Cheaper Games For Nintendo’s Wii

Mike Howes 9 Jun, 2006 at 2:44am ET Article published in Tech

One of the strong points of Nintendo’s Wii is it’s ability to allow older games to be purchased and played on the new system.

It seems Wii owners will be able to purchase classic titles for their consoles, for as little as US$4.50 to US$8.99. Classic retro games for the Nintendo GameBoy sold for upwards of US$35 for some titles. Uptake was understandably low.

With the new pricing structure, retro gaming may prove to be a big boon for Nintendo. Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace has already captured the attention of many gamers, but the ability to launch with a massive library of retro games could easily overshadow Microsoft’s service, which has been slow in releasing new titles since launch.

With Nintendo President Saturo Iwata’s recent announcement, its clear that the Wii is designed to profit not only from new games sales but also from the sale of inexpensive classic games purchased online. It’s hard to underestimate the worth of Nintendo’s back catalogue.
The addition of classic Sega and Turbografx titles will add considerable appeal for gamers who cut their teeth on Nintendo’s early consoles.

Iwata said the launch date and final pricing for the Wii will not be announced until September.

Comments

9 Jun 2006 ~ 5:53am Enverex Can it physically take the older media or do you have to re-buy everything?
9 Jun 2006 ~ 5:21pm airbornflght most likely have to plunk down more of your change, although, you might be able to buy a handy adapter as nintendo likes to do, but that would cost more change too.
9 Jun 2006 ~ 9:30pm EMT You've gotta wonder if the idea to make this 'retro' service was influenced by the ROMs and emulators on the Internet... either by their feasibility or their popularity?
10 Jun 2006 ~ 4:57am Enverex I've gotta say, I'd be interested in playing the old games, but not if I have to pay more than like 50p a title or whatever.
10 Jun 2006 ~ 10:16am airbornflght I think a video game is worth about $20-$30. But now, all games are $50-$70. What do these people think that I do for a living?
10 Jun 2006 ~ 2:18pm Enverex Indeed. It costs me like 6 hours wages now to buy a game over here (assuming £30 a game, although they are sometimes £45 or so in shops) I mean... damn. Even worse I'm in a crappy 8 hour a week job trying to find an opening into the IT field (which just isn't happening) so ever buying games is just a no-no, heh.
13 Jun 2006 ~ 2:45pm GHoosdum Here's my take on the situation:

First and foremost, the Wii had better natively play GameCube games, without having to repurchase them.

Additionally, 'classic' games that are downloadable had better have something extra, updated graphics, extra levels, etc or else I'll think twice about purchasing the Wii - I already own the NES and SNES games I like, and unless the downloadable Wii version has a benefit over the one I have, there's absolutely no incentive to purchase again what I already own. It's not worth spending another $50/$100/whatever to buy the games again just to be able to take the NES and SNES out of my media cabinet.
13 Jun 2006 ~ 3:06pm Sledgehammer70 I'll be the first to Download Duck Hunt!