Virtual Console games are too expensive . . .

[Onyxmeth]

NorthbyNorthWest said:

Since you're new to the thread, answer me this. How would you describe the problem of $5 Sega Genesis title with achievements, slight graphical enhancements and online multiplayer on Xbox Live offering more than the ROM dumps of these same games on the Virtual Console for $8? Is this a pricing issue to you, or something else entirely?

Yeah, that can be a bit annoying, although how often has that happened?  Only a small handful of the VC's over 300 titles are available in a deluxe version for cheaper.  Also, one thing you pay for with the VC is exact emulation.  A lot of the time the "enhancements" you get on Live arcade actually hurt the game.

Now here's a question for you guys who insist that bad/already released somewhere else games should be cheaper.  Would you be willing to pay *more* for rare, quality games?  Sin and Punishment used to cost over 100 dollars...Nintendo could have charged 50 bucks to download the thing and still called it a deal.  You seem to be perfectly fine when Nintendo underprices games on the service, which just supports my belief that the whole "oh Nintendo needs a more flexible pricing structure!" is just you dancing around what you really want, which is for all the games to be cheaper.

Are they overpriced? Definitely! If you want to make a statement, then just don't buy them. If the sales are poor enough, the price will come down.

No they won't...Nintendo will just stop releasing them.  They're not going to devalue their franchises for a few extra sales.

The VC does not have exact emulation, otherwise the N64 games would have rumble available in them. Other consoles are emulated well though.

I've already given my solution, which is to use their current pricing model as a ceiling and allow the third parties to choose their own pricing anywhere at that price or lower than that, and let them implement price cuts if they so choose. This will allow the market to correct itself, when poor games and niche titles get priced lower because of a lower demand, while the anticipated titles are still seen as great deals because they can sell at the ceiling price. Maybe Neo-Geo titles aren't selling so well and SNK wants to take a few low selling titles and drop them half price. I feel they should be able to so they can increase interest in those titles. I don't think every console should just have one set price attached to it.

It doesn't help that Nintendo sells points in 1000 point increments and then doesn't offer cheap solutions to help customers rid themselves of excess points. Let's say I buy an SNES game for $8 and I have $2 worth of points left over. Well there's nothing there I see for $2, so I just let the points sit. If Nintendo allowed titles to be priced in that range, your excess points could now be used for cheaper titles.