Retro VGS Game Console

[dan Iacovelli]

its called marketing, getting the attention of the public before the release . movie companies been doing it for ages (trailers) not mention game companies been doing as well announce the product before the release ( a certain company comes to mind did a 10-10-10 ad for its system)
Wrestling promotions been doing it as well for big events ( JJ's Global Force Wrestling announced a show vegas even before they got the whole roster set or a tv deal)

[whisper2053]

its called marketing, getting the attention of the public before the release . movie companies been doing it for ages (trailers) not mention game companies been doing as well announce the product before the release ( a certain company comes to mind did a 10-10-10 ad for its system)
Wrestling promotions been doing it as well for big events ( JJ's Global Force Wrestling announced a show vegas even before they got the whole roster set or a tv deal)

The difference between movie premieres and wrestling promotions vs. this thing is that neither of the former are intended to be marketed to a niche audience. They're for general consumption to the average Joe & Jane on the street. A 'retro-based gaming console' is, by its very nature, going to appeal *only* to a very very limited audience, which in turn means you are already hobbled in terms of positive financial gain from its sale. The rest, as elmer and Zeta have spelled out, is just downhill from there. It's a cool idea, and WOULD be really neat to see actually take off...but pie-in-the-sky, cart-before-the-horse style dreaming isn't going to make it a financially SOUND idea.

[SignOfZeta]

He's marketing a name, a 20 year old case, and a very very vague concept. Other than that it's all hot air. Movie studios very rarely advertise movies until they have a director or a star or...something, anything, and movie studios always have a distribution method and customers lined up before they do anything. This guy isn't even as far along as Ghostbusters IV.

[Mishran]

Is it just a coincidence that this is all popping up so close to April 1st?

I know I can't be the only one who thought about this. People have gone to great length for April Fool's jokes in the past, so who knows. Guess we'll know tomorrow.

[TurboGrafx]

Is it just a coincidence that this is all popping up so close to April 1st?

I know I can't be the only one who thought about this. People have gone to great length for April Fool's jokes in the past, so who knows. Guess we'll know tomorrow.

Interesting lol. Never thought of that.

[mickcris]

Is it just a coincidence that this is all popping up so close to April 1st?

I know I can't be the only one who thought about this. People have gone to great length for April Fool's jokes in the past, so who knows. Guess we'll know tomorrow.

I doubt it. The first thread that I saw about it was started on 1/30 on nintendoage:
http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=22&threadid=141995
Its just getting talked about more now.

[Opethian]

the long con...

[Desh]

I honestly have no clue why a major manufacturer (especially Nintendo) hasn't made brand spanking new games for their old consoles.  I know it is still sort of a niche market but anything Nintendo shits out these days is gold.  Even if the "actual" market isn't large enough the resellers and scalpers will buy up the rest of the releases anyways.

Let's imagine some rough figures ...

A pro-developer is going to cost you around $100,000 per year, more for a really good one. Take a small team of 5, and give them 2 years (to produce a high enough quality game that Nintendo would put their name on - this is a very low estimate for a Nintendo game) ... that's $1,000,000.

Let's add in say, another $500,000 in part-time management, office, HR, and other costs ... and in Miyamoto-san flying in a couple of times to steer the project.

Getting the cart manufacturing back up for a smallish run ... say another $1,000,000.

Throw in some marketing ... it's Nintendo, after all ... say $1,500,000 to round out the figures.

The carts/box/manuals themselves ... let's be really generous and go with the Retro VGS figure of $8 cost.

We've already decided that it's a niche market, so let's go for a small production run of 60,000 carts ... that's another $500,000.

So that's a $4,500,000 spend ... so you'd want to project at least $9,000,000 to have a reasonable ROI.

That gives us $9,000,000/60,000 = $150 per game.

That's Nintendo's wholesale selling price. Add in a 20% distribution markup and a 30% retail markup ... and that's $235 per game to the buyer.

