Virtual console rules?

[Luigi182]

I saw this in another thread and rather than go off-topic in that thread, I figured I'd ask my questions here.

Originally Posted by iNma

Problem is, a lot of these games were never released in Europe or the US. Even if Chrono Trigger came out in the States, under current VC rules, we won't get it, and things like Seiken Densetsu 3 most people outside Japan have only played fan translations of on emulators (evil no-gooders ).

This was posted in response to the square-enix thread in the SNES forum. My questions:

1. Was there a news story some time back that stated what these VC rules were?

2. Does this mean we'll never get to see Secret of Mana, Soul Blazer, or Dragon Quest on the VC?

3. Am I just being paranoid that some of my favorite non-FF Rpgs will never see the light of day on VC?

btw, VC does rule!

[Tennant]

Well, us in Europe are already seeing some VC titles that were never released over here in a few TurboGrafx games. So I think region exclusive VC games will get worldwide releases, some time in the future.

[iNma]

Whereas Hudson have publicly stated that they will release games new to a given region, Nintendo have, last I checked, only made clear their intention not to. Hence, "current VC rules". Semantics.

[kelvingreen]

Yes, a couple of the regional branches of Nintendo have said that the region stuff isn't a problem, and that we'll see stuff released that we didn't originally. And as Tennant points out, we've already seen some games released in Europe that weren't originally released here. So we might very well see Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG; what we may not see are the games that never had English translations, but even in those cases, the existence of fan translations bodes well.

So no, I don't think there are "rules" as such, at least not as far as region releases go.

[kelvingreen]

Originally Posted by iNma

Whereas Hudson have publicly stated that they will release games new to a given region, Nintendo have, last I checked, only made clear their intention not to. Hence, "current VC rules". Semantics.

I've seen statements from both Nintendo US and Nintendo Europe saying that it's possible that VC regions will see games that weren't originally released in those regions. Have they since said that it's not a possibility?

[Joxe]

Well I don't see why they won't release already translated games in new regions since that means very small amount of work for all the money that, for example CT or SMRPG will generate.

I really hope that europeans will get these games.

[DEMON212]

Originally Posted by Tennant

Well, us in Europe are already seeing some VC titles that were never released over here in a few TurboGrafx games. So I think region exclusive VC games will get worldwide releases, some time in the future.

I'm with Kelvin. I doubt we'll get any Japanese ones though. They'd have to translate them and pretty much make them as a NES/SNES/Etc.. game. Since they port the games from the original source.

[kelvingreen]

Here's the official word, as I understand it:

Japan-Only Games Possible for US Virtual Console

PAL Virtual Console could see NTSC games - Nintendo

Now, neither statement says that we're definitely going to see (for example) Super Mario RPG in Europe, but what's important is that the possibility is there, and that there is no "rule" about VC games sticking to their original regions.

[Luigi182]

Ok then, sounds hopeful. Pardon my paranoia... ^^;