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Nintendo of Japan Announces Wii Details

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Originally posted by: R Nilla
you're paying $5 to download a Wii-compatible emulation of an NES game. You're paying for a service and a product. You're not paying $5 for another copy of the cartridge you already own. I don't understand what you're getting at.
Click to expand...

It's the debate of whether you're paying for the media itself or a license to the content.
 
I don't really give a crap about service vs product, I just think the prices are too high. These products are decades old and this "service" is nothing but an emulator... none of which really costs Nintendo much of anything. I don't mind paying, but the prices should be lower.
 
nintendo's gotta make a profit somehow... but yeah, i think it's too much. should have been like $3/5/7 or something. oh well, if people don't buy it, they'll drop the price. otherwise.. they have no incentive to. I have a feeling a ton of mid-late 20 somethings will shell the $5 for old school NES games.

I actually gave away a whole bunch to a friend of mine... w/ the newest iteration of the NES. not sure if they work still or not tho.. ha.. but I'm pretty sure I handed over $1000 in games.. heh.
 
Originally posted by: Thraxen
I don't really give a crap about service vs product, I just think the prices are too high. These products are decades old and this "service" is nothing but an emulator... none of which really costs Nintendo much of anything. I don't mind paying, but the prices should be lower.
Click to expand...
I somewhat agree, or at least I understand your frustration, but I would imagine that there are some setup and distribution costs (certainly not significant) for Nintendo, and this is a way for them to recoup expenses as well as profit (immensely). They are a business, after all.

Bottom line is, it would be nice if these were offered a lot cheaper (say 1/2 or even 1/4 the price), but compared to the XBOX Live Marketplace these are competitively priced and certainly reasonable. Who knows, I wouldn't be suprised if we see some better pricing or deals in the future - this is only the beginning, after all.
 
Originally posted by: R Nilla
Bottom line is, it would be nice if these were offered a lot cheaper (say 1/2 or even 1/4 the price), but compared to the XBOX Live Marketplace these are competitively priced and certainly reasonable. Who knows, I wouldn't be suprised if we see some better pricing or deals in the future - this is only the beginning, after all.
Click to expand...

Well, they are priced similar to the games on Live. But most of the Live games have enhanced graphics, online play, leaderboards, etc... They have value added to them compared to their original incarnations. I've heard nothing about Nintendo doing the same thing... though I hope they do. It would be awesome to play a game like Super Mario 3 in two player mode online.

As I said before, I'll buy a few of my favorites at those prices, but not nearly as many as I might have at a lower price point.
 
Originally posted by: R Nilla
Originally posted by: Thraxen
I don't really give a crap about service vs product, I just think the prices are too high. These products are decades old and this "service" is nothing but an emulator... none of which really costs Nintendo much of anything. I don't mind paying, but the prices should be lower.
Click to expand...
I somewhat agree, or at least I understand your frustration, but I would imagine that there are some setup and distribution costs (certainly not significant) for Nintendo, and this is a way for them to recoup expenses as well as profit (immensely). They are a business, after all.

Bottom line is, it would be nice if these were offered a lot cheaper (say 1/2 or even 1/4 the price), but compared to the XBOX Live Marketplace these are competitively priced and certainly reasonable. Who knows, I wouldn't be suprised if we see some better pricing or deals in the future - this is only the beginning, after all.
Click to expand...

I'm sure the operating costs are more than insignificant for Nintendo. They had to create the whole distribution system, and buy the facilities to run the servers, and pay for the bandwith.

Not only are you paying for that, but it's also the convenience of being able to easily and legally download an old game (good luck legally finding an old nes game that works perfectly, pretty much means you need to find the cart). I remember having to blow on those nes carts, swab them clean, and pray it works.

Is there any other legal way to download nes roms besides Wii right now?

That said, I think they could have sold them for around half the price.
 
