Donkey Kong Country and Land Games Now Available/ VC games and Market Value

[Pianomanfreak]

For those that want to know the Donkey Kong Country and Land games are now available on Nintendo eshop in North America btw the games came out yesterday. So what is your thoughts on it?

[monjici]

That's great for people not owning old consoles, but I personally have no interest in virtual games.
If there would be a renting model, then I wouldn't mind virtual since you never own anything anyway.

[TDIRunner]

That's great for people not owning old consoles, but I personally have no interest in virtual games.
If there would be a renting model, then I wouldn't mind virtual since you never own anything anyway.

I'm with this line of thinking.  I already have physical copies of these games, but it doesn't bother me when they make virtual releases as long as physical copies still  exist.  In theory, it should help game collecting prices to come down. 

[Arseen]

In theory, it should help game collecting prices to come down. 

Maybe not, as there has been things called emulators and roms long time now...

[TDIRunner]

In theory, it should help game collecting prices to come down.  

Maybe not, as there has been things called emulators and roms long time now...

I don't completely agree with that.  Here's my line of thinking.  

There are four types of games:
  Common and popular
  Common and unpopular
  Uncommon and popular
  Uncommon and unpopular

Uncommon games, whether popular or not will always have higher values because they are uncommon.  This should surprise no one.  Obviously the more popular games from will fetch higher prices, but that's to be expected as well.  

Common and unpopular games tend to be cheap.  These are usually your sports games and the like.  Again, nothing surprising here.

That leaves common and popular games.  These are games like Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World or Donkey Kong Country.  Since these are common, they SHOULD BE cheap, maybe not as cheap as common and unpopular, but cheap none the less.  However, these games are not cheap.  They are expensive.  The reason for that is because collectors AND non-collectors (people who just want to play the game) want to own these games.  That's why video game collecting is so different than most any other type of collecting; the collectors have to compete with the people who just want to play the games.  

Long story short (too late??) is that when you make common and popular games available on other formats such as virtual console, it should help bring the prices down, because the people who just want to play (the non-collectors) don't care about owning original physical games.  That makes more room for the actual collectors.  When I say that virtual games will make prices go down, I really mean that the prices for the common and popular category will come down.  I would expect no change from any of the three other categories.  I think virtual console has more of an impact on emulators and ROMs because some casual gamers might be turned off by the inherent complexities of those formats.  Virtual console is easy and simple.

The last point I will make is that if emulators and ROM's didn't exist, the price of games (at least in the common and popular category) would probably be even HIGHER than they are right now, which means they in fact did help bring prices down.  

Just my opinion.  Sorry, got off topic.  Is anyone even going to read all of that.

[larryinc64]

I did.
"because the people who just want to play (the non-collectors) don't care about owning original physical games. "

Not always true, even people who just want to play the stuff go after the original systems, I know some people like this. If that was true, then emulation should have eliminated that market. I don't see Virtual Console as a way to bring prices down, if anything it would bring more people to the retro space. I moved from ROMS to systems. Many of my friends are as well.


I only use Virtual Console on the 3DS, I have no reason to on the Wii U with the originals or emulation available. On the go, I would like SMB, MM2, Metroid, ECT. I get most of them from Club Nintendo, I wish the SNES versions of DKC would be put on the 3DS. The GB ones suck hard in comparison. I want Super Mario World, and LTTP, and GBA games. WHY ARE GBA GAMES NOT ON THE 3DS.

[Arseen]

I meany why would PAID Virtual Console games bring the price down when the games are already available FREE as roms?

Yes roms are illegal but I don't think that affects the price that much in this case.

[TDIRunner]

I meany why would PAID Virtual Console games bring the price down when the games are already available FREE as roms?

Yes roms are illegal but I don't think that affects the price that much in this case.

Because not everyone uses free ROMs.  It might be a small group of people, but at the end of the day, a small group of people who previously wanted to buy physical copies of games, now have a better alternative.  If those people are no longer seaking physcial copies, then the demand has fallen.  The change may be small or insignificant, but it will still be there.

