Nintendo Comments On EarthBound's Inflated Pricing

If the game is still a great joy to play these days, 10 bucks is still cheap.

After waiting years for the game to come out, a few extra bucks isn't going to make me complain. Now how about Mother 3!

Never played this game until now. I can definitely say that it's worth more than ten bucks. How did I miss out on this Eartbound before??

It's always seemed strange to me that all NES games were the same price as each other, all SNES games the same as each other etc. For example, Balloon Fight doesn't seem to offer the same value as Super Mario Bros 3, etc.

That said, I would prefer the usual price of £5.49 to be the very top end of a scale for SNES games. (That said, I did spend £6.99 for Earthbound, so I'm probably a bit of a hypocrite)

@antonvaltaz "(That said, I did spend £6.99 for Earthbound, so I'm probably a bit of a hypocrite)" YOU JERK!

Kidding. I haven't bought it yet, but the price doesn't bother me. I would have figured they had to charge more because it's more a cult favorite than a crowd pleaser, but I'm glad to see from the charts that I'm wrong and it's selling well.

Well I was expecting it to be €10 since games that were never released here were released at a higher price on the VC.

If popular and substantial games are given premium pricing then short dated games should have discounted pricing.
Earthbound for 10 good. (Though, the fact that we know it was 30 cents in Japan doesn't help.)
Spelunker for 5 bad.

The VC prices are already too high as it is and now you have to go and pull this kind of crap.

Why oh why do you have to create issues where they needn't exist, Nintendo, and anger gamers who otherwise might actually be happy?

See, rather than giving me reason to say something good about Nintendo you've just given me another reason to say something bad (and some people wonder why there's so much negative press for Nintendo these days).

Is that really what you want?!

Nintendo have done this before with VC games on the Wii, I remember a little blue and yellow icon next to some which were a different price. I think perhaps sin and punishment was one or maybe rondo of blood? It's been a while since they first did it so why are we only questioning it now?

@Kirk Some things cost more to make, therefore they charge more to sell.

@ICHIkatakuri It's still an increase though. Those games you mentioned were imports, and were usually only 100 points extra - i.e. £6.30 for a SNES import (UK) or $9 (US).

And in any case, for American Wii U owners, this wouldn't even count as an import, as it was released there in the 1990s. So for consistency's sake this should have cost $8 in the US (equivalent to 800 points) and £6.30 in the UK (equivalent to 900 points).

I would buy a boxed copy of the game for Wii U for even 30 bucks here in europe, really it was never released here before.

We asked for a costly procudtion to be out and we lament that it costs? No wonder some games remain in Japan.

Same happened with Sin & Punishment and Rond of Blood VC on the Wii for the same exact reason.

Get your stuff togheter folks and start backing up Nintendo when get what you asked for, keep complaing and will come the day when Nintendo will just ignore us.

And i don't like being in that situation just because hatred and crazy fanboys that give too much credit to journalism before using their own mind, forgotting also they have one.

What bothers me most is that when journalism talks gold about a game, just like Pikmin 3 right now, nobody give a crap, the hype is nullified and surely we got another construced issue to come up with in the meanwhile.

I have to hate this modern and stupid gaming world and his fanboys and the obligatory hatred, i hate who hates...because it's stupid to hate a videogame company.

It's just those people who hates a movie or an actor like they are obligated to whatch them, roar so angry because i saw a movie with an actor i hate and i knew it i only would hate it more.

So. Really. Stupid.

I just bought Game & Wario for $40. Earthbound is not expensive.

It's a bit high for me, but I'll pay it for Earthbound. That's exactly why Nintendo did it. They knew they could squeeze that little bit extra out of us. Just high enough to frustrate people, but not so high that they'll skip buying it.

A completely fair price. Not every VC game was the same price even on Wii, for example the Hanabi festival games. I think it's fair to charge more for premium, or rare, prestigious titles.

Fair enough, it's an RPG for god's sake. Now, how about that Balloon Fight game which currently retails for 5 euros? Should be 1 euro tops.

@MadAdam81

Just, No.

It's a digital re-release of a 20 year old game that's already made it's money.

Using the excuse that they made a new trailer and scanned the accompanying guide and that's why WE have to pay more is just utter bullcrap.

They are quite simply overcharging us for these games.

Too expensive (though I certainly wulda bought this game if I owned a wii u). But cuz I don't, I'm even more hesitant to get the system if some snes games are gonna be this pricey.

Fair price with lots of value in the game. This is another one of Nintendo's IP's that they can bring to Wii U in an all new adventure, if they ever wished

In Earthbound's case, I would have paid £40 for it. It's that amazing. £6.99 is a freaking steal.

People complaining that VC prices are too high need to get a grip. What were you expecting? Finding these games in their physical forms will cost you a hell of a lot more than the VC charges. You know how much Earthbound goes for these days? Upwards of $100. And you're complaining about spending $10.

You asked for Earthbound, you got Earthbound. Stop complaining about the slightly inflated price and buy the game you begged for, or it will never happen again. Simple.

@LavaTwilight Doesn't explain why it also costs more in the US, where it was released. And import SNES games on the Wii VC always cost 900 points, i.e. £6.30, so still cheaper.

As long as it means that "lesser" games, like nintendos earlier arcade ports and such will eventually reduce in price, im absolutely fine with that.
10$/€ for Earthbound is a steal. Also, you have to consider this: Yes, it IS an old game, but that doesnt mean that it has to be dirt cheap. Try to get a legit SNES cartridge of it, hook your original system to your modern TV and get the same picture quality, get a working controller and pray that your save batterie survives you. All these factors either cost a lot of money or effort. It is perfectly reasonable for them to charge that amount of money for these games.
Again: Im perfectly fine if bigger, better games are priced slightly higher IF lesser games get reduced. 5$ for a good NES game if fine, 5$ for, say, Urban Champion isnt.

Tbh I've not seen any pricing comlaints on Miiverse, I'm sure there are some but overall people seem to accepted it in the case of Earthbound.
I have seen 2 seperate post where people have said they brought a WiiU for Earthbound and sure enough by checking thier few Earthbound Only posts and profile it's obvious to be te case. No/few yeahs, following/followers etc.
Maybe the extra costs are to cover re-licencing of Music (Anyone else notice Monty Python theme at the very start?) the Players guide and localization for all the eu countries its been released in.

"Because they're my toys and I win" - Nintendo.

@antonvaltaz Wii points cards used to cost £10 for 1000 points. 900 points would be £9, so I'm saving £2.

10 bucks beats 100 bucks any day

The price is fair imo, A new idie game with retro 16bit visuals often cost £10-£15. Yes this is a VC title but its a huge game, and for us in the EU its a first time release. Also unlike other VC titles this doesn't feel like your playing old game. This could be down to never playing Earthbound before, but I've got other VC titles that I've never played and they feel old.

