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IGN announced today that Nintendo is not planning on just giving their games away, as was previously reported elsewhere and discussed here on CAG.

Originally Posted by IGN There's some disappointing news for those expecting these classics to be available for free. Nintendo is planning on pay downloads as being the standard for this download system. There will be many types of services, though, including limited time free downloads. One possibility mentioned by Iwata is free downloads as bonuses for buying new games.

This is really a downer considering how much more I was liking the system with the prospect of at least some free downloads.

Here is the link to the entire article:

http://cube.ign.com/articles/622/622870p1.html

BTW, of particular interest here is that IGN was told that we'd be able to transfer downloaded games onto SD cards and put them on our PCs. Hello free games again. How long do you guys think until these games will be cracked and mass downloading begins?

i give it 5 months into the systems life before that happens

Eegh, you'd probably have to take out the Wifi component for that to happen. I'm imagining that they'd tie your account to the games you've downloaded, and if it found inconsistancies you'd get owned.

Did anyone really believe that a company specifically nintendo would freely give their licensed content away?

What did you expect? All of nintendo's back catalog for free? come on.

Originally Posted by Mr.Answer Did anyone really believe that a company specifically nintendo would freely give their licensed content away?

No, but I really really wanted it to be true.

I would have been incredibly surprised if all 221 of those games were released at free.
I can see some of them, maybe the less popular and older ones, being free.
One or more free downloads, for permanent ownership, with purchase of a Rev game, that could work, in addition to the 'pay as you go.'

and for the hijack pat, how much do you think they downloads will cost.

I think that they might have a card like napster get 18 downloads for the price 15 or something.

Ny guess is between $1.99 to $5.99 depending on the age of the game.

I don't see these downloads being very expensive, may $1-15 depending on what system they appearred on. The Nintendo classics on GBA are about $15, I can't really see the downloadable games being more then $15 but if they want $15 for Super Mario Brothers 1 for $15 I'll stick to emulation.

I think the NES/SNES games will be *really* cheap, no more than $5. Remember there is zero overhead here, so they can't charge $15-$20 for package/manual/cartridge/licensing costs. This is all profit for them, it's smarter to to make it very attractive to consumers than to mark it up.

Originally Posted by eldad9 What did you expect? All of nintendo's back catalog for free? come on.

Obviously i never believed that ALL the games would be free (i'm a CHEAPass, not a DUMBass) but i thought that they might choose a few choice games to give out to maybe entice some new customers (which wouldn't be completely unreasonable).

I'm just hoping for reasonable prices, and maybe some bonuses, like download codes in Nintendo Power *hint hint*.

No offense to the OP as this is good information, but, I hope nobody really expected nintendo to give away more than say 10 games or something.

edit: too late i guess

I said in the last post I'll wait and see because I didn't think Nintendo would GIVE away their games. I think the best way to go about it would a reward program. If you register games you get points, if you subscribe to Nintendo Power (UGH!) you get points, and if you buy certain games you get older games as a bonus.

My guess would be when you buy the revolution, you would be able to get a voucher for X amount of free downloads (either by the game, or by the Meg), then after that you pay by the download.

Similarily, if you buy a game/accessory, you get X amounts of free downloads, and I have no doubt at some point, Nintendo Power would offer free downloads.

As for what's available upon launch to download, I would have to say most of the big names (Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Metroid, etc) would be represented, with other games being periodically released to download to keep it fresh

I'm shocked. This flies right in the face of all of Nintendo's past business practices... oh, wait...

hmmm....they might have actually enticed some people to buy the rev who wouldn't otherwise if they were free...

I would be happy with getting free downloads with registration of game purchases...that would be considerably better than the current "incentives" they give....

It would be cool if they started including free downloads for buying a game but use it as something that must be discovered in the game like playing Metroid Prime 3 and finding a room containing the downloads for Metroid and Super Metroid. Or playing Super Mario 128 and finding a hidden world containing Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros., etc.

I like the translation of Iwata's statement to Famitsu that I've been seeing around.

Iwata says, "Though the baseless rumor flows in the internet that the virtual console download service is free,
it is not scheduled to deliver it in free.
maybe download it (old games) as a privilege when consumers buy a new game,
maybe download it by consistent of the campaign at limited time,
variety methods will be used.
Using the properties in the past, I want to take shape that the profit is paid to Nintendo to the end. "

Through the Baseless rumor flows in the internet, thats some Zen stuff, Iwata.