Nintendo: bring back old games (physically)

I know the Amiibos are Nintendo's planned "next big thing", but why not bring back old games...literally? That could be bigger than anything.

Seriously. No one loves nostalgia and classic gaming more than Nintendo, so what if Nintendo restocked gameboys, super nintendos, n64s and games on the shelves of Walmart, Gamestop, Target and other retailers?

A lot of people are looking at old record stores, garage sales, eBay and Amazon and buying old games. I know so, because I am a regular customer and I know how high the prices for these old games can be. Not to mention, I frequently participate in bidding wars for classic games. Collector's simply prefer a hard copy over a digital, there's no doubt about it. I seriously think Nintendo could release old games ($40-$60, depending on the game) and turn a profit. It's far less costly to reproduce a game that's already created than building new ones from scratch (not that I am not excited for new ones, this could be an entirely different division working on this project).

Not too mention...this could set them apart greatly from other companies. They would be the only ones re-selling their classic games (at least for now) on the main market.

Interesting idea. They may not be able to re-sell all of the classic games like banjo kazooie or goldeneye (both owned by Rareware) because they were bought out. They may not sell too many because of the kids who want better graphics, I say kids because Nintendo is mostly geared towards kids. I guess that's what the RetroN is for. It combines retro consoles into one for a somewhat good price.

Retro consoles and games do not have the demand to be sold in big retailers, but it would be sweet if they were available in Nintendo's online store, which currently consists of refurbished consoles, cables and accessories.

yea ...they would have to rebuy the licensing for all the games....it would cost a ton of money.

Like other users said, there is not enough demand for the company to put that much effort into it.

However, if they made those games available digitally... there would be tons of money to harvest.

Digital is the way to go for those games. The cost to license and produce the cartridges would be astronomical. Just release them digitally and they'll make a tidy little sum.

Its hard enough to get Boon to admit that a MK game graced Nintendo consoles. I can't imagine him allowing a reprinting of those games again. Besides I think the cost to produce the games themselves would make it difficult to make them profitable. Remember that the vast majority of the NES,SNES,N64 games were $70+ each. It just wouldn't be profitable in the long run. However if a small Nintendo approved group got together and did limited print runs of their games I could see that taking off in a big way. Then maybe they could start negotiations with other publishers for their old IPs.

@bunchanumbers: how come Boon dosen't like that thought?

@mkfanforever58: You're going to have to ask Boon. He won't allow the MK games to be on virtual console for some reason.

If Nintendo did re=release the NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance and reprint/reproduce some of the classic cartridges. I would buy them.

Nintendo could just release a million of the old consoles each in North America, Europe, Oceania and Japan. As many of the games that they could be reproduced. Some publishers are extinct or other's such as RARE belong to other companies. so I don't expect them all/

If Nintendo did this I would buy these old consoles. Since eventually the ones I have will die..

Heh, that's a cool idea. But I doubt it'd big that big of a success and might detract from their latest stuff.

I think that's why the Eshop(and Wii Shop Channel) exist. Although, they are not physical but virtual copies, Nintendo makes sure classic games can still be enjoyed today.