make whole (not just some) library of NES games available on Switch
I think the main problem with that would be licensing costs. Nintendo only owns copyright for first-party games (and MAYBE second-party games); third-party games like Mega Man would have to be relicensed, but why would Capcom do that when they're already selling Mega Man: Legacy Collection? Maybe one game or two games as a free demo, but definitely not ALL six of the NES games. Now think of just how many classic NES games are owned by third parties (for example, Contra and Castlevania are owned by The Pachinko People), and you'll see why that won't happen.
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Yeah, also, Nintendo does have a habit of making remasters of old games so by putting all of even just their games, they are not allowing themselves to make $60 remasters of old games. I would rather they didn't do that, but they do. So even just putting all of their own first-party games would be bad for them too.
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But that's why piracy exist. People want to play games that there are only available as roms, because nobody wants to let them play them.
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Why? It does not. If company block access to a feature, it's obvious that there are people, that would just find other way to get it. It's literally the same when some company makes an update to a software and some people want previous version, because the new one is worse. The very same thing.
Companies should make sure that their product is easily accessed, otherwise they are the ones responsible for the piracy. That's just the fact.
Of course there are people who want things for free, but it's just another reason that piracy is a thing. But blocking something is, I would even say, bigger thing than "I want it for free".
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Piracy primarily exists because people don't want to pay for something.
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It's half of the reason. Another is limited access.
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I'm not arguing against piracy, I'm not even taking a stance on it. I'm just saying why what you're talking about will probably never happen.
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It won't because of the evil and greed that rules this world. Not because anything else. Not because logic or any reason.
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It's okay that games that are sold elsewhere won't be there. But there is no single reason to not include all games that are not included anywhere else. And it would only be a profit for those companies, because their game would be played again. If You are not going to sell something, I don't see the reason why would someone want to chase the pirates down. And it is a problem with so many games. You have either a choice of pirating it, or not playing at all.
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Here's the thing, though: even if the games aren't being sold elsewhere, the fact that Nintendo doesn't own the rights to those games means they'd have to pay to relicense them again, and the chances of new Nintendo Online subscribers being significant enough to recoup those costs is very slim. It's only pure profit for the third-party companies being paid a licensing fee by Nintendo. Plus, some games were made by now-defunct companies, and it would be difficult just to figure out who owns the rights to them anymore.
In other words, as much as they rail against it, it would actually be better for Nintendo to allow those games to be pirated (at least from a profit perspective), so go ahead and play Challenge of the Dragon on emulator. ☺
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This is just an excuse. You just can make the same thing Steam does for example. Or any other platform where the games are sold. Half of the price will go to the Nintendo, other half to the publisher etc. It's win-win, because if they don't sell a thing, they don't earn even a cent. If they sell it cheap, they earn something. And now, let's see that there is like 1000 games sold for 0,5 dollar and 10 million people would buy it. It's 5 million. Maybe not super much, but come on. There are games that they sell for literally few cents on Steam or elsewhere and nobody complains.
The only thing I hate is "I don't make an access to it, but I will chase anyone who will pirate it". So either let people pirate it, or sell it. If You are not doing any of this, You are hypocrite. Though companies usually are hypocrites, so... But how can someone be mad, that someone else get thing for free, if they don't want to sell it. This is beyond imagination.
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You can only do it the same way with steam for those companies that agree to do it. This is further complicated by the fact that the rights to certain games are not always clear, as they've changed hands repeatedly over the years and finding out who owns what exactly would cost more than it's worth. Many licenses are also split across at least two publishers. Many ports will be in this situation. Also a lot of games are based on external licenses, be it movies, toys or games and all of those would have to be re-negotiated. Which might be worth it for a high profile game like DuckTales, but is there enough demand for "Town & Country Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage" to justify tracking down all the license holders and get them to talk to each other just to release a game that hardly anyone will play on Switch?
You also have to consider that a fare few titles on NES were made by or are now owned by companies that don't play nice with Nintendo anymore, as they're competitors these days.
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If those companies don't like Nintendo, let sell those games/remakes of them on Steam. This is an absolute win for me.
Still, for me it's win all the time. Because I can legally download roms of those games.
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How many of those games are worth the effort to put up on sale though? How many copies would Town & Country Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage actually sell, and would it justify the cost of the meeting required to renew the licensing deal?
What you're talking about is not as easy as you think it is.
Also, another thing worth considering is do the companies even have the rights to the names anymore? Might sound silly, but there are games that have been blocked from being re-released in the past because other games have come out later that uses names that are similar. Homeworld: Cataclysm is an example of this. Would it be worth even checking if you have the rights to the names for some b-rate game that hardly anyone will buy? There are costs involved here.
