime soon then...

  • smoison #6 4 years ago

    The only game worth the money on VC is Bomberman '93 and thats if you have friends that like it.

  • Kami #7 4 years ago

    My biggest gripe still with the VC is that despite some utterly classy gems in the history of these consoles, we still get largely the middle-of-the-road average crap. Gems are few and far between. VC is a great idea, but the quality just isn't there on most of the titles... Square-Enix and Nintendo alone have vaults of sheer liquid gaming gold in their past. Where is it all?

  • The_Aardvark #8 4 years ago

    Squenix aren't going to put their classics on the VC because it would get in the way of giving them graphical overhauls flogging them on the DS.

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #9 4 years ago

    You can't expect the VC to have all the games from the off, otherwise you wouldn't get the PR value and interest levels you get by drip-feeding stuff. Simple really. Look at how Eurogamer has a big, front page review of VC stuff every week for example.

  • Santino #10 4 years ago

    people can moan all they like about the games available but as far as i can tell every mario platformer is available, almost every zelda and metroid game, and 3rd party stuff like gunstar and super probotector. there is plenty of great stuff on there already.
    Edited by 1 at 29/11/07 @ 13:08

  • Heitzu #11 4 years ago

    "Squenix aren't going to put their classics on the VC because it would get in the way of giving them graphical overhauls flogging them on the DS."

    Thats really quite stupid... they'd still make money on the new remakes, as I would hazard a guess many people given the choice would either buy the New one over the old anyway, retro fans will buy most of their old ones, and Fanatics would likely buy both.

  • homerramone #12 4 years ago

    You would have thought the overheads for the VC must be quite small. Presumably the conversion from cart to a VC run-able game is almost a simple as adding a new ROM to a NES (or SNES/MD/Whatever) emulator !

    And whilst theres some good stuff, theres some real pish. Theres also a fair bit of stuff I suspect that hasnt aged very well at all. But of course w/o a demo option you dont know this until you stump up for them :-(

  • erp #13 4 years ago

    @mentalabhoration

    I was thinking exactly the same. Hrrrmph.

  • Arcadiian #14 4 years ago

    Why is the main headline in USD? This is Eurogamer. :(

  • Johnson #15 4 years ago

    Remember, one man's pish is another man's fondly remembered treasure.

  • dsmx #16 4 years ago

    @blender yeah I heard that too, they just waste the rest.

  • tea4me #17 4 years ago

    If the numbers are correct, I don't quite get the math:

    If the VC has brought in 22.3 million euro and people downloaded 7.8 million items, that would mean the average item costs less than 3 euro...

    How is this possible with the cheapest items (VC NES games) going for the equivalent of 5 euro?

    Even if most of the revenue came from the US (where games tend to be a lot cheaper), things would still not add up.

    That is, unless the numbers actually represent pure profit, in which case I salute Nintendo for these excellent results.

  • Canyarion #18 4 years ago

    I'm with agparrot. I'm not buying anything until the price goes down to 1/3 of current ones.

    tea4me, I guess that means that this is pure profit. Revenues - costs.

  • Waffleaber #19 4 years ago

    I refuse to buy another VC game until they let us use star points like they promised us LAST YEAR!!!

  • ZeroAX #20 4 years ago

    "
    If the VC has brought in 22.3 million euro and people downloaded 7.8 million items, that would mean the average item costs less than 3 euro... "

    probably has to do with the fact that the euro is stronger than the dollar and wayyyyy stronger than the yen. which means that most sales happened in japan and usa (and in general other regions outside europe)

  • wizbob #21 4 years ago

    It is possible that the VC just runs ported open-source emulator code and that the ROMs are in fact just dumps from Usenet. I would imagine that the real work is in the licencing arrangement and I suspect it works like this;

    If Nintendo use their original publishing rights (remember they manufactured and distributed the carts in the first place) then they have to stick with the original territory agreements. This would explain why the EU versions are still 50hz. Any other arrangement would involve getting lawyers to track down the original IP owner which would take time and push up costs. It may not even be possible.

  • Brogan #22 4 years ago

    square have classics?

    (not a JRPG fan)

  • ZeroAX #23 4 years ago

    "square have classics?

    (not a JRPG fan)"


    lol i have to agree but it seams the internet likes their games

  • Ryze #24 4 years ago

    @wizbob - or they could just modify the emulator - giving us the CHOICE to run the game @ 60Hz!

  • Caimbeul #25 4 years ago

    VC sales generate USD 33m...because it is so vastly over-priced! I will stick with the entire SNES catalogue for free via emulation thanks.

    Take PSN games - Very cheap by comparrison.
    Edited by 1 at 30/11/07 @ 10:38