Originally posted by: everman
Originally posted by: R Nilla
Originally posted by: Thraxen
I don't really give a crap about service vs product, I just think the prices are too high. These products are decades old and this "service" is nothing but an emulator... none of which really costs Nintendo much of anything. I don't mind paying, but the prices should be lower.
Click to expand...
I somewhat agree, or at least I understand your frustration, but I would imagine that there are some setup and distribution costs (certainly not significant) for Nintendo, and this is a way for them to recoup expenses as well as profit (immensely). They are a business, after all.

Bottom line is, it would be nice if these were offered a lot cheaper (say 1/2 or even 1/4 the price), but compared to the XBOX Live Marketplace these are competitively priced and certainly reasonable. Who knows, I wouldn't be suprised if we see some better pricing or deals in the future - this is only the beginning, after all.
Click to expand...

I'm sure the operating costs are more than insignificant for Nintendo. They had to create the whole distribution system, and buy the facilities to run the servers, and pay for the bandwith.

Not only are you paying for that, but it's also the convenience of being able to easily and legally download an old game (good luck legally finding an old nes game that works perfectly, pretty much means you need to find the cart). I remember having to blow on those nes carts, swab them clean, and pray it works.

Is there any other legal way to download nes roms besides Wii right now?

That said, I think they could have sold them for around half the price.
Click to expand...

The problems with the NES games that people tried to fix by blowing on them was actually a problem with the system itself - the 10NES lockout chip that Nintendo used to prevent unlicensed games from running. They fixed it in the NES 2 (by removing the chip), and of course the cheap unofficial NESes you can buy on eBay wouldn't have the chip.

But yeah, Nintendo has every right to charge for the old games, and we don't have the right to pirate them because we don't like the price. I know I'll buy all of my old favorites. And most of the people who grew up on the NES are old enough now that they can afford $5-10 for a game.
 
its their games, they set the price, if you dont' like it, don't buy it or stick to your other means..

i think it's smart of nintendo for capitalizing on their old properties. of course they could sell them cheaper.. but we'll see. just like how UMD movie prices on the PSP are finally coming down? low demand will drop the price.
 
Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Originally posted by: R Nilla
you're paying $5 to download a Wii-compatible emulation of an NES game. You're paying for a service and a product. You're not paying $5 for another copy of the cartridge you already own. I don't understand what you're getting at.
Click to expand...

It's the debate of whether you're paying for the media itself or a license to the content.
Click to expand...

You're paying a license for the content. The Wii announcements make that clear since they give you the right to re-download the games should you delete them.

Just like the Xbox Live Arcade games.
 
Originally posted by: randomlinh
nintendo's gotta make a profit somehow... but yeah, i think it's too much. should have been like $3/5/7 or something. oh well, if people don't buy it, they'll drop the price. otherwise.. they have no incentive to. I have a feeling a ton of mid-late 20 somethings will shell the $5 for old school NES games.

I actually gave away a whole bunch to a friend of mine... w/ the newest iteration of the NES. not sure if they work still or not tho.. ha.. but I'm pretty sure I handed over $1000 in games.. heh.
Click to expand...

Nintendo will be making a profit off of every console sold.

Still, the $5, $8, $10 is probably also covering the cost of them serving up the content over their servers.
 
If people are paying $5 for SmashTV and SFII on XBL, I have a feeling Nintendo's pricing structure will work (especially with the AAA lineup they will be offering.
 
I don't mind the $10 N64 price... but it'd be happier with say $5 for SNES and $2 for NES.
There's only a handful of N64 games that I care about that I don't already own, so $10 for 5 games sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
 