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They could do that for the games they fully own the licenses for, but otherwise it's impossible.
The only way they could put the entire library up is if the courts declared all games older then X years as being 'abandonware' and those who own the rights no longer have any rights to them.
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Oh, abandonware should be a thing. If a company doesn't do anything with a game older than 10 years old, it should be considered legal to use roms of it. And it should be automatic, not by court.
Because if there is no will for company, publisher or developer to let people use certain game, it should be considered abandoned. Otherwise I don't mind paying for those games, if they are available. I even own the Megaman Legacy Collection 1 & 2, so, it's not like I don't want to buy it. But I don't have a chance of buying many games. Because they doesn't exist in any shop or store.
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video games are protected under copyright law. it would be ridiculous to apply a special rule just for video games that places them in the public domain earlier than any other copyright-protected property.
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I should have said software instead of games, but yes it would definitely be a ridiculous situation if it ever occurred.
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There's a simple reasons why Nintendo will never do it: they made more money that way.
- Nintendo is always wishing that emulators and their creators rott in hell.
- People buy these games individually without any retouch already.
- Hardware is more expensive, they make a console so they can profit selling software.
- Some games needs licenses they don't own (like Batman for example).
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- Though, they sold emulator console based on those emulators, so it's hypocrisy
- Yeah, those games that are available, You can buy. But are all of them available?
- So why would they sell NES Emulator Console, then? If they could just put those games available in Switch only.
- I understand that point. But can't they just like ask for the license and split the money so both Nintendo and publisher earns it? It's not like anyone will lose money from that. They lose money by NOT selling those games.
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Yes, it is hipocrisy. But emulators are legal and they can't do anything against them. But they really take legal action against emulator sites (with roms).
Licensing rights is extremely complicated. Take Batman for Nes again, Sunsoft have the rights of the game, but maybe not in all contries. And the intellectual property is from DC/Warner, that might have right now an exclusive contract to some other publisher making a game. So Nintendo can't use it, even if they pay a lot both companies.
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Emulators are legal, because You can pirate any game, music or movie LEGALLY, as long as You own the original. At least this is how it is in my country. You have old "Good, bad and ugly" on VHS, You have full right to download it in 4K legally.
And emulators are doing nothing else but play those games. They could play original games too, but You have to somehow plug the NES port to the computer. But it is possible.
You can play PSX games from CD on PSX emulators. I did it many times. But I prefer to download rom and play games I own already on CDs, because it's quicker.
Also if copyright is faulty, then make new law, that makes sense. Because current copyright law is the worst law ever existing. Because it's in many situations illogical. How can one company own something in one country and not own in another country? This is ridiculous. Or when Marvel couldn't make mutants in Avengers because Disney owned X-men rights... ridiculous thing. And those X-men movies were, afaik, still showing Marvel logo at the start. So what's going on? And I've seen many problems with copyright law, but don't really remember it, especially that it was so against any kind of logic, that I didn't even understand what's going on.
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Emulators are legal as long as they don't use proprietary code (like distribute a bios file together). In this context, all emulators are legal. About roms and isos, then we'll enter a grey area that depends on the legislation of a country.
Copyright will always be a pain in the butt, because the owners did it that way ($$$). Marvel for example sold the rights to do movies for different companies before the Disney acquisition. The X-men movie property was with Fox before Disney bought them, so they (or Sony) can't use "mutants" or any related characters. The Marvel logo isn't directly related to Disney, so it will appear in Fox and Sony. We saw the same battle with Spider-Man in the Avengers movies.
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Copyright should be removed and written from scratch. So it is logical and not about some negotiations to take someone's money. It should be clear and good for everyone. And also for users too. Not against users.
Oh, I remembered the irrational example of the law. Basically... every fan thing isn't rightfully in the ownership of the creator, but the company. So if You draw fanart of pikachu, the artwork isn't Yours but whoever gets the copyright, should it be Nintendo or Gamefreak ro whoever else. This is bs. Big bs.
But, there is also another stupid thing. Crossover exist. So... basically... what will happen if You draw a pikachu... and patamon. Who owns it now? Because patamon is copyrighted by Namco Bandai probably or something, so Your artwork isn't Yours but two companies own it at the same time?
I don't care who owns a Pokemon or Digimon, or anything else. If someone drew something themselves it should be their property, no matter what they drew. Fanarts should never be used like that.