I think it's a fair price. Earthbound was never released in Europe, therefore it's an import game. And it's such a legendary, quirky, cult classic RPG, I haven't played it yet but seems good value for the money. Many hours will be spent on it.
I also paid 12 € for Sin & Punishment, while regular N64 games are priced 10 € on the Wii. And I don't regret it one bit.

Holy crap! What else can we mich about! People have been miching about this game for 15 years and now we have it and its too expensive. :0

This game is worth double the price so stop complaining, anyone on the fence and worried if its worth it just take the plunge its amazing.

Its called the Law of Supply and Demand. $10 is exactly what I would've charged and an excellent value for how many hours the game requires. The hard part is switching between Earthbound and Shin Megami Tensei IV for what I want to play at that given moment.

"Nintendo did us a favor."
No, they delayed this game for 7 years to a different VC for apparently no reason, then charged extra. Screw them.

What annoys me is that Nintendo is treating Earthbound like it's supposed to be some sort of selling point for Wii U. Classic games should be the unnecessary decoration on the cake, not a part of the cake itself.

I payed the £7 so I'm a hypocrite, but I think the "standard" price of £5.49 is as much as these games should cost considering the lower/minimal development costs.

That said, compared to the fortune EarthBound costs in the wild, £7 is very reasonable. Perspective and all that.

It is like the 3ds vc to me, prices go up or down a dollar or two.

@LeVideoGamer Oh fair enough. I only ever bought Wii points on my credit card via the Wii Shop channel as it was cheaper (£7 for 1000 points).

And the 'standard' cost for NES and SNES games on the Wii U eShop seem to be based on that cheaper price too...

I think that defence would work better if there was a precident for variable pricing on Wii U VC...some of the games on there sure aren't worth the asking price. EarthBound totally is though, so I'm not too fussed about it.

@Expa0: Thing is, it actually IS a selling point. Doesn't matter how little you think of it, people ARE that interested in this game.

@Objection: Yeah, Nintendo tends to be out of touch, but I really don't think anybody knows ALL the details abiut the game's delays. At any rate, I don't think "screw them" is an appropriate responce to them FINALLY releasing the game we were begging for.

Personally, $10.00 puts a significant dent in my budget but, given the chance, I'd definitely put my money towards this game (and I probably will, once I get a Wii U). Can't blame Nintendo for getting that money though! ;D

That said, visually, Earthbound has aged so beautifully! I can't believe this is a game from nineteen years ago!

I thought it was going to cost 15-20. I was happy to pay 10. Wish I had never sold my cartridge and guide all those years ago. I was one of the launch purchasers.

They should compensate by offering not-so-legendary SNES games at a lower price. Vegas Stakes should only be $5 at most.

@Expa0 Some People have brought a WiiU because of Earthbounds Release, and considering People have paid $100 and even a LOT more than that for the cart on Snes proves Earthbound IS a selling point for WiiU with the game costing $10 or regional currency equivalent

The cheapest second hand cartridge on Amazon is $ 170. $ 10 is a bargain.

Personally, you can't please everybody... And a few $$ more is nothing for a game EVERYBODY was waiting YEARS for.......

For all the commentators who complain about the price increase if Nintendo granted your wish to lower the price I'm confident you will find another reason to complain

I don't recall another exception to the VC pricing rules in the five years the service has been running, so an extra two bucks for a single legendary game doesn't seem like a big deal. It's a business, and the product is priced at a point that will maximize revenue. No problem here.

I think it's a bargain considering the prices it would go for on eBay. Besides, this is quite a lengthy RPG, I feel I'd get my money's worth with £7.

$10 for a digital version with an accessible digital copy of the original players guide is much better than spending $100 or more on the original cartridge that may or may not come with said players guide! I'm not complaining, and neither should the majority of gamers out there.

@Lin1876 Because of Localization for the EU Earthbound isn't a Standard VC release. I would imagine that so everyone was treated fairly, and because they knew due to fan demand over the many years it would still sell, Nintendo decided to set the pricing of Earthbound slightly higher in all territories.
Very few people are complaining about Earthbounds price point but had they only charged a higher price only in the EU then Nintendo would now be getting a lot more complaints.

@accc HAH! Sad thing is, Vegas Stakes would still be a rip-off for $5.

Bring the trilogy physically, with an artbook, soundtrack and some figurines or whatever, and I'd pay as much as €150 for it. So I'm not complaining about the price. Different games SHOULD have different prices. Otherwise it might as well have been €60 because face it, in Europe it IS a new Wii U exclusive, a high quality game (port).

I AM, however, 'complaining' about the digital format. The obvious collectibility it would have on disc, for €30, let alone my wishful thinking of a Collector's Edition Trilogy Box Set. I have all 3 on GBA boxed, just for collection's sake.

$10 is fine. These kids complaining need to get jobs.

People complaining about any of the virtual console prices is ridiculous. If you price what most of those games go for at places like lukiegames and many other retro shops youll find over all youre saving more than the occasional higher priced than it should be game. Some of you are so flipping ungrateful.

SNES Hanabi games were 900 Wii Points (9,00€) EarthBound is 9,99€. N64 imports like Sin And Punishiment and Ogre Battle 64 were 2 bucks more: 1200pts instead of 1000pts.
However, doesn't matter. Downloaded EarthBound anyway as I anticipated it's arrival at the start of Wii's Virtual Console back in 2006. Ages passed, but I still love this game. Now upon deeper glance even the beautiful graphics have aged a bit (it could be updated to match the style in the trailer) and I wish there were expansion for your backpack, but these are minor things. 10 bucks is a more than fair price and I would have probably paid more. I just wish the digitized playersguide was also part of the game download instead of being just a rather slow loading website.

''Different games for different prizes.''
Actually, that suggests everything can happen now in the price range for VC games. SNES and NES games on the Wii U eShop aren't bound to their former Wii Shop prices. I guess that most 800pts/500pts Wii VC games will remain in the 7,99€/4,99€ range on Wii U. But some games already went on promotion on Wii U (like Spelunker, -50% in it's first week). In the end EarthBound is just another example to make a more dynamic and profitable shop. But being only 10 bucks, and being the first RPG on Wii U, I hope this is the chance for this game to rise from it's underground cult status to universal stardom.

Hell...this is supposed to hit the vc. Is it not? http://www.lukiegames.com/Shantae-GameBoy-Color.html so be quiet and take whatever price Nintendo reasonably prices old games at.

$10 is fine IF they are serious about deciding prices on a game-by-game basis.

And will you guys quit pretending the high cartridge price justifies the VC price? The game was never SUPPOSED to cost over $100 originally.

Expanding on this issue, I think it's time for Nintendo to ditch set prices for games. Not every NES game should be £3.49 and not every SNES game should be £5.49.

Prices should be altered after considering the length and quality of a game, and maybe they could charge extra for games that have to be localised. I would pay an extra £2 to get those Japan-only games like Panel de Pon, Fire Emblem, Nazo no Murasamejo, Mother 1+3, or Shin Megami Tensei. Shorter games, or games that are just terrible, should start from 99p. There's no problem with paying £6.99 for Earthbound, but maybe other prices should change, too.