It appears that the Wii will be region-locked afterall. Link

Nintendo UK has admitted that the Wii console is region-locked after all, despite comments from Nintendo of America to the contrary.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz in London this afternoon, a spokesperson admitted, "We are region-locked," and said the US arm of the company had made a mistake in saying otherwise.
Earlier we reported on a piece by Wired News, which spoke to Nintendo vice president of marketing Perrin Kaplan during yesterday's showcase event in New York, during which they were told that Nintendo would not impose regional restrictions on game software.
That situation would have been comparable to that of Xbox 360, where some games are region-free but others are not, and gamers are generally left to find out for themselves whether an import is viable.
Nintendo also admitted yesterday that it had ruled out the idea of including DVD playback functionality, contradicting earlier announcements.
"Because the price of DVD players has dropped so much and they have become so commonplace, Nintendo saw no need to create extra hardware options that would drive up the cost for consumers," a representative for the company told GameSpot.
Previously Nintendo had said it would release an attachment for the Wii console that enabled DVD playback.
Games on the system will be sold on single- or double-layered 12-centimetre optical discs, while it will also be compatible with 8-centimetre GameCube discs.
Click to expand...

Now waiting for Nintendo of America to say, "Nu-uh! We are region free man!"
 
Originally posted by: everman
This site is covering it until the server melts....which will be in 5...
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Anyone else notice how pointless the meeting pics were on this site? They don't give away anything. I want to know what they showed and stuff. Can we watch the movie of it or something?
 
Originally posted by: royaldank
Originally posted by: supafly
So much misinformation being spread around. Read the source of the region debacle:
http://wii.ign.com/articles/732/732748p1.html
First-party games for Wii will be region-free, according to NoA's vice president of marketing and corporate affairs, Perrin Kaplan.
Click to expand...

No one at NoA ever said the console would be region free.
Click to expand...

Even first party games are region locked.
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Well that clears it up then.

Either way, it's not an issue for most people.
 
I'm disapointed with Nintendo

1. Console price is ok, except still they think, 250 dollars means 250 euros and everyone is happy, but still 300 australian dollars which is by far the cheapest.
2. Release dates, they screw over europe again like all the others, sure its only by a few days. But its leaving a bad taste. The european market is the biggest of them all, why not appriciate the support they get by not releasing it here last. :|
3. Price of wii games, 50-60 dollars, translates to about 3800isk, but still I expect the games to sell here for 5000kr. Its not expensive, but its not in line with Nintendo cheap. Now the starting cost is only lower compared to the xbox360, but the running cost remains the same.
4. Price of emulated games, good thing about buying online is that the currency is actualy what they say. (why I love how steam works 🙂). Games at $5 and so on is just ok, but it is too expensive still. Old games, especialy old NES games should be so cheap that you can actually not worry about wasting a bit of money just to try the old games. They need to slash the price in half for it to not matter much. Its the same as with audio cd's, they have to be cheaper so people are willing to risk spending money on them.
5. Region codes, stupid and illegal according to trading laws. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_lockout

Results, I'm not sure if I will get a wii now, probably will though, but if I do it will be with a hint of regret.
 
Originally posted by: Czar

2. Release dates, they screw over europe again like all the others, sure its only by a few days. But its leaving a bad taste. The european market is the biggest of them all, why not appriciate the support they get by not releasing it here last. :|
Click to expand...

I think the US market is the biggest, followed by Japan, and finally Europe.
 
Originally posted by: Slew Foot
Did anyone get a preorder from Amazon today? I hear it was up for about an hour or so.
Click to expand...

I did, but it wasn't today. Who knows if I'll actually get it.
 
Originally posted by: 91TTZ
Originally posted by: Czar

2. Release dates, they screw over europe again like all the others, sure its only by a few days. But its leaving a bad taste. The european market is the biggest of them all, why not appriciate the support they get by not releasing it here last. :|
Click to expand...

I think the US market is the biggest, followed by Japan, and finally Europe.
Click to expand...

usa market is perhaps bigger, but there are more people in europe and if nintendo wants to reach to non gamers europe is very important

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_wars
PlayStation: 102.49 Million shipped as of March 31, 2005 (Japan: 21.59, USA: 40.78, Europe: 40.12)[4]
PlayStation 2: 106.23 Million shipped as of June 30, 2006 (Japan: 23.55, USA: 42.97, Europe: 39.71)[5]
 
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