This really should have been implemented for launch, I wanna be able to play Super Metroid on the Gamepad goddamit!

While it would have been a nice feature, I'm glad this is on the backburner, and their priorities are on other more pertinent online features and an eshop at launch.  At least we know they're aware that it is something people want, and we could see it as an update soon! 

So just like when the 3DS launched without the eShop, the Wii U is launching without the Virtual Console. It's nice to see Nintendo learning from their mistakes.

Well, at least they've acknowledged that people want a Wii U Virtual Console (especially one playable on the Wii U's big selling point), and that it's coming. Hopefully they'll recognize that people want more than one release every other week.  Oh wait, it's Nintendo. Never mind.

My questions are, does my Wii VC translate into Wii U VC games, or am I expected to repurchase for the privilege of playing on the tablet?

and also, do my VC games have to already be downloaded on the Wii (prior to transfer) to be playable on the Wii U, or can I download them on the Wii U after the account transfer?

I surmised as much from their previous vague statements on the matter. (Why is Nintendo completely unable to articulate anything at all clearly? A mystery for the ages...)

What I want to know is: will the Pro Controller be usable with Wii games?

I read something on GameStop's web site that suggested no, but they're hardly an official source and it wouldn't surprise me if someone there made it up (based on Nintendo's vague guidance). If the answer really is no, however, that makes it a whole lot less useful than the Classic Controller Pro (which I have so far held off on buying), which is a shame considering the Pro's already-ridiculous price.

The Wii U Pro Controller is the same price as the DualShock 3 and Xbox 360 Controller, so I wouldn't call it overpriced.

That depends on how you look at it. The Dual Shock 3 and 360 controllers are the same price as they were when they were released. Considering all technology becomes cheaper with the passage of time, I would call both of the controllers overpriced. The Wii U Pro Controller doesn't have a head phone jack or analog triggers and probably doesn't feature anything more than controllers on competing platforms do so I'd consider it overpriced as well. Mind you, I'll probably end up buying 2 of them eventually, but that doesn't mean I don't think they're overpriced. Hopefully, I can find a coupon or get them on sale.

The DualShock 3 and Xbox controllers can be used with every game on their respective systems, unlike the Pro Controller. That's my point. How much it's worth to me is determined by how useful it is.

It's good that it's in the works.


Honestly, with everything else they're trying to achieve with this console it doesn't surprise me that they didn't have time to update every single virtual console game from wii functionality to wii u functionality. Now, maybe I don't know anything, but that's a lot of games, and it seems like it would take a lot of time. So to me, having miiverse, eshop, browser, etc. on day one is far more important than gamepad functionality for wii virtual console games.

So dumb.

While I'm not surprised, I am a little surprised that there wasn't a function built in that just lets you swap (or mirror) the video out on the Wii U from the TV to the GamePad while in old Wii mode.  You'd still have to use the Wii Remote with the Game Pad (perhaps leaving it sitting in the stand), but that would be a pretty quick fix and would let folks play *every* Wii title off-screen.

These are the pertinent questions: the quote doesn't sound like they're planning on making your wii virtual console games playable on the Wii U game pad.  It sounds like they're making an entirely separate Wii U virtual console where they can re-sell you the same games with "game pad functionality!"...

I expect this to be more like the 3D classics on 3DS than an update like they did with the ambassador games.

Very disappointing to hear.

I would hope Nintendo doesn't make people repurchase VC games. That would be lamezorz. Having to download a Wii U version which automatically replaces the Wii version (i.e. the older version is deleted forever and unable to be redownloaded) is an acceptable alternative since patching probably won't be easy or worth the trouble. That Wii U version will probably do what we all want it to (playable on GamePad).

I appreciate Nintendo directly answering this question, for the time being.


I've spent hundreds of dollars on the Wii Virtual Console. That I won't be able to play them on the Gamepad for an indefinite amount of time, that I won't be able to use a  modern interface to sort, group, and list them (the narrow-minded "channel" metaphor completely breaks when you have 17 pages of unsortable purchases), and especially that I don't have any assurance of not having to repurchase the games to gain these features, is deeply worrying! If profit, licenses or technology prevent a clean transfer of at least 90 percent of my Wii VC purchases, Nintendo won't make another dollar from me on digital distribution.




unless they bring out Saturn games.

