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Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow to be re-released for the 3DS Virtual Console

Serebii said:
Ahead of their release next week, pages for the Virtual Console releases have been added to the North American and European eShops. With this, pages for each language have been added. In North America, English, French & Spanish versions will show up while in Europe, English, French, Spanish, German & Italian versions are available so make sure you purchase the correct one. This also has confirmed the prices of the games for Europe, previously unknown, as £8.99/€9.99. The Australian price is $13.00. The games will be available from February 27th
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NintendoLife seconds that Amazon will be selling digital codes for the eShop at $9.99 each. They don't give a specific reason why, but they do note that it could be for the replacement of the link cable, and that the VC release of EarthBound was this expensive as well.

If not for the fact that this $9.99 Amazon price fits in with the eShop prices for Europe and Australia, I would have at least hoped that buying from Amazon would come with some kind of paraphernalia, not unlike what Japan is getting with the 2DS bundle, without the DS. It's still possible I suppose, but as far as I know, the eShop doesn't deliver physical goods, so it wouldn't make sense in that context.

Does anyone have the VC release of EarthBound? Did they do anything notable to it that explained the higher than average price gap? I couldn't quite see the justification for Game Freak to list with this kind of price gap, unless they had to do more work than usual to prepare it for the virtual console. This could include the addition of the wireless features and mystery gift, but it could also be an indication that they've put effort into refactoring the code to patch the glitches. We'll know for sure next week, I suppose.
 
Darth Manaphy said:
Individual game. I remember seeing an Amazon listing in America for $9.99 for each game. Considering they normally charge between $3 and $5 for these games, it's pretty outrageous. Probably they justify adding the new trading element or something to charge more...
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Well, don't forget what I mentioned once in another thread. (Mysteries maybe?) A good copy of Blue can go for $400, I think it's good we're getting them for $10.
 
HelenTheHero said:
Well, don't forget what I mentioned once in another thread. (Mysteries maybe?) A good copy of Blue can go for $400, I think it's good we're getting them for $10.
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That's true; it's certainly better than most prices... but that doesn't mean it's not bad. It's like, 2 or 3 times the price of a normal VC title.
 
The games paid off their investment a hundred times over before the turn of the millennium. The only reason they price them so high now is because they can. Compared to selling it for the usual price, it is not going to impact the sales in a meaningful way, at least not in a way that isn't offset by the price hike. I mean, for a $4 price to be worth it over a $10, almost two thirds of all prospective buyers would have to turn it down for $10. No way that would ever happen. Maybe 20-30 % fewer people will buy the game for $10 than if it had been $4, a margin that is comfortably swallowed by the 250 % increase in profit per unit sold.
 
I don't see the issue with price. I'm pretty sure these games were big for Game Boy standards, they still support multilayer (how many GB VC games do that, again?), and it's still cheaper than trying to buy an actual cart.
 
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Karxrida said:
I don't see the issue with price. I'm pretty sure these games were big for Game Boy standards, they still support multilayer (how many GB VC games do that, again?), and it's still cheaper than trying to buy an actual cart.
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In turn, they also don't support restore points.
The thing is I'm alright with them raising the price a little due to the multiplayer aspects; £5 sounds good but £6 would be my limit. £9 is just a really gross inflation compared to every other GB title.
 
Kurona said:
Not... really? Even every NES title costs half of what Pokémon does.
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Exactly....

You can get older games (NES) and more recent stuff (GBA) for less. They've bumped up the price for a popular brand. It's what Nintendo do.

And that's not even commenting on the extortionate cost to download full 3DS titles.
 
a0161613 said:
Exactly....

You can get older games (NES) and more recent stuff (GBA) for less. They've bumped up the price for a popular brand. It's what Nintendo do.

And that's not even commenting on the extortionate cost to download full 3DS titles.
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Well, the full 3DS titles cost the exact same as the original retail price... and sometimes it's drastically reduced like in the case of MGS3. It seems extortionate of the online side of things at first until you realize it's like that irl too.
 
