Should Nintendo release/port their old games on PC?

[TheRealTalker]

The question arises. Even though some of their current titles are evergreens I wonder if once the sales of these games lose wind or if they move on to a new platform with new titles that if it would be wise, sales wise, to have old titles be ported over to PC?

The question is why not? Or do you think that would cause harm to any future sales of said title and hardware? I believe it won't.

I don't mean day and date of course, or ever, but for example if Nintendo ported over Wind Waker or Xenoblade Chronicles 1 or any old title I can see them doing well in sales which in turn would prep them for their next release of said titles in said franchise.

They already sale a lot for some titles but even other franchises that don't sell as well could get an extra boost. Is there are reason not to do this?

 

[ShaggsMagoo]

Should they? Sure.
Will they? No.

 

[giancarlo123x]

They don't even want to release their old games on their current systems. No chance of pc even though that would be great.

 

[Dest]

They should but they never will. They do a piss poor job at porting their stuff to their own consoles.

 

[Earvin Infinity]

They have to be looking at some of the ROI figures from Sony and MS putting their titles on PC, and going, "we should be looking into that… right?"

 

[Mekanos]

It wouldn't affect me at all if they did but they won't.

 

[Lord Fanny]

They have to be looking at some of the ROI figures from Sony and MS putting their titles on PC, and going, "we should be looking into that… right?"

Click to shrink...

They probably aren't

 

[TheRealTalker]

Well I am asking if should they rather then will they.

Nintendo and their decisions are common for the industry lol

 

[Trieu]

They really should, but I have to be completely honest and don't understand how Nintendo operates or thinks.

For me personally it is just mind boggling that they are not releasing additional tracks as paid dlc for Mario Kart on the switch to make a lot of money or release a more powerful docked Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo could make so much money releasing their software on mobile devices and PC

 

[cvbas]

Yes, but they won't.

Both Wind Waker and Xenoblade, the examples you mentioned, would sell *a lot* on PC.

 

[nsilvias]

i was just thinking this. ms and sony are doing it now so i wonder if nintendo would ever even entertain it since they have nintendo games on other platforms in the past like that nvidia shield selling you emulated game cube games officially

 

[Fadewise]

There's no reasonable argument to be made as to why they shouldn't. But people will make it anyway. Either way, they never will.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

Everything should be in PC so I can be done with consoles.
Seriously, it would be really nice to have everything in one place + a handheld (Deck) that can play most of these games on the go.

 

[TGB86]

It would be nice just so they aren't locked to weak hardware, but it will never happen. Nintendo has the most valuable portfolio of IPs in the industry by a wide margin, and they're well aware of that. They don't want people having access to those experiences on non-Nintendo hardware. If they did, there wouldn't be much of a draw to their hardware anymore.

 

[Faceless_Caesar]

PC is the definitive archival platform especially when emulation is factored in.

 

[HockeyBird]

They probably aren't

Click to shrink...

They are looking at the ROI they have by keeping their games on their consoles and saying "We make more money this way".

 

[Hydeus]

Yes. Steam Deck will be the OMEGA.

 

[Toumari]

It seems to be where the industry is heading, so sure why not.

 

[jph139]

Their strategy is too IP-focused for that to make much sense, but yeah, I want them to, and they should.

 

[Stowaway Silfer]

They probably should, judging by the success that Sony games are getting. There's clearly a lot of people who'll just never play on console but would buy the games if they eventually came to PC, and a lot of money to be made from them.

 

[NSESN]

I dont think they should, but I also dont think they shouldn't, i am pretty apathetic about it
Nintendo gets no benefit from releasing on PC and unlike people that buy their consoles PC gamers arent exactly entitled to get Nintendo ports
Imo Nintendo should focus on porting their old games to their own platforms, wasting time on PC ports isnt really a benefit to their strategy unless they get someone to foot the bill for the ports

 

[TheRealTalker]

They probably should, judging by the success that Sony games are getting. There's clearly a lot of people who'll just never play on console but would buy the games if they eventually came to PC, and a lot of money to be made from them.

Click to shrink...

yeah there are many people who would never buy a console so giving an old game on PC would warrant a buy for them

basically you can eat two cakes, you sell the new games on your platform/hardware and then sell the old game for people that don't ever buy such hardware as well as double dippers

 

[Madjoki]

Yes. But they won't.

If Epic's money hat can't make Nintendo port, nothing can :(

 

[kimbo99]

100% yes. I doubt they will, but considering how their mobile games are doing they should at list dip their toes into it.

 

[Spazerbeam]

There is no good reason as to why not. They won't.

 

[Roliq]

This is one of those "everyone would like that but there is no reason to think Nintendo will ever do that"

 

[Rosenkrantz]

I mean, to make it official, sure. Never gonna happen tho, despite their consoles being in a place where it gets emulated to almost perfect level during the life cycle of the hardware for several gens now.

 

[L Thammy]

Honestly, I feel like the answers to this are pretty obvious and only vary by what perspective you've decided to approach the issue from. If we all take the question the same way, you'd basically have no reason not to have a total consensus.

 

[Hasney]

That would be amazing. But they never will.

Anyway, back to 240fps Dredd

 

[NSESN]

Yes. But they won't.

If Epic's money hat can't make Nintendo port, nothing can :(

Click to shrink...

There is that too, if epic volunteering paying for the port from their isn't enough to sway nintendo they will never do from their own volition

 

[sir_crocodile]

Depends on your viewpoint. I take the OP to be from a Nintendo business standpoint, and no, it wouldn't be a good idea for them to do that for them. They use their old IP at times to help out their current consoles, and that wouldn't work if they were officially available on PC. Yes some people will emulate, but that is not the majority.