[TDIRunner]

I did.
"because the people who just want to play (the non-collectors) don't care about owning original physical games. "

Not always true, even people who just want to play the stuff go after the original systems, I know some people like this. If that was true, then emulation should have eliminated that market. I don't see Virtual Console as a way to bring prices down, if anything it would bring more people to the retro space. I moved from ROMS to systems. Many of my friends are as well.


I only use Virtual Console on the 3DS, I have no reason to on the Wii U with the originals or emulation available. On the go, I would like SMB, MM2, Metroid, ECT. I get most of them from Club Nintendo, I wish the SNES versions of DKC would be put on the 3DS. The GB ones suck hard in comparison. I want Super Mario World, and LTTP, and GBA games. WHY ARE GBA GAMES NOT ON THE 3DS.

Your bolded statement is correct.   

But sometimes it is true.  Therefore you have a small group of people are no longer seeking physical copies. Therefore, the demand drops.

[Oobgarm]

I meany why would PAID Virtual Console games bring the price down when the games are already available FREE as roms?

Yes roms are illegal but I don't think that affects the price that much in this case.

Not many people want to deal with ROMS though. I know I mentioned that to people back when I worked in game retail, and most were against it. Even many enthusiasts I know won't touch them.

It won't be a drastic difference, but it should have some effect at least.

[noemann]

this thread reminds me that i need to finish that DK cover. I am extremely busy since my last attempt to finish it. I will busy for most of the year but i am trying to make time to finish it. The tiff files and PhotoImpact .ufo files (like .psd) are taking up too much hdd space. I'll get around to it sometime as well as a few other projects...

[larryinc64]

Who uses ROMS depends on your demographic, in Middle and High school, a TON of my friends used roms. I have a USB stick full of NES, SNES and GB games that I spread around to a lot of people and we played them anytime me had accuses to a PC. I flunked out of Spanish Class and was put into a low level math lab, where we used computers. I, and 3 or so friends in that class, were great at math and would complete the work in the first 15 minutes and played on emulators for the rest of the class. I beat SMB2 in 2 classes. In middle school, all the PCs are connected on a network and we made a folder in the shared folder that anyone can access, and it was filled with roms, also GTA SA, Minecraft and Halo. It eventually got spread around and dumb asses found it and abused it and got games banned.

For the younger generation, ROMs tend to be the way to be the way we find out about retro games, this was how I got into it, after the Nintendo DS and Mario Kart DS sparked my interest.


Roms and VC, ROMS mostly, are keeping prices of carts down, the prices we have now are the result of it. Do you think SMB would be $5 if that was the only way to play SMB? but DKC on VC is not going to bring the price down because there was already a way to play it without the game cart. Xenobale 3D might bring down the Wii version, because there is not other way to play it, Wii Emulation is not as easy as SNES, the players will go for the 3DS $40 version, over the $100 Wii one. Did the Wii U VC version of Metroid Trilogy bring it down? (Actually, Looking at eBay, looks like no)


Maybe, the prices are unaffected in a major way because there are always going to be more people who wants the original VS how many there is. The casual gamer who just want's to play is not going to spend $100 on a game, I refuse to for Earthbound, so are they even a factor? Hmmm . . .

I changed the topic name to reflect the discussion.

[RealPlumpBox]

I got all the OG GB ones.  I don't care if it is digital.  I would still ge the physical one.  I get A LOT of stuff digitally due to the convenience of playing more easy.

[TDIRunner]

DKC on VC is not going to bring the price down because there was already a way to play it without the game cart.

This statement is not true for ALL people. 

I'll give you one example.  My brother has never used a ROM in his entire life.  I doubt he knows what one is.  However, I know that he likes video games and I know that he loved Donkey Kong Country.  The two of us played the hell out of that game when we were younger.  If he wanted to play that game before today, the only way HE would know to play that game would be to get an SNES and buy the physical game.  However, I know for a fact that he would be more than happy, in fact he would probably prefer, to download this game into his Wii and play it that way.  He isn't the only person in the world like this.  There are many and those people are no longer in the market for a physical copy of the game. 

The change in the value of these games might be small, BUT IT ISN'T ZERO.

 

[monjici]

There may be less people searching for a physical copy of Earthbound since it's available as a virtual copy, but you should not under estimate the mental condition of some collectors 
I've seen some crazy auctions lately, where people were bidding more than some concurrent buy-it-now for the exact same thing.