5 ms·

Okay, sure, there are plenty of great old games that Nintendo doesn't own, but there are also many properties that Nintendo has complete ownership of and can ea

Okay, sure, there are plenty of great old games that Nintendo doesn't own, but there are also many properties that Nintendo has complete ownership of and can easily make more available. They can definitely lower the wall on those.

bduerst 5y ago
Isn't this what Nintendo is already doing with hundreds of games? https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/2021/the-classic-game-library-reaches-100-games-for-nintendo-switch-online-members/ https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/2021/the-classic-ga...
- CobrastanJorji 5y ago
  Sure. But you can't buy them. You can only get them if you sign up for their monthly service, "Nintendo Switch Online." And you can't have all of them. You can only get the N64 games if you sign up for the separately monthly. "Expansion Pack" service. And you can't play them on multiple profiles. Your son can only play Mario 64 on his profile if you sign up for the "Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack + Family Pack" subscription, which is about $80 per year. It's so expensive because they bundled it with a bunch of other stuff (hooray now I can also play Switch games online and I have access to the latest patch for Animal Crossing and some extra tracks for Mario Kart). But I just wanted to let my son Mario 64, and $80 per year is too much for that.
  - bduerst 5y ago
    Pricing is a different complaint from hoarding copyrighted classics though. Sure, Nintendo isn't pricing their franchises at the price point you want, but in context to the discussion they're at least re-releasing what they can and making them accessible. (And if it was really about letting your son play Super Mario World, you can pay $8 and he can play it for three months)
    - deadbeeves 5y ago
      It's not just the price, though. Selling, say, Super Mario Bros. for $5 would be bad enough, but Nintendo has been forcing people to buy the same games over and over again because there's no way to move them to newer consoles when they come out. (I could be wrong about this. If so, please correct me.)
      - bduerst 5y ago
        No you're right, but a lifetime license to software on all platforms is a losing proposition for any company, since there are non-trivial costs to re-releasing on new technology. Also it may be easy to link digital purchases right now, but proving past cartridge purchases would be very difficult.
      - philistine 5y ago
        They actually got rid of exactly that. You cannot buy Super Mario Bros. on Nintendo Switch. You can only subscribe to a service that contains Super Mario Bros.
    - philistine 5y ago
      They are not releasing everything they can. They still cling to the idea of releasing games drip-feed. The apps for Switch do not have every single wholly owned Nintendo title. FAR from it.
      - bduerst 5y ago
        Which is pretty typical of a release process that requires updating and testing software on platforms that are ~30 years apart.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > But I just wanted to let my son Mario 64, and $80 per year is too much for that. Nintendo obviously agrees, since they charge less than that for Mario 64 on the Switch. https://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-3D-All-Stars-Nintendo-Switch/dp/B08G3MN6KP/ https://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-3D-All-Stars-Nintendo-Swi... It even comes bundled with Galaxy.
    - jimmaswell 5y ago
      People complained about this release - seems like some people will complain about anything short of free - but I thought it was a pretty good value.
      - thaumasiotes 5y ago
        Well, the obvious complaint is that it was time-limited. That was a ridiculous decision, and the complaining is richly deserved. I don't see any problem with the content, though.
      - squeaky-clean 5y ago
        The complaints were that the digital release was available for a limited time only. It's even more insulting that they're still selling the physical cartridge version of it. But if you want to own it digitally keeping the store page on their servers for more than 6 months was too difficult? I specifically didn't buy this because I don't want to normalize the trend of time-limited digital game sales. Shutting down your online store long after a product lifespan is over is understandable. But a 6 month purchase window is just trying to profit off of FOMO https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/2021/super-mario-3d-all-stars-leaves-nintendo-eshop-on-march-31st/ https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/2021/super-mario-3d...
        thaumasiotes 5y ago
        > It's even more insulting that they're still selling the physical cartridge version of it. Are they still manufacturing the cartridges, or did it just sell really poorly?
- mehlmao 5y ago
  They're doing an incredibly slow drip feed to keep people subscribed. There's tons of titles they own 100% and are not available so they can 'add' a new ROM every month or two.
  - bduerst 5y ago
    Which is pretty typical of a release process that requires updating and testing software on platforms that are ~30 years apart.
    - squeaky-clean 5y ago
      > that requires updating and testing software If this were the actual reason, Ocarina of Time would not have released on it with so many graphical glitches and input lag which they eventually fixed later.
      - bduerst 5y ago
        Short of anyone here working at Nintendo, we have no insight into what the bar is for release, the LOE to fix graphical bugs, or any of the challenges they face between platforms.

bduerst 5y ago

Isn't this what Nintendo is already doing with hundreds of games? https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/2021/the-classic-game-library-reaches-100-games-for-nintendo-switch-online-members/ https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/2021/the-classic-ga...