 

[Tathanen]

Nah.

 

[bob1001]

Ideally everything would be on everything and platform holders would appeal to people based on things other than exclusive titles. Like special hardware, unique OS features, good deals like Gamepass, etc etc. It'll never happen tho

 

[Squirrel09]

I mean,

Well I am asking if should they rather then will they.

Click to shrink...

A gentle reminder that businesses are not your friends. And public companies have the legal obligation towards their stock holders to act in their interest. So Nintendo (or any public company) only cares about you because you a means to the end of the stock holders interest.

That being said, the question of "Should" moves from "But it's more money from the PC Market!" to "What are the stock holders interest?". Nintendo has convinced them that there's more value in a completely closed ecosystem and a back catalog of inaccessible titles that can be resold over and over again or sold as a subscription than a PC or Off console option.

So, from a business standpoint, In Nintendo's perspective... should they? No. Because they see more value in a back catalog of inaccessible games and a subscription than the value of selling on PC.

From a consumer, should they? Yes. lol

 

[Sabin]

Yes, but they won't.

 

[KtotheRoc]

They won't.

 

[Banana Aeon]

It would make a lot of sense to push older titles onto PC markets, especially when you see how popular emulating Nintendo titles are. PCs aren't in competition with consoles and porting older titles to modern consoles is such a minor blip that it doesn't matter in the long run, where a solid port on PC could breathe new air into a dormant franchise (F-ZERO, Custom Robo.)

 

[Virtua Sanus]

I think they might try dabbling in with PC eventually, but likely not for a long time. Nintendo Switch is genuinely a new golden age for them and I cannot see them sinking into GameCube level sales of any future platforms for a long long time. There is no immediate benefit for them to tackle this right now when their fans are so willing to buy full price remakes of Game Boy era titles.

It really is a shame because something like Breath of the Wild would surely do 5 million+ at full price on Steam. I know I would be one of those people and I already own it twice!

 

[jblanco]

Should they? Sure.
Will they? No.

Click to shrink...

First post nails it.

 

[mrmoose]

Depends on your viewpoint. I take the OP to be from a Nintendo business standpoint, and no, it wouldn't be a good idea for them to do that for them. They use their old IP at times to help out their current consoles, and that wouldn't work if they were officially available on PC. Yes some people will emulate, but that is not the majority.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, from their standpoint they're doing fine as is, their IPs are actually more valuable than the competition because they're so relatively rare, and it probably helps sell consoles which is their main business.

One of the things that will interest me is how popular that whole Online expansion thing is going to be. If people are willilng to pay that for some rented DLC, some Genesis games that are everywhere, and N64 games, it kind of proves to them that their walled garden stuff works.

 

[FunkyStudent]

They could start by re-releasing games on their own consoles.

 

[808s & Villainy]

If they won't port them to consoles why would they port them to PC?? It's not like it's any cheaper

 

[Kolx]

Why do people care where you can just play the game day 1 in 4k 60fps on PC with emulation? just buy the game and dump it if you actually care about playing Nintendo's games without a switch and don't wanna steal games.

 

[Kemono]

They absolutely should.
They absolutely won't.

 

[andymcc]

what's the current retail cost of BOTW and the current retail cost of GOW on PS4?

there's your answer for why they won't do it.

 

[Shiz Padoo]

No, because they would probably fuck it up.

 

[TheDinoman]

Would be neat but it's literally never gonna happen lol. Nintendo would rather see their whole business be burned to the ground than have any of their series/characters officially appear on non-Nintendo platforms.

 

[NSESN]

It would make a lot of sense to push older titles onto PC markets, especially when you see how popular emulating Nintendo titles are. PCs aren't in competition with consoles and porting older titles to modern consoles is such a minor blip that it doesn't matter in the long run, where a solid port on PC could breathe new air into a dormant franchise (F-ZERO, Custom Robo.)

Click to shrink...

It is the opposite imo, having more platforms to support means less time and resources to spend on smaller franchises
Nintendo is able to support smaller franchises because they have an enclosed

also does it make any difference for the people emulating if they port the games? Nintendo is getting the money anyway from the games. I guess from double dippers, but I imagine the number of double dippers wouldnt be enough to justify the resource and time needed to port that could go toward making other games

 

[HockeyBird]

yeah there are many people who would never buy a console so giving an old game on PC would warrant a buy for them

basically you can eat two cakes, you sell the new games on your platform/hardware and then sell the old game for people that don't ever buy such hardware as well as double dippers

Click to shrink...

There are people who of course will never buy a console but Nintendo is willing to bet that there are significantly more people who are willing to fork over the money for the hardware and for the games on their store front. Just look at the sales charts. Nintendo Switch surpass PS4 in sales. Nintendo has multiple 20 million sellers, even more 10 million sellers, most copies of which have been sold for full price, even years after release.

For those people saying there is no logical reason for Nintendo not to port their games to PC, you would only logically come to that conclusion if you didn't know how big of a success the Switch actually is. Their IPs on their platforms has been Nintendo's business model and it has been a resounding success. They have shown that people are in fact willing to pay top dollar for their games and that's why you won't see them port games to PC. Your argument is why "Why make more money when you can make less money?". From their business standpoint, that isn't a compelling argument.

 

[collige]

If we're talking N64 and older, I think they would be better served making a PC Virtual Console platform and investing energy into an official emulator that's actually good. We absolutely do not need native PC ports of SNES games, that would be a huge waste of effort.

Either way, I wouldn't really trust Nintendo to make a good PC port.