I agree with @LeVideoGamer.

Supply and demand, that's why we need Sony and MS to be successful. Competitive landscape means competitive pricing. I love Nindi, but in the end they are a company making a profit, which despite the y generation's distorted mentality is not a bad thing. We want good quality companies to appease investors. Problem is we don't want oligopolies to form which inflate prices such as the Super Nintendo era. We need playstation to undercut them so they can sell and offer discounts. Sorry for the economics lesson, but I feel that pikmin 3's short campaign is an example of offering a full retail product with a partial game, just a thought. We can't let companies get away with that, or not mention in the reviews.

I'm actually quite fine with the prices the way they are. They are still cheaper than games you would find for Indies on the eShop. I don't mind paying a couple extra bucks on special cases like Earthbound.

The solution is simple. If you don't think the game is worth the price don't buy it. If you do, have fun! I will say this though, I hope the eShop starts having more sales like they did with Kirby, Capcom and the 30¢ promotion... I'm sure that would offset some of the complaining folks are doing on the current pricing structure.

I haven't bought it yet even though I want it. In fact I haven't bought any Virtual console games even though I want to because I believe that Nintendo are being greedy and I want to see a unified system between my Wii U and 3DS. I mean, which platform should I buy Virtual Console games for? so I buy it for neither of them. Nintendo are being greedy, yes. As a loyal fan I don't feel rewarded for buying both systems.

Having the game guide added has me alright with the price

@antonvaltaz That's fair enough, I am UK based so I accepted it would be a bit more and I wasn't necessarily saying it wasn't a bad thing just wondering why it wasn't addressed earlier. Either way thinking about it, Nintendo announced their pricing for VC games in the Feb Nintendo direct, did it say anywhere about pricing titles on a game by game basis? If not I'm sure a few people would have grounds to complain
Back when they were released I paid £65 for SNES SF2 and virtua racing on the megadrive, to me this with the guide is a bit of a deal.

@Kirk There's negative press about Nindi because MS and Sony have bashing budgets, duh. If you can't beat them, tear em down. That's the notion these days. Offer hope and people will buy into it.

I felt like the price was perfectly reasonable. I think the only thing is that Nintendo is unprepared, they've opened a can of worms. They've proven that if we ask long enough, they WILL eventually respond, which means they'll HAVE to release Mother 3 sometime, and fairly soon at that. Fans are really going to step up the begging, this isn't going to placate them at all. Quite the opposite.

I'm very curious to see concrete sales figures. How many people put their money where their mouth was? I did within hours.

yeah I have to say, the game is definitly worth 10 bucks. It isn't like you can get the actual cartridge cheap anyway.

My goodness nintendo fans certainly earn their reputation sometimes.
People have been crying FOR YEARS that they waned a release, FINALLY nintendo does it...and people complain?

Here is an idea, go to a local store and purchase a new copy, OH THAT'S RIGHT YOU CAN'T.

Ok, go online and pay IN EXCESS of $100 for a snes copy, hope your snes still works, and PRAY the battery inside the cartridge to save your game isn't dead....

OR pay ten bucks and stop complaining about something so petty.

They can charge whatever they want... this is not milk. If I recall EarthBound was available in my area at a cost of $69.99. It was more expensive just like Mortal Kombat II was; $20 more than most SNES games so there is a precedence of the EarthBound being worth a little more.

If they over price something and it sells poorly they can adjust it down, do a special, or sale like we have already seen on the Wii U.

I continue to tire of these stories that make Nintendo look bad/evil on a Nintendo based site!

For EarthBound, I think $10 is totally generous considering how rare and expensive the original cart is nowadays though I think the strategy guide is unnecessary as we could always find strategy, walkthrough, and playthrough online for free anyways.

@Lobster Can of worms? You talk like if they did release Mother 3, it would be a bad thing. Why should they not listen to their users, at least when they ask perfectly reasonable little things. Like when people complained on Miiverse for getting 50 Hz Balloon Fight, they showed they care when they release F-Zero at 60 Hz for Europeans. It cost them nothing to do it.
Also, this : http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/34985
No sales figures disclosed but Earthbound is the best selling Wii U eShop game pretty much everywhere in Europe, even in my beloved Portugal.

@YChung lololol are kidding me!? Rewarded? Are you a child and need a cookie for finishing your veggies? THEY DONT OWE YOU ANYTHING EXCEPT A FUN EXPERIENCE. Youre coming across as though you think people owe you things in general. Ive got news for you, you are of no importance.

I personally never understood the complaints about the VC prices. I suppose that's cause I don't find fault in them and that $5 or $10 doesn't seem that much to buy a full game in my opinion, especially considering the amount of game time and fun I'm likely to get out of them.

I personally think Earthbound is fairly priced.

Also, Japan prices the odd SFC (SNES) game higher in their VC console library. They've already made games like Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana and Shin Megami Tensei on the Wii U VC at least $1 higher than the rest.

I'm not an RPG fan, so Earthbound isn't for me. However, I think paying more for a game that is highly esteemed is an appropriate way to show its worth. When World of Goo came out, it was the most expensive game in the Wii shop, but that also drew attention to its quality, IMO.

There are some games I love so much that I'd pay a LOT more than normal price if it came to Virtual Console [cough Body Harvest cough]

@luminalace Never going to happen. The amount of money it would cost to localize and translate it wouldn't be worth.. unless they kicked the price up to 20-25$

@tsm7 Spelunker was $5

When faced with the option of paying $9.99 / £6.99 for the eshop version or trying to get a copy of the original, I'd snap Nintendo's hand off for the eshop version. Just like I did for Sin and Punishment via the shop channel.

The only niggle that I have about the eshop is that if you buy a VC game for Wii U then it would be nice if you could also download that title for your 3DS and vice versa.

I really don't mind bout the price hike since it's um... IDK only $2 more!

@Samurai_Goroh thus proving Europeans have great taste!

Honestly, it's a two dollar difference... for a SNES golden-era RPG. There's tens of hours to be had here, maybe hundreds if you want to get the most out of it. I will never understand the mindset of the iOS Angry Birds generation of gamers, complaining about paying $8 for Super Mario World.

@Kirk are you really complaining about $10?

i don't see why people are bothered.. I guess its the cool thing among the immature to complain about Nintendo for no reason and try to make it into a bigger deal than it really is... Nintendo isn't in business just to please one persons angry rants. And why would any company bend over backwards to make a complainer happy when the 90+% of their fans are completely content with the company and its practices... Nintendo learned long ago, you will never please everybody, somebody somewhere will take issue with something, so why try to meet the need of a few people complaining and instead meet the need of the majority.

"I have to hate this modern and stupid gaming world and his fanboys and the obligatory hatred, i hate who hates...because it's stupid to hate a videogame company."

