Wii GameCube converts not full price

By Robert Purchese Published 21 January, 2009

Nintendo estimates RRP of GBP 29.99.

Nintendo has explained to Eurogamer that Wii remakes of GameCube games will not be full price as retailers suggested yesterday.

"Nintendo do not set prices," said a spokesperson for the company. "It is up to retailers at what price they sell any item for."

"However, our trade price for these games will be below our usual trade price for Wii games and our present estimate of the likely retail price is in the region of GBP 29.99."

The New Control Play! brand takes top performers from the GameCube catalogue and converts them to Wii, adding motion sensing controls and various other improvements.

Pikmin is the first to be given the treatment and will arrive on shelves from 6th February. Mario Power Tennis will follow on 6th March, and Nintendo already has Pikmin 2 and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat in the pipeline.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (38) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Tonka #1 3 years ago

    Yes, but as he says it will be up to the retailers to set the street price. A motion controleld tennis game featuring Mario. Sounds like a winner to me. Full price plus £5 for silly plastic racquets.

  • George-Roper #2 3 years ago

    Wow, thanks Nintendo. But could i just toss you off for a bit, cos being repeatedly butt-fucked on prices chafes after a while.

    Kindest regards

    George

  • DFawkes #3 3 years ago

    Since when is £29.99 not full price? I've never paid more than that for any Wii game, I thought that was the RRP already. It's certainly not budget price, that's for sure.

  • Rizzle #4 3 years ago

    Most Wii games seem to play the £40 r.r.p. -> £30 at good stores in a reasonable time, so it wouldn't astound me to see these arrive near the £20 mark, for those that have their eye on them.

    Which is to say, it's still quite early to be angry, especially as the major silly point (FULL PRICE!?!?!) has been removed. On the other hand, fire away, Internets:

  • Weezer #5 3 years ago

    30 quid for eight-year-old games!? Yeah, best of luck with that.

  • Solvalou #6 3 years ago

    Doesn't Wii play NGC games ALREADY?

  • Les #7 3 years ago

    Had hoped for a bit less, like most around here apparently. :(

  • M4RKYB #8 3 years ago

    They've got this massive new user base who have never seen these games before and will treat them like any other Wii game instead of the slightly tweaked Cube games they actually are. I can't wait for one of my Wii owning friends/relatives to say "I've got this amazing new Wii game called Pikmin, you have to try it". I'll slap them so fast...

  • Kami #9 3 years ago

    Pikmin is worth it though. Yeah it's old but it's one of those games you can sort of see working with the Wii Remote. Same with Mario Tennis, though I can't think of a reason to justfy that game. Ahem. Pikmin is a good game and deserves a second chance at the least, and £29.99 rrp? I assume then we'll likely find it for under twenty smackers in most good retailers.

  • bigbadbeasty #10 3 years ago

    You know that it is likely to be £17.99-£19.99 on play.com or what not.

    I think as always people are being dramatic on here.

  • cyacomini #11 3 years ago

    haha - you can buy these for £2 on ebay.

    fail.

  • chrisjm #12 3 years ago

    success = complacency = fail

  • Les #13 3 years ago

    "Doesn't Wii play NGC games ALREADY?"

    Yes it does. But these are remakes that incorporate Wii Remote controls, as the article clearly states.

  • mfnick #14 3 years ago

    "Yes it does. But these are remakes that incorporate Wii Remote controls, as the article clearly states."


    Adding waggle control doesnt necessarily make them better or new though. Although I can see Pikmin working well seeing as though its using the remote as a pointer & thats what its best at. But £30? I think that can be counted as being bent over & raped by Nintendo.

  • acgoodspeed #15 3 years ago

    lol are they out of ideas already?

  • JonFE #16 3 years ago

    Currently play.com has Mario Tennis Wii listed at £32.99, while a -slightly confusing- Pikmin Wii (3) goes for £27.99.

    I appreciate that these prices will most likely be updated based on this information, but I doubt them going for less than £24.99 at least initially.

  • bigbadbeasty #17 3 years ago

    "But £30? I think that can be counted as being bent over & raped by Nintendo"

    If you feel that way, I suggest you don't buy them. Problem solved.

    It is also worth pointing out that they said:

    "Nintendo do not set prices, It is up to retailers at what price they sell any item for."

    Nintendo are only estimating the price the retailer will sell it for.

    Edited by 1 at 21/01/09 @ 10:17

  • Cappy #18 3 years ago

    Whilst I'm dubious of Wii controls magically improving Pikmin since the game was very much designed for the Gamecube pad, a new release should at least have a 60Hz option unlike the 50Hz locked PAL original which had a noticeably less smooth frame rate than it's NTSC counterpart.

    Maybe if it's a success Nintendo will announce a new Pikmin game.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #19 3 years ago

    I must have been under a rock because I missed this - Pikmin remake with Wii controls?

    Thats a easy purchase.

  • bigbadbeasty #20 3 years ago

    @ Cappy & JohnnyWashnGo

    From what I understand they releasing both a re-make of Pikmin on Wii and Pikmin 3

  • Les #21 3 years ago

    "Adding waggle control doesnt necessarily make them better or new though."

    Didn't say it does, but they're different from just running the GC versions in emulation.

  • knocker #22 3 years ago

    @bigbadbeasty
    "I think as always people are being dramatic on here."

    No kidding. I am more interested between the comparison between the price of video games and forced anal sex. Not a connection that would readily come to my mind. Weird.

  • Zomoniac #23 3 years ago

    Will Mario Tennis be forwards compatible with the motion plus thingy?

