Any one else feel a little ripped off by VC?

[Conan the Librarian]

what the hell are you talking about?


They never said 'the entire nintendo library'. They said (parapharsing) that it would be more or less the best of on each system.

no ****

Well if it bothers you that much, just don't buy the crappy versions and wait a month or two for the good ones. Jesus, the VCs only been out less than a year and you've already got 150+ games to choose from.

Im not psychic, douche bag......

Try a great TG-16 game for once.

Oxy Moron. what Bonk? go **** yourself.

 

[eddy]

no ****




Im not psychic, douche bag......


Oxy Moron. what Bonk? go **** yourself.

you know, some people are just born ***holes. You're obviously one of them.

 

[Budo]

If you don't want 'em, don't buy 'em. VC was supposed to be a selling point, not the reason to get the system. Nintendo up front long before the release of the console said what the games would cost. Sorry, 5 bucks to play back through classic Mario on my big screen...worth it to me...if it wasn't I wouldn't have paid it.

I will say this, the argument that they shouldn't charge for a 20 year old game...ya...okay. Man, I went into the book store yesterday to get a copy of THE SHINING by Stephen King. When I tried to walk out of the bookstore, they stopped me and told me I HAD TO PAY FOR IT! I said WTF????? That book was published over 30 years ago, what RIGHT have you got to charge for a story that old!!!!! I was so pissed that I went home and decided to calm down by listening to some music. So I logged on to my favorite music service to download some classic Rolling Stones and Beatles songs...NEXT THING YOU KNOW IT'S TELLING ME I HAVE TO PAY for these songs! The NERVE...songs 30/40 years old...who would PAY to own these. Geezuz Krist. What an evil profit mongering society we live in where people put effort into creating something and expect people to PAY for it when they actually want it...especially after time has passed.

They should charge money, but not the amount they currently are, as everything at this point is pure profit (minus the very small load required to download the game file from Nintendo's servers). Older game prices sold through the VC should be mainly based on file size IMO. We don't get any box, hard copy of a manual, or the hard copy of the game. There's no packaging/production/shipping/advertising costs associated with these old games, outside of the tiny amount of bandwidth the majority of the VC games would use.

 

[eddy]

Budo, that's a fair point about the price that's charged but I don't really think it's all that bad and really in line with what things cost these days. Try downloading a copy of Tetris or Pacman to your cell phone and you're dinged $4-5 FOR A CELL PHONE GAME!!!

Same goes with music. Sure you could buy a CD and get the sleeve and jacket but when you go to iTunes, it's still $.99 a song.

We're in the digital age and digital info costs money even if there's not physical box, instruction booklet or cartridge and I for one could care less. I'm done with blowing on NES/SMS/Genesis carts just to get them to play, hoping the spring will stay down, dead batteries on RAM games, the ridiculous amount of space and just about everything else that bugged me about cartridge based consoles. If I can just download the game and have it on one small package, I'm happy to pay a premium for that.

 

[halfcrazed]

If you don't want 'em, don't buy 'em. VC was supposed to be a selling point, not the reason to get the system. Nintendo up front long before the release of the console said what the games would cost. Sorry, 5 bucks to play back through classic Mario on my big screen...worth it to me...if it wasn't I wouldn't have paid it.

I will say this, the argument that they shouldn't charge for a 20 year old game...ya...okay. Man, I went into the book store yesterday to get a copy of THE SHINING by Stephen King. When I tried to walk out of the bookstore, they stopped me and told me I HAD TO PAY FOR IT! I said WTF????? That book was published over 30 years ago, what RIGHT have you got to charge for a story that old!!!!! I was so pissed that I went home and decided to calm down by listening to some music. So I logged on to my favorite music service to download some classic Rolling Stones and Beatles songs...NEXT THING YOU KNOW IT'S TELLING ME I HAVE TO PAY for these songs! The NERVE...songs 30/40 years old...who would PAY to own these. Geezuz Krist. What an evil profit mongering society we live in where people put effort into creating something and expect people to PAY for it when they actually want it...especially after time has passed.

Yeah, I agree, this was a great post. I can sort of grudgingly see your point, though the VC product being free was never my argument. I still think the games are a bit pricey. A price drop of two dollars on every respective group would suit me better.

 

[Napalmbrain]

Budo, that's a fair point about the price that's charged but I don't really think it's all that bad and really in line with what things cost these days. Try downloading a copy of Tetris or Pacman to your cell phone and you're dinged $4-5 FOR A CELL PHONE GAME!!!

