Nintendo Brings Old and New to the Revolution's Virtual Console

New deal brings classic Sega games to the Virtual Console, which will also be used for digital distribution of new games.

Nintendo's desire to tap into gaming's rich past was in full force on Thursday at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose. There, company president Satoru Iwata revealed that Revolution owners would be able to dive into some of the richest games in Sega's bountiful back catalogue.

Iwata said the Revolution's Virtual Console would fully support both the Mega Drive (Genesis) and the NEC's TurboGraphX (PC Engine) - another 16-bit console popular in the early '90s.

But Iwata didn't mention how many or which Mega Drive games would be playable on the service, only saying that "the best" of the 1,000s of games released between the two platforms would be available.

This suggests that, much like Nintendo's own NES, Super NES and Nintendo 64 (all three available through the Virtual Console too), it'll still be up to the respective publishers to release their games on the service.

Like Sony with its PlayStation Network Platform, Nintendo is looking to the Virtual Console for digital distribution of more than just old stuff. Developers will be able to make Revolution games that use the wand-controller and release them over the service.

"This new approach is like stepping onto an unexplored continent for the first time, with all the potential for discovery that suggests," Iwata said. "No one else can match the environment we're creating for expanding the game experience to everyone. Our path is not linear, but dynamic."

There are, however, still several unknowns surrounding the Virtual Console. Most importantly, it's still not clear how games will be priced (flat fee or at publisher's discretion?) and whether games will be territorially tethered, as they were when they originally came out on their respective systems.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games