@Araknie Nintendo has the worst fans in the world... They are the only people who complain when they get what they asked for.

Before E3 gamers were asking for "Not Mario Galaxy 3, give us something new" ... Nintendo gives them something new "THIS ISN"T WHAT I WANTED, GIVE ME GALAXY 3"

If I was Nintendo I would have given up long ago on pleasing everyone, because you end up pleasing no one in the process.

go read NeoGAF.. its a whole site dedicated for criticizing Nintendo while giving Sony a pass.for doing even more egregious crap. Its a double standard that only applies to Nintendo... After Sony fangirls spent 6 years attacking Microsoft gamers for paying for multiplayer, Sony announces they will charge for multiplayer, and they bend right over and accept it... if Nintendo tried it, they would be criticized to the end of time. Backwards compatibility? Sony gets a pass for not having it, yet Nintendo would be criticized to the end of time for getting rid of it. The meltdowns were epic when Nintendo stopped offering Wii's with gamecube compatibility and were instantly the worst company in the world.

@Cuddles At least there is someone who agrees. I've been a fan of Earthbound for quite some time now, only making it to Mondo Mole in Happy Village on an Emulator before the game crashed. I'm SO going to buy it this weekend!

COME ON Nintendo i cant be the only one that thinks you could/should have released this on the 3DS at the same time as many people dont own a Wii U and would like to experience this game.

$10 is fine by me, here's why:

About 2 years ago I bought Chick Chick Boom on the Wii (Wiiware) for 800 points. I had to charge 1000 points ($10) to my credit card. 2 years later I still have 200 points and I bet it will never go away b/c I don't ever think anything has ever been 200 points on the Wii. So yeah, the game was $8 but it cost me $10.

So unless they start selling $8 eShop cards might as well make it $10.

The only thing I know about this game is Ness is in Brawl, but I may buy it b/c of that trailer. The health gauges spinning around like old fashion gasoline pumps before they all went digital is just too much for me to pass up. (Well that and I played the first 10 FF games so I feel a strange need to play this.)

@element187 You have a point, sir. One example that always comes to my mind is Twilight Princess. After Wind Waker was released fans were disappointed and kept pushing Nintendo to make something similar to Ocarina of Time.
In 2004, Nintendo unveils TP on that epic E3 conference and everyone just goes wild about it. Twilight Princess ends being released on GC and Wii, gets great reviews but fans start complaining that "TP has no identity! It's too much similar to Ocarina. Why, Nintendo?".
As for me, I love Twilight Princess and it is not the same game as Ocarina of Time. It has a much darker tone, a different and well paced storyline, the whole twilight realm, some of the most impressive dungeons on a Zelda game, Midna and Link as a wolf, etc. But people will always find something to complain about.

When my mate bought the American Version on SNES with the big box back in the early 90's it cost him nearly £100.00 to import it. This is cheap and not expensive at all

@Kirk Nope. It's a 20 year old game that barely made money the first time around. It was so rare, that's why Amazon has a $20,000 copy of it in its original packaging. $10 is nothing, at all. A single Call of Duty map costs that much. I've been playing Earthbound for 20 years now, and still haven't stopped. Crap like Horse Armor, a multiplayer map or most DLC ever is often a waste. $10 for an RPG that takes me weeks to complete? I'd pay $200.

@russellohh

"The game sold 140,000 copies in North America, and about twice that number in Japan." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EarthBound

On original release the game sold roughly 420,000 copies. It did just fine and it certainly didn't barely make money the first time around.

We can come up with all the reasons we want to try and justify why Nintendo is charging people $10 to play a digital version of a 20 year old SNES game, that's clearly already made it's development costs back, but the VC games are quite simply overpriced in general imo.

as someone else said. it's not about the overall value it's about Nintendos generally bad comprehension about how the market works now. Great as it is, this is not a system seller.
Pricing things like this so high also sends me the message that they will never get with modern day pricing on these things and hence I won't buy a WiiU because they are out of touch. Good game or not I won't pay that for a 20 year old game. I don't go to the theatre and pay 10 dollars to see Jaws or 2001 even if it is a classic.
It's not that THIS game is bad for the price it's that they're not seeing the bigger picture that if this and tons of other games like it were priced reasonably cheap like mobile/console counterparts they could OWN this console again and then people would pay full retail for their struggling new full retail games. Its so simple and every console has figured it out but Nintendo; free games, REAL price drops and sales (%50 off, etc), 4-8$ games that are actually good, not ancient. what world are they living in at Nintendo? This is a great game but if you won't actually advertise than use these games to sell your NEW products.

@Kirk 420,00 copies at $20 each, so... 8 million dollars? I'd like to know exactly how much it cost to make if its so clear that Nintendo is just rolling in money over it.

@element187

Yes I am.

Charging $10 for a 20 year old SNES game that's already made it's development costs back is quite simply too much imo.

This isn't a brand new game that needs to make it's costs back for the developer. It's an entirely digital re-release of something that's 20 years old and it should be cheaper.

ALL the VC games should be cheaper.

@russellohh

http://earthboundcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/EarthBound-Fact-Sheet-1.jpg

The game was $69.95 when it first released.

Do your math again and we can talk...

@Ren Free games? Xbox has given out 3 free games in 11 years. PSN does not give you free games, you rent them for a monthly fee. The Wii U has had many price drops in the VC and digital downloads, though not as many as Steam or Xbox, probably. Star Fox 64, I am looking at YOU. But what exactly is Nintendo not advertising? I get the same e-mails and such. They probably have TV ads of some kind. In the end, its $10. In the 65 hours we've all spent on this message board today, the average American has already made $80. $10 is barely a coffee and a scone.

this game sold last week on amazon Uk for £1200 and now theres none left. You can currently get one on ebay thats got bids currently sat at £700 and item has 6 days left

@Kirk That was the MSRB. The MSRB of Skyrim is currently $65, yet I picked it up for $22. Likewise, the MSRB for Assassin's Creed 3 is $59, but BestBuy has it for $19 today.

BestBuy and Toys R Us sold Earthbound for $20 the month it came out, then dropped it to $15. I paid $14.99 just 4-5 weeks after it came out. Do your research, talk to someone who was actually there, then we can talk, k? Again, its $10. In the space between your first post on this message and the last, most of us have already made over $100. $10? And people are whining? Dear lord. I almost picked up a Japanese Wii U for this when it was announced in Japan, but not for America. And here we have kids crying about $10.

@Dogpigfish

Of course...

There's only negative press because the media is being paid and/or manipulated into saying negative things about Nintendo.

It's not like there's any genuine negativity at all.

Even though I am here complaining about Nintendo's overpricing for VC games in a public forum for example.

