I’m curious, what is a reasonable price to you for these games? Because as far as I’m concerned, buying both games for the price of buying one of them 20 years ago feels pretty reasonable. I agree that they drip feed the fuck out of us on actually providing a way to play these games. But releasing these games in a way that you can bring forward to additional systems, and not putting them behind a subscription is a move that should be prasied. I just think it’s a step in the right direction. I’ll take the ability to own one game on my modern system over owning zero.
Unlike physical cartridges, a digital, emulated copy of FireRed has no resale or collector’s value. Also, as the primary cost in developing such titles is the emulator, Nintendo could release additional GBA games in this manner with minimal additional effort.
Considering those factors, and the Switch having a higher install base than prior systems (over ten times Wii U unit sales), maintaining the Wii U and 3DS price points is the most reasonable means for Nintendo to monetize their back catalogue in a way that makes piracy less enticing for many people: $3 per GB, $4 per GBC, $5 per NES, $7-8 per GBA, $8 per SNES, $10 per N64, and $20 per Wii game price point.
Given that each console only requires an emulator to be developed once (something Nintendo has already done for NSO) to support hundreds of paid titles, there’s no need to increase prices when the games will sell several times more than they had any chance to on the Wii U.
Given how many games NSO includes, they could continue offering them that way for people who prefer renting their library. Consumers want meaningful options; pricing a GBA game at $20 is not that.
I’m curious, what is a reasonable price to you for these games? Because as far as I’m concerned, buying both games for the price of buying one of them 20 years ago feels pretty reasonable. I agree that they drip feed the fuck out of us on actually providing a way to play these games. But releasing these games in a way that you can bring forward to additional systems, and not putting them behind a subscription is a move that should be prasied. I just think it’s a step in the right direction. I’ll take the ability to own one game on my modern system over owning zero.
Unlike physical cartridges, a digital, emulated copy of FireRed has no resale or collector’s value. Also, as the primary cost in developing such titles is the emulator, Nintendo could release additional GBA games in this manner with minimal additional effort.
Considering those factors, and the Switch having a higher install base than prior systems (over ten times Wii U unit sales), maintaining the Wii U and 3DS price points is the most reasonable means for Nintendo to monetize their back catalogue in a way that makes piracy less enticing for many people: $3 per GB, $4 per GBC, $5 per NES, $7-8 per GBA, $8 per SNES, $10 per N64, and $20 per Wii game price point.
Given that each console only requires an emulator to be developed once (something Nintendo has already done for NSO) to support hundreds of paid titles, there’s no need to increase prices when the games will sell several times more than they had any chance to on the Wii U.
Given how many games NSO includes, they could continue offering them that way for people who prefer renting their library. Consumers want meaningful options; pricing a GBA game at $20 is not that.