Pricing For Retro Games on the Wii

schnikies79 writes to mention an Ars Technica article revealing the pricing scheme for retro content on the Wii. From the article: "Iwata revealed that games for Nintendo's "virtual console" that will allow Wii owners to play old titles on their consoles will be priced at ¥500 and ¥1,000, roughly US$4.50 to US$8.99. For reference, classic retro games for the Nintendo GameBoy sold for upwards of US$35 for some titles, US$19.99 for others. Uptake was understandably low, as gamers were reticent to pay that much for old content." The piece goes on to say that they're ramping up DS production to meet command, and that connectivity with the DS will be a major selling point for the console when it releases.

Comments

editors did it, not me

[schnikies79]

The line with the 'command' problem wasn't in my original submission.

Did the article get mistranslated?

[rhfb]

According to a few posts on the arsforums there and a few webtranslations the article should say new games developed just for the virtual console will be between 500 and 1000 yen, not the classic nes/snes/n64 games that will be available on the virtual console as well. There was another article a few days back, explaining that 3 people should be able to put a game together in a few weeks and sell it on the console for around 5$, can't find it right now though.

Re:Sony... Microsoft...

[AnyoneEB]

Actually, there are eight 64MB (512mbit) Nintendo 64 games that I know of, and there are several 32MB (256mbit) Nintendo 64 games, but your point remains. Even in comparision to the built-in 512MB of flash, most ROMs are tiny.

EBGames and GameStop

[strider2k]

As of June 1st, EBGames and GameStop in the USA stopped accepting PS1 and N64 games. The pricing explains the need to discontinue collecting antiques from the customers. There's no way the B&M stores can compete with the relatively lower price of the Wii Virtual Console.