Goodbye Virtual Console

For many gamers the official word from Nintendo that Virtual Console would not appear on Switch was a bitter pill to swallow, since it’s launch gamers have been dreaming of playing all those retro games (most of us have a huge library we would love to transfer over from Wii U) again on the go and at home.

Bad news, you can’t.  But does it matter?  Let’s be honest, most of us have paid for Nintendo’s best games more then twice and own them in some way.

As part of the Switch Online subscription, Nintendo will give you twenty classic NES games to play (again) on the Switch but this time with online multiplayer.  To be honest there are not many two player games on the NES unless you include the games where you take it in turns but that’s not really “proper” co-op right?

So what will Nintendo do with the outstanding back catalogue of games and is there a future for Virtual Console as we know it?

Release more Mini Consoles is the most obvious choice right now after the huge success of the NES and SNES Mini, they look great and are highly collectible. Both the Nintendo 64 and GameBoy would be next up for the mini treatment (I hope). Nintendo have started something here as Sega and SNK are getting in on the Mini Console bandwagon.

With “Compilation” packs such as the Secret of Mana in Japan, Mega Man and Street Fighter releases due to arrive this year, it’s clear that developers are realising just how much money they can make with their classic games. Perhaps this is why Virtual Console has declined in terms of third party support, the Wii U received not even a third of the games you could get on the Wii.

This is a key fact, on Wii we had access to NES, SNES, N64 games from Nintendo plus Sega Master System, Mega Drive, Arcade, NEC PC Engine, SNK Neo Geo and for a short time Commodore 64. The service was supported by Capcom, Konami, SquareEnix to name a few, it’s highly likely publishers and developers now want to control and thus get a bigger percentage from selling their past games to us like Capcom are doing with the Street Fighter Anniversary package meaning a Virtual Console on Switch would have little if any third party support.

Another point to make is Nintendo know how much gamers love the Super Nintendo and Game Boy, it would make perfect sense to add games from these systems to the subscription service as time goes by, say six to twelve months time.

Of course let’s not ignore another possibility, Nintendo are focusing on the new meaning us retro gaming fans will have to look elsewhere. Analogue have made the best way to play Super Nintendo game cartridges on a modern tv and other company’s have created ways to revive classic consoles to look better then ever (by connecting via hdmi).

Nintendo has battled piracy for years, there games made readily available on the internet to download by anyone who knows how to use a search engine. Fact is most gamers who would buy Super Mario World for a fifth time have also downloaded it by other sources for free so maybe, just maybe, Nintendo are aware of this more now then ever and as such, Virtual Console is just not important and worthwhile in the way we knew and loved it.

Article by Simon