@S7eventhHeaven Still my favorite. http://www.amazon.com/Earthbound-super-nintendo/dp/B002CT1RA4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1374591153&sr=8-3&keywords=Earthbound

@russellohh

Image of price on box when bought: http://local-static1.forum-files.fobby.net/forum_attachments/0022/8726/img0117b.jpg

Source of image as well as previous press release: http://forum.starmen.net/forum/Games/Mother2/The-True-Price-of-EB

I'm just linking the information I've found.

Also, I don't remember ANY games dropping that far below the suggested retail price when I was buying games for my SNES back in the day. If the recommended price was £49.99 or whatever then that's how much it cost. Street Fighter 2 for example cost me £69.99 on release as far as I remember.

So $10 for it on the eShop or $150 to any where close to $1000 for the cart????? I like $10, but I'm not bothered by it that much

no one can ever be happy. people begged and begged and begged for the game to be released on VC, and now they don't want to pay the extra two bucks for it? skip your morning coffee for pete's sake :/

@russellohh

"In the space between your first post on this message and the last, most of us have already made over $100."

I haven't.

just a heads up any seller who advertises earthbound as NEW and Sealed is actually selling a cartridge in a fake reproduced box. theres a company on ebay manufactures laser printed boxes for the game. they look real but are not. the company is selling empty boxes for $59.95. you can also buy a resealer that factory seals the box so it looks the real deal. obviously two fake new ones on amazon for $6000. theres no way someone got hold of a brand new copy and never opened it. they didnt even make massive amounts on its original release and never even bothered releasing the game in Europe.

@Kirk EarthBound Was Once $5.99 « EarthBound Central
earthboundcentral.com/2012/02/earthbound-was-once-5-99/‎
Feb 2, 2012 - I bought my copy of Earthbound, in late 1995, for $20 from Toys-R-Us. ... It was after the N64 came out, and was the big thing. At that point much ...

New copies of EarthBound are now worth thousands of dollars apparently, but did you know the game used to be $5.99 new at Best Buy? It sounds like in the late 90s many stores were trying to unload the game for super-cheap prices. Little did anyone know…

Anyway, in some recent comments, EarthBound Central reader west_haven posted this:

I work at Best Buy and I’ve been meaning to look in our inventory program and see if I can find our listing for Pokemon Red, so I bet it’s in there somewhere."

Yes, it did LAUNCH at 60-70. And it was the fastest price drop of all time. I did see it go for $6 towards the end, when I already had a copy. and 10 year old Russellohh was out of allowance money anyway. IF I could go back in time, I'd buy 50 copies, sell em last month, and pay off this dang mortgage...

haha $20,000 they are having a laugh arnt they. is it signed by the king

im happy with my wii-u shop purchase and to be honest like my wii-u more than my 360 and ps3. i guess i just love the fact that nintendo games are timeless

@russellohh

You know, I'd love to find out the exact figures of how much this cost Nintendo to develop and how much it actually made...

Pretty sure whatever it was they're still charging too much for a 20 year old SNES game, re-released in digital only form, that's already sold 420,000 - 440,000 copies at whatever price.

@theblackdragon
Yep.
This is proof that gamers will complain no matter what.

@MAN1AC Agreed. In the 11 hours people spent ranting and shrieking about how $10 will bankrupt them, they could have learned HTML, mastered Python and applied at a better job. Between my first post and my last, nearly every average American has already made about $50. If $10 is really this mind-numblingly large amount of money to people... dear God. Call of Duty World at War with all DLC was $109 the month it came out. (If you pre-purchased the price of all the DLC). Earthbound for $10? $200 would have been fine by me.

would have been nice to been offered the same price as the other SNES games, but I do realize that this game is super rare to find in North America (and never released ever in Europe) so yay, $10 isn't that bad.

Go on ebay and look up EarthBound, if you find a cart (just the cart, not even the box or anything) for less than $200 I'ld be shocked

@Kirk
It doesn't mater how old the game is. Nintendo owns the copyright and trademark on it and can sell it again at whatever price they feel like. Just because it's old doesn't mean the right holder doesn't deserve to make money on it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's descendants are still making money on Sherlock Holmes books that were written nearly 100 years ago. I guess in your mind his rights holders don't deserve money for those book sales either.

If you don't wanna pay for it, don't. But don't act like they're committing some kind of crime. They don't have to release the game at all if they don't want, and they could have charged more. There are plenty of people who would have gotten it for $20.

@kirk: Earthbound bombed when it was released. Companies could not give the game away back in 1995. And besides, even if this game sold for $69.95 in the store Nintendo's profit was what $25 per game after you add in the cost of manufacturing, distribution, advertising, and selling it to the retailer for half of the MSRP.

Complaining about spending $10 for a video game that offers hours of entertainment is laughable.

@H_Hunter We, the people, return the question back at you: What's wrong with you? Never played a good game before in your life? Can't grasp the concept that a game can be fun regardless of graphical fidelity?
If some videogames can be considered art, I'm sure Earthbound is one of them. And art is art forever. Guess many people should have something wrong going on with them to be listening to the likes of Mozart, Beethoven or Strauss to this very day. What's wrong with them? Who would be interested in that rubbish? I could understand if those people lived in the XVIII century and want to go back to the memories. They should be listening to Nicki Minaj's new single!

mm, getting the game earthbound and then they add the strategy guide with it.... I would say that is worth $10.....sorry no I lied, its not worth $10, it's worth more.

@H_Hunter I find it interesting that you are judging this game solely by it's looks, you haven played it or even tried it out so really. I'd be surprised if you actually knew even remotely what the game was about and read up reviews on it. How can you be so quick to judge.

Considering what a physical copy will set you back now a days, I'm more than happy to pay just $10 to experience it.

@H_Hunter You have quite a history of negative comments here. Earthbound's been critically acclaimed as one of the best and most unique RPG's out there for quite some to even the most biased and harsh critics. Contrary to what you may think, the graphics in this game have aged fantastically because they fit the game almost perfectly. You meanwhile are posting comments about how you hate various Nintendo titles for no reason while saying the WiiU will fail when the PS4 comes out on a Nintendo-oriented site. Why do you even come here if you hate these games so much?

On a separate note I really do hope they start changing the VC prices on a case-by-case basis; I'm not paying $5 for some random high-score NES game with no incentive to get a high-score anymore (wrecking crew, balloon fight, etc.), but I'd happily shovel out cash for games with a lot more replayability like the adventure games that still hold up to this day. Earthbound is more than worth the $10, but if they do the case-by-case thing by saying "$8 is the minimum, and great games will have a higher charge while the other can never go below $8" I will be sincerely miffed. They're already handling WiiUVC quite poorly and while Earthbound is certainly a step in the right direction but they need to offer more incentive to use the service.

Try better at trolling H_Hunter. )

People asked for this game for a long time and as the saying goes, beggars cant be choosers.

10 dollars is a steal. Even if its a digital version. I actually have the original of this for snes from back in the day. I would reccommend this game to anyone that likes the SNES RPG era.

@Kirk Ten dollars for a SUPER NINTENDO game?