I'm inferring from this that, yeah, this is Nintendo's plan to make us repurchase VC games to get the Gamepad functionality and I suspected that since it was revealed that the VC would be run in the backwards compatible Wii mode.  It just fits the corporate culture regarding IP.  It's a new system so you buy the games all over again (like you don't get free BluRays to replace your DVDs).  I'm not thrilled about that at all, but I won't act like Nintendo are being exceptionally dickheaded here because I figure Sony and MS would do the same thing.

I think this and the fairly restrictive hard drive details have been released this late on purpose in hope that early adopters won't notice or will have already made a pre-order and would not want to back out of it.  Both pieces of news are not necessarily positive.  Nintendo is often vague and ambiguous when trying to hide something that would not go over all that well if stated clearly.

I'm glad Nintendo acknowledges that they didn't live up to people's expectations with this, and that they intend t rectify that at some point. I'll be interested to see when and how they do that.

I don't necessarily think Nintendo's trying to hide anything, and this news and the hard drive news are actually improvements over some of the speculation we had prior to these announcements. We already knew they weren't supporting the GamePad for VC, and didn't know if they'd ever do so. Now we know they will, and while it may or may not include paying more for it, it's still better than not knowing if they ever will.

It's great to hear that they're planning to release a Wii U VC. That was just something living in assumption land for all of us up until now. I'm okay if their priorities mean it doesn't make launch, just let me know it'll happen and that you've got your priorities in order.

However, as a longtime Nintendo gamer and realist/pessimist, I fully expect us to have to repurchase our VC games for native Wii U support.

Wii U Pro Controller cannot be used to play Wii games.

You will be able to download them after the account transfer. Bill Trinen says this in the NOA Nintendo Direct video from yesterday.

Please, if we're going to make analogies to other industries or mediums, let's not make broken ones. The obvious point of comparison is to Apple and Apple Store purchases.

I wouldn't compare Nintendo's downloads to Apple's. Apple's way more on top of things than Nintendo, and everything just works across multiple different devices with no real effort on the user's part. I don't think Nintendo's ever going to get to that point.

I think the only real comparison to make is how Microsoft handled download game transfers from the Xbox to the Xbox 360, which I don't remember much about and also had the added factor of completely different hardware architectures.

I think this is a lets wait and see statement.


Yes, it is coming...and Nintendo is trying to figure out how best to do this.  Of course each virtual console game will have to be slightly reprogrammed to be able to work with the Gamepad...but I hope that doesn't mean Nintendo will try to get greedy.


Personally, I look at this in 2 ways, both are positive in different ways.


1)  Nintendo is figuring out how to best implement the virtual console transfer, and it will be easier to do, once Nintendo has a bulk of the Wii VC games and such transferred over to the Nintendo Network account, and everything is smoothed out and in place.  Then Nintendo can implement the new Virtual Console system and allow you the choice to transfer all old Wii VC games to the newer standard and game pad support.  Simple and easy, but necessary because if anything is broken or not in place for a smooth transfer gamers will be upset...and Nintendo already screwed up by not having an account based system from the beginning.


or another option...less desirable is this.


2)  Nintendo is making a new VC system structure and this new system may include new functions for the new system, that would warrant a new purchase price.  Nintendo will include Gamepad support...but perhaps Nintendo will also add online play support for classic games.  This alone would justify a repurchase price.  Also Nintendo could do other minor upgrades like adding 4 player support to Super Mario Kart or something...unlikely but still possible.  All of this could be done so Nintendo could justify reselling the game, and I think gamers would support that. 

I figured as much, though the wording makes me think it could be separate and you have to re-buy games...

This is so sloppy and lazy that it's embarrassing. How did Nintendo get something so basic so wrong? No wonder Japan is in decline. They just don't trail-blaze any more.

It's not that basic. Every single Virtual Console game has its own emulator, so it's more complicated than you think.

Any links to back that up?

That each game has its own emulator? This has been widely known for years, though I can't find a link right now.

... Then how is it widely known? Seems like a really simple problem to solve if Nintendo could just be bothered to do something about it.

