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Comment by danso | Hacker News Reader

I'm amazed at the ridiculous pricing for these games. On Wii U, all of these classic games would cost $5 each. $60 for a physical device and 30 games is extremely generous by Nintendo standards.

Edit: if only it had River City Ransom...

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TBH 5$ is pretty fair pricing- average user is only going to buy one, maybe two NES ports, and serious retro buy-all-700 games people already have it all. It's only overpriced by maybe a dollar or two.

But yeah, 60$ for the kit? Crike that's cheap.

I've always found the virtual console a place where Nintendo could do better. I want to buy a license to a game and have it follow me as I upgrade to new (Nintendo-made) hardware.

For example, I have Kid Icarus via the Wii Virtual Console, and Mega Man on the 3DS Virtual Console. Why can't I play those in both places? Why do I have to pay _another_ $5 to play Mega Man on the Wii U? Especially now that Nintendo's online account stuff has shaped up to be pretty good. I'm not even sure if I can play the Wii-purchased Kid Icarus through my Wii U… or do I have to load up the Wii virtual console and then download it onto there? (That I haven't checked.)

I don't need all 700 games to be happy, but for $5 per game — for something that we know is basically just an emulator/ROM, I feel like I shouldn't get penalized for continuing up the upgrade path within the company.

I understand the multiple buying is because, unlike Microsoft and Sony, they never really invested in their online network to support this.

The Wii U shop knows what VC games you've already purchased for Wii, because it offers upgrade pricing for most of them. And there are a few games out there that do cross-buy between the Wii U and 3DS shops.

The multiple purchase issue is a strategic/marketing issue, not a technical one.

I suppose this makes sense for the average person, as most people probably don't understand how to use emulators and what not. Oh well.

Weird. I thought it was ridiculously high. But I also think $5 per game is crazy high. Especially considering how easy/cheap it is to make something like a retro-pi

Maybe digital-as-the-status-quo has made me think that creating physical items is so extraordinary that they command a premium price. I'm not even one of those people who cares about owning a physical copy of a game (in the sense of how Kickstarter projects will promise physical media as a stretch goal). And apparently, Nintendo has made a killing with their Amiibo toys, which is even more bizarre to me than the recent Pokemon Go craze.

But a cute little Nintendo replica? I would never buy one just as a nostalgic paperweight. But if it plays games, even if it may not have much expandability or interoperability with Internet systems? That's very appealing to the kid in me, even though my Wii U has been collecting dust for the past year now.

I didn't even think about the actual physical cost to create one of these. I was just thinking that it's mostly IP.

When I order something off Kickstarter, I don't care at all about physical copies, because I just won't use them. If I get a book/comic/etc that's not readable on my tablet, I just won't end up reading it. It's not that I'm against physical media, but it's so convenient for me to go digital that I just won't end up using physical

That was my first thought too. They're trying to get the long tail on these games that have essentially made back their cost over the past few decades. If it wasn't for this effort, they'd all be abandonware. I wonder if Nintendo will try to pull off the same crap Disney does when copyright expires on their games and iconic characters.

Huh. I think many of us just consider $60 to be "impulse buy, plug into my display at work in case I need a break" territory, where the last thing I need is another PROJECT. I'd never even consider building an emulator.

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