I don't get where people think this is too much, when it's STILL a mere fraction of the original price of the game. Nintendo are entitled to charge the original price of the game. And yet they aren't. Ten dollars is still very cheap and affordable.

Well, for those that feel $10.00 is too much you can always homebrew your Wii and...

@Kirk just said it above. Doesn't matter what $10 buys or how easy it is to get, it's too much for an old game with almost no production cost. This is a pure profit grab, which is always Nintendos strategy (understandably) but it amounts to overall weakening the appeal for consumers at such high prices. Skimp on hardware/ development costs, keep prices at or above current market standards. It's smart long term if you can keep afloat that long but not very consumer friendly. Thats the real reason for the 'family friendly" stuff from them now, it's easy/ cheap to make. If you've grown up now, like I have, it's tough to see that Nintendo only values it's children customers with parents who make good money, and naive wealthy adults who need a retro fix now and then. I was one of those, but there are too many other options to keep throwing my money at them when they seem to be living in Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory.

@Ren: Why do you think you should get things for peanuts? Anyway, enjoy all your other options.

@ryno I don't, to be clear. I'm actually really only speaking from a "I'd like it if the WiiU did well over all" perspective, because I actually love Nintendo, but I think they have some management problems. I believe they could be doing fantastic right now if they made some better choices. generally speaking, though, I'm happy to pay good money for a good game because I have some money and I love gaming. Not everyone does, though, and there is a lot of good competition that Nintendo is ignoring that IS starting to hurt them.

I hope they actually do start making different prices game-by-game for all the other games.

@Ren: Your idea that Nintendo should devalue their games is bad business. Plenty of people will buy Earthbound at $10. Good for Nintendo to make an additional 20%. That 20% in profit more then covers people like you that refuse to buy Earthbound at $10 opposed to the standard $8 SNES VC price. Anyway, VC prices are not Nintendo's current problem. Outside of @ogo79, nobody is going to buy a Wii U just just for old games only.

Hell I will pay $15 for it if they can get it on the 3DS e-shop....just sayin.

I keep hearing about this strategy guide thing. Can someone tell me what's that about? I have the VC release and can't find a strategy guide anywhere, yet I keep hearing about it on this site.

Time to put your money where your mouth was Earthbound fans.

Also, I'm against the whole VC games variable pricing argument. Who determines the value in the process? If you truly don't want to pay that much, then don't buy it. Games are not a necessity; they are a luxury. Nintendo does NOT have to abide by your expectations

Man! I feel glad that Nintendo is giving me the option to legally purchase and download old games on my modern console or handheld for a fraction of the original retail price!
Plus I don't have to worry about owning or having to buy aging gaming equipment (and hoping that it works) to play an aging cartridge that may not to work or could be a fake,
Lastly, I don't need to go to virus filled websites and risk ruining yourself and other connected to you just to illegally play games.
All of you whiners should stop being so cheap and be glad Nintendo are releasing the games at DLC range prices when they could have charged so much more since they own the systems and almost any game that plugs into one.

@Subie98 Man, you sound like whiny kid yourself. Getting pissed over a simple opinion?

@Ychung's point is valid – both systems have a VC with almost the same library. Yet, you'd have to pay twice for the same game for it to be playable across both platforms... That's some seriously greedy BS on Nintendo's part. You can't deny this.

Personally, i don't care about Nintendo's VC (the pricing and game selection mostly sucks, imo). But, even though i wouldn't buy it, i don't see the pricing for this particular game to be so bad. Seems fine considering how revelled Earthbound is, also the fact it had to be BEGGED for in the first place. I'm sure many of you would pay double!

Variable pricing is fine, but like someone else said Vegas Stakes was a rip-off once you realize there are save states and the results don't change when you restore one. Nothing like beating the game in 15 minutes, took me weeks when I originally played it.

These prices are a joke all of them. Only people that have just Nintendo consoles would be dumb enough to buy more than 1 or 2 of them.

Nintendo needs to look at Steam which gives us new games for less than these 20yr old VC games and always has sales of 75% off and more many times per year for even the best games. Look at Sony giving away free games with PS+ and even XBOX live giving people free games.

Yes you pay $5 a month for those 2 consoles, but Nintendo charges you more than $5 each month for these old games so you are using the money anyway and getting much less in return. WAKE UP NINTENDO, if not then you will only have the same old fans and even lose many of them very soon.

@Kirk id rather pay the ten dollars vs the 200 for the cart

@Doma thats because you're putting tone to text. If anything im annoyed with how ridiculous people are.

@Einherjar Some people argue that it's too much because they can get it for free on pc...

I was more than happy to pay 10 bucks for such a good game, but if different games are going to be offered at different prices, then, for instance, a game like Ice Climbers probably shouldn't cost the same as a game like Super Mario Bros. 3.

Wonderful game and really worth the $10. Things really got fun when I reached the town of Twoson.

£6.99 is a bargain. Excluding importing a staggeringly expensive cartridge, there's no other [legal] way to play in Europe.
I think having it on the Wii U adds value to, it plays great on the gamepad/off tv, and the miiverse community is good for this game to, found several useful gameplay tips on there.
Just reached Twoson and loving the game so far.

I honestly can't believe the people who are complaining about an extra two dollars, be happy we got the game at all. Nintendo knew this game would be a smash hit, why not make a little extra- given the efforts of the strategy guide and other things. If you think $10 is asking too much for a game that is far more expensive elsewhere then by all means don't buy it.

@wombatkidd

You're not getting me...

A physical book with all the printing, paper, transportation and store cut, costs a lot of money so of course they have to charge basically the same price as when it was first released.

If the re-release of and old story is now in digital form however then I think that should be MUCH cheaper than a physical version too.

Do you get where I'm going here...?

@1337man1233

Well obviously.

I don't have a problem with the raised price, after all $2 only amounts to a couple things off a dollar menu or a cup of coffee.

My problem is the pricing system as a whole and people justifying the price with the cost of old cartridges. $10 beats spending $100 any day but the price of the carts isn't because its EarthBound, the high price is because there are only so many carts left. Its the same reason SMB/Duck Hunt is a dime a dozen.

Nintendo needs to realize that this isn't the 80's/90's anymore, there are smaller digital games that are on-par or even better than these 20-30 year old games that are at the same price bracket. I find it strange when a game that released the year I was born is almost the same price as a relatively new digital only game.

@Einherjar

I agree with you 100%. Whiners are just gonna whine, it's in their nature (Doma and Peach 64 are great examples on this site), but Eathbound is worth $10, especially if you compare it Ebay prices. On the other hand, Spelunker and Donkey Kong aren't worth $5...so I think that's where Nintendo needs to actually change prices.

@hydeks Just went to amazon cheapest one was 175 but there is no way to tell if it's authentic. And of course not counting taxes and shipping.

What people don't realize (or don't want to) is that this release comes with a guide and Nintendo needed to hire translators for it, that's where the two "extra" bucks came off.