  • neonemesis #24 3 years ago

    "From what I understand they releasing both a re-make of Pikmin on Wii and Pikmin 3 "

    They're also doing a remake of Pikmin 2 iirc.

    I'm sorry but the asking price is too much for these. I'd rather buy the cube originals for a fraction of the price (Well, Pikmin 2 is massively expensive online so I suppose there are exceptions) and do without motion controls.

    But like someone else already pointed out, most people will have no idea that these were originally GC games and buy them anyway. Nintendo probably know this and I can guarantee that the advertisements for the range won't include a single hint that they are last gen titles.

  • CaptianScarlet #25 3 years ago

    Pikim Wii will be infinitely better than Pikmin 3 which will be dumbed down considerably to accommodate my Mum's level of gaming ability as per Nintendos current Philosophy.

    Buy Pikmin Wii which if you haven't already played the Cube version it is a fantastic and addictive game which I guarantee can only be improved by the wii controls. Even at £29.99 I would recommend that game anytime!

  • WillTheSecond #26 3 years ago

    £15 tops is what I'll pay. And only because I haven't played some of these (Metroid Prime 2 whenever that comes out, and Pikmin) in the 'cube iterations.

    Ripoff.

  • DonnieDarko333 #27 3 years ago

    Nintendo you have time to change it! Make the RRP
    £19.99! Makes sense to me!

  • Vin #28 3 years ago

    20 quid for eight year old games?

    Blimey.

  • Chaote-Imagicka #29 3 years ago

    If this was a compilation of Pikmin's 1 & 2 I could just see it at 29.99. At 29.99 each though it's ridiculous.

  • scouserfuller9 #30 3 years ago

    There's never a day you'll find a happy gamer is there!?

  • sneetch #31 3 years ago

    Well, Nintendo setting a RRP of £29.99 still seems a bit high to me, I'd have preferred about £19.99, £24.99 at the absolute maximum: the Classics range on X360 has a RRP £24.99 or €29.99 the Platinum range on PS3 has a RRP of about £19.99 or €24.99.

    Now, there are differences obviously, but the main one for me would be that the Classics and Platinum games are "next gen" games that have been reduced. The Wii rereleases are previous generation games (8 or so years old) with some control changes, is that work worth on average £5-£10 over "budget" titles? Seems a bit high.

    @bigbadbeasty
    You know that it is likely to be £17.99-£19.99 on play.com or what not.

    I think as always people are being dramatic on here.

    Yes, well done, you figured out the online games market, it'll be £17.99-£19.99 as opposed to about £14.99-£17.99 if the RRP was £24.99 or about £9.99-14.99 if it was £19.99. The price on play and other sites will go down further if the RRP is reduced.

    That's the effect reducing RRPs tends to have.

    Edit: although play have erroneously called it "Pikmin 3" the release date given is the release date for the "Play it on Wii" version of Pikmin and the price they're selling it for is £27.99 (a saving of £2) and nowhere near £17.99-£19.99, I guess both our guesstimates were wrong there:

    http://ww w.play.com/Games/Wii/4-/6080080...
    Edited by 1 at 21/01/09 @ 12:29

  • sneetch #32 3 years ago

    @bigbadbeasty
    "Nintendo do not set prices, It is up to retailers at what price they sell any item for."

    Nintendo are only estimating the price the retailer will sell it for.

    No, they may have said that but it's bullshit: Nintendo like all other companies sets a Recommended Retail Price for its products, the retailers can choose to ignore that price but it's the standard, basic price. For Nintendo to try to claim otherwise is just nonsense.

    Edit: italics tags screwed up.
    Edited by 1 at 21/01/09 @ 15:27

  • Sean.Aaron #33 3 years ago

    Whatever, I pre-ordered the thing for £29.99 at GAME. I used the points they erroneously gave me for my last preorder so I'm getting it for under £8 delivered.

    No tears here.

  • Incarta #34 3 years ago

    I'd be more fussed at the steep price point if they weren't decent games.

    Metroid Prime is well worth £30, but even that i'll be avoiding because i've played all these before.

    Oh, and anyone who whines at the price of a game they've played before, then buys it, is a complete muppet. Bare this in mind...

  • robson_wii #35 3 years ago

    Don't know why people are complaining about the price...George Lucas has been doing this for 20 years now...Star Wars original on VHS then special edition on VHS then special ed. on DVD and then originals on DVD.

    There's always a new audience for old material.

    Maybe wii owners haven't already got the original so it's justified??? Cubes lifetime sales were less than Wii sales in its 1st year.

  • snowdog #36 3 years ago

    The Wii is the first Nintendo console I've ever owned, so I'll certainly be getting Metroid Prime 1. Metroid Prime 3 was a dream to control, and has paved the way for nailed down superior FPS control schemes in comparison to other systems with dual analog sticks. If you prefer to play the GC SKUs then by all means don't pay for the Wii SKUs, just don't complain about it lol.

    I really can't understand people's problem with this...if you don't like it, don't buy it.

  • clockworkzombie #37 3 years ago

    PLEASE for the love of GOD. Stop putting motion sensing controls on perfectly good games. This is really starting to irritate me.

  • robson_wii #38 3 years ago

    ^^^

    I think motion sensing is worth it for games such as Pikmin and Metroid.

    P.S. De-Blob, Lost Winds, Batallion Wars 2, Resident Evil 4, Metroid 3, Mario Galaxy and Zelda TP all use motion sensing in traditional style games to very good effect. There are probably quite a few more good examples as well but these are the ones I would recommend after playing.
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/09 @ 11:01