Why one game a week?

[Kit]

I was in the mood to play some Majoras Mask so I hop over to VC Reviews, check the n64 section, and to my surprise it still hasnt been released.

Now I understand they didn’t want to blow their load in the first couple of months but man alive, just release all the good games already. It’s not like they’d run out, the library on just 1 console would allow them to release 5 games a week.

I don’t get it?

[Malc]

Maybe it just takes a while to emulate it properly, or update certain things wrong with it.

[toythatkills]

There's really no good excuse.

I think the major problem is the rubbish UI. Dripfeed games and they get noticed. Release the games all at once and they instantly become impossible to find because the UI, much like Arcade, simply isn't designed for so many titles.

[elkatas]

I think the major problem is the rubbish UI.

Not at all. The "problem" is simply that if Nintendo would release all games at same time, typical VC-user would rush to download Super Mario RPG, Earthbound, and Kirby Super Star, while ignoring everything else. 3rd party title sales would certainly suffer. Furthermore, Nintendo knows it will get more sales if it puts games up drop by drop. Not to mention that VC must have constant updates for next four or five years.

[Ouenben]

Not at all. The "problem" is simply that if Nintendo would release all games at same time, typical VC-user would rush to download Super Mario RPG, Earthbound, and Kirby Super Star, while ignoring everything else. 3rd party title sales would certainly suffer. Furthermore, Nintendo knows it will get more sales if it puts games up drop by drop. Not to mention that VC must have constant updates for next four or five years.

No-ones expecting them to release all the big games within a couple weeks but there have been long periods of time in which the VC has seen little or no good games. (By gaming standards)

[kryss]

Because kids only have so much pocket money...as do I.

[J0e Musashi]

How many games at once can you play? Perhaps you are Squiddly Diddly

[cutmymilk]

The console has say a 5 year life. To release all the good games in the first two years is madness. Also, I doubt anyone has the time to have played all the good stuff on VC anyway.

[toythatkills]

Say the Wii is so popular it has an 8 year life, even. At one or two games a week, in 8 years there'd be 600/700 games on the service. Out of about, what, 4000 at least? Assuming that's the plan, then, you'd expect them to release the best 15% of games, which isn't the case at all.

You say to release all the good games would be madness, but releasing this few games over the Wiis lifetime they'd have enough good games just to release good ones. It's all the rubbish games coming one at a time that are unexplainable.

[J0e Musashi]

You are forgetting that the Wii has it's own games. They do not want to detract from sales of dedicated titles. You must look at this from a business point of view, not as a gamer whining that he cannot play Tinstar because they haven't made it available yet.

[Dogg Thang]

Making all the old games available now would be crazy. It would be like releasing old music on cd and letting it sit there on shelves, ready for people to pay money for any time they want.

[toythatkills]

You are forgetting that the Wii has it's own games. They do not want to detract from sales of dedicated titles. You must look at this from a business point of view, not as a gamer whining that he cannot play Tinstar because they haven't made it available yet.

I can't believe they'd intentionally release games on VC that they know won't sell, just so people buy more proper Wii games.

[Adam Stone]

For me personally... I like how there's a waiting game involved. It gives me a chance to enjoy everything else first.

Its amazing how peoples' taste's differ... There's plenty of people out there i'm sure who like or once enjoyed these so-called crap games. God knows, there's plenty of modern titles today I could easily cast aside as pointless and not worth my time nor money - and yet people go crazy about them.

Also... A lot of the games on VC are there, imo, to give people who once missed out on them the chance to 'try them out'. There are countless titles on there at the mo I never played and, whether good or not, I am still very interested at trying them out. I dont just want to play my favourite titles from the past, i want to try other stuff out too.

[Kit]

Making all the old games available now would be crazy. It would be like releasing old music on cd and letting it sit there on shelves, ready for people to pay money for any time they want.

You mean like itunes? ;P

[Dogg Thang]

ITunes... yes. There, people can, on a whim, buy an old cd they liked at any time. When it comes to old stuff, nostalgia and impulse purchasing, availability is key. For example, when Majora's Mask is finally released, you may not have that impulse. You may be playing something else. A sale is lost. I would have bought Ecco 2 on the day I got my Wii. And many others. But, when they were released, that impulse was gone. I never bought them.

So, yeah, it makes little to no sense to trickle the VC releases. It's not like a hyped release of GTAIV or whatever. These are old games. Like a library. Holding them back won't help sales. It will lose those impulse purchases.