Roms = Promotion!

[Imgema]

It sounds weird, but i believe that emulation CAN be a good thing for a company, especially for Ninendo, a company with almost no piracy at all.
I'm not talking for GBA roms here, thats a bad thing considering that GBA is on sale right now. Im talking about Nes, snes, and of course N64 roms. These platforms aren't profitable anymore so how could they damage Nintendo? In fact they can actually do other things like rise Nintendos reputation or act like promotion for them. A FREE promotion!

I can prove this to you. A Friend of mine was a HPGF (Hardcore Pc Gamer Fanboy) who didn't like consoles at all. I have every console Nintendo has produced and he allways told me how inferior i was compared to him. About 2 years ago he started playing N64 games using PJ64 and now he has become a HNGCF (Hardcore Nintendo Game Cube Fanboy) with about 12 Original Discs and counting!

Now he tells me that if he knew how good Nintendo games are, he would buy a N64 on it's launching day just like me. PJ64 and its Roms showed him all this, if emulation wasn't exist he would now mock me about my Gamecube.

What do you think about this? How many people became console users, just like my friend, thanks to emulators? I don't think that someone who likes consoles at first place won't buy one, because it's emulated. I do believe however that a good Emu can make someone who don't like consoles change their minds...

Sorry for my bad English if any...
I hope i didn't post this on the wrong place... :]

 

[The Khan Artist]

See, the thing is, if Nintendo released all their old games into the public domain, they would lose all the copyrights. Not just game code, but characters as well.

What beats me is why they don't do something like make an offical N64 emu and sell the games online for $5 or $10 a pop.

 

[DuDe]

See, the thing is, if Nintendo released all their old games into the public domain, they would lose all the copyrights. Not just game code, but characters as well.

I think you're wrong here. Enemy Territory is distributed freely, yet iD still retains control over the Wolfenstein brand. Same can be said about America's Army : Operations.

What beats me is why they don't do something like make an offical N64 emu and sell the games online for $5 or $10 a pop.

Now that would be a great idea, but then Nintendo will lose the entire "emulation is illegal" case it has been having for years now.

 

[Remote]

Because it isn't a profitable market and Nintendo is a quite conservative company and in some ways they are already doing this, afaik gb and gbc games are playble on gba and by the looks of they could probaly recompile most n64 games and release them as if on the GC if they wanted to...

And hasn't the artist / designer / produceer formely known as Shigueru Miatomato said that he feels emulations is a good thing, it enables kids in present time to play the games of the past...

 

[scotty]

Nintendo wants to protect its corporate assets. Personally Copyrights are just way too long, I think 25 years would have been enough because there are some companies that went out of business that will not re-release their games, and I think that those games are more important to have. I agree that the younger generation would benefit from seeing those games, thats why Nintendo is re-releaseing those for GBA.
Nintendo has also tried to prevent GC emulation, which is now starting to look like it can be done with demos, but no commercial games yet. Nintendo keeps its trademarks, think what would you do if you found out that something you did was being sold for free a few years later after you sold them. I wouldnt want that, do you????

I still bend the rules, because I pretend im above the law

 

[jollyrancher]

UltraHLE came out right after ZeldaOOT... how about all those people who were going to spend $200+ on the console/game and then someone said, why not just play it on UltraHLE for free? Nintendo might not make lots of money on the console itself, but when people but the thing they feel obligated to buy at least 5-10 games for it or else they feel like idiots... like I just spent $200 on this damn thing and I've only got two games for it?

 

[Imgema]

I agree with you Jollyrancher. Just like i said, emus that emulate new systems are not welcome. Ultrahle was that kind of emulator back then... I was talking about emulators for older systems - not profitable - like nes, snes and NOWDAYS N64.
Emulators will allways exist, Nintendo can't do anything about it. No matter how many people they sue or kill... its just like mp3s! The only thing they can do is, somehow, use them for their own purpose and make money from them or at least lose less.

 

[jollyrancher]

How many people became console users, just like my friend, thanks to emulators? I don't think that someone who likes consoles at first place won't buy one, because it's emulated. I do believe however that a good Emu can make someone who don't like consoles change their minds...

I think it's more likely that more people who would have bought consoles don't because of emulators... I mean people are thinking that if they can play all these old decent SNES/N64 games for free, why spend $50/game? Nintendo (and the other software/console companies) would make the most money if all the decent games were only on console and you couldn't play cheap/pirated versions on the PC. Hypothetically, if the PC couldn't play any games and the Game Cube had all the good games, can you imagine how much money they'd make?

 

[mightyrocket]

I think the best way to do this is releasing a few games for free officialy into the public and then wait until they are going to buy the real console with other non-released games.

 

[Imgema]

Anyway Nintendo has a big weapon against the competition. Thats their own history - hundrends of good old games that they can use to rise both sales and reputation. They must do the same thing they did with wind waker and the bonus disc. Every single game they release must have one oldie as a gift. This way they could rise both software and hardware sales. Im sure about that. As for the emulators... They are aiming a different market: PC users. How many of them could buy a console because they saw how great those games are?
How many of them wanted to buy a console but thanks to emulators they'd rather stick with the PC and play those games for free, even if the emulation is far from perfect?
Only statistics could tell IMO...

