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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Will SNES games ever come to the 3DS eShop?

Ganoncrotch on 22 March 2014
generic-user-1 said:
ganoncrotch said:
AstroGamer said:
To get them to run natively would be complex since as getting it to run across both cores would need to reprogram the game itself. The other option is emulating the SNES architecture which the 3DS CPU clock speed isn't fast enough to on a single core.
The reason GBA is on the 3DS is that there is DS hardware in it which contains GBA hardware. This means there are no 3DS functions working in this mode so no pedometer, streetpass, suspend, miiverse, etc. as well as virtual console features like save states. It also opens ways to piracy since it opens up hardware weaknesses. Using this is a poor option for virtual console

Considering the 66/33mhz clock speeds of that original DS can tear through all but Super FX and Huge cart games like Super Street fighter 2 then to suggest that the 3ds couldn't software emulate a SNES is ludicrous.

im pretty sure the 3ds could handle doom and starfox.

Aye of course it could, have you seen the remake of Lylat Wars/Star Fox64 on the 3ds?  Or just it running the port of Super street fighter 4 or Resident evil revelations? anyone who would see those and think it hadn't the power to run a SNES emulator is really overestimating the SNES's hardware or underestimating that of the 3ds. Especially when you consider that it would be an emulator made at Nintendo, the people who worked on both hardwares/software in the first place and not just some group of coders who want to make an emulator for a system they like on another system they like.



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theRepublic on 22 March 2014
CleggaZ said:
UncleScrooge said:

There's one thing people never mention because it sounds so absurd: Did you ever consider that Nintendo maybe just doesn't have the manpower to put more games on the VC or program new emulators? It always sounded absurd to me - Nintendo making huge profits with the Wii and DS but failing to increase its workforce considerably? Doesn't make sense, right? But I think that's one of Nintendo's core problems. Look at all that stuff: Wii U games get delayed because they can't get them out in time, Wii U getting less games because they shifted support to 3DS to keep that thing selling, slow trickle of Virtual Console games, lack of N64, GBA, DS, Gamecube games, Nintendo outsourcing stuff like Hyrule Warriors, Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei, exclusive Sonic deals to boost the line-up, Smash Bros developed by a third party studio, Retro working on Mario Kart 7 to get the game out in time...?

Nintendo wouldn't announce stuff like a GBA or DS emulator months in advance if they had a considerable number of people working on it. They wouldn't delay Wii U games if they had more people working on them. They wouldn't need to outsource stuff if they had expanded in time. They wouldn't have to drop support for their platforms after 4 years to focus on their next gen consoles if they had enough dev teams to support more than 2 platforms at once.

But maybe that's just me and I'm missing something obvious.

No I completely agree this doesn’t just seem to be just a Nintendo problem though understaffing seems to affect other Japanese developers in comparison to western developers you can see this in various games that don't get ports onto other similarly powered consoles. Anyway what Nintendo should do is expand the team who takes care of the Virtual Console and flood it with as many games as possible which will then dramatically increase the Wii U/3DS game library’s and hopefully increase sell consoles as well.

Why would more Virtual Console games increase console sales?  There is no reason for that to be the case.  People buy new hardware for new games.  Not to play old games.

The Virtual Console can be a way to squeeze some extra money out of existing consumers and fans.  That's about it.  I see it mainly as fan service, and I am guessing that Nintendo does too.  Afterall, they are the ones that know how much money it made on the Wii.  That has to be the reason that it is not a top priority for them.



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CleggaZ on 22 March 2014
theRepublic said:
CleggaZ said:
UncleScrooge said:

There's one thing people never mention because it sounds so absurd: Did you ever consider that Nintendo maybe just doesn't have the manpower to put more games on the VC or program new emulators? It always sounded absurd to me - Nintendo making huge profits with the Wii and DS but failing to increase its workforce considerably? Doesn't make sense, right? But I think that's one of Nintendo's core problems. Look at all that stuff: Wii U games get delayed because they can't get them out in time, Wii U getting less games because they shifted support to 3DS to keep that thing selling, slow trickle of Virtual Console games, lack of N64, GBA, DS, Gamecube games, Nintendo outsourcing stuff like Hyrule Warriors, Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei, exclusive Sonic deals to boost the line-up, Smash Bros developed by a third party studio, Retro working on Mario Kart 7 to get the game out in time...?

