[paulscoder]

Don't you think Nintendo would prefer that when a product like a Switch goes EOL that it finds a new life generations later through the homebrew community?

Honestly, if I hadn't been able to play roms in college 8 years after I had packed my 8bit Nintendo away I would not have purchased anything on virtual console for the Wii.

[resonanttoe]

I think we as users would prefer that Nintendo prefers this. But no, Nintendo wants you to buy the next console that has the Virtual console of all those games you'll emulate through homebrew.

Abandonware has ceased to exist in the console world. Especially for Nintendo.

[BearGoesChirp]

I've read a conspiracy theory that Nintendo is wising up a bit to this, but can't do so openly, which is why the SNES classic was just as easy to hack as the NES classic even though a few simple changes could've made it much harder. They know the number of people who would pay $15 for a 15 year old game that hasn't aged well except for nostalgia is limited (assuming they even have the rights to sell it), but the market for hardware that would let them emulate them with a better (perhaps not better but more nostalgic) experience than the simple PC emulator setup is wide open. Thus the NES and SNES classic.

As I said, it is just a conspiracy theory, but leaving the power port to transfer data as well as power in the SNES classic after the same design allowed massive hacking of the NES classic does give a slight nod towards the theory.

[resonanttoe]

Yeh this sounds plausible.

I have felt that the virtual console prices are way to high for what they are. But stuff it in $10 worth of largely OSS and off the shelf hardware with a pretty case and sell it for $60 and I'm all in.

I think given that emulation is a pretty well known thing within the target audience for the classic systems, protecting against it is a lost cause. The market for the classics are nostalgia driven game folks which is different from the switch, which is broader. They have to convince Mum and Dad of

Shelly the 12yo that there is something there. Of course if Mum and Dad happen to see a game from their childhood that they've forgotten about on the Eshop, so much the better. Plus that entire teenage market isn't as susceptible to nostalgia purchases as the 30-40 market is right now. We'll see another wave of those kinds of devices in 20 years :D.

Given the low numbers of the classic systems available, it just had all the ear markings of a small group's side project that may or may not have worked, rather than a complete exec buy in to be the "next-big-thing".

[seba_dos1]

Didn't they actually leave some text file in the filesystem with some kind of "happy hacking" note on (S)NES Classic?

[earenndil]

Yep https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/5mhdwq/hidden_mes...