 

[Lizard Blade]

Theres something else to consider as well. I own a Nintendo 64, and nearly two dozen N64 games, but I prefer to use emulators. Why?
- Convenience: I'm on the PC all the time, and my games are now just a list of text instead of a 20 pound box, plus theres no sifting around behind my TV, unplugging the cable line, and putting in the RFU from the N64.
- Features: From Super Mario 64 to Perfect Dark at ridiculously hi-rez with 2xSai. Nuff said.
- Netplay: SSB and Starfox with players around the world, and Goldeneye too when its not being fickle.

These are all things the real N64 can't offer, and even re-released GC classics probably won't, and thats why emulators are popular, even with non-pirates. So Nintendo needs to either shut up, start selling emulators, or start sending hitmen after emu authors.

 

[scotty]

Nintendo should SELL some of their old games and/or perhaps make their old consoles compatible with their new console that will come out soon. Playstation did that with their first one. PSone games, can be played on PS2.

It is those cheap things that Xbox and PS2 have that Nintendo doesnt. Nintendo has it so that games are only what is used in it, no custom-made disks for playing MP3's, or havng a DVD player hooked up to it. I think it is wise that Nintendo is having the GBA hook up to your TV and play it that way, Metriod fusion would look awesome on your TV I think

 

[smegforbrain]

Note also that Nintendo is (sadly) rereleasing ALOT of SNES and even NES games for the GBA.

So why give away for free what they can get poor unsuspecting people to pay for?

 

[The Khan Artist]

I think you're wrong here. Enemy Territory is distributed freely, yet iD still retains control over the Wolfenstein brand. Same can be said about America's Army : Operations.

True, but note that my post said Public Domain, not freely distributed.

 

[jollyrancher]

Nintendo should SELL some of their old games

How's that? Like Electronic Boutique is going to stock a GC-version of the original Chrono Trigger next to Halo 2 and Doom 3. And even if Nintendo had the old games downloadable with some official Nintendo emulator for a small fee, is this really worth it when then want people shelling out big money for the new games?

And these arguments about getting people into older games so they'll buy newer games just don't cut it. The lower-revenue-generating gaming options will squeeze out the high-profit-margin new stuff. Now if people originally spent loads of money on the old Nintendo consoles and enjoyed them, but are now bored of their 5-year old games, that's good since they might spend their money on new games. But getting new gamers into low-revenue retro games just doesn't make sense...

 

[smegforbrain]

Nintendo wants to protect its corporate assets. Personally Copyrights are just way too long, I think 25 years would have been enough because there are some companies that went out of business that will not re-release their games,

Well, even at 25 years, that's still another 10 that ALL NES games would be protected.

The difference here is that such characters as Mario are still in use; they haven't been shelved permanently.

Now, Disney is the company that keeps extending the laws, and that's because they know that time is running out before their earliest characters become public domain, and they dont' want that.

The way I'd like to see it is that Nintendo willing release games into public domain that don't contain characters still in use today.

But then, I also wonder how much say goes into such a decision, because many characters now are over multiple systems and those owned by different companies - Mega Man, for example, came from Capcom, and games were released for the NES, Gameboy, SNES, and Playstation, atleast.
So who gets to say what then goes into public domain?

 

[smegforbrain]

Just like i said, emus that emulate new systems are not welcome.

Which, in a way, surprises me that this site has a forum dedicated to GBA emulation.

In a way, it further surprises me that the GBA emulators out there seem to be damn near perfect, more so than I've seen for consoles that have been around alot longer (NES, SNES, Genesis).

 

[smegforbrain]

And these arguments about getting people into older games so they'll buy newer games just don't cut it.

I really should run mulitple quotes per post.

You don't think so?

I'd say it's succeeded pretty well for Squaresoft when it comes to the Final Fantasy anthologies.

You introduce somebody to the older FF games, and they might take an interest in the newer ones.
At worst, the existing FF fans get to play an old favorite or play one that they haven't seen yet.

 

[scotty]

I really should run mulitple quotes per post.

You don't think so?

I'd say it's succeeded pretty well for Squaresoft when it comes to the Final Fantasy anthologies.

You introduce somebody to the older FF games, and they might take an interest in the newer ones.
At worst, the existing FF fans get to play an old favorite or play one that they haven't seen yet.

with new graphics might I add to it, Squaresoft is using todays graphics to make these classics, I think it is very cleaver for them to do this.

 

[jollyrancher]

I'm not sure how many copies that Final Fantasy anthology sold, but it's still a cop-out selling old games in today's market with the technology that's available... I mean how many Atari 2600 games were ported to NES/SNES???? I'm sure they could have ported the better ones, but 'cmon, just make new good games and let the retro lovers buy $10 SNES's at garage sales.