Virtual console game prices need to be halved!

[famousringo]

Armads said:

famousringo said:

Armads said:

famousringo said:

2. Cutting the VC price would undercut WiiWare prices. Creators of new content have a hard enough time competing with some of the best games in history without getting into a price war with content that has long since paid for production.

Competition is good for the industry, if we lessen competition then they have less incentive to create better games.  If the only way they can get their games to sell is because they're cheaper than a game that was made 30 years ago then they've just made a sorry excuse for a game.

So far I've bought Bit.trip.beat/core/void and will get runner and fate when it releases, pokemon rumble, and tales of monkey island chapter 1.  VC wise I've only bought Sin and punishment, personally I feel like WW has been endorsed enough and it's time for a price cut in VC.

That's nice, but you're only one person. It's been a long time since the last Channel Surfing article came out, but you can see the trend clearly in this year-old article:

http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/4790/channel-surfing-wiiwarevirtual-console-sales-chart-july-2009/

At the prices that you're protesting, VC has several million-sellers, while the most popular WiiWare games struggle to earn more than 250k downloads. A VC price cut would lead to millions more downloads of classic Zelda and Mario games instead of Bit.Trip games and World of Goo. People only have so much money and so much time to game, and it would be a betrayal if Nintendo were to to undercut WiiWare developers like you're proposing.

At least, that's certainly how WiiWare developers would feel. Why not go to XBLA or the App Store where there isn't a selection of top-quality first party software at bargain prices that you have to compete with?

That article is misleading because the charts are for top monthly sales not total. IGN shows that VC is only slightly ahead of WW in sales, with a lead by $7 million http://wii.ign.com/articles/107/1071420p1.html

 

Edit: Oh and world of goo is the 2nd best selling downloadable game on Nintendos shop channel

 

"2. World of Goo (2D Boy, WiiWare) - $4,800,000 ($15.00)"

You're not really refuting my point. As you point out, VC is already a larger market than WiiWare at prices which you consider to be outrageous. If Nintendo slashed prices on VC games in half, bringing non-participants like yourself into the VC market and stimulating more purchases from active VC buyers, it's only going to swell the size of the VC market and draw people away from WiiWare games.

It would be great for the consumer, and might even be good for Nintendo's direct revenues, but it would be lousy for small developers. Nintendo cares about those small developers.