|
Junkie
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Sleepyjack
Do the (old) games ship with the revolution, or will there be some kind of download system? Also, if you've previously bought them, could you somehow play them on the revolution without repurchasing?
unless it only costs 5-10bucks?
|
From GameDaily Biz:
http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.as...feature&email=
Quote:
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Back catalog not free
Nintendo to Charge for Downloading Old Games to Revolution
When Nintendo revealed that its library of games from the past 20 years would be downloadable on the Revolution, some fans got the strange idea that these games would be free. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has confirmed, however, that Nintendo will charge for its old titles. In addition, Miyamoto has revealed that the Revolution controller has not yet been finalized. More within...
A few more details have surfaced regarding Nintendo's next-gen console, including the fact that users will have to pay for old Nintendo titles they wish to download and that the Revolution's controller is still not finalized.
Virtual Console, real money
Speaking at a recent business strategy conference in Japan, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata addressed the rumor that users may be able to download old first-party Nintendo titles for free. The ability to download and play old NES, SNES and N64 titles—what Nintendo is calling a "Virtual Console"—will indeed come with a price, Iwata confirmed. "...we have no plans to distribute [our old games] without a fee," he said.
This squares with what Nintendo of America recently told us. When GameDAILY BIZ spoke with Beth Llewelyn, NoA's Senior Director, Public Relations at E3, we asked if Nintendo would charge for its back catalog, to which she responded: "Probably, but we haven't gone into what these details will be and as we get closer to launch we'll describe what the program is, what the costs will be, what games will be available, etc."
[ "We hope to set up a system that will enable both Nintendo and [third-parties] to make a profit by using the [classic games] from our past," Satoru Iwata, Nintendo president ]
Although Nintendo fans obviously would love to have free access to all of their old favorites, providing these catalog titles at a nominal price is a wiser business move by Nintendo. After all, if people are willing to pay $20 for NES Classics on the Game Boy Advance, they'll surely pay the (likely smaller) fee to download an old game to the Revolution.
More than 221 old games playable?
There's also the possibility that Nintendo will use the Virtual Console as a way of promoting new games. Iwata went on to say that Nintendo may reward users who purchase new Revolution titles with bonus downloads or that there could be trial periods where users would have free access to the Virtual Console for a limited time. Nintendo has not yet announced which titles will be downloadable, but in Japan thus far the company has released 221 titles—74 for the NES (Famicom), 54 on the SNES (Super Famicom), 45 on N64, and 43 on GameCube.
Beyond Nintendo's first-party offerings, there's a good chance that third-party publishers will sign up for the Virtual Console service as well. In fact, Iwata has already confirmed that Nintendo is currently talking to other publishers about the prospects of bringing their older titles to the Revolution Virtual Console. "We hope to set up a system that will enable both Nintendo and [third-parties] to make a profit by using the [classic games] from our past," Iwata stated at the conference.
Iwata also mentioned that the Revolution's 512MB of internal flash memory will be used to store downloads from the Virtual Console and saving Revolution game data. Interestingly, he also said that users may be able to download Nintendo DS demos via the Revolution and then transfer them to the handheld through the wireless connection. With regards to Nintendo's online plans, the company is quickly taking steps to set up its Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service. Iwata recognizes that wireless hasn't been fully embraced by the average consumer yet and he would like to see at least 90 percent of Nintendo customers using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. To make things easier, Nintendo currently plans to establish 1,000 wireless DS hot spots in Japan around commercial areas and high-traffic locations. It's not clear at this moment whether a similar wireless infrastructure will be implemented in North America.
Controller not final
The question that everyone is still waiting for an answer to, though, is: What is so revolutionary about Nintendo's next-gen controller? Well, it seems that Nintendo hasn't settled upon the final form factor or even decided what features to include or leave out.
At the business conference, Shigeru Miyamoto confessed that the company is still tinkering with the controller because they don't want it to become overly complex. "We're at a stage where we're adding and removing various kinds of functions, which has been very fun," Miyamoto said (as reported by GameSpot). "The Revolution will have an interesting interface. We're investing a lot of money into the [development of the] interface, and it's still not finalized."
|
|