You're right, they can charge whatever they want. The thing is, in order for me to legally play classic Nintendo games through emulation, I need to buy a Wii and a classic controller. That's $270 as a starting point for legal emulation. That makes zero sense financially unless you already own a wii or want one for other games. The fact that you're saying that I need to buy a Wii (or a classic game system) or abstain from playing classic Nintendo games because of legality isn't very realistic on your part. The restrictions imposed by licensing and by Nintendo on their operation of Virtual Console mean that not only will games I want never appear on the service, but the ones that I do want are tethered by DRM and inconsistent pricing, with it being unclear if future Nintendo consoles will support VC games. I have no problem with paying for older games, but the virtual console vs. emulation thing isn't nearly as black and white as you make it out to be.

Why should a game be worth less just because it's old?

When you buy a DVD of a classic movie, does it cost any less than that of a new movie?  Should Citizen Kane cost 10 cents because darnit, it's so old?  Are old books sold for only pennies?  Is old art considered worthless?

Of course not.  This absurd attitude that because a game is more than 2 years old it's worthless has to stop. 

Complaining over having to pay 5 bucks for a videogame that will provide you with numerous hours of entertainment just because it's old is absurd.  Is 2 or 3 dollars really anything to comlain about?  Would you all be rushing out to buy VC games if they only cost 2 or 3 bucks?  I doubt it...if anything I bet sales would actually drop.  When Sega packs 50 games on a disc for 30 dollars nobody buys the damn thing.   The most succesful retro re-releases ever were when Nintendo released old NES games on GBA carts for 20-bucks each.  People bought those things in the millions! 

Nintendo knows what other companies like Sega don't...if you treat your own games like they're worthless, consumers will too.

The fallacy in your argument comes from the assumption that the issue is with the classic games. It's not. Getting a classic game like Super Mario Bros. for $5 is great. Being asked to pay the same amount for Donkey Kong Jr. Math is the problem. Being asked to pay the same amount of money for Street Fighter II: The World Warriors, then Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, and then Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers is the problem when each was merely an enhancement of the same game.

Quality of the games released on the service has nothing to do with pricing.  A bad game will be a bad game at 2 bucks just the same as at 5 bucks. 

There's no form of entertainment on earth where things are priced according to quality.  Going to see GI Joe and the latest academy award winner in the theatre will cost the same.  Whining that VC games should be priced according to quality is silly because you know damn well it's not going to happen.  It's just an argument you got cornered into after people pointed out that a lot of the games on the VC are actually excellent deals.

Nintendo's own recent attitude towards the Virtual Console falls more in line with my thinking than it does yours. It's not just bad titles either. There's good, albeit niche titles that need a damn price cut also or need the ability to start out cheaper than the standard price of the console's library. My point isn't that shitty games should be $3 cheaper compared to good games. It's that there should be a flexible pricing structure just like at retail, so that a game that isn't selling well at $5 can then drop it's price to $2 to generate more sales. If Nintendo didn't implement such a rigid pricing model, then Nintendo themselves may be more favorable to continuing the push of the service. Instead they're now focusing more energy towards WiiWare, which costs more to develop games for, bringing in less profit per sale.

Since you're new to the thread, answer me this. How would you describe the problem of $5 Sega Genesis title with achievements, slight graphical enhancements and online multiplayer on Xbox Live offering more than the ROM dumps of these same games on the Virtual Console for $8? Is this a pricing issue to you, or something else entirely?

Are they overpriced? Definitely! If you want to make a statement, then just don't buy them. If the sales are poor enough, the price will come down.

Since you're new to the thread, answer me this. How would you describe the problem of $5 Sega Genesis title with achievements, slight graphical enhancements and online multiplayer on Xbox Live offering more than the ROM dumps of these same games on the Virtual Console for $8? Is this a pricing issue to you, or something else entirely?

Yeah, that can be a bit annoying, although how often has that happened?  Only a small handful of the VC's over 300 titles are available in a deluxe version for cheaper.  Also, one thing you pay for with the VC is exact emulation.  A lot of the time the "enhancements" you get on Live arcade actually hurt the game.

Now here's a question for you guys who insist that bad/already released somewhere else games should be cheaper.  Would you be willing to pay *more* for rare, quality games?  Sin and Punishment used to cost over 100 dollars...Nintendo could have charged 50 bucks to download the thing and still called it a deal.  You seem to be perfectly fine when Nintendo underprices games on the service, which just supports my belief that the whole "oh Nintendo needs a more flexible pricing structure!" is just you dancing around what you really want, which is for all the games to be cheaper.

Are they overpriced? Definitely! If you want to make a statement, then just don't buy them. If the sales are poor enough, the price will come down.

No they won't...Nintendo will just stop releasing them.  They're not going to devalue their franchises for a few extra sales.

I like a good argument.  Lets see if I can keep this going.

First off, buying a wii is not the only way to play classic Nintendo games through emulation.  You can buy the actual cartridge and then emulate it on your computer.  That is perfectly legal from what I understand.

"The fact that you're saying that I need to buy a Wii (or a classic game system) or abstain from playing classic Nintendo games because of legality isn't very realistic on your part."

"I have no problem with paying for older games, but the virtual console vs. emulation thing isn't nearly as black and white as you make it out to be."

time for a list:

1) [legal] Virtual console vs. [illegal] emulation is black and white.  One is right and one is wrong.  At least that is what I was told to believe when I became an officer

2) One of my points earlier is that if the legal way to play a game is too expensive to warrant the entertainment value it provides, don't play it.  You only think you have to play it; I think you will survive if you don't.

3) Once again, I will emphasize that I don't necessarily agree with VC pricing.  I didn't agree when RE2 and RE3 came out for the GC for 30$ and never went down in price.  I didn't agree when they released classic Nintendo games on GBA for rediculous prices.

The VC does not have exact emulation, otherwise the N64 games would have rumble available in them. Other consoles are emulated well though.

I've already given my solution, which is to use their current pricing model as a ceiling and allow the third parties to choose their own pricing anywhere at that price or lower than that, and let them implement price cuts if they so choose. This will allow the market to correct itself, when poor games and niche titles get priced lower because of a lower demand, while the anticipated titles are still seen as great deals because they can sell at the ceiling price. Maybe Neo-Geo titles aren't selling so well and SNK wants to take a few low selling titles and drop them half price. I feel they should be able to so they can increase interest in those titles. I don't think every console should just have one set price attached to it.

It doesn't help that Nintendo sells points in 1000 point increments and then doesn't offer cheap solutions to help customers rid themselves of excess points. Let's say I buy an SNES game for $8 and I have $2 worth of points left over. Well there's nothing there I see for $2, so I just let the points sit. If Nintendo allowed titles to be priced in that range, your excess points could now be used for cheaper titles.