@b23cdq It simply isnt legal, so i wont take that as an argument.
@R_Champ Exactly. The problem simply is: Who determines the worth of a game ? Its quite easy with a new one (simply get your costs in + a little gain) but with old games, its not quite that simple. For everyone who played Earthbound or knows how good it is, the price is apropriate, but for someone who doesnt, it might be too hight. On the other hand: Rating the original Donkey Kong simply by its depth and content, its in no way worth 5$, but then, you have people who grew up with that game, have fond memories of it or simply love it for what it is in all its simplicity. They might even want to pay more than 5$ on it.
You could simply go by popularity, but that would inflate the prices of some games immensly, think about Chrono Trigger oder Super Metroid. Games considered "Best games ever mage (in their respective genre)" could cost quite a lot of money and people are probably willing to pay for it.
Its simply a gamble: Having a fixed pricing scheme will ensure that certain prices wont inflate too much, but will demand a high price for games that arent woth that much. A flexible pricing model could go above and beiond in both directions, which would come with its own pros and cons.
Regarding the pricing model we had over the years: I was perfectly fine with that. 5-10€ for (technically) everlasting cartridge games without the hassle of finding a working controller (HUGE problem when it comes to the N64, let me tell you), no worries about dying backup batteries and a clearer picture on modern TVs without spending insane amounts of money for analog signal upscaling devices. Yes, having your cartridges lined up on a shelf is a beatiful sight, especially for a collector like me, but my enthusiasm ends when i see what some of these games cost in their original form. The only thing that i really dislike is, that it is not possible (at the moment) to share your games between the WiiU VC and the 3DS VC and, if you want your games on both systems, you have to pay up twice. That honestly, thats a very minor problem. As long as people are spending 60+$ on CoD, Fifa and such every half year, a complaint about 5$ for, say, MegaMan is instantly invalid
@jcags For what did they need a translator ? They used the US version of the game that was already translated and simply digitized the US guide. This game wasnt a japan exclusive, it simply never came out in europe. The original SNES game was very well released in the US.

yah i pay 10$ for it
to be honest i remember when i was waiting for super mario rpg i thought they price that higher on wii and i was ready to pay extra to so i guess i dont blame Nintendofor doing this because of the high demand

I rarely pick up digital games and I even own it, but I wanted to support the release and also have a 'portable' version of it too so I went in on it. I know SNES standard pricing is $8-9, but really to piss and whine over $1 whole extra dollar seems childish. As noted you're also getting that nice guide it used to come with for free as a web based site or as a PDF download that's super clean and crisp. Given pre-release this game was a solid $200 to get and the guide still more or less intact in sharp condition is an easy $120, is $10 really worth whining about?

I mean really also all things considered it's a fairly time consuming RPG too, and back in 1995 when it dropped the 130K~ copies or so that sold was a flop and after their ad campaign it was a loss. If this extra dollar helps them sleep better at night getting some delayed compensation on it, whatever, it's not a biggie. Personally I'm neither pro or anti-EB, I'm that middle person who likes it, but doesn't love it, nor hate it, but I keep it around as it can be amusing. It's more sad Mother 1 was entirely finishined for NES and scrapped, and Mother 3 was a possibility too except for EB's crap sales. Maybe if this sells like gangbusters we'll see a 3DS VC release and perhaps out of that a much delayed EB(NES) or Mother 3 release, but this sucker would have to sell like a half million copies or more I bet.

@R_Champ

@Einherjar Shoot! you're right I forgot they released it a few years later in the US.

@jcags No problem

@element187 That's my point. It should be $1

@Samurai_Goroh:
(She replied hours later! Sorry, I went to bed after making my comment and only just got back on Nintendo Life.) I didn't say it's a bad thing if they release Mother 3, but they opened a can off worms indeed. Have you ever had a little kid begging for something near you? Have you ever given in, just a tiny bit, to get them to shut up? No? Well, they don't shut up. They learn that if they ask long/loud/hard enough, they get something. So they ask longer/louder/harder.

Those of you bothered by the previous amount of begging for Mother 3 are not prepared for the coming onslaught, and neither are Nintendo. It's going to be of epic proportions. Get yer helmets on.

Like I said, not necessarily a bad thing. I've been in the camp of, "Please Nintendo, please please PLEASE release Mother 3 PLEASE! We have a translation you are free to use and everything!" for years now. But if that sort of thing bothers you, you might want to watch out. And Nintendo definitely is going to want to watch out, because while Mother fans are generally super polite, there's gonna be new ones, and ones that realized the begging worked, and it's gon' get crazy all up in heah.

@tanookisuit where is the pdf you mention?

NOA only seems to want it stuck inside a website which you can copy each image then use MS Office 2010 to make a PDF.

But, the European branch has more class and honor, so they made it into a PDF of the original US English guide.
http://cdn02.nintendo-europe.com/media/downloads/games_8/wiiuvc_earthbound_2/WiiUVC_EarthBound_PlayersGuide_EN.pdf

You can also use their main page for EB too.
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Super-Nintendo/EarthBound-771110.html

@Kirk It is "much cheaper" than the physical version. The physical version's MSRP was 69.99. 10 bucks is 1/7th that. As of the minute I'm writing this the cheapest copy of the physical game on ebay is $142.64. Nearly 14 times as much.

Any way you slice it, what you're saying doesn't hold water if you actually think about it for more than two seconds.

@wombatkidd

You're focusing on a single game that's grossly inflated in price normally and measuring it's current VC price based on that whereas I'm talking about the pricing of VC games in general and applying the concept of what I think would be fair pricing for those games across the board. Which I'm also applying to this specific game too obviously.

The average physical SNES game in this day and age probably sells for around $10 I would guess.

Digital re-releases of SNES "games" on VC should cost much less in general than what the average person could get them for on eBay right now imo.

This game shouldn't be more expensive just because the physical version is grossly overpriced. That doesn't make what I consider overcharging us for it reasonable.

I'm saying that all SNES VC games, including this one, should be costing us probably $4.99, which in this day and age I think is a fair and reasonable price for both sides of the transaction, unless there's some unique additional cost involved in releasing a particular game today that would mean selling us it at that price would actually be making a loss for Nintendo (which even with the extra expenses I still don't think is the case with this game), in which case I would be comfortable with them charging a little more obviously.

So, basically, in general I think $4.99 for SNES VC games is more reasonable and any more is too expensive.

That means Earthbound on Wii U VC is simply too expensive imo, for a digital copy of a 20 year old SNES game, regardless of it's pedigree or current gross overpricing on eBay or Amazon etc.

If you think about if for more than two seconds you'd probably get where I'm coming from and why it does in fact make better sense for all the consumers while at the same time not doing Nintendo any harm whatsoever either.

