Let me start by saying I love Nintendo. Obviously I wouldn't be on the Nintendo Life forums if I didn't. In my opinion they always have made the highest quality first party games, and they still hold that merit in my book. However, some of their business decisions, especially lately are just baffling.
Last January, as in almost eleven months ago the Wii U Virtual Console was announced via Nintendo Direct.
Starts at about 8:30 in this video.
Iwata says the reason they can't port over the entire Wii's VC library was because they are enhancing these titles, which takes a while. Sure, that's fair, but this program didn't release when the Wii U launched, or even when this Nintendo Direct aired, it was released in May. They had time to get all these games in order. I can't imagine it being much work to up the resolution of these games, especially once they learn how to do it, which they definitely do. There seems to be some licensing problems with games like Donkey Kong Country, and obviously games from other developers, such as Capcom and SEGA, but why couldn't they port over all games they own? Link to the Past still isn't on the service. (Wouldn't releasing it right before Link Between Worlds be perfect? Oh well.) Nor have they added Super Mario Bros. 3 yet.
I understand they don't want to overwhelm the consumer with dozens and dozens of games. If someone is given a choice of 100 Virtual Console titles, they probably won't be buying a game like Solomon's Key or Castlevania, they'll get Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda. However, that doesn't mean they have to do two titles every week. They should have just released five to ten or so a week until they got the majority of the Wii's library over, then they could have tried to clear copyright issues, and added new games, like Earthbound and Summer Carnival '92. Then they could have moved on to Gameboy Advance, it would be great to have some new games in the mix. Once they're adding brand new games to the service, 2-4 games a week is acceptable.
But, nearly a year since the announcement, we still only have a fraction of the Wii's VC. There are 62 titles available on the Wii U's virtual console. Pretty pitiful compared to the 159 NES/SNES games on the Wii. What's worse is we only know of two more announced Wii VC titles - Super Mario Bros. 3 and Yoshi's Cookie.
Back in November, Iwata admitted that they hadn't reached the full potential of the virtual console. http://wiiudaily.com/2013/11/wii-u-virtual-console-lineup/
They can say anything they want, but they have to add these other systems. NES and SNES are great. But through GBA and Wii rereleases, I'm getting tired of the same games over and over. I want Nintendo 64. There's obviously quite a lot of games that were never released on the Wii Virtual console, and even games that were, like Majora's Mask or Super Smash Bros. would make a lot of excitement. Playing those games on the Gamepad with off-tv play would be a console selling feature. I know a person who bought a Wii U when he heard Earthbound was added.
I have absolutely no idea how much money Nintendo makes off the Virtual Console, but I do know that adding new, exciting games to the service will make consumers want to buy them. Games. The system needs games, and even if Gamecube games aren't possible thanks to Gamepad's lack of analog triggers, we can get N64, GBA, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and many other systems.
It's Virtual Console. Lower your expectations. Or find other ways to play the games you want. Should've learned that after the Wii Virtual Console.
Last year I set out to purchase every Nintendo home console, which I have successfully done. I would prefer to have all these games digital, as cartridges are harder to store than discs in cases, and some games, like Earthbound or Majora's Mask are just too much money to buy. The Wii's Virtual Console was strong for the first few years.
The Wii's Virtual Console was strong for the first few years.
And then the Well dried up, support was pulled, and now we're even seeing games pulled off the service from time to time rather than added to it. And that was when they weren't adding any features other than a very basic save state function to the games, on a console with far more sales. So please tell me, why should we expect Nintendo to devote a lot of time and effort to the Wii U Virtual Console?
The Wii's Virtual Console was strong for the first few years.
And then the Well dried up, support was pulled, and now we're even seeing games pulled off the service from time to time rather than added to it. And that was when they weren't adding any features other than a very basic save state function to the games, on a console with far more sales. So please tell me, why should we expect Nintendo to devote a lot of time and effort to the Wii U Virtual Console?
The virtual console does not make enough money or even grab enough attention to dedicate a large team to it. That wouldn't even be necessary.
You both essentially said the same thing. The truth is, of course they aren't making as much money as they could, since there aren't enough compelling titles. If they add more games to the lineup, it will draw new fans, and they were purchase more.
They don't need a large team, a pretty small one is all that's necessary.
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I think the main thing they're trying to avoid is VC overload. If they uploaded every VC game, the balance between new and old wouldn't be right.
I know that might sound stupid, but it's true.
It would be like if Apple re-released 4 million apps in a day. Apple IS going to have to move up from iOS eventually and they're going to have to figure something out, presumably along these lines, because hardware is always getting better, and the OS reflects that. Sadly, Apple is very much in the same realm that they were back in 2007, even with the iPhone 5S.
There's more important things to "worry" about.
Qwest
3DS Friend Code: 4253-3737-8064 | Nintendo Network ID: Children
Yeah, they could release 20 games at once...but who would buy most of them? I mean I guess they could do better, but I agree more with agreeing that Wii should have done a better job in later years rather than assuming they're being (that) stupid now. (which is kinda my opinion on Wii U as a whole)
One Wii U VC game per week is fine. Nintendo needs to make its money and the best way to do it is bottleneck the content like that. I just wish they didn't insist on scraping the bottom of the barrel for months at a time and denying fans the games they actually want to play. The 20 whole dollars they made off of NES Golf sure didn't do them any favours either.
Just wait until Wii U gets more games. As it is now, VC would be most of what's coming out if they released so many at once. Wii was getting games left and right, so VC couldn't have possibly "outshone" newer stuff.
We literally have no clue exactly what Nintendo is doing or what they plan to do, so how exactly does anyone have the right to accuse them of being lazy?
Qwest
3DS Friend Code: 4253-3737-8064 | Nintendo Network ID: Children
Good grief, Charlie Brown! Yep sometimes u just gotta dial back the need of continuous new software. We're all in the same boat that looks forward to as many new games as there can be, just gotta replay an old favorite till they hit. Do detail your feedback on club nintendo as they have surveys for VC.
Still have at least 5 games that I want to download off the Wii VC, just hope that they keep the Wii VC service up for another year or two. Once the Wii VC is discontinued then there'll be a bigger need for the Wii U VC to step up, as it is 1 game a week is very poor, 3 a week should be the minimum and even then it would take another 2 years for them to catch up with the total number of Wii VC games that were released, at least in Europe (about 360 were available last time I checked).
Just think how great the VC could be if we had just 3/4 of the best games from the NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Master System, Megadrive, Saturn, Dreamcast, Neo Geo, and Turbografx.
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Topic: Nintendo is really doing a shameful job with the Wii U Virtual Console.
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