Since each game has its own emulator, each game would need its own patch. I imagine they will do that in time, but it's not the most important thing for them to do right now.

I was really looking forward to playing VC games on my pad. It's something that is very important to me.

This is on some level Nintendo being screwed over by a bad decision they themselves made 6 or 7 years ago. They didn't have the foresight to realize the way they did it would be a bitch to transition to another system.

Well, the big problem is the account system not being there from the beginning.


I don't know about the emulator part being a problem...it seems to me that if you could emulate it with the Wii...then it should be no problem to get it working for the Wii U, and then have the Wii U OS send it to the Gamepad.


I wonder if this is a problem because of how they emulated the games.  Perhaps instead of creating a "system emulator," that would be easy to just plop ROMs in and play...they created individual game emulators...perhaps this was to help against pirating...so Nintendo has to code more.  It all seems strange to me...but Nintendo definitely did not have foresight with this one...of course, you could argue that Nintendo didn't know the VC would take off or that the Wii would be successful so they managed to create everything fast and dirty.


Hopefully, with the Wii U, Nintendo is getting everything right the second time, and taking the extra time and effort to really have a vision and foresight into the future. 

CHANGE YO NAME MIYAMOTO

I think "Haterade" would be appropriate.

I love Nintendo and I have a collection that would dwarf anybody's here to prove it but I'm not gonna follow you guys and blindly drink the Kool aid. If Nintendo foul up, I'm gonna call them on it.

seconded

I smell a rivalry..

Each game ships with an emulator, but I believe the emulators are shared on the system level. Nintendo being conservative, they'd probably want to test all the games individually with a new update though.

It would be nice if they did it like the Ambassador NES games on 3DS, where they slap together a system level emulator now and let you play them in less than perfect condition without some of the bells and whistles, and then as they update them they send out the better versions. I think most people who are upset at the lack of a Virtual Console would be fine with getting in-progress versions that might not be perfect, especially if they still had the option to boot up the Wii versions of them if the new ones don't work quite right.

I still regret updating my Star Fox 64 VC game several years ago. I remember wondering why the game ran smoother during levels where on the N64 were slightly sluggish.

Oops.

VC wasn't a deal-breaker for me.

I wonder if this means WiiWare games will get transferred over too.

I assume you mean updated to be played on the GamePad, because we already know you can transfer WiiWare games to Wii U (though they will be played in Wii mode).

Yes i meant that.

I believe nintendo gives publishers a base emulator that is them tweaked and modified by the publisher to work with a specific game the gamepad support would likely be a rolling update based on that theory
We should get a repurchase discount imo

Ideally, there'd be a nominal fee (like $0.10/game) to cover the costs of updating for the WiiU. There's precedent for this when Apple offered $0.30/song upgrades of iTunes songs.

Of course, Nintendo charges a non-refundable $0.50 for an underage user alert, so I don't think we'll be that lucky.

I think that if you love playing the games, I.e., for nostalgia, or just to be taken back, then having to pay a fee (announced already as a small fee), to gain those games back, then it shouldn't be a big deal. For instance, I love punch out, I had the original cartridge, all the reboots, and on the Wii VC. As soon as it came to the Wii U VC, I paid the $.30 to get it again. Another thing to remember is that Nintendo is usually slow to start, (I.e. GameCube, N64,) but once it gets rolling, it stays that way. And they put quality first. One example I always use is my consoles breaking down. No joke, in the same week, my Xbox 360 went red light, and my Wii stopped reading games. I called Microsoft first. They asked me the error code, and I told them. They informed me it was am Ethernet port problem on my console itself, and it would be seventy dollars for a replacement part, and that it wasn't covered by my warranty. On the other hand, I called Nintendo of America, told them that my copy of SSBB wouldn't read, and they took my address, mailed me a return box to pack my Wii in, paid for shipping to them, and back, and fixed the disc drive free of charge. That kind of quality shouldn't go unnoticed. As far as the VC goes, it will take a bit for all the titles to be ported, bit Nintendo will, as they always have done will keep the consumer in mind, and the fans content with low prices, and great compatibility. Everyone who is a Nintendo fan should wait a minute before the sic the dogs out, and have a little faith. Nintendo is catching enough grief from the media, and everyone else. The fans should back them up.