Same goes with music. Sure you could buy a CD and get the sleeve and jacket but when you go to iTunes, it's still $.99 a song.

We're in the digital age and digital info costs money even if there's not physical box, instruction booklet or cartridge and I for one could care less. I'm done with blowing on NES/SMS/Genesis carts just to get them to play, hoping the spring will stay down, dead batteries on RAM games, the ridiculous amount of space and just about everything else that bugged me about cartridge based consoles. If I can just download the game and have it on one small package, I'm happy to pay a premium for that.

But it doesn't cost much to distribute things in digital form, so why shouldn't those lower costs be reflected by lower prices for us?

 

[Magus]

But it doesn't cost much to distribute things in digital form, so why shouldn't those lower costs be reflected by lower prices for us?

you would think so, right?

apparently you're wrong...apparently anyone who thinks that is wrong...

what makes it sting a little less though is you can be sure that if you pay $5 for something like that now, you'll probably pay $5 a year from now, as opposed to if you pay $50 for a new game now, you might pay $19 for it a year from now...because digital media doesn't depreciate, it has no resell value, and you don't have to worry about moving any physical product, so the profit margin on it even at such a small price is huge...

but again, it makes it sting less, since you know you're not getting scalped because you couldn't wait a few months for the inevitable price drop...

now to maybe try to give an answer to the question everyone is asking...the question of "why...why so expensive for something so inexpensive to produce in such a mass?"

let me answer that with another question...

why are gas prices so high?

"what? what does gas have to do with VC?"

not much...here...I'll give you another one...

why does something signed by someone famous sell for so much on EBay?

"what? what does a signature have to do with VC?"

not much...but I'll explain...

The gasoline industry charges what they do because they know even if they charge much more than they could, people will still pay for it

I can sell something signed by someone famous for some huge amount of money because I -know- people will pay that much for it

so I ask you again...why does Nintendo charge so much for VC games?

if you can't answer that, I'll try even one more time...

XBox live costs to get on, but it's free once you get there (for the most part)
Playstation home may or may not charge for their data/use of service...

we have a saying round here, you might have heard it...

"@$$, grass, or cash...no one rides for free."

Don't blame Nintendo for charging what they do.

Cheers!

 

[sagema]

Nice post. These people driving the monster cars, unaware of the climate change, rising gas prices, and how it's all connected, that means game prices will climb too. People have to pay money to get to work, even video game employees. We don't have teleporters!

Which is why I'm making a teleporter. For a small investment of $1 billion you too can rip holes through the universe to save precious minutes on your travel time (Joke).

 

[Conan the Librarian]

These people driving the monster cars, unaware of the climate change, rising gas prices, and how it's all connected, that means game prices will climb too.

:crazy:

 

[Napalmbrain]

you would think so, right?

apparently you're wrong...apparently anyone who thinks that is wrong...

what makes it sting a little less though is you can be sure that if you pay $5 for something like that now, you'll probably pay $5 a year from now, as opposed to if you pay $50 for a new game now, you might pay $19 for it a year from now...because digital media doesn't depreciate, it has no resell value, and you don't have to worry about moving any physical product, so the profit margin on it even at such a small price is huge...

but again, it makes it sting less, since you know you're not getting scalped because you couldn't wait a few months for the inevitable price drop...

now to maybe try to give an answer to the question everyone is asking...the question of "why...why so expensive for something so inexpensive to produce in such a mass?"

let me answer that with another question...

why are gas prices so high?

"what? what does gas have to do with VC?"

not much...here...I'll give you another one...

why does something signed by someone famous sell for so much on EBay?

"what? what does a signature have to do with VC?"

not much...but I'll explain...

The gasoline industry charges what they do because they know even if they charge much more than they could, people will still pay for it

I can sell something signed by someone famous for some huge amount of money because I -know- people will pay that much for it

so I ask you again...why does Nintendo charge so much for VC games?

if you can't answer that, I'll try even one more time...

XBox live costs to get on, but it's free once you get there (for the most part)
Playstation home may or may not charge for their data/use of service...

we have a saying round here, you might have heard it...

"@$$, grass, or cash...no one rides for free."

Don't blame Nintendo for charging what they do.

Cheers!

So you didn't answer my point, and instead say I shouldn't blame them for overcharging? Digital media may not depreciate, but the games they're emulating certainly have.

