Joystiq via Eurogamer are reporting that Nintendo classics won’t be free now on the Revolution. Didn’t Nintendo specifically announce they would be? Although I can’t seem to find a reference, I know they mentioned something. Maybe it was just wishful thinking.
Anyone have a scoop?
[Source: Joystiq]
Fuzz
Wishfull thinkinging . . everything I have ever read said they would not be free. They may come as throw-ins with other things here and there. Nintendo likes to protect their IP, and by giving it away, they are essentialy saying they don’t care about it.
Jack
It’s been back and forth for as long as I can remember on this, and I think there was a lot of “inside source said” and people speaking for Nintendo instead of actually getting something from a real executive.
Anyway, I think an iTunes model would fit the system nicely (especially with the iPod look they’re promoting now)… did anyone see anything about this thing haveing a Hard Drive to store these ROMs?
RavenHero23
There is no way they would be free, that makes no sense whatsoever in a business sense. Then all their old games would be passed around like hot potatoes. But my question is how will they work with people who already have the classics. I
mean i have like 100-200 nes games and i’d rather play them on my nes, than pay for them. Unless the prices are drastically low.
Anonymous
Not even offer at least the NES classics free? I understand from a business standpoint not offering everything, but c’mon. Those games are like 20 years old. I think they’d be silly not to offer those free while maintaining still maintaining it’s IP.
Jack
You still have to pay for Pink Floyd CDs and the Beatles, so why not games? Also something to consider: these games ahev been reportedly “enhanced” with graphic and game play advances. Also, an oyu imagine playing smash brothers or some NES classic wirelessly with someone in Japan.. etc?
Ryuukuro
Hopefully they’ll still give us some freebies, either ones that we choose or maybe they’ll have some preloaded like Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt just for the old school fans.
And if it’s a souped up SMB and DH then all the better! (But PETA won’t be happy.)
Babble
Nothing was ever said to be free. But I would put them very cheap.
NES – $1
SNES – $5
N64 – $10
GameCube – $25
Is Nintendo going to stop putting NGC games on shelves? Since they are compatible with Revolution?
Fuzz
Babble, I don’t think GC games are going to be downloadable. They are to big. Remeber, the Revolution doesn’t have an HDD, just 512 mb internal flashram, and an SD card slot. I guess they could store on SD, but you would need big cards and could only store a couple games.
Anonymous
Perhaps they’ll only be priced to offset the basic cost of the service? I think it would be a huge mistake to actually try and make serious money off of nes/snes games. For one thing, you’re basically competing with free roms. If the games are free or very cheap, and they have a large library, they would be able to sell a huge number of systems. Getting the Revolution into peoples homes is the ultimate goal here. What really disappoints is not the cost but the library. Its looks like this will only be games Nintendo developed themselves. Can’t they get license the games made by 3rd parties? No Milon’s Secret Castle for the Revolution?
Sturek
I never thought it was going to be free and that’s alright with me…
Maybe I’m just making this up, but I am pretty sure some 3rd party developers are going to use the back-catalog to sell their games too..
I remember some talk that Sega is interested in using the virtual console too…
Genesis on the Rev ?!? Brilliant 😉
bryan_3089
They SAID, virtually EVERY game playable on any Nintendo system ever made would be available – THAT’s official. So yeah, third party games will be there – But I don’t know, give them a break, do YOU want to track down third party publishers that are no longer existent? I didn’t think so.
While the virtual game thing is really, really cool, I’m more looking forward to the new stuff rather than the old stuff – even though some classics can never be beaten 😉
They should have something similar to the whole Pepsi-iTunes deal. Like find a code under a winning cap, get a free NES game or something.
I’m SURE Nintendo’s got a good planned, they know they want to make money but still have these games at a cheap price – and who better to find a happy medium? Pff, if Sony did this they would probably charge 20 bucks for a PSOne game..
Give it time though – If worst comes to worst, we wait till E3 2006 for full details of the entire Revolution and all that comes with it.
ShadowXOR
It was confirmed LONG ago that you would have to pay for them, and virtually NO ONE expected them to be free. Though they may give out free games with purchases. Like a download per game you purchase or something similar, and that is just expected, not announced.
Josh
I thought it was common knowledge they would be free. I guess not though, looks like you need someone with smarts over there at infendo.
Blake
Josh,
You’re cuttin’ me to the bone my man, but I should’ve found a reference first. Blame it on spontaneity.
malaki1974
It’s funny but when I first heard the back-catalog availabilty I was happy but not ecstatic. Then pricing came up and i thought the itunes model would be sufficient. Now after seeing the controller I am ecstatic! Duck Hunt and Mario Bros will come on the console (as suggested above). That is a lock. What better way to get people used to the controller?
It would be great if you had an identity and could pay less if you kept downloading the same game over and over again.
Vincent
Pah. If they’re not offering them for free, SOMEBODY is going to hack the thing so that all you have to do is pop some ROMs on your SD card and put it into the Revolution and there you go, you’re playing any friggin game you want. That’ll probably take new firmware, unless that’s what Nintendo is planning on doing anyway.
If they decide to do it for free, I wouldn’t worry so much about them making a profit; the DS and now the Micro are selling ridiculously well, and N is posting enormous profits, as compared to M$ and Sony. Sony and Microsoft would NEED to charge for a service like this; Nintendo wouldn’t necessarily. They are, after all, offering their Wi-Fi for free. Why not the games? Licensing gives them IP rights, but who says they have to charge for 20-year-old software?
On the other hand, if they DO charge, I’m sure it’ll be reasonable. They are, obviously, in the business to make money; they’re not going to make money by pissing people off and charging exorbitant amounts of money for–again–20-year-old software.
My take: Perhaps they’ll offer basic services or certain games for free, and a monthly subscription will get you unlimited Nintendo downloads, etc. Upgrade if you want SNES games, upgrade if you want N64 games, etc. The N64 package would be the best value and therefore have the most subscriptions, so customers would be happy and Nintendo would be happy. Pure speculation though, I’ve absolutely nothing to back that up.
Either way, I’m excited about it. Cartriges take up lots of room. 🙂