Are there 60,000 people out there willing to pay $235 for a new Nintendo SNES game?

I don't know ... there could be ... would you?

I think if a NEW game was around the $80 price point people would be lining up.  That market is going to have A LOT of people buying more than one copy.  Let's face it, probably at least 25-30% are going to be people that buy one to play and one to keep sealed because OMG rare Nintendo item. 

I also don't know that a huge marketing budget would be necessary.  I haven't personally seen any major advertising for Amiibos and look how bat shit crazy people are going over those things.

In any event the only thing I was trying to say is that I personally feel it would be worth the risk for a big company to see if there is a decent market.  If there were, your cost to produce more and more would go down and could lead to other things like re-releasing old hardware (or at least a very nice emulated version with HDMI support etc). 

In reality, Nintendo has REALLY never stepped away from their heritage.  How many new games do they release that aren't based off a franchise started on the good old NES?

[SignOfZeta]

Nintendo also rarely really leaves anything out of print for long, so there isn't any point in releasing stuff for old machines. The WiiU can emulate any and all of thier old hardware to an EXTREMELY high degree of acuracy. If they want to sell something that looks old on purpose, the new machine can do that too, and all on a machine that actually exists with 9 million sold units and a controller selection that accommodates almost anything, analog, digital, touch pad, light gun...the people who make retro-style games are right there right now doing it.

I think those exited by the idea of the White Jag would learn a lot by looking at what's already on the market and I'm being serious about this.

[xelement5x]

the long con...

Hey coincidentally is anyone interested in a Predator themed pinball game?

[SignOfZeta]

I will play any new pinball machine, but ideally I'd prefer one with %1000 less murder and gore and grossness.

[Necromancer]

Pretty much everything this device is meant to accomplish could be done on a Vita.  Real carts, workable fees for indie devs and/or smaller print runs, and it'll handle whatever fake 16-bit aesthetic you can toss at it.

what ever dudes all hear is complaining so this my last post on this topic

We're okay with that, though you're obviously not going to stop.  If you can't handle intelligent discourse about the pros AND cons of something, then pack up your rah-rah-cheerleading and hit the road.

If they didn't want people to speculate about the console, they should not have announced it so early without giving any details.  I don't really see it succeeding, but I could be wrong.

Amen, comrade.

[SignOfZeta]

I agree. The Vita is pretty good at exactly what this guy wants.

[dan Iacovelli]

I'm interested in the system but like every body I'm in wait and see mode.if its good great if not at least they tried. I have problems to worry about like certain trade show in IL (which is why you won't see me at MGC,because of cost and other issues).
I don't have vista or do I desire one.
have 3 other projects as well, a 7800 and jaguar game being planned thanks to basic compiler languages as well plans retooling my first Batari basic game for the 2600.
plus I have work on the releasing the past vgs programs and the jagfest issues and not to mention work on the jagfest 10th anniversary issue with a jaguar price guide.
Did I mention I'm still unemployed but I'm in no hurry to look for a job in retail again.
so go ahead talk amongst your selves, and if you want to kick me out of this forum fine I belong to others.

[SignOfZeta]

Obviously you don't want a Vita. Almost nobody does, hence the terrible failure of the system. My point is that if you actually LOOKED at the thing and saw what kind of software is on it, you might be way more interested. I didn't get my Vita for all those AAA Arab killing games that look 3/4 as good as the PS3 version. I got it for indie games and 2D stuff. If you're wondering "what would it be like if they still made 2D games?", then get a Vita and see. You'd see Blazblue, Super Robot Wars Z3, Dragon's Crown, and a whole bunch of 2D indie stuff that's totally worth your time, vastly better than all but one or two Jag games, if I could use that as a metric. And you get a great controller, and the ability to play that mainstream AAA crap, and if you'd rather play the stuff on a bigger screen, that's what the Playstation TV is, a consolized Vita.