Topic: ¿Why did Nintendo kill its Classic Virtual Console setup?

because the indie games that are actually good and the AAA publishers actually trying, deserve a chance

And it is hard for me to not see the correlation considering Nintendo's past failings with 3rd party games, even if obviously VC is fairly low on the reasons for that.

This is even ignoring how fundamentally different everything is compared to the early 80s console scene (as the continued success of iOS and Steam have made abundantly clear).

@kkslider5552000
Third party developers line capcom and konami aren't exactly known for good business practices, it's their mistakes not Nintendo that she's them in a bad light. Saying steam and mobile gaming are not shining examples of great games I'd say around 60% are crap just for a quick cash grab or poorly done.

Yes, but clearly none of that matters. Well the latter stuff, it isn't like Konami and Capcom are doing as well as they could be in gaming, so they've paid for their mistakes at least.

I agree that the spamming of indie gaming has had a bad effect on modern gaming. Most are bargain bin garbage. Some are decent, but we are seeing less big boy games these past two generations. Indies are mostly just throwbacks to the classics. And frankly, I'd rather spend my time and money on Virtual Console classics everyday of the week.
Booo~freaking~hooo VC games would eat into indies and hurt their jobs... Maybe they should make real games instead of indie junk.

this has been a PSA

There are plenty of great indie games. Having limited time to play (in addition to finite funds for gaming) would I buy Steamworld Dig 2 - a game some are saying is better than Samus Returns - over Super Metroid?

Super Metroid may be my all time favourite game and I'd love to have a handheld version I could boot up and replay at any time. It would possibly win out over Steamworld Dig 2... but then the chances of Steamworld Dig 3 recede. Or maybe it happens but the developer only has 20 staff working on it instead of 40?

I think Nintendo is right to give legit indie developers a bit of space. The eshop was really well curated for the first 6 months - I think it was all a successful co-ordinated plan on their part.

As to VC in general - the Wii VC had great promise but I think the Wii U VC showed what games actually sold. The games that got re released were games that sold well first time around, the games that stayed on Wii probably didn't. It tells a story of a service that's successful - but not right for every game.

There's an audience on this website who want VC releases of decent but obscure old games and who will buy and play them. But that audience is unfortunately a tiny minority. Most only want the absolute best games from the past.

So a £5 VC release for Mario World can make sense but a £5 VC release for (say) Pop N Twinbee Rainbow Bell Adventures might not sell enough copies to repay the fees associated with releasing it.

Games like that will only attract a paying audience if they're a smaller part of a bigger attraction. So either 'NESflix' or part of a 'collected works' like the MegaMan collections.

You see I'd never buy MegaMan Soccer on VC but if it was included in MegaMan Legacy Collection 3 alongside MegaMan & Bass and some other curios it might be the game that just pushes me over the edge.

I'm actually not missing VC at all. My Wii U is full of VC games, if I wanna play them that's what I will use. For once Nintendo isn't making me re purchase and re-download the same games ive been playing for the past 25 years, and I'm happy about that.

I think I'd like it better if Nintendo only released very select titles, but gave them the "Wonderboy treatment". I've gone over SMWorld numerous time and I wont do it again. Now give me a graphically polished and surprising version, and I might be interrested ! (It's what they did with SMAll Stars after all. They can't pretend they don't know how to do it)

Does anyone else find it amusing that the people being accused of being brainless Nintendo zombies of this thread are the ones saying that they'd rather buy indie and third party games? Especially when the "I see the truth" opposition is really desperate to buy Urban Champion again. Look up the word irony and this thread will be in it.

In any case I don't think the VC is dead I think Nintendo just has other priorities right now. And personally I'm not really that bothered that it's not here yet. Will it come back? Of course it will. There's just too much of a profit margin in selling people digital copies of already made games for them not to do it. Unless of course they hand the games out as part of a subscription but for $30/year? I struggle to see how that would be more profitable for them

Hell, they're already selling us Neo Geo and classic Arcade games. If that's not proof enough that Nintendo hasn't moved on then I don't know what is.

@skywake @StuTwo I can't find enough nails for all the successful hits your comments have made.

The VC became a staple part of the Wii era and to an extent, the Wii U & 3DS eras. However now certain "fans" have turned it into an obsession and a belief that it is something that Nintendo HAVE to provide (regardless of the Business Case or Resource Management factors that may suggest its not the right time).

