Revolution Gets Cooler

[The Postman]

1) MAME is for arcade games. They are selling NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, and TurboGFX 16 games.

Point taken, I actually meant to say emulation. However you are right that it's a smaller group of people who know about emulation, but it's also an ever smaller and smaller group that remember these old games and will buy them for nostalgia. That being said, this business model can't continue forever.

2) It's not a marketing tactic because they are offering a service. A service people want.

It's a marketing tactic because they're offering a kitsche service because vintage is popular currently, although personally I see that trend waning a bit. Think of it kind of in the same vein of "vintage" tee-shirts.

4) I think it will be incredibly commercially viable. Nintendo has always had some of the strongest franchies out there, and I don't know many people that wouldn't shell out a couple bucks to play Mario 3 or Zelda : A Link to the Past again (or dare I bring up the Super Metroid, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger crowd.) This comes at very little cost to Nintendo minus some simple engineering costs. This means that even slow sales are profit.

They market to the kitsche audience now. That's really all they've got and when that dries up, then what? Sales of the 'cube paled in comparison to other consoles like the PS2 and hell, even the XBox later in its life. Regurgitating old content can only keep the coffers full for so long. If Nintendo wanted to keep in the game, they'd re-invent some of those franchises or even seek new ones with strong ideas backing them. I do realize that there is nearly zero overhead for these to be "made" though, so I suppose that's a plus in their direction.

5) You're not rebuying them at anywhere near the cost. They aren't going to charge you fifty dollars to play Mario 2. It's a low price that's a lot lower than what you'd pay in a store for one of those older games (I see Gamestop charge 25+ for snes games that are good.) For certain people this is a good deal because they don't have the means to get another NES or SNES and set it up.

I'm still re-buying them though. I'm re-buying games I've already purchased. That just rubs me the wrong way. It might not bother you, but it bothers me, let's leave that one to opinion, eh?

[Fletch]

Sales of the 'cube paled in comparison to other consoles like the PS2 and hell, even the XBox later in its life. Regurgitating old content can only keep the coffers full for so long. If Nintendo wanted to keep in the game, they'd re-invent some of those franchises or even seek new ones with strong ideas backing them. I do realize that there is nearly zero overhead for these to be "made" though, so I suppose that's a plus in their direction

USA sales, yes. Interntaional, no. The Gamecube outsold the x-box worldwide, with the PS2 in a huge lead. Also, the Gamecube hardwarre was the only one that was selling without losing money on it, which looks like the same situation with the Revolution.

Nintendo is just going for a different market, and it will be interesting to see how the Revolution turns out when it comes to that. Their console is probably going to cost somewhere from 200-250 at launch. They've said their games are not going to be in the 50-60 range, so a 45 price tag on games seems reasonable. They've also seemingly embraced a sort of universal compatability mantra. Gamecube games work on the system, you can download old system games. The DS will reportedly be able to cummunicate wirelessly with it. They seem to want to give developers more freedom to work within that framework (as opposed to the PS3 which I've yet to hear a positive thing about as far as the dev kits go).

Also, Nintendo may have very well isolated themselves from the oncoming storm of political backlash for violent and overly sexual videogames. Sure, most of the laws are going to get thrown out on constitutional issues, but some are going to stick. And people like Parent's Television Council and the Institute for Media and the Family tend to hold long grudges and do a good job mobilizing people at boycotts. So when shit really starts to hit the fan (and it will within the next 6 months), Nintendo is going to stand back and say "Hey, we had nothing to do with that. We've been making fun games for all ages for years. We don't have GTA or Postal on our system. So when you're spending your holiday money on a console for little Johnny, be sure to spend your money on good old fashioned Nintendo products, like your parents did for you when you were a kid." Little Johnny might be pissed off for a few minutes that he didn't get an Xbox 360, but then he'll pop in Mario and Zelda and be happy for a good long while.

[The Postman]

USA sales, yes. Interntaional, no. The Gamecube outsold the x-box worldwide, with the PS2 in a huge lead. Also, the Gamecube hardwarre was the only one that was selling without losing money on it, which looks like the same situation with the Revolution.

However it's important to remember which market is the biggest and most important. Japan and Europe are nice enough but the markets there aren't nearly as huge as America.

Nintendo is just going for a different market, and it will be interesting to see how the Revolution turns out when it comes to that. Their console is probably going to cost somewhere from 200-250 at launch. They've said their games are not going to be in the 50-60 range, so a 45 price tag on games seems reasonable. They've also seemingly embraced a sort of universal compatability mantra. Gamecube games work on the system, you can download old system games. The DS will reportedly be able to cummunicate wirelessly with it. They seem to want to give developers more freedom to work within that framework (as opposed to the PS3 which I've yet to hear a positive thing about as far as the dev kits go).

Also, Nintendo may have very well isolated themselves from the oncoming storm of political backlash for violent and overly sexual videogames. Sure, most of the laws are going to get thrown out on constitutional issues, but some are going to stick. And people like Parent's Television Council and the Institute for Media and the Family tend to hold long grudges and do a good job mobilizing people at boycotts. So when shit really starts to hit the fan (and it will within the next 6 months), Nintendo is going to stand back and say "Hey, we had nothing to do with that. We've been making fun games for all ages for years. We don't have GTA or Postal on our system. So when you're spending your holiday money on a console for little Johnny, be sure to spend your money on good old fashioned Nintendo products, like your parents did for you when you were a kid." Little Johnny might be pissed off for a few minutes that he didn't get an Xbox 360, but then he'll pop in Mario and Zelda and be happy for a good long while.

In doing so they've also limited themselves in markets as well, though. People who want to purchase PG13+ or MA rated games don't go to Nintendo for it. Granted, the younger audiences are still a good market share, but have nowhere near the buying power of the good ol' 18-25 bracket. Furthermore, whether or not those laws stick doesn't mean they're any more enforceable.

However, I will say that they've got the handheld market nailed down like crazy and I love my DS.

[mikezilla]

Ha, I wanna see the parent who is like "oh look a wholesome gamecube" and then their kid buys Killer7 or Resident Evil 4.

[Izuno]

well...this one will come down to execution. Will Nintendo succeed? Who knows? They have had so many hits and so many flops that only time will tell. My money is on Revolution being a decent platform that in the end will outsell Gamecube over the same time horizon, even if it still lags behind PS3 and X360.

I'm a little curious at all the debate about whether this is smart for Nintendo do to. I have to think about it more, but the passion for this debate alone makes me think that Nintendo, if they do this right, could have an awesome system on their hands.

[dissonance]

However, I will say that they've got the handheld market nailed down like crazy and I love my DS.

True dat.

[Tequila]

I guess we can also buy games that never came out in our countries too. Earthbound etc never came out in the UK so we never got to know Ness well.

Europe didn't get Super Mario RPG either. Stuff like this is a great opportunity.