8 June 2006
Ferry

Nintendo reveals Wii Virtual Console download prices as $5 to $10

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed that games for Nintendo’s “Virtual Console”, that will allow Wii owners to download and play old Nintendo NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis & TurboGrafx titles on their consoles, will be priced at Â¥500 and Â¥1,000, roughly US$4.50 to US$9.

Internationally these prices will likely translate to: $5 to $10 / €5 to €10 / £3.50 to £7. For reference, classic retro games for the Nintendo GameBoy sold for upwards of $35 for some titles, $20 for others. Sales were understandably low, as gamers were resistant to pay that much for old content.

Iwata also stated that load times for these Virtual Console games would be short and sweet. “It probably won’t be that this is the case for every game, but we’re bugging the development staff to make startup take three seconds,” the Nintendo president said. Nintendo has not yet revealed which games will be available on the Virtual Console, but such classics as Super Mario Bros., Super Mario 64 and Sonic the Hedgehog were demoed at E3 2006.

Arstechnica mentions Retro gaming may prove to be a big boon for Nintendo. Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace has already captured the attention of many gamers with games costing 400 to 1,200 Microsoft “points,” which translates to $5 to $12.50.

Nintendo’s pricing is roughly competitive with Microsoft’s, but the ability to launch with a massive library of retro games could easily overshadow Microsoft’s service, which has been anemic in terms of new titles since launch (though we wait in anticipation for Paperboy, Contra, and others). Are gamers more likely to buy webgame Zuma for $10, or Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask?

8 June 2006 12:55
Steve

$5 is going to be a hard sell for some of the more mediocre NES titles, but keeping to the lower end of the spectrum shouldn’t destroy sales overall.

9 June 2006 02:13
supadupagama

I was kind of hoping the 8-bit games would go for a cheaper $2.50 too, but these numbers aren’t specific, so we’ll see what happens.