Nintendo wouldn't announce stuff like a GBA or DS emulator months in advance if they had a considerable number of people working on it. They wouldn't delay Wii U games if they had more people working on them. They wouldn't need to outsource stuff if they had expanded in time. They wouldn't have to drop support for their platforms after 4 years to focus on their next gen consoles if they had enough dev teams to support more than 2 platforms at once.

But maybe that's just me and I'm missing something obvious.

No I completely agree this doesn’t just seem to be just a Nintendo problem though understaffing seems to affect other Japanese developers in comparison to western developers you can see this in various games that don't get ports onto other similarly powered consoles. Anyway what Nintendo should do is expand the team who takes care of the Virtual Console and flood it with as many games as possible which will then dramatically increase the Wii U/3DS game library’s and hopefully increase sell consoles as well.

Why would more Virtual Console games increase console sales?  There is no reason for that to be the case.  People buy new hardware for new games.  Not to play old games.

The Virtual Console can be a way to squeeze some extra money out of existing consumers and fans.  That's about it.  I see it mainly as fan service, and I am guessing that Nintendo does too.  Afterall, they are the ones that know how much money it made on the Wii.  That has to be the reason that it is not a top priority for them.

Well I think there’s definitely a market for older classic games alongside playing the newer games on a console, I feel this is the reason backwards compatibility is so popular since you can play the games from the previous generation/s that you love alongside new ones. I do think for this to work they would have to change up the virtual console a bit as well like adding cross buy and maybe a PlayStation plus style subscription for the Eshop that includes both new and virtual Console games.





theRepublic on 22 March 2014
CleggaZ said:
theRepublic said:
CleggaZ said:
UncleScrooge said:

There's one thing people never mention because it sounds so absurd: Did you ever consider that Nintendo maybe just doesn't have the manpower to put more games on the VC or program new emulators? It always sounded absurd to me - Nintendo making huge profits with the Wii and DS but failing to increase its workforce considerably? Doesn't make sense, right? But I think that's one of Nintendo's core problems. Look at all that stuff: Wii U games get delayed because they can't get them out in time, Wii U getting less games because they shifted support to 3DS to keep that thing selling, slow trickle of Virtual Console games, lack of N64, GBA, DS, Gamecube games, Nintendo outsourcing stuff like Hyrule Warriors, Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei, exclusive Sonic deals to boost the line-up, Smash Bros developed by a third party studio, Retro working on Mario Kart 7 to get the game out in time...?

Nintendo wouldn't announce stuff like a GBA or DS emulator months in advance if they had a considerable number of people working on it. They wouldn't delay Wii U games if they had more people working on them. They wouldn't need to outsource stuff if they had expanded in time. They wouldn't have to drop support for their platforms after 4 years to focus on their next gen consoles if they had enough dev teams to support more than 2 platforms at once.

But maybe that's just me and I'm missing something obvious.

No I completely agree this doesn’t just seem to be just a Nintendo problem though understaffing seems to affect other Japanese developers in comparison to western developers you can see this in various games that don't get ports onto other similarly powered consoles. Anyway what Nintendo should do is expand the team who takes care of the Virtual Console and flood it with as many games as possible which will then dramatically increase the Wii U/3DS game library’s and hopefully increase sell consoles as well.

Why would more Virtual Console games increase console sales?  There is no reason for that to be the case.  People buy new hardware for new games.  Not to play old games.

The Virtual Console can be a way to squeeze some extra money out of existing consumers and fans.  That's about it.  I see it mainly as fan service, and I am guessing that Nintendo does too.  Afterall, they are the ones that know how much money it made on the Wii.  That has to be the reason that it is not a top priority for them.

Well I think there’s definitely a market for older classic games alongside playing the newer games on a console, I feel this is the reason backwards compatibility is so popular since you can play the games from the previous generation/s that you love alongside new ones. I do think for this to work they would have to change up the virtual console a bit as well like adding cross buy and maybe a PlayStation plus style subscription for the Eshop that includes both new and virtual Console games.

There is a market for it.  I just don't think you are going to be bringing in new consumers with Virtual Console offerings.  You serve the existing base with the Virtual Console.



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Conina on 22 March 2014
theRepublic said:

Why would more Virtual Console games increase console sales?  There is no reason for that to be the case.  People buy new hardware for new games.  Not to play old games.

