Iwata sets japanese prices for Virtual Console titles.

[Eusis]

1up story.

Good prices. I'm sold. Again.

[Cauton]

Hm, to be honest, $8.99 seems a little high to me. Sure, if it's a high quality SNES title like say Chrono Trigger (do we know yet if 3rd party games will be on there as well? God, I hopse so) I'd happily pay that, but no way I'll shell out that much for a NES game.

[Eusis]

Hm, to be honest, $8.99 seems a little high to me. Sure, if it's a high quality SNES title like say Chrono Trigger (do we know yet if 3rd party games will be on there as well? God, I hopse so) I'd happily pay that, but no way I'll shell out that much for a NES game.

Depends on the NES game. Fuck no to games like the original Donkey Kong and others that are closer to old arcade/Atari 2600 titles. But I'd (grudgingly) pay that much for the original SMB, and gladly for Crystalis. Honestly though, I think the 10-ish point is more for N64 titles, with SNES games in between, and NES titles at the lowest cost.

[Cauton]

Hell, I'd completely forgot that the Wii is going to emulate N64 games. So yeah, that makes sense then. $8.99 for a N64 game seems fair.

And thinking about it some more, there are NES games I'd pay that much for. Like Master Blaster. That game was awesome. I mean, you play a kid who travels around in his four wheel truck just to save his enlarged-by-radiation pet frog. Quality games like that just aren't made any more.

[rubenxce]

1up Misinterpreted those prices. They forgot to mention that those prices will be for NEW games released on the virtual console.  The prices for the old games werent revelead.

At least thats what IGN says.

[Eusis]

Well, I can't imagine the NES and SNES titles costing much more. Afterall, it'd be ridiculous to charge 10 bucks for each NES game - some litterally are not worth that much anymore, maybe not even half of that. It did seem a bit cheap for more modern N64 titles, however.

[Phoenix's Rage]

Thanks, but I'll stick to NESter and ZSNES for now.

[John]

Thanks, but I'll stick to NESter and ZSNES for now.

So, how do you like breaking copyright law?

-John

[Alisha]

Thanks, but I'll stick to NESter and ZSNES for now.

So, how do you like breaking copyright law?

-John

wouldnt the copyrights on most nes games be expired now?

if $8.99 is indeed the price thats too much considering you can rent games for half that.

[Jimmy]

Thanks, but I'll stick to NESter and ZSNES for now.

So, how do you like breaking copyright law?

-John

wouldnt the copyrights on most nes games be expired now?

if $8.99 is indeed the price thats too much considering you can rent games for half that.

1. If I remember correctly (and I probably don't) a copyright in the United States is good for seventy years. If the owner of the copyright goes out of business/dies then the copyright lasts for five more years and then expires. Not to mention the fact that copyrights can be renewed.

2. True for current games. But you can't find NES, SNES, Genesis, C64, or N64 games at game rental stores anymore so that reasoning is stupid. Besides, renting an N64 game for five bucks and only having it for five days compared to buying it and keeping it as long as you want for nine bucks is a much better deal as far as I'm concerned.

There are also plenty of games I'd be happy to pay more than nine bucks for. I consider Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon alone, if it were to be available on the virtual console, to be worth purchasing the entire system for.

[Angelo]

wouldnt the copyrights on most nes games be expired now?

No.

[Alisha]

wouldnt the copyrights on most nes games be expired now?

No.

then how come companys can make the original nes now then?

[Eusis]

Actually, it was originally that it'd last until the person died, than 50 years (I think it was 75 from creation for something owned by a corporation), but a few years back it got upped from 50 to 70 in the US. I might have the corporation bit wrong, but I'm pretty sure about the rest.

And just in time to keep me from freely, legally reading 1984 on the net. :( But hey, that's what libraries are for. :P

[Dincrest]

$5-$10 per game to relive my youth, preadolescence, adolescence, and even some young adulthood?  

I'm game.  And I do hope that Nintendo strikes a good deal with the 3rd parties to offer up the whole backlog.  

I still consider Rad Racer one of the best racing games of all time, and I'd gladly pay 5 bucks for it.  Just to give an example.

EDIT: And how do we know pricing structure won't be different in the US?

[John]

wouldnt the copyrights on most nes games be expired now?

No.

then how come companys can make the original nes now then?

The same reason that Electronic Arts was able to produce Genesis cartridges that weren't licensed by Sega: Reverse Engineering.

That's legal.  Downloading games is not.

Now, it's time for reiteration from a paper of mine in communication; here is how copyright law goes down in terms of years:

Any work created in 1978 or after is subject to being copyrighted for the lifetime of the author and 70 years after his or her death.  For works that were created for-hire, or by corporate entities, it's 120 years from the creation of the work, or 95 years from its publication, whichever is shorter.

For works created before 1978, works were given 75 years, and any copyrights still subsisting after that time are valid for a 20 year extention, providing a maximum 95 year copyright length.

That's in general.  There are a couple of differences (works created before 1978 but published afterward, works that were renewed between 1964 and 1977), but here's what it comes down to: Unless a video game work has surrendered its copyright and placed the games in the public domain, it's still got its copyright for a good, long time.

-John