Also there is fair use thing, but it depends on the lawyers. And lawyers are so easy to bribe. You pay, they will lie and make it so You win. And will search for most irrational small laws etc to prove Your right. And this is really like a children fighting in kindergarten. One lawyers vs another lawyer both arguing, searching for the smallest things to base their argumentation on. And law contradicts itself in so many levels.
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They are selling full price 60€/dollar games that are basically ROMs already. And they are being bestsellers already. They don't need to do that to roll in money
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60 dollars is very expensive for just some games. Especially if I don't need to play half of them. And I want them to be sold individually. And I want Battletoads for example. They should make them cost at most 0,5$.
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Oh, I agree with you. It's pure greed at this point. But since fans are paying the full amount for the most wanted games, they don't care about the rest.
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Tbh, I'm not sure if "fans" buy this or people who are told that they like it (a.k.a. nostalgia). Because nostalgia is what corrupts minds of people, especially if they were born near '80s or '90s.
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I believe they sell special NES/SNES controllers for the Switch to Nintendo Online members already, so people can play the games with their respective controllers.
EDIT: Yep, here they are. https://www.nintendo.com/switch/online-service/special-offers/
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Oh, so that's what I exactly thought of. But with possibility of buying old games individually through switch and let us play online with them.
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For us... Would be sweet.
For them... Licenses and Netcode is a hell of a hazzle.
Merch... There is already tons and tons. And a few tons more, floating in the oceans.
.
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The best thing they could actually do would be to make whole (not just some) library of NES games available on Switch for free
... Hehe cmon now 😁 It's a business. BIIIG Business.
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I understand, but why can't they just make so some part of the price go to the Nintendo, and another goes to the copyright owner? There is tons of solutions that could be made. The thing is... if the game X is not sold by either Nintendo or the owner of the rights to it... nobody gets money. If it is sold, someone get the money. For me it's obvious win-win for everyone.
You earn 0 millions of money if You not sell product. And even if You sell it cheap, You earn something. And many people would buy it anyway.
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.. But you were talking about getting it all for free, with added multiplayer support?
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This too. They should be free in the first place. But if they were in shop, they should be extremely cheap.
Especially that I have full right to download roms to those games. As the law ALLOWS me to download any game I owned. And I owned many of those, so I literally have right to download them for free if I want. So I don't need to rebuy those games. They are already rightfully mine.
I'm not sure if that's how it works everywhere but that's the law that exist in my country. So if they want me to play it, they have to make a good deal. Otherwise giving me bundle for high price like 60 dollars with literally no choice in games is ridiculous. I would rather use roms and emulators LEGALLY and play games I own already.
If I have choice to legally play it for "free"( Or actually not free, because I got this games bought in the first place) vs paying for it (and actually REbuying them), I would chose the first option. It's win for me if I don't buy it and lose for them. But if they do a nice deal, they can win too.
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make gamer suffer and FINE $$$ emulator site
nb: i dont play nintendo games either, so who cares
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I mainly like to play Battletoads or Doki Doki Yuuenchi for example, which aren't even included in Switch NES games. That's why I would like to have more games in the first place. Who cares about first Super Mario. I want games that I like to play.
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If they weren't so stubborn and more openminded with PC, they could open up a client much like Steam/Origin/Uplay/Epic and sell all their old school Nintendo games pre-Switch era, and find there's plenty of money to be made. Heck even Sony is warming up to PC because they see there's money to be made, Nintendo is just too blind and stubborn, they rather make cardboard toys.
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The thing is, Nintendo hate other platforms. While Sony have exclusives, Nintendo wants to be compeltely standalone. No thing from Nintendo has been ever made into PC, afaik.
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I had a random thought about NES and Nintendo, how they sell those crappy emulators in cheap plastic cases etc, and had an idea.
The best thing they could actually do would be to make whole (not just some) library of NES games available on Switch for free, but make some kind of controllers that are similar to NES controllers etc. Switch witch colors of that. Joy-Cons etc. Even some kind of merch like Switch case/bag with NES theme. And make that those NES games support playing online. This would definitely make people buy new Switch versions/ cases, Joy-Cons, controllers and even subscribe to online service to play Kunio Kun games with friends online etc.
What do You think? I would definitely prefer to buy those things rather than emulator that is actually free in the web. And the library is bad. Also the online feature to support all those games would be cool. Also playing on two Switches locally with 2P games would be cool either. Imagine Battletoads where two friends play on two consoles or when You login to online service You would have chance to play with other people through the web (random or from friend list). This would be actually awesome. And fans of NES games would buy NES-themed stuff and merch. Pro Controller with theme of NES controller. Or modern NES controller with just improvements, but mostly the same? Joy-Cons that looks like NES controllers or something. Case for Switch that looks like NES console and more.
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