 

[samXcor3]

why would nintendo ever release a microsoft (windows) game? why would you expect them to include computer games? your NES games point is kinda irrelevant or something. the thing i dont like is 1200 for sin an punishtment (wtf!) and 600 for konami's ninja turtles, etc.

what you gotta remember is X amount of VC games every WEEK for the entire life of the wii. they cant release everything good in one week.

 

[eddy]

So you didn't answer my point, and instead say I shouldn't blame them for overcharging? Digital media may not depreciate, but the games they're emulating certainly have.

$5-10 for a game, IMO, is not overcharging but regardless whether you think it is or isn't.

I think the previous point is fairly obvious. Nintendo is charging what they are because people will pay for it.

 

[Conan the Librarian]

why would nintendo ever release a microsoft (windows) game? why would you expect them to include computer games? your NES games point is kinda irrelevant or something. the thing i dont like is 1200 for sin an punishtment (wtf!) and 600 for konami's ninja turtles, etc.

what you gotta remember is X amount of VC games every WEEK for the entire life of the wii. they cant release everything good in one week.

Dude, dont take me (or some of these other guys who dont know what they're talking about) seriously......The computer game thing, was just my way of saying 1)I dont need games from every tom dick and harry system that comes along. and 2)Wolfenstein 3d is not a microsoft game, it was freeware from ID software and they had it on different operating systems. .....and by todays standards it sucks, therefore, I could see it on the VC for about $8 now. Radioshack owns Tandy, but when you ask radio shack, they are ashamed to admit it.

heres the thing, If they released wolfenstein 3d, they would release the version with only 1-1 through 1-9.....the old free version. There would be no swastikas, or dogs, or secret doors.....then a month later they would release the version that lets you play to 9-9, and would include the stuff you wanted from the first go round.

I prefer it stick to NES, SNES, N64.......( and the good genesis titles) the TG-16 games dont come close to the Ninty ones. Thats all.

 

[ScuzzBuster]

The prices charged are based on what the market will support. The classic question whether its product or the salary of a professional athlete...WHAT'S IT WORTH? It is worth EXACTLY what people are willing to pay for it.

Another thing kind of grinding me about this argument is the posters that say "Why should I pay 5-10 bucks when I can download the ROMS and an EMULATOR for free and play them?" Very fair comment...but it is TECHNICALLY not legal. I'm not judging that, I've done my fair share of EMU in the past, but that argument falls right along the lines of "Why should I pay $1.00 for that candy bar when I can slip it in my pocket and walk out of the store for FREE?"

Nintendo is NOT a not for profit company. Likewise, regardless of how much the designers had a love for game design, they DIDN'T do it for their health, nor would they have had the time and resources to design the awesome games they did if people didn't pay for them. And I PROMISE you that the neither the devs nor Nintendo put ANY product out with the thought "Wow, this is great! We'll charge for it for a couple of years and then just give it away for free!"

And to go back to my ITUNES analogy from earlier post. 99cents per song...lets say a classic STONES album...12 tracks...so about $12.00...when it came out, it WAS THAT OR LESS. When Super Mario Brothers came out...what was it? $40. Better Deal? I love the stones, but I had a lot more time and fun with Mario than Mick since the 80s.

I PAID $50.00 FOR ATARI 2600 ASTEROIDS AND ATARI 2600 PAC-MAN BACK IN THE DAY...

And lastly...
BANDWIDTH cost $$
CONTINUED SUPPORT, PATCHING and CONTENT FOR WII-CONNECT costs $$
CONTINUED INNOVATION, GAME and TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT costs $$

My only bones with the VC games right now is that some of the "classic" arcade games, like Donkey Kong and DKjr are the NES versions rather than the classic arcade versions...but I knew this when I DLed them and did it anyway.

To digress even further...I'm super duper mad that SM2 (THE LOST LEVELS) was the original version and not the enhanced SNES ALL STARS version...

and damn I forgot how tough the sunuvabitch was.

For the most part though, CHEERS to VC. I think it's a great service and for ME PERSONALLY, the prices are right in line with what's fair. Granted, when we start talking N64 titles, I will REALLY have to want it to pay the 10+ dollars before I do it, but I don't give a second thought about tossing out $5.00 for some of the NES classics I can't get LEGALLY anywhere else right now.

 

[eddy]

I think Scuzzbuster has said it best. If you really want to use the "ROMs are free arguement", go ahead and download them and use them. Sure it's illegal but if you guys seem to want something for nothing, it's probably the only way to go. Then you can all quit yer bitchin' and moaning about the VC being too much because you'll have all your ROMs to play.