CobrastanJorji 5y ago
Sure. But you can't buy them. You can only get them if you sign up for their monthly service, "Nintendo Switch Online." And you can't have all of them. You can only get the N64 games if you sign up for the separately monthly. "Expansion Pack" service. And you can't play them on multiple profiles. Your son can only play Mario 64 on his profile if you sign up for the "Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack + Family Pack" subscription, which is about $80 per year. It's so expensive because they bundled it with a bunch of other stuff (hooray now I can also play Switch games online and I have access to the latest patch for Animal Crossing and some extra tracks for Mario Kart). But I just wanted to let my son Mario 64, and $80 per year is too much for that.
- bduerst 5y ago
  Pricing is a different complaint from hoarding copyrighted classics though. Sure, Nintendo isn't pricing their franchises at the price point you want, but in context to the discussion they're at least re-releasing what they can and making them accessible. (And if it was really about letting your son play Super Mario World, you can pay $8 and he can play it for three months)
  - deadbeeves 5y ago
    It's not just the price, though. Selling, say, Super Mario Bros. for $5 would be bad enough, but Nintendo has been forcing people to buy the same games over and over again because there's no way to move them to newer consoles when they come out. (I could be wrong about this. If so, please correct me.)
    - bduerst 5y ago
      No you're right, but a lifetime license to software on all platforms is a losing proposition for any company, since there are non-trivial costs to re-releasing on new technology. Also it may be easy to link digital purchases right now, but proving past cartridge purchases would be very difficult.
    - philistine 5y ago
      They actually got rid of exactly that. You cannot buy Super Mario Bros. on Nintendo Switch. You can only subscribe to a service that contains Super Mario Bros.
  - philistine 5y ago
    They are not releasing everything they can. They still cling to the idea of releasing games drip-feed. The apps for Switch do not have every single wholly owned Nintendo title. FAR from it.
    - bduerst 5y ago
      Which is pretty typical of a release process that requires updating and testing software on platforms that are ~30 years apart.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > But I just wanted to let my son Mario 64, and $80 per year is too much for that. Nintendo obviously agrees, since they charge less than that for Mario 64 on the Switch. https://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-3D-All-Stars-Nintendo-Switch/dp/B08G3MN6KP/ https://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-3D-All-Stars-Nintendo-Swi... It even comes bundled with Galaxy.
  - jimmaswell 5y ago
    People complained about this release - seems like some people will complain about anything short of free - but I thought it was a pretty good value.
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      Well, the obvious complaint is that it was time-limited. That was a ridiculous decision, and the complaining is richly deserved. I don't see any problem with the content, though.
    - squeaky-clean 5y ago
      The complaints were that the digital release was available for a limited time only. It's even more insulting that they're still selling the physical cartridge version of it. But if you want to own it digitally keeping the store page on their servers for more than 6 months was too difficult? I specifically didn't buy this because I don't want to normalize the trend of time-limited digital game sales. Shutting down your online store long after a product lifespan is over is understandable. But a 6 month purchase window is just trying to profit off of FOMO https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/2021/super-mario-3d-all-stars-leaves-nintendo-eshop-on-march-31st/ https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/2021/super-mario-3d...
      - thaumasiotes 5y ago
        > It's even more insulting that they're still selling the physical cartridge version of it. Are they still manufacturing the cartridges, or did it just sell really poorly?
mehlmao 5y ago
They're doing an incredibly slow drip feed to keep people subscribed. There's tons of titles they own 100% and are not available so they can 'add' a new ROM every month or two.
- bduerst 5y ago
  Which is pretty typical of a release process that requires updating and testing software on platforms that are ~30 years apart.
  - squeaky-clean 5y ago
    > that requires updating and testing software If this were the actual reason, Ocarina of Time would not have released on it with so many graphical glitches and input lag which they eventually fixed later.
    - bduerst 5y ago
      Short of anyone here working at Nintendo, we have no insight into what the bar is for release, the LOE to fix graphical bugs, or any of the challenges they face between platforms.