Pricing
On September 14, 2006, Nintendo revealed that Virtual Console games in Japan would be priced at USD$5/JP¥500 for NES titles, USD$8/JP¥800 for Super NES titles, and USD$10/JP¥1000 for Nintendo 64 titles, payable via credit card or a "Wii points" card. Nintendo expects 60 titles to be available before the end of the year, with 30 to be Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 titles. After that, 10 titles are to be released every month.
Games downloaded from Virtual Console library will be stored on a 512 MB flash memory built into Wii. Additional downloads may be stored on an SD card, as a slot is provided for these cards on the Wii console.
Game Library Support
While the gameplay will be the same for all of the retro titles offered via the Virtual Console, Nintendo has stated that some of the games may be improved with sharper graphics or better framerates. In addition, gamers may be able to download games that were not previously released in their region, and some multiplayer games may be playable online, if it is technically possible. The Virtual Console service will not be used exclusively for retro games, however. Satoru Iwata stated in a speech on March 23, 2006, that Nintendo, Sega and Hudson Soft are working in collaboration to bring a "best of" series of games to the Wii. At E3, Hudson also declared they would bring upwards of 100 titles to the Wii's virtual console. Additionally, Hudson mentioned that all of their lawyers are working on acquiring the licenses to games from now defunct companies.
It is currently not known how third-party game developers will be included in this, though it is certain that some will be. The third-party developers may possibly offer their games at different prices. It was later supposedly confirmed by Craig Harris of IGN that Rareware titles would not be available to download due to Rare's current licensing (with the exception of the Donkey Kong and Star Fox games, as they are based on characters Nintendo owns), but neither Rareware nor Microsoft has confirmed this. SNK Playmore has recently announced intentions to help support the Wii Virtual Console by releasing Samurai Shodown series and a few other games to the VC. Tecmo has also announced they plan to "aggressively" support the VC by releasing classic games such as Ninja Gaiden, Rygar, and Tecmo Super Bowl. Midway also plan to bring classic Mortal Kombat games to the VC. Some game companies such as 3D Realms and id Software said they will not be supporting the Wii or the VC due to the poor sales of their games on the Nintendo systems. At E3 2006's Wii Conference, a Virtual Console demo was shown with the following games being downloaded: The Legend of Zelda, Excitebike, Punch-Out!!, F-Zero, Super Metroid, Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, and Wave Race 64.
Unnamed Nintendo employees have reportedly speculated that licensing issues will be a predominant factor in determining whether a game is available for Virtual Console, giving the examples of GoldenEye 007 and Tetris as games that might be too expensive to license for the Virtual Console.
Of classic non-Nintendo consoles offering content, the entire catalog for these machines will probably not be offered, but the "best of them" will be available. This gives the companies a pool of over 200 Sega games to choose from. There are widespread rumors surfacing on the internet which speculate that there will be Neo Geo, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast , and Game Boy games on the service.
It has also been revealed that new games are in development for the Virtual Console.
See list of Wii Virtual Console Games |
