Topic: Rant on Nintendo's Slow Rate of Releasing Classic Games on 3DS eShop.

That is exactly how I feel, especially about cross buy. It is ridiculous that we have to buy the same game over and over so we can play it on other consoles, while PlayStation users can just buy a game once digitally and use it on all PlayStation systems that were made after the PS2.

And yes, the VC games are WAY overpriced. They should be $2 or less. I think it's agreeable that almost everything in the e-Shop is overpriced.

However, I don't mind having home console VC games on 3DS. It gives me the feel if having a home console on the go. (Home console and handheld experiences are a bit different.) But we really need GBA games for 3DS ambassadors. As well as Neo Geo Pocket Color, TurboExpress, and possibly the Atari Lynx. And yes, while 3DS VC does need more advertising, I think the Wii U needs advertising more than anything.

Somehow I doubt that's how it works over at SquareEnix.

Truly the motto of a smart business.

But then, certain companies adhere to that philosophy very well. Sega and SNK should be scrambling to get their systems on the 3DS and Wii-U VC (Game Gear aside... which is a year late) for the easy money they could be making. Not to mention Konami, EA, Activision, and Namco who are sitting on an incredible number of games they aren't even doing anything with.

Are you talking about Dragon Quest?

@ClassicSonicFan: Too expensive as compared to what exactly? You can't get these games for cheap in cartridge form and Nintendo doesn't have competition to drive the prices down.

For what it's worth, I can go on the App Store at any time and find some very high quality titles with lots of content, nearly all of which are cheaper than a game on the NES. Or, I could go on Steam during a sale and find games released this generation that have been lauded by critics and also available for the price of an NES game or less. Or, I could go to Gamestop right now and pick up Ninja Gaiden 2 for $4 (fantastic game by the way. Also very, very, very hard).

Now, I see why Nintendo does this. They don't want to undervalue their games. Plus, making their games super cheap would make it so that competition would also have to make their games cheap, thus lessening the profit third parties could get from their own games. This could lead them to leave the platform.

What I would like is a balance. Maybe have sales once in a while? Or bundles, maybe? The 30 cent promotion is wonderful, and I hope that Nintendo does more things like that in the future.

@moomoo: I never consider Steam a good comparison for console shops. That's like comparing apples and oranges. They're both fruits but they are different. Steam faces a lot of competition in PC gaming, hence why they have so many sales and low prices. Wii U VC may as well be considered a monopoly. I really don't consider low prices a necessity for the eShop because there's little incentive to do so.

Sure it pleases consumers, but the problem with this argument is that consumers only think about how they are benefited by these decisions (in other words, simply call it selfishness). I also don't think the VC is a good steady source of revenue as much as the other games, so there's really no incentive to lower prices.

Probably late to the party with my contribution, but I haven't seen this yet and feel like throwing in my two bits. With all of the support Nintendo's been throwing at retail and eShop-exclusive titles recently, I find it hard to complain about the lack of titles on one part of Nintendo's gaming offerings. So far this year, we've accrued a trifecta of certifiable timesucks in Fire Emblem: Awakening, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Animal Crossing: New Life, and that's not even counting everything else thrown at us that can take up a fair amount of time, like DKCR3D, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Project X Zone, Etrian Odyssey IV, SMTIV, CastleVania 3DS, etc., eShop titles like The "Denpa" Men 2, DRW:TLR, Kokuga, etc. that complaining about a lack of VC titles, even after the early-summer deluge of Game Gear titles SEGA showered on us, is like complaining that an ice cream store with 100 flavors of ice cream doesn't have your favorite. This slow rate is just fine for me.

I think they learned their lesson with the Wii. There were just too many games to buy, and like at least one other user has suggested, some games just get lost in the "maybe someday" pile.

Personally, I think the situation is much better on the 3DS for the simple fact that the Virtual Console is so well supplemented by the eShop in a way that the Wii arguably wasn't. I have never had an eShop card last for more than a few hours in my account, and most of that money IS admittedly spent on Virtual Console games (with the occasional eShop title).

But I've never played many Game Boy/Game Gear games when they were new, so maybe I'm not representative of the norm? To me, they seem to be coming out just fast enough. Any faster and I'd likely run out of money!

