Wii U to Get Virtual Console in the Spring

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Japanese gaming giant highlights a spring launch for the service.

Nintendo has announced that Virtual Console is coming to the Wii U. Speaking during a Nintendo Direct this morning, Nintendo's Satoru Iwata said that the Virtual Console service would go live sometime in the spring. Specifically, a spring software update will add Virtual Console software to the Nintendo eShop for Wii U. The Virtual Console service will launch soon after the spring update and will include NES and SNES games with Game Boy Advance games to be added at a later stage.

As far as pricing is concerned, users who have already purchased the Wii version of select NES or Super NES Virtual Console games and transferred them to their Wii U can buy an 'enhanced' version for the Wii U at a discounted price of $1 for NES games or $1.50 for SNES games. Nintendo will also sell one NES or SNES game at a special price of $0.30 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of the Famicom in Japan. The offer will see a new game discounted each month, and the deal for each game will be good for 30 days. January's title is Balloon Fight.

Nintendo also said that there are two Wii U updates scheduled for the first half of this year. The first will come in spring, and the second in summer. These updates aim to improve load times, which have been a source of complaint for some users, as well as provide new features, like the Virtual Console service that will arrive shortly after the spring update.

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Jane McEntegart

Jane McEntegart works in marketing communications at Intel and was previously Manager of Content Marketing at ASUS North America. Before that, she worked for more than seven years at Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware, holding such roles as Contributing Editor and Senior News Editor and writing about everything from smartphones to tablets and games consoles.

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10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • captainnemojr
    It'd be cool if all NES games were $1 and SNES were $1.50 all the time even for new purchases.
    Reply
  • jazz84
    In other news, Apple announced that people who purchased media and apps through iTunes on their iPhone5 will be able to pay a small fee to purchase "enhanced" versions of the same for use on the next iPhone...
    Reply
  • hakesterman
    Update - Wii U Sales plummet and Virtual Console is canceled..........
    Reply
  • IndignantSkeptic
    Wait, you have to transfer the games from Wii to Wii U? Why can't you just redownload them? They are so tiny that it shouldn't cost much bandwidth for Nintendo. Are the enhanced versions optional? and what could they possibly enhance? Whatever they did I can bet they probably shouldn't be charging anything extra for it. At least they are just charging an upgrade price rather than full price again though. Some companies charge full buy price for upgrades or patches. Wasn't EA or Capcom guilty of that in the past?
    Reply
  • whiteodian
    jazz84In other news, Apple announced that people who purchased media and apps through iTunes on their iPhone5 will be able to pay a small fee to purchase "enhanced" versions of the same for use on the next iPhone...They actually kind of already do this. They have many games for free and sell "HD" versions of the game.
    Reply
  • IndignantSkeptic
    whiteodianThey actually kind of already do this. They have many games for free and sell "HD" versions of the game.
    Yeah I noticed that, but do they charge an upgrade price or full purchase price to switch to the enhanced version?
    Reply
  • tarzan2001
    whiteodianThey actually kind of already do this. They have many games for free and sell "HD" versions of the game.
    I thought the HD versions of games just run at a higher resolution to look better on tablets. Do you know if they add extra content over the non-HD versions?
    Reply
  • DaFees
    Ok I had jump in here and say that if you are going to criticize Apple then get your facts straight. There are regular apps for iPhone/iPod then there are "HD" apps for iPad only but there is also universal apps that work for all of the above. With any and all apps you do not pay for updates, you just don't, ever, period. Now when Apple released the iPhone 5 or the 3rd gen iPad with retina display, it was up to the developers to update their apps to be optimized or "enhanced" for these new devices. These updates however are not something you pay for.

    Also, if you have the iPhone version of app you then don't get any sort of discount on the iPad version.

    A good example is Google's map app for iOS. Right now it is only optimized for iPhone (5 included) and not designed to be universal and optimized for iPad. Now Google could do one of two things. One, they could release a separate iPad only app which would be. Stupid or they could update their already available app to be optimized or "enhanced" for iPads.

    Point is... If I bought a virtual console title I should automatically receive it in the Wii U when the VC platform for that console launches. Also if Nintendo decides to enhance its Ames to look be tater on HD display or add online multiplayer then said enhancements should be free. I mean think of these enhancements as a patch for the games not DLC. You can't charge for updates but you can charge for DLC but this is not DLC.
    Reply
  • IndignantSkeptic
    @DaFees yah you don't pay for app updates but what if they decide to consider the updated app as a separate app? For example what about Galaxy on Fire 2? The HD update seems to be a whole separate app. Does that mean everything you paid for in the non-HD version of the game is wasted when you want to upgrade to the HD version?
    Reply
  • kinggraves
    I am ultimately disappointed. You are free to not buy the enhanced version and still play your Wii version of a VC game, but transferring Wii property over to a Wii U is kind of a hassle and that's way too much to get a dollar off something I pretty much already have. Maybe sell the enhancements for a dollar instead. (Although if you want to be a cheapskate, you could just pirate the VC games off your Wii using homebrew and then get the dollar off whatever you wanted whether or not you originally bought it.)

    I've heard they're going to have save states and button mapping in this version of VC, so that, Miiverse communities, and playing on the gamepad are probably the main enhancements. Virtual Console's always been OPed to me, sooo just get to work on those interface speed ups, thanks.
    Reply