Topic: Current Digital = Future Virtual Console?

Do you think Digital games you buy now in the eShop will transfer to Virtual Console games in the future (even for a small price) or will we have to re-buy these Digital games in the future (at full Virtual Console price)?

I would like to see Nintendo resolve their digital policies to the point where it's a bit like itunes. Where you purchase once and only once and can access it on any compatible device. So that if a game bought on eshop is available later as a virtual console title ya wouldn't have to buy it again on VC if something happened to the device that the game was loaded onto.

I don't mind paying the $1 to $1.50 for an upgrade fee if I have already bought it. I just hope when WiiWare/Wii U Virtual Console happens I don't have to pay full price

Well as long as their future consoles keep backwards compatibility, we can transfer our downloaded games over or use our Wii U discs on them.

The bigger if is if their next generation hardware is backwards compatible. If it is, I think that there's a reasonable chance that existing eShop downloads will transfer over at no cost just as they did when moving from the Wii to the Wii U.

If it's not PowerPC based and thus isn't compatible with Wii U software by default, that means that the Wii U would have to be emulated. I don't believe that its successor would be backwards compatible under such a situation. The expense of quality emulation of such a powerful piece of hardware doesn't seem justified with the benefits that the console maker gleans from the effort. It's a handy feature for the customer and is beneficial to the console manufacturer early on, but it can't add much in the way of R&D cost or additional hardware in order to accomplish it. We saw that clearly demonstrated by the competition with the current and previous generation of consoles.

Frankly, I buy into a hybrid console/handheld solution as has been widely speculated on. And with ARM processors getting pretty capable these days and having desirable traits for portability. I suspect that this 3rd generation of PowerPC based Nintendo console hardware is likely the last and that they will go with ARM architecture for their next generation hardware.

So I would not be surprised in the least if there's no compatibility with the Wii U going forward, except perhaps with some existing accessories like Wii remotes. On the plus side if this happens, there's the possibility that we may finally have some form of an official solution for enjoying 3DS releases on our televisions.

@GoneFishin I hope Nintendo's learnt their lesson and irrelevant of whether the successor is compatible with Wii/Wii U, the Gamecube controller will be supported from launch.