Retro Gaming: Cost/Value.... Piracy?!

When I look back on my gaming hobby, I remember not being able to pay for games as I was too young to work. My parents forked over a lot of money for game rentals and occasional purchase. The other avenue I was able to play games was at my grandparents house. My uncles who are only 11, and 9 years older than myself, always had the new gaming system. I must have been 3 or a little younger when I went to my uncles' basement and saw Mike Tyson's Punch-out! I know I was that young because they moved to a different house in 1990 and the memory is definitely the old house. I can remember going over one Saturday afternoon when I had just started grade one and there was a new game system, the shock was amazing. The marketing was even easy for a boy just over 5: SUPER NINTENDO.

I watched as my uncles played games from Super Metroid, Castlevania VI, Super Punchout,A Link to the Past, and so many others. I was always excited to see them play a game, then persecute my parents with begging to buy or rent the game. This pattern went on through the Sega Saturn, N64 and Playstation era. By then I had entered middle school and gaming was a whole different experience.

I played my first Final Fantasy at age 11 with my 10 year old brother. It was Final Fantasy III (er VI) and this sent us on a journey for the next best story. RPG's became the genre of choice. Though I enjoyed action games and such, Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire and so many others occupied my time. It was like going to reading chapter books from simply reading a book because the pictures were cool.

As the capabilities of the platforms increased so did the quality of gameplay and stories. Games like Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid blew me away. Multiplayer Goldeneye and Perfect Dark kept my brothers and friends busy for hours.

I briefly go over this because I wish to link the nostalgia to family and friendship, not just playing the games. So when the Wii came out I checked every week for updates when Secret of Mana or some other awesome game I can play on the big screen again. Boy was I dissapointed.

The games trickled out, and it is the same with the Wii U. Though it eventually grew into the library it is today there are still a slew of titles missing. Not only that, the prices seem exorbitantly high. 10$ for N64 games? 8 for Snes? 5 for Nes? And I am only buying a license to play them on one system. Sony has the vast majority of available PS1 games for 6$ and I can play them on any compatible system: PSP, Vita and PS3. There are still games that are not on PSN like Saga Frontier, but not everything can be perfect.

My title reflects Nintendo disillusioned evaluation of our nostalgia placing a high value for the titles believing that we will pay for it. This doesn't mean all titles will not warrant their high price tag at least to some. For instance I own for VC games: Final Fantasy III(VI), Secret of Mana, Mario Golf 64, Paper Mario 64, Punch-Out and all the 30yr anniversary titles that were available for Wii U. I will also update the ones not currently on Wii U VC for the extra 1.50$.

I have held back on purchasing games that I have wanted partly because my time available to play has diminished greatly, but the final nail in the coffin is that it is too expensive. For me to buy 5 SNES games would be 40$. I spend that much, maybe 1 game less, when Steam has Sale on and the games are a year or so old. Also the Only game I have finished on the VC is Super Metroid while I was in bed on my WII U gamepad. Should I spend that much when I may never play them to completion?

I know if those 5 games that I want were only 5 dollars a piece, 25$ total, I would not have had a second thought spending that Lincoln or Laurier each time the impulse came upon me. The tri-fecta of pricing would be NES games at 3$, SNES: 4$ and N64 at 5-6$. IMO this would move far more titles, effectively erasing the margin lost by the price decrease.

The final part of the equation that shows Nintendo has overvalued and thus overpriced their Virtual Console offering is the fact that I can have nearly any game from their catalog and more for free in a matter of minutes. This isn't to say that I condone piracy, the only game I ever pirated was Warcraft 3 then I have bought it twice. I am more than willing to pay to play. The rationale of playing the now 20 to 25 year games the odd time,while spending the ever increasing costs for new games, seems like a nice trip just for the nostalgia. And believe me more people do it than you think. The rule of supply and demand should tell Nintendo to really think about the customers they are losing.

The argument could be made that it costs a lot money to make a Emulator and port games over and acquire licenses for each system.
I call Bullocks on this. People have done it for free in a very quick amount of time. I remember hearing about emulators for SNES games just as N64 was coming out. Software Engineers with access to all the original code and construction will have no problems. Porting the games over for cartridge based games is as easy as the it is to download a ROM. ROMS do not have to be customized for each emulator on computer, why would it need to be for another system if the emulator is simply retooled? Licenses? Get real! You can make some money having a dust collected relic licensed for cheap, or make nothing overpricing it. Greed and consumers often do not mix or like oil and water they appear to but when the bubbles rest they are as separate as can be.

Keep in mind I do value VC, and wish to support it more that I support Microsoft's Original Xbox prices, some of those titles are still 20$ to 30$ on Xbox Live. Enough is enough though. A clear lack of focus at Nintendo has me honestly thinking of getting a Nintendo DS Flashcard.

I bought a DS a year or so before 3ds came out and I cannot find games for it. If I buy Chrono Trigger on Ebay money doesn't go to Nintendo or Developer anyway so why not? And any Mario Game for it is still full price at 35 to 40 dollars. Why should I not find a way to experience a game that are not available through normal methods? Metroid Prime Hunters, Final Fantasy IV, quite a few others I cannot find at retail are starting to piss me off. Is legality an issue? We can take a look at laws written years ago that just don't make sense that are still on books and not upheld. These old games are not generating any money for the IP owners anyway. Emulating old consoles for a trip down memory lane isn't so bad when they are asking too much, right? Right?

All of these thoughts can rationalize emulation, what is holding me back is hoping Nintendo can realize their folly. And begin offering better COST/VALUE before more people start PIRATING.