Who else is loving the NSO Expansion Pack?!

[Jumpin]

JWeinCom said:

Slownenberg said:

Personally I much prefer the subscription system. So much cheaper and you get everything. Just a much more consumer friendly system than the VC. Just on the first day, yesterday, of having the expansion pack i played Banjo and FzeroX a good amount and would have had to pay $20 on the old VC model while it only costs me an extra $30 over the basic subscription to get those and all the other N64 and Genesis games plus all the extra MK8D courses for a whole year. I also played a little bit of several other games, oh and I played some of the new MK8D courses as well. I don't even want to think about how many hundreds of dollars I would have to drop under a Virtual Console system to be able to play what I'll end up playing this year for $50.

VC model was cool back in 2007, but it was just soooo expensive compared to today's world of cheap subscriptions. But I agree it'd be a nice option for that niche where people want to pay extra to be able to download a few games. Like if you're only interested in a handful of games and you want to be playing them 10 years from now then yeah VC model is cheaper. And I mean it'd just give Nintendo even more money so I'm sure they wouldn't mind, but they are also lazy in building out online stuff so I doubt they'll add this alternative when the majority of people prefer to have immediate cheap access to full libraries of games.

Assuming they add GB and GBA in the expansion pack, and once they get all the games out (I'm also dreaming of them adding GC when the Switch 2 is out) the expansion pack will be like the ultimate retro games subscription. I really think they should open up the service outside of Nintendo systems and just let anyone online subscribe. I could totally see them getting like 100 million $50/year subscriptions eventually if it was available to anyone. Probably lots of 35-50 year olds out there who played games in the 90s but don't buy systems anymore but would pay a cheap $50/year price to get 200-300 of the games they played as a kid available to them anywhere.

I really don't think it's that small of a niche of people who want to download just one or two games, especially when you consider that Nintendo has been rereleasing these games regularly for about two decades in various forms. I already have pretty much all the games I like from NES/SNES/64/Genesis' back catalog. Really the only games I've played are Mario Party 1/2 since those haven't been rereleased to my knowledge. 

I'm happy the subscription model exists for those who want it, but there is literally zero reason to restrict the games to subscriptions, besides the desire to bundle it so that some people wind up paying for more than they actually want. 

I think you’re right here. They already do the double methods on some of their software as well (like the Animal Crossing Expansion) And Sega gives multiple ways to get their software on the Switch, including one time purchase bundles—although, those bundles probably do more harm than good to the value of the software. But I agree that Nintendo could probably put their 16-titles up for 10-25 USD a pop, and if people want to buy them outright instead of joining a subscription service.

A business model they could use would be one much like streaming services, where they allow third parties to temporarily put products up on the service. Part of why third party film studios do that is because they’re trying to sell their products outright on the digital storefronts. One tactic they use with film franchises is splitting them up between services, and switching them around from time to time—kind of an annoying tactic, but it works for people looking to buy up the whole of a franchise. Even Disney does stuff like this with their own first party content, pulling Avatar off the Disney+ Store in the months leading up to, and during its re-release to cinema. And Disney+ is a much more closed service than Netflix or Amazon—which are more like Nintendo (except with games instead of films).

But, as far as I’m concerned, I’m all for having direct purchase and package subscription options. I think it would be smart for Nintendo to do it from a business standpoint as well. If they released their 16-bit titles in direct or remastered form, I think they could easily get up to 25 USD for some of them… The Pixel Remaster Final Fantasy games will likely be 16-32 USD a pop, and people will buy them.

Last edited by Jumpin - on 14 December 2022