One note on the Virtual Console (which, I must agree, would be the major selling point for the Wii in my humble estimation) – you said every Nintendo game for every Nintendo console, but in the interest of being technical, i must ask if the Wii will be able to play Game Boy or GBA games. Because those are Nintendo consoles too. Don’t get me wrong, i think it would be absolutely brilliant for them to have the GB games playable on the Wii, but i haven’t heard anything to that effect yet. Maybe it’s some kind of resolution issue with the TV, who knows?
It occurs to me that I’m not really sure about the GBA/Game Boy thing. I know they have the Game Boy Player which does what you describe (and pretty well from what I understand) but whether or not that will be a part of the Wii Virtual Console I don’t know.
According to Nintendo’s site they say:
Wii will have downloadable access to 20 years of fan-favorite titles originally released for Nintendo 64, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and even the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The Virtual Console also will feature a “best of” selection from Sega Genesis titles and games from the TurboGrafx console (a system jointly developed by NEC and Hudson). It also will be home to new games conceived by indie developers whose creativity is larger than their budgets.
That sort of suggests not so much with the GB/A titles, but I’m guessing it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. The thing that may make the difference is that they can reasonably assume that no one is really going out and paying them any more money at this time for NES/SNES/N64/GCN games once the Wii comes out. GB/A systems on the other hand are still actively supported platforms so they may not wish to cannibalize their existing markets.
Which actually leads to an interesting thought: What if they sold GB/A games over the Virtual Console for the same price as retail? Would you download and play Mario & Luigi SuperStar Saga on the Wii VC for $19.99?
scott:
July 26th, 2006 at 6:17 am
One note on the Virtual Console (which, I must agree, would be the major selling point for the Wii in my humble estimation) – you said every Nintendo game for every Nintendo console, but in the interest of being technical, i must ask if the Wii will be able to play Game Boy or GBA games. Because those are Nintendo consoles too. Don’t get me wrong, i think it would be absolutely brilliant for them to have the GB games playable on the Wii, but i haven’t heard anything to that effect yet. Maybe it’s some kind of resolution issue with the TV, who knows?
ironsoap:
July 26th, 2006 at 9:05 am
It occurs to me that I’m not really sure about the GBA/Game Boy thing. I know they have the Game Boy Player which does what you describe (and pretty well from what I understand) but whether or not that will be a part of the Wii Virtual Console I don’t know.
According to Nintendo’s site they say:
That sort of suggests not so much with the GB/A titles, but I’m guessing it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. The thing that may make the difference is that they can reasonably assume that no one is really going out and paying them any more money at this time for NES/SNES/N64/GCN games once the Wii comes out. GB/A systems on the other hand are still actively supported platforms so they may not wish to cannibalize their existing markets.
Which actually leads to an interesting thought: What if they sold GB/A games over the Virtual Console for the same price as retail? Would you download and play Mario & Luigi SuperStar Saga on the Wii VC for $19.99?