Topic: Why isn't there a Players Choice series for Wii?

There was a series from Super Nintendo through Gamecube. Even Gameboy through the Gameboy Advance had the line of games. What made them decide to skip this generation?

They probably will eventually, once sales start to go downhill.

_{...Who am I kidding, that'll never happen!}

@ Dings

Good question Why? it would be a good thing for the DS! and for the Wii...

Imagine this scenario;

A casual video game player walks into a store, looking for a new game to buy. While he looks in the video game section of the electronics area, he sees a game that he's already bought. But what's this? The cover of the game has a little banner on the top that says "Player's Choice". "It must be different!" thinks the casual player. So he buys the game and goes to his home and puts it in his Wii. He plays the game for an hour and realizes that nothing about the new copy of the game is different from the older copy of the game he already had. This casual player gets angry and tries to sue Nintendo. Thousands of other casual players try to sue Nintendo because of this too, and they ultimately succeed.

Or it's because the fact is that the "Player's Choice" banner is only put on games that sell very well, meaning they'd have to put the banner on this;

EDIT: Sarcasm is sarcastic. Don't take this post too unsarcastically.

Ummm...No, I don't think casual players could sue over players choice games. It's generally obvious if you take 5 seconds to read the back of the box (or look at the picture), that it's the same game. They're also usually labeled "million seller" or whatever, so you know what they are, and that they're not new games. It's not like they can sue over "Deluxe" editions of albums or "Director's cut" versions of DVD's released after the first edition.

Aren't players' choice games usually first party too? Carnival games need not apply. Anyway, just b/c they rereleased it, doesn't mean I'd have to buy it.

I actually would really love this for the DS. It's sort of difficult to find new copies of first party games where production has discontinued, and a lot of people probably have DSi's as their first DS's. A lot more games have had production discontinued and are hard to find now too, since it's been around for so long now. A rerelease of Metroid Prime: Hunters would have been great to go along with Trilogy. Star Fox Command, Mario 64, and some others I would definitely love to pick up for a reduced price.

@Token_Girl I was more or less being sarcastic. I'm pretty sure that Nintendo could never get sued due to the fact that everybody loves Nintendo, even though most Wii owners only play Wii Sports and don't even know what the phrase "video game" means. I'll edit it though to deconfuse people.

Ahh sarcasm and the internet. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that if I worked in retail, I actually might see a return or two.

I think the President of Nintendo said they weren't going to do Player's Choice anymore because they didn't want people who bought the games for full price when they came out to feel ripped off, I just think Nintendo wants to charge full price as long as they can. The only Wii game I can think of that Nintendo lowered the price on was Big Brain Academy Wii Degree.

@LinktotheFuture: They also reduced price on Excitebots: Trick Racing and Metroid Prime: Corruption, but the former isn't availble in Europe.

They should start it up again. They used to do it, their competition does it, so I don't see why not.

That is indeed Iwata's new strategy. A $50 game is priced as such because it is considered to have premium content. A 500-point WiiWare game is priced as such because it is considered smaller in content. Therefore, those of us who generally can't afford $50 games have to wait for tax refunds, Christmas money, or good deals to buy first-party games. Sometimes GameFly has good deals on the first-party games that didn't sell that well, such as Wii music and Animal Crossing: City Folk.

I don't miss it! The packaging is always ugly, you can make games cheaper without it. Okami, Animal Crossing Wii and Wario Ware Smooth Moves are just a couple of examples of games that have become cheaper without the ugly packaging.

Think of all the cheaply-priced (sub-$30) shovelware that would have Player's Choice status from sales.

/me shudders

Because it would give ravaging soccer moms more power to buy shovelware for our youth.

@retrobuttons: I never saw Smooth Moves get a price drop before it was (prematurely) discontinued...might you be thinking of Wario Land: Shake It!? Either way, these games haven't received official price drops from Nintendo...there are just retailers selling them cheap to get rid of them. Not the same thing.

LinktotheFuture was spot-on about the reason there is no Player's Choice series...Iwata claims it's about pricing the software on the value of the software itself instead of on age, and therefore making all who buy the game pay the same and nobody risks feeling cheated from buying it early (which is a BS argument anyway, but I digress).

Of course, this isn't practical. All it does is leave games that WOULD have sold much better at a lower price getting discontinued or languashing on store shelves, and keep those who simply can't afford $50 games from getting to buy them at all. It's therefore debatable that this business decision has been good for Nintendo's income, either. We all lose.

Continuing...(the usual)

@Token Girl: Actually, Player's Choice isn't (or wasn't) limited by publisher at all. Check it out! Yes, it's Wikipedia, but I can vouch for the true Player's Choice status of many games on the list.

Now to expand on a previous implication: I believe it's likely that the lack of Player's Choice this generation is actually based entirely on corporate greed. If you can get away with selling a three-year-old game for $34.99 even after it's sold well over 10 million copies, would you voluntarily drop the price to $19.99? Yeah, it sucks MAJORLY for us, and it sometimes backfires badly on games that should've been cheaper to begin with (*cough*Wii Music*cough)*, but I'm sure that's their behind-the-scenes reasoning.

@stuffy

Didn't realize that about 3rd party games, though I really don't care how much shovelware gets "Player's choice" status, I still won't buy it.

I really just think it would be useful for games that aren't currently being produced, for those who bought Wii's and DS's later in their lifespan like me (I'm not the only one either, judging by Ninty's sales numbers). They make more money with player's choice than by not making the games at all. The only problem I can see, is that older games might compete with newer games. Still, it'd be nice to find Prime Hunters new for less than it's original release price instead of more!

@Token Girl

I'll agree that part of a game's initial price is the fact that the game is available at the time. The prices should go down over time as the game sells millions, loses popularity, or gets overshadowed by a sequel.

@Token Girl: Yes, the RARE games that got discontinued too bloody early are unquestionably the biggest casualties of Nintendo's current policy. Metroid Prime Hunters, Super Princess Peach (unless you shop at Toys R Us, or so I'm told), WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Super Paper Mario (milage may vary, but I haven't seen it new in GameStop in AGES), etc. The entire situation is absolutely retarded, and all based on a BS story from Iwata. Unless the guy actually DOES believe the propaganda he spouts, in which case my respect for the man is near nothing. Only good thing that crazy policy ever got me was a free NES download when the Internet Channel went free, and I'd GLADLY trade that for a Player's Choice series!

Nope, it was based on sales. As for the likelihood of PC coming to Wii, I'm hoping that it's still there, because I know I won't pick up some titles, like Excite(either) or Punchout unless they are around that price, just because I don't have as strong an interest. But we are overdue for it, as I think PC came to GCN in early/mid 2003 IIRC, so the equilvalent would have been 2008. A lot of games would sell better but Nintendo might not do it because, yes, frankly they make more money without it.