[quote name='mykevermin']To be fair, someone already pointed out that comps such as Sega Genesis Collection aren't for the same market as the Wii.
[/quote]
You could argue that they're somewhat different markets, but really, how many markets are there for people who want to play classic games on their newer consoles? And at some point they've got to overlap. For every person that cares about some technical detail (like 480p or playing from internal memory) there's bound to be 10 that don't care, either from choice or ignorance.
Is disc/no-disc really significant? Does the impulse-buy crowd really want the vending-machine approach (VC) or the Costco buy-in-bulk method (collection disc)? Is the VC really going to be full of people who don't know what a Genesis is, but still want to buy its games?
Who knows? I think Nintendo and the rest are trying to figure it all out. Until the VC has been around for awhile, it's all just guesswork. Including the VC itself.
One thing, though -- if they are different markets, why is only one being pursued now? There have been a lot of replies of "it's a business" and if that's true, then it's also true that more money is better.
That would imply that there's the promise of even more money in the VC system. So maybe Nintendo has tricked us all with the VC, but not by charging more for Mario 64. The trick is that they will finally get to own it all (ahh, the irony for those of you who remember the Sega/Nintendo/Hudson feuds) and set the prices and the terms, and that there will no longer be any alternatives.
[quote name='mykevermin']
I doubt you'll ever see something like SGC released as a Wii disc for such a price, because it exposes the VC as overpriced, and would reduce any incentive (save for instant gratification) to buy a VC title. [/quote]
Well, yeah, but isn't that interesting? Now, in addition to its other issues, the VC now has an effect on games that can be released on the Wii. The trend (until now) was that companies would put out compilation discs every so often. Like you end up saying, I don't see this happening on the Wii, except for special cases (like Metal Slug).
I think it's also interesting to think about where the decisions are coming from. Sega has almost every reason to want to release the Genesis Collection on every platform. The only reason they would not want to do this would be to create disincentives for their own VC sales, but currently there's only one conflict -- Sonic -- and they have such a large library that they could certainly afford to release the Genesis Collection and have a VC presence with other Sega brand games.
Wouldn't they want to do that? That would provide hard data right there as to what the most effective and popular way of marketing classic games really is. Sega would (of course) choose the method that is more profitable for them. But until they have a comparison, how would they know?
So, I have no evidence, but I would suspect it's Nintendo who would veto Genesis Collection ever appearing on the Wii or GC, or at least they hammered out an agreement with Sega that Sega would have a VC presence if they did not go out rehashing their library on disc. I'm not sure which of those possibilities I like better.
[quote name='mykevermin']
That said, something like the SGC is available for people who want to play classic games but don't own a Wii. [/quote]
But isn't this...strange? One of the reasons to want a Wii is the VC, which means there's some level of interest in cheap(er) classic games. That's SGC in a nutshell. That it is incompatible with Nintendo's vision for the Wii says something important. An end of an era? A beginning of a new one? I guess we'll see.
[quote name='mykevermin'] I hope not, because the SGC just upped the ante for what an awesome compilation should look like and contain. I don't, however, think you'll see any comp discs released for the Wii.[/quote]
Enjoy the SGC. It might be the last of its kind on a console.
