[GuiA]

This is a very cool story, and makes me want to learn more about Tamiya. But the situation does not seem the same to me. People are - for the most part - able to play the old Nintendo games they want through the virtual console, backwards compatibility, remakes, or NES/SNES mini.

Yes, some N64 carts are selling for thousands on eBay - but that’s not preventing kids from playing that game if they want to.

[jrajav]

The virtual console is exactly how Nintendo lost faith with loyal consumers who want to stay above board. They sold them on the Wii and many fans bought in - but their purchases were not maintained with their digital account for a Wii U update, instead they had to physically transfer them. So far, just annoyances though.

The real problem came when they shipped the Switch with no virtual console at all. It's obviously easy to run NES and SNES games on even the cheapest modern hardware, so there's no excuse for not letting consumers own and play their games on any Nintendo console.

And maybe they just don't think it's worth spending time on shipping their old games, that it wouldn't be profitable? That would be fair enough, but they are spending time - they just released a whole batch of NES / SNES games to push their online subscription service. Of course, you don't get them just by owning them before - you have to buy them again.

It would have been easy to get and keep the good will of long-time loyal fans with a persistent and growing platform of their classic titles, but Nintendo opted for short-term investments instead of long-term in this case.

[013a]

The Switch has a NES/SNES virtual console; its unlimited access to every game available, bundled with the Nintendo Online subscription which costs $3/month or $20/year. There's maybe 30 or so games available for each of the old consoles. They even fake local multiplayer over Nintendo Online, allowing these classic games to be played with friends over the internet.

Gamecube emulation on the Switch may still be a little underpowered, just judging by the performance of the PC emulators (though, Nintendo has all the proprietary technical documentation and domain experts, so maybe not). Really, the N64 is the main console that people have wanted VC for, and have not gotten; an N64 VC would change the landscape for the Switch, that's for sure.

We've gotten some rumors that they're intending to release remakes of SM64, SMS, SMG, and possibly SMG2 as some kind of Mario Anniversary bundle this year. Frankly; while faithful copies of the original games with their original assets would be awesome, and I want that, I kind of want remakes more. I understand Nintendo's position here; the VC clearly did not make a tremendous amount of money. Maybe bundling with Nintendo Online will help fund more consoles and titles, but remakes are definitely easier to market and sell.

[humaniania]

52 NES and 26 SNES so far!

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/02/guide_nintendo_swit...

[skuthus]

To the OP's point, You can play some games with virtual console, but many games were released on only one or two newer consoles so you would effectively need to spend hundreds and sometimes thousands in order to actually play them all legally.

[Hamuko]

The strategy for Nintendo Switch Online is apparently to dripfeed classic games onto it. So if you for example want to play Mother (NES) or Mother 2 (SNES), you either need to emulate it on a PC, buy the actual retro consoles and games (or the SNES Classic for Mother 2), or get a Wii U and play it on the Wii U Virtual Console.

(If you want to play Mother 3 in English, you're going to have to resort to PC emulators.)

[skuthus]

I definitely don't blame Nintendo for using this strategy - I do however find it frustrating how unintuitive finding the games feels. Want to play Earthbound? Get a SNES classic. Want to play LOZ:Link to the Past? You can do it on the switch. Want to play Mario 2? Too bad. Its japan only. Etc.

[Hamuko]

Mario 2 is on the Switch in the west as well.