I think people need to temper their expectations a little. It’s not like Konami or Capcom are going to bring any games to the table, since they’re doing their own retro collections and putting any on here would cut into potential profits.
It is slightly curious that Nintendo doesn’t put Earthbound or work out an arrangement with Square to put Super Mario RPG on the service. Hell, I’m still waiting for Zoda’s Revenge on the NES front.
That aside, there isn’t really much left on the NES or SNES for Nintendo to bring over unless they start putting time and money into translations for Japan-only games, which they certainly aren’t about to do.
If anything, I do agree it’s an issue that Nintendo hasn’t moved on to another system by now. Or, if they don’t have plans to do that for whatever reason, they should offer some kind of method for people to purchase those games.
I guess what I’m saying is if you’re going to be mad, be mad for the right reasons and use a little common sense.
@BrazillianCara I think you make a good point and it’s something people don’t consider. The app will more easily move over to new generations and (hopefully) is a sigh Nintendo is building for the future, which they weren’t with Virtual Console. But the second point you make actually leads into why I think the idea of the old school Virtual Console isn’t as appealing to developers anymore, anyway.
A lot of these developers would rather release their own collections, remasters, ports, remakes, etc and get larger profit margins with more significant releases rather than offering substantial amounts of their backlog for cheap or “free” with subscription. A lot of blame gets thrown at Nintendo for not releasing tons of third party games that people want, but I’m sure it’s not that simple.
As for why they don’t release a few of their high profile exclusive titles, like Earthbound, I don’t know. I’m sure there’s that isn’t just “Nintendo hates its fans”, though. Maybe the licensing with Sony makes it expensive since Sony Media owns some of the music. Maybe they have Nintendo-esque plans to do a remake/remaster trilogy/etc and while said plans aren’t solid (and may never materialize), they were advised not to offer it until then. I don’t know. Could be anything.