One thing is for sure, Virtual Console would not help shift many Switch's. That alone is enough of a reason for Nintendo to keep it lower on its priorities.

Heck, I'm just glad Nintendo have basically let other companies offer their own "VC" equivalents. How else would I have enjoyed Blazing Star and Strikers 1945 at knock down prices?

Not to mention Zero Gunner 2's upcoming release <salivates>.

@FX102A Stupidly, I was one of those people who bought a Switch in the expectation of an imminent Nintendo VC service. I come from a Sega, Amiga, Sony world, so the Switch is my first personal Nintendo console. I was really looking forward to getting stuck into the GBA Fire Emblems for example (I refuse to go down the pirate ROM route). Given that the VC seemed to be part of Nintendo's gaming infrastructure, I felt like it was definitely coming, even though no promises had been made. I still think that. I'm sure the service, or something similar, will eventually come. As several of you have said, it's a licence to print money.

I'll also just add that I'm not at all bitter about the lack of VC, much as I'd like to see it. Getting the chance to play the likes of Zelda BotW, Splatoon 2, SteamWorld Dig 2 and, yes, even the much derided Street Fighter 2 has been great. The games library, combining first-party, Nindie and Neo Geo, is already more than I can find time to play. I'd love to get a few more Neo Geo titles, in particular.

@skywake The Neo Geo games aren't only coming to Switch though, XB1 and PS4 also have them so that feels more like 3rd party parity. The Arcade games would be the key if anything.

Neo Geo is monopolizing on them spamming their classic games.. too bad Capcom, Konami, Sega and Square arent doing this same practice for Switch.

You can't excuse Nintendo for being incredibly lax though 2 Pokemon VC titles hardly makes up for the lack of content in the last 2 years. Why hasn't their been more VC titles? Surely emulation which is a drag and drop process would take away so many resources from them. Take for example why star tropics a Nintendo ip is not on 3ds but on wiiu! If the Wii had so much content why not release the hounds instead of drip feed?

Fairly certain we've been over this, the vast majority of first party games have been released for the VC. Everything else is third party, which Nintendo have no control over.

Only if Nintendo had no interest in quality control. These games need to be tested to ensure they work properly.

@shaneoh
Just how much time testing do they need?! 1.5 years testing for Pokemon GS? Really?! You can't honestly say Nintendo is "justified" for lack of VC content in the last year or so. The big reason I got a 3ds was the VC, I never had a Wii but when I heard it was coming to 3ds I jumped at it! Imagine all the games I played or missed out on back then on the go! Only to have a mere handful of titles, then to find out that tgey wanted to charge 200 dollars to upgrade to play 25 year old snes games?! I'd but star tropics but it's only on wiiu?! Combine the VC libraries so content isn't exclusive, the VC games are licensed to Nintendo, so why are they not spread out more?!

I mean, you're not wrong. Nintendo doesn't have the best grasp on what to do with VC anymore.

Between a little and a lot.

As they have released just about all of their retro titles, yes they are pretty justified. Everything else is up to Capcom, Square Enix, Konami and the rest to bring.

Considering the original 3DS doesn't run SNES games well it's a fair ask.

Because it's possible that the games are only licensed to appear on particular consoles.

Seriously, it's not like Nintendo aren't trying, they fixed up the GB emulator so that it would support link trades in Pokemon. They did a deal with Microsoft to bring the DK games to Wii U and 3DS. They translated Mother 1. They're making a genuine effort.

@sheneoh
Testing a game should only take a few hours if that.

Why about Star a Tropics, Solar Striker, F1 race, earthbound beginnings? First party games here! Nintendo should reach out to 3rd parties for VC titles like konami for the other 3 Castlevania Gameboy titles.

And yes I still believe the 3ds would play snes well enough to not merit an overpriced upgrade that only has a handful of games exclusive to it none of which I particularly care for.

Sure, if your game is five minutes long.

Emphasis on the just about all.

These companies know about the service, it's up to them to do the work, they will be the ones profiting from it.

You can believe in something deeply and still be wrong.

Now Nintendo is killing off existing methods of VC, you can't buy any games from the Wii Shop Channel after March 27th next year (6 months remaining).