I've been thinking about this recently actually... the 3DS VC collection on the eShop is abysmal at best. There's hardly anything on there!

Sure, there were a lot of great GBC games, but it seems none of the third parties want to support the VC with those games. GBA would be a nice addition to the VC library, but we have the fact that the GBA Ambassador titles we received were half-baked, they run more like DSiWare titles. Nintendo may well tinker around with it and then start releasing GBA games to the public, but I'm not holding my breath.

Why dont you just get original cartridges? Look at garage sales or ask around friends and family if you dont want to pay as much.

Search "Shantae" on eBay and you can see how some people would rather have retro titles emulated on modern consoles than collect retro cartridges/consoles. Obviously, Shantae's an exception and not the rule, but collecting retro titles can be too expensive for some gamers.

GBA Ambassador games were for us ambassadors only. They promised that much, and I'd feel betrayed if they changed that and made them available to everyone. So there is good reason for them not to release those on the eShop, there will be loyal fans that will be upset Nintendo went back on their word. If you failed to get the ambassador games when Nintendo made it clear they would not be released to the public, that's your loss.

Also, GBA games have been announced a while ago for Wii U. Exactly when said VC content will show up is anyone's guess though...

And Nintendo never claimed GBA titles would never be on VC, just that the 3DS ambassador games would not be available to the public.

It's not that I don't want others to have access to something, but this was Nintendo's incentive to pay $80 more for the handheld (as well as an apology to those who already purchased it. I paid $250 for a handheld that dropped to $170 before any blockbuster games were released. Nintendo won back my loyalty by compensating me, but if they make those titles available to everyone, suddenly that compensation is worthless and I feel ripped off again. In short, those ambassador games were for PR and making them public makes that PR worthless and damages the trust between Nintendo and it's consumers. (Whether or not that trust exists isn't my point, it just would be giving loyal consumers the finger to get some extra profit, and they already have passed up plenty of profit with the VC so it wouldn't be wise for them to choose the profit that betrays early adopters).

I can understand where you're coming from, but I still can't help but feel that is still a little unfair to fans like myself that have always supported Nintendo, but were unable to purchase a 3DS at the time due to financial issues. Giving us late adopters the option to purchase GBA titles on the VC still doesn't change the fact that you got those 20 titles free(I know you still paid more for the actual console) and have had then exclusively for years. We'll still have to pay and given the VC pricing structure, we might even have to pay more than you did if we wanted all 20 of those games.

I don't think Nintendo's not releasing the GBA games on loyalty grounds, I think it's down to the fact that the GBA games are running the exact same as a DSiWare title. If Nintendo were to release the GBA games to the public they'd probably have to overhaul how the emulator works so that we could return to the HOME Menu whenever we wanted.

If it is down to loyalty to the early adopters, then more for Nintendo for actually being a decent company. Personally I don't care if they do release them to the public or not, us early adopters have had them for nearly 2 years now anyway... why should we be hogging games that can obviously run on the 3DS? Besides, that's down to Nintendo.

But the 3DS certainly needs more coverage on the VC front...

It's not like us early adopters got a choice of what games we got (as such some of the titles are not worth however much they'd charge if they weren't all games i'd buy), so the value isn't necessarily the $80 extra. If I had known I could purchase those titles later on for my system, the $250 purchase wouldn't have been worth it to me, I felt the $80 was worth paying if I was getting exclusive games only available through that offer. That's what I'm driving at. They announced the ambassador program ahead of time so consumers who had yet to purchase could pay $80 extra for games they only could get through that offer. If they release those to the public, there are in fact consumers who would feel betrayed because Nintendo sold them the system promising them this is the only way to get GBA titles. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if they released GBA VC for the system if it excluded the ambassador titles. Because if they include them, well I'd be pissed at Nintendo, I could've waited a couple months and gotten it for $80 then downloaded the couple GBA games I wanted later on and still save money.

Search "Shantae" on eBay and you can see how some people would rather have retro titles emulated on modern consoles than collect retro cartridges/consoles. Obviously, Shantae's an exception and not the rule, but collecting retro titles can be too expensive for some gamers.

I got Tron Bonne for 2 dollars at a garage Sale when at the least it sells for $130. So its not impossible to get deals it just takes work.

Um... it's not that easy.