With the recent announcement of Sega releasing a robust classic game collection on the switch on top Capcom's retro game collections, I think it's looking pretty clear that  the good ol Virtual Console is just about dead.

Perhaps when Nintendo Reveals its Online Subscription plans we'll get a clearer idea of how to get Nintendo's own retro games on the Switch, but as far 3rd party classics of the NES, Genesis and SNES era go I imagine our best chances will be with collections like Mega Man Legacy, Sega Ages, and the Japan only Secret of Mana Collection.

I'm excited for the possibility of more retro collections being released. Especially when the Mega Man X collections are bringing the price to $5 per game. Better deal as a collection than individual digital downloads.

What retro game/virtual console esque colllection do you hope gets announced?

for me I most want:

Final Fantasy 16-Bit collection.

And In my greatest dreams the version of FFVI included would be the original SNES version with the GBA's New Translation, Espers, and Final Dungeon.

As long as the games end up coming to the console, does it really matter if they don't come in an unified VC format?

Meh... all of it, virtual console included is pointless for me due to in-put lag. Even the SNES Classic lags compared to the original games on a CRT. So, I really don't care either way.

Probably gonna just sell my Switch after Smash and Pokémon, if this is true.

Big publishers can launch game compilations, but that doesn't apply to games from small ones or even the ones that have disappeared since then. Plus, with a virtual console of sorts, you're giving the chance to the user to buy the games individually... which will be more expensive than bought through a collection.

So no, I think there's still room for a virtual console or a new system inspired by it.

Yeah certainly the more obscure games will get lost if Virtual console would go away (I doubt we'll get many Romancing Kingdom Compilations out here)

I always thought The Virtual console brand would be great for PC and Mobile ports. Functioning as some sort of cloud for classic Nintendo Games on other platforms.....but yeah that is likely to never happen.

That’s not true at all. Several catalogue collections, even from Nintendo themselves (Such as Kirby) appeared on Wii and included games that eventually came out on Virtual Console.

More likely they are waiting until they can finalize the online subscription details, which may occur after the platform launches, before launching VC, because if they give unlimited access with a subscription, they don’t want to anger customers by nullifying the value of their previous purchases on the same platform; even more, they don’t want to devalue the potential platform either.

I'd actually prefer collections myself, over individual titles.

Just remake all of those Square Enix games in the Octopath Traveler engine. That's all you need to do for me not to care about their games releasing in VC.

Nintendo is unpredictable. I don't even try. Maybe it's dead. Maybe it'll come with a tiny CRT Labo TV and original controller support. We just don't know.