@Kirk So the fact that they had to spend more money on porting it (more complex than other SNES games so far, and is a new port, not one previously done for Wii), more money translating it & more money on licensing the various things they don't own the rights to (such as the music) doesn't mean anything?
It would be ridiculous if they charged more to pay for their marketing campaign, but that's not what cost them the extra money.

@MadAdam81

I still don't think any of those costs would make charging us say $4.99 for every [ANY] SNES VC game bad business for Nintendo, including even Earthbound in this case, and I'm also pretty sure every Wii U gamer would be very happy with getting SNES VC games on Wii U at that price too.

Basically, I'm saying a price point of $4.99 for SNES VC games across the board is more reasonable for everyone.

It's a high enough price that Nintendo is still going to make good money on these games and it's low enough that people like me won't feel like we are getting slightly ripped off, which creates negative sentiment towards the company.

The current way SOME people win while SOME people, like me, clearly feel like Nintendo is slightly taking the p*ss.

My way EVERYONE wins.

I happily splash 8 euros for games like Super Mario World and Super Ghouls n' Ghosts. They're great value games!
10 euros for a classic rarity, first time in Europe, and a good game at that, is just fine.
But I agree with you people that MANY of the VC games are truly overpriced.
Donkey Kong, Balloon Fight, these should be in the 0.99 range. They are the actually overpriced games!

@Kirk
"EarthBound, the long-awaited SNES classic for the Wii U Virtual Console has claimed the number one spot in the Virtual Console charts in various regions including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands and Portugal. EarthBound is also selling well in the United States where it’s currently sitting behind Donkey Kong which costs 30 cents compared to EarthBound’s $10 price tag."

It seems to be selling regardless..

@The_Inquisitor

Well I never doubted it would sell well.

MoneyBound some people are paying above 150 british earth pounds for the cart,i bought it and its well worth it. the eshop one not earth pounds version.

@kirk And again, they can charge whatever they want for them and what you feel they should charge is irrelevant. If you think they're too expensive don't buy them. Simple solution.

@wombatkidd

Did I say they couldn't?

I'm suggesting they shouldn't.

To support that assertion I can provide you with one potential customer they've definitely lost when it comes to purchasing VS games because of their current prices; Me.

Look! I'm not buying them, just like you suggested! Go figure!

I'd have to suggest that if I'm not buying their VC games because I consider them too expensive that there's a lot of other potential customers doing the same.

Now, let's imagine for a second that you were an intelligent businessman...

Would you rather have more customers buying your products at a slightly lower price, all of whom would also surely be even more happy with lower prices than they already are, or less customers buying your products at a slightly higher price?

Think about this for more than two seconds before you let those fingers waggle...

@Kirk You're the one dictating prices they should sell things for. Tell me what business school you went to. I'm guessing none, because the answer to your question is actually "We want to sell it at the highest highest price we can sell it for without losing so many customers that the higher price is less profitable. "

They don't care that they didn't sell to you personally, because they've sold to millions of others who were willing to pay the price and have made more money on each sale then they would have under your model, and presumable more money overall.

Again, if you don't want to pay what they're selling it for, then don't buy it. Whining about the price on the internet is just childish, however.

@wombatkidd

I studied business at Abertay.

See, you know less you think.

I studied business at the Mohawk College School of Business. If you're not just lying and you actually got a degree, they should revoke it going by the crap you're spewing here.

@wombatkidd

If you are a bad businessman you ONLY think in pure numbers rather than remembering the customers are at the other end.

Here's my personal business mantra:

Satisfy the customer, at a profit.

What's yours?

Be a douche and make as much money as possible.

@Kirk No. Only a small minority is complaining about the price.

A bad business man would be one doing things that are less profitable based entirely on the whining of a vocal minority on the internet.

Edit: Since you added crap to your post entirely for the purpose of making my response look bad, I'll add that my position isn't contrary to your "mantra". Satisfying customers doesn't mean satisfying all customers. That's impossible. Selling at the highest possible price that you can without losing too many is the business model of 99% of businesses.

@wombatkidd

All you see is the small picture apparently.

If you were a video games company in the 90s you'd be one of the ones that's no longer around I'd guess.

@Kirk Ah the pointless one liner. The penultimate go to for he who actually doesn't have an argument anymore. That's where you go right before tying to discredit some's argument based on grammar. Well I'm calling this a win. Byesies.

And again you add crap to your post later. If it wasn't worth saying the first time, it wasn't worth adding either. Also this model is the one Nintendo has always used. Last I checked, they were a video game company around in the 90's.

@wombatkidd

If you say so.

@Kirk, @wombatkidd: I do hope you two are done, because I'm going to be deleting any further nastiness between the two of you.

@theblackdragon

Stick a fork in me.

@kirk: i've never been one to stick pronged metal objects into electrically powered ones, sorry

I would pay £6.99 each for the SNES Donkey Kong Country games, if Nintendo would put them on the Wii U VC. So EarthBound being £6.99 is not a problem, anyway some VC games before EarthBound are around £5 odd, so a pound odd is no big difference.

I don't mind to pay a little bit more for this legendary game, but it isn't reasonable! We have waited sooooooo long, Nintendo should ask LESS instead of more, as a compensation!!

Well, the price seems to be pretty reasonable to me. I'd rather have to pay a little higher price than normal Super Nintendo games than not get the chance to play the game at all. I'm just thankful that they finally released this game. I'm not expecting it to blow my mind, but at least I get the chance to try it out for myself without using an emulator. Perhaps it'll become a favorite of mine.

@Kirk Oh please.. are you saying you would rather pay 60-100 bucks for this game?? To get a physical copy?? Oh I am so sorry.... but this is one of the rare occasions where the extra bucks is justified.. especially when you consider what you would have to pay on Amazon and Ebay for this.. Now if they charged 10 bucks for something you could get for 50 cents on Ebay and Amazon.. yeah I would be ticked.. that being said.. Can we please get Shin Megami Tensei.. and Treasure Hunter G on VC...

@Relias

No, I'm saying I think this VC game should cost the same as the other SNES VC games.

Actually, I'm saying ALL VC games should be cheaper in general AND this game should cost the same as every other SNES VC.

Maybe Nintendo is thinking to put DK Jr. Math at only $1 instead of $5 (sarcasm)

lol ill let a cart of eb go for 150$ free shipping lol

2 dollars from the original asking price of snes dl , a classic snes game that had so much trouble coming out there is no problem here at all.

i could care less if it's not on 3ds.

Only just noticed the price! $17 NZD (13.70 USD). The eShop prices are ridiculous. That's more than I paid for Xcom Enemy Unknown and more than nearly all games I buy on Steam. Imagine how much more money Nintendo could make if they were competitive (through increased console sales and digital sales) - although they'd probably also need a proper account system (which is also why I don't buy anything other than the $0.30 games).
I'd be more likely to make an impulse buy if the prices were more realistic e.g. (in USD):
Nes - $1, SNES - $2, N64 - $3, Gamecube - $5, Wii - $10