VC Sales

[elprincipe]

Shane said:
Given Nintendo's attitude toward online, I wouldn't expect VC to be a big deal. The potential annual revenue from this is probably much less than what can be made from one AAA title. However, that's revenue that can be attained with little effort and that without the Internet would not have been available

 

On the contrary, I think it was always a big part of their plans.  Think of the advantages:

1. More or less free revenue as the cost of putting these games up and running the servers is minimal, no physical costs to produce, etc.  Plus they are up there as long as Nintendo wants them to be and can be downloaded just the same in 2010 as in 2007.  3.3 million downloads at an average of $7 apiece is $23.1 million, and that's just in six months.

2. Attract third parties to put their games on the VC due to #1, more basically free revenue for Nintendo + more opportunities to work with third parties.

3. Big nostalgia attraction for gamers who do not have all their old systems and games available for play and who don't know about emulators or don't want to steal games online.  Possibly then a factor in system sales over time.

4. Develop new fans for older series, people who never played the original games.  Say someone never played Streets of Rage, plays it on the VC, then gets excited about a new Streets of Rage game.

I think these factors make the VC VERY attractive to Nintendo, and that's evidenced by their "new games every week" policy as well as bringing other older consoles (Neo-Geo, etc.) into the fold.