Some people buy new hardware for new and old games. The world is not black and white and your gaming preferences aren't everyone's preferences.

And I would bet that there are more nostalgic Nintendo fans than nostalgic Playstation or Xbox fans out there, which would love to play classics now and then on their actual device.



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CleggaZ on 22 March 2014

Then there’s also what Conina was saying with carrying around ds cards, can also be applied to peoples older console’s as well, why dig out your old megadrive when you can just load up your games on your current console and play them.



theRepublic on 22 March 2014
Conina said:
theRepublic said:

Why would more Virtual Console games increase console sales?  There is no reason for that to be the case.  People buy new hardware for new games.  Not to play old games.

Some people buy new hardware for new and old games. The world is not black and white and your gaming preferences aren't everyone's preferences.

And I would bet that there are more nostalgic Nintendo fans than nostalgic Playstation or Xbox fans out there, which would love to play classics now and then on their actual device.

I already said that there is a market for it.  The question is, "How big is the market?"

No one buys a new console just to play old games.  They by it to play new games, or new games and some old games.

Clearly, Nintendo has a lot of fans of their old games.  The thing is, these are games that a lot of people have already played, and they are of course old, so they are not worth that much.  Nintendo has only been charging $10 at most, right?  And there is a nontrival amount of work that goes into getting these games running.  Work that Nintendo already has experience in.  My guess is the already have a pretty good idea of the return on investment and profit margins they make on these Virtual Console games.  Clearly, it is not a high priorty for them.  It seems they would rather concentrate on selling new games at higher prices and I can't really blame them.

Would it be nice to have a huge back-catalog of Virtual Console games available?  Absolutely.  Do I expect it to happen?  No, not really.  Should we have a problem with Nintendo not focusing on this issue?  Again no, not really.



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Now Playing
Switch - Super Mario Maker 2 (2019)
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Wii U - Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (2010/2017)
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Conina on 22 March 2014
theRepublic said:
Conina said:
theRepublic said:

Why would more Virtual Console games increase console sales?  There is no reason for that to be the case.  People buy new hardware for new games.  Not to play old games.

Some people buy new hardware for new and old games. The world is not black and white and your gaming preferences aren't everyone's preferences.

And I would bet that there are more nostalgic Nintendo fans than nostalgic Playstation or Xbox fans out there, which would love to play classics now and then on their actual device.

I already said that there is a market for it.  The question is, "How big is the market?"

No one buys a new console just to play old games.  They by it to play new games, or new games and some old games.

Clearly, Nintendo has a lot of fans of their old games.  The thing is, these are games that a lot of people have already played, and they are of course old, so they are not worth that much.  Nintendo has only been charging $10 at most, right?  And there is a nontrival amount of work that goes into getting these games running.

The old games are not system sellers, but cumulative they can be system justifiers: "The new console/handheld has only 2 new titles, that interest me, but it has also a great selection of classics for the systems X, Y and Z. Many of them, I want to play again, some of them I always wanted to play, but got distracted by other games"

And there is a nontrivial amount of work to get the games running? Depends totally on the system. The Wii U can handle every Wii game, so why not put every good Wii game in the eShop? The 3DS can handle every DS game, so why not put every good DS game in the eShop? For every other system, they have to make an emulator once which covers the whole software library... they could hire some talents from the homebrew communities for that and provide them insight in the detailed hardware and software specifications.

Anything up to SNES should be no problem for the 3DS, even N64-games could be possible... Sony managed PS1 emulation on the slower PSP.



noname2200 on 22 March 2014
CleggaZ said:

Well I think there’s definitely a market for older classic games alongside playing the newer games on a console, I feel this is the reason backwards compatibility is so popular


You'll find few bigger VC advocates out there than me, but I must point out that backwards compatability is apparently not all that popular after all, judging from how Nintendo is the sole company that's tried to maintain it.



Zero999 on 22 March 2014

I want the virtual console to be unified between Wii U and 3ds, with the exception of wii u getting gamecube titles. and the prices should range between 1,99 and 4,99 depending on the original systems: NES/gameboy = 1,99 or 2,99; SNES/GBA/Master system = 2,99 or 3,99; N64/DS = 3,99 or 4,99. gamecube titles could be between 4,99 and 6,99.