Nintendo's newest attempt at stopping game piracy... FAIL.

[Bananamatic]

no shit people dont buy the games when nintendo still wants 40-60$ for 2 years old releases

[Friendly]

I bet there are many people here who have complete ROM collections of most/all 8 and 16-bit systems, and probably MAME, too.

For instance, how big is a complete collection of all NES/Famicom ROMs? 3-500MB? In a time where we have 64GB USB memory sticks, that's nothing, and it's simply very convenient to browse and freely move around. Nintendo on the other hand will never (also due to rights issus, but that's another problem) release a complete and DRM-free set of those ROMs, and certainly not at an even remotely sensible price.
Let's say such a NES/Famicom collection were available; I would definitely purchase it for ~150 EUR right now (those are 20-30-year old games we are talking about, after all - stuff that already made a profit long ago; in many cases the companies that made them no longer exist). However, Nintendo only sells them on their own locked-down systems (=they are DRM'd, can't be transferred and used on other devices, can't be resold) for several units of currency a piece, one at a time and at their own very slow pace. The direct result of this method of distribution: They get 0 moneys from me.
The way Nintendo distributes those games completely ignores the reality that all of them are (illegally, yes) readily available right now, in small convenient packages. So in my opinion, the question Nintendo should really be asking themselves is if it wouldn't be better to get some money instead of nothing.
I think that's what is at the core of the problem here. Lack of convenience and unresonable pricing, not the unwillingness of potential customers to pay money.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm only talking about retro games here; Nintendo's fight against piracy (and especially commercial piracy) of current gen titels makes perfect sense. It's unfortunate that they don't get that their region-locking isn't exactly helping their case.

[idchappy]

Nintendo's E shop has always been terrible, slow and pricey.

[BryanM]

However, Nintendo only sells them on their own locked-down systems for several units of currency a piece, one at a time and at their own very slow pace.

An example of a good product that comes to mind is Super Mario All-Stars. Not only do you get 4 or 5 games in one, they remade the art and sound. (I, for one, don't really like the refurbishments. He is what he is; don't try to change him.)

And Super Mario Brothers: Deluxe is possibly the best version of the first two games, minus the screen ratio and SMB2 not having its original tilesets.

Flash forward a few years, they're selling the things one at a time on GBA. Pay more to get less.

Which is what we're all used to in the mainstream retail market of 2013. You're supposed to feel like you're moving forward as you go through time, not backwards.

[Udderdude]

I think they'd be better off looking at where they went wrong with the Wii U, and how much the market has changed since the Wii launched.

Making their back catalog of games cheaper with more bundles probably doesn't look like such a good idea to the bean counters over there.

[Friendly]

A good price for a ROM of a 2-3 decades old game would be around 10 cents in my humble opinion. Last time I checked, Nintendo sold NES ROMs for 50x that amount. What a joke.

[Udderdude]

A good price for a ROM of a 2-3 decades old game would be around 10 cents in my humble opinion. Last time I checked, Nintendo sold NES ROMs for 50x that amount. What a joke.

That's the magic of capitalism. You don't have to reduce your prices any lower than the market will support. And lowering them too much can have .. unintended consequences (See : Steam sales)

[Mortificator]

ROM buyers should also be allowed to use their games in freeware emulators, if they'd like, and to use fanmade patches.

I really don't understand what Mortificator and Drum are arguing about

Well, I don't need to tell you that the purpose of copyright is to protect the incentive to develop new creative works. It takes a lot of time and talent to write a book or develop a game, so the creators deserve a period where their work can't be copied without compensation. Not forever, since that would be against copyright's goal, but long enough that it's financially worthwhile to make good media.

The practice of the executives of many video game companies is to pay the creators once for developing a work, then spend years or decades recopying and reselling and keeping the revenue for themselves. It's a situation opposed to the purpose of copyright.... yet these middlemen invoke copyright to defend it and write letters complaining that the scam they bought into isn't giving the payoff they'd like.

It doesn't really affect me, since I'm not a video game developer, but I think it's bizarre that some people will say it smells like roses.

[Ed Oscuro]

I meant that I couldn't see what the disagreement was about. You both seemed to be saying the same thing at some points.

[Friendly]

That's actually a very good point: Why should corporations continue to make money for decades (centuries?) off these old games while the original creators get no royalties?

I think the root of all evil lies here:


Got another good quote that explains why these laws have been passed:

What a wise man he was!

[HenAi]

What's bad about a company trying to enforce their intellectual property rights? Well, there's two basic possibilities:
a) It actually works. That means there's no effective way to stay anonymous on the internet anymore, because otherwise it wouldn't work (people can just migrate to the next thing that hasn't been broken yet, as they have for many years now).
b) It doesn't work.

So either way, they're supporting the removal of anonymity from the internet. The only good thing about it is that they have basically no chance of succeeding with that for at least a few more decades.

Now as for what they could do instead. First thing, instead of "OMG PIRATE MUST BE THROWN INTO JAIL", how about "we worked hard to create this, please honor our efforts and purchase our works legally". A hostile approach has a tendency to evoke a hostile response, regardless of whether it's justified or not. A more polite approach is much more likely to evoke sympathy and/or feelings of guilt, which results in more sales. Second, find ways to make buying original copies more appealing than piracy. Foremost among the methods to do that are online multiplayer modes. Essentially, things that work regardless of the conscience of the buyer.
Third and a lot less important in comparison to the former two points (there's not that many people importing stuff from different regions in comparison to the total amount of people buying the console), scrap the region lock. If you need to own multiple consoles to play everything, that's a big incentive to get one that allows you to play stuff from all regions right there. And if you already have that, might as well just pirate the games, too, since you can, anyway.

And yes, they should just accept that there are people who use the things they produce without paying for them. They can't do anything to effectively stop it, so they might as well just FUCKING GIVE UP in that regard. Like all the other guys screaming MUST DEFEAT PIRACY should. Focus on the things that actually do work and bring in money instead. That doesn't mean they have to like them, condone what they do or whatever. Just accept it as something they cannot change anyway.
Well, in the long run they could change it, but really, if they want that, then they deserve everything bad that's coming their way.

[Udderdude]

I link this article in every thread like this! :3

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... ce-Problem