Kurona said:
Well, the full 3DS titles cost the exact same as the original retail price... and sometimes it's drastically reduced like in the case of MGS3. It seems extortionate of the online side of things at first until you realize it's like that irl too.
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Which is fine until you see the E-shop cost compared to a download code from Game UK which is cheaper.

Games like Steamworld are not that much more and when on sale, 3DS games can be less than £20.

£9 or more for barely a redux version of a 20 year old game is crazy. I'd be reluctant to pay that for a version of FRLG.

I can't believe that this is me being tight.
 
How is this going to work then? Is is going to be like other virtual console titles where you an save and revert from the last checkpoint because if that happens, then there would be two ways of saving?
 
The_Emperor said:
How is this going to work then? Is is going to be like other virtual console titles where you an save and revert from the last checkpoint because if that happens, then there would be two ways of saving?
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What you're describing is savestating, which they have specifically stated will not be a part of these games. Because...reasons.
 
Karxrida said:
I don't see the issue with price. I'm pretty sure these games were big for Game Boy standards, they still support multilayer (how many GB VC games do that, again?), and it's still cheaper than trying to buy an actual cart.
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Pretty much this. I own Pokemon Red on cart, and it cost $27. I bought it in 2013 and the label was missing when I bought it. Imagine what an RBY cart in better condition (i.e. not missing the label) than mine would go for.

Plus, seeing as people are willing to purchase actual carts for over double the VC price, $10 seems pretty fucking generous.
 
Adamant Zoroark said:
Pretty much this. I own Pokemon Red on cart, and it cost $27. I bought it in 2013 and the label was missing when I bought it. Imagine what an RBY cart in better condition (i.e. not missing the label) than mine would go for.

Plus, seeing as people are willing to purchase actual carts for over double the VC price, $10 seems pretty fucking generous.
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Here is an example of one in good quality that costs much more than $10. I agree, to me $10 is a reasonable price.
CWWFTPD.png
I'm going to mention this thing forever.
 
HelenTheHero said:
Here is an example of one in good quality that costs much more than $10. I agree, to me $10 is a reasonable price.
CWWFTPD.png
I'm going to mention this thing forever.
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Well, to be fair, I'm pretty sure the ones going for nearly $400 are unopened. I found Pokemon Yellow not in the box + save battery replaced going for $47 on Ebay, so kind of goes to show how much people will pay for these things.
 
Wow, I do not know where you a live, but here the games don't cost nearly as much. You can have a complete boxed copy of Red, Blue or Yellow for about € 30,- and a cartridge for about 10. So, even though I'm still going to buy the VC, the price would defenitely not be the reason for it.
 
Hydrachomp said:
Wow, I do not know where you a live, but here the games don't cost nearly as much. You can have a complete boxed copy of Red, Blue or Yellow for about € 30,- and a cartridge for about 10. So, even though I'm still going to buy the VC, the price would defenitely not be the reason for it.
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Supply and demand, the games might not be in as high of demand where you live as they are in the US if the prices are that much lower (iirc right now 10 Euro translates to around $11), and even then, never needing to potentially replace a save battery is reason enough to go VC.
 
Hmm. Sorta wondering how much I could sell my Red cartridge for now? The original battery is still in and running, and the cart doesn't have too much wear on it (label still looks perfectly fine outside of some discoloration). :3

Anyway, about save states, RBY really doesn't need them. Some VC games like the NES Super Marios enjoy having them, but Pokemon really has no use for them outside of exploiting them for catches of things such as safari Mons (which can be caught easily on Cinnabar's coast, might I add). Only thing save states would really be useful for is cloning, and...is there any real reason to clone in Gen I beyond starters?
 
Adamant Zoroark said:
Supply and demand, the games might not be in as high of demand where you live as they are in the US if the prices are that much lower (iirc right now 10 Euro translates to around $11), and even then, never needing to potentially replace a save battery is reason enough to go VC.
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Well I'm just really lucky to be living in Europe then, expanding my collection would have been a pain. At least the USA gets the special 3ds bundle, while europe gets ... 2ds bundles?!
 
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