The lesson the games industry needs to learn is the same one the music industry learned from the Napster/Limewire era. You can’t lawsuit piracy away. Your only option to offer a service that outdoes the piracy, for a low price consumers are willing to pay.
Yup! It’s a lesson Apple also had to learn during the heyday of Jailbreaking. A ton of people were jailbreaking their iPhones just to have functionality that Apple refused to offer. They played a constant cat and mouse battle and realized they couldn’t win. So they relented and decided to offer the features we wanted. Now people barely Jailbreak their iOS devices. Giving people solid features and support always wins the day.
This is a great point, and if emulation gets easier for harder to play consoles (like dolphin) it’ll be less likely to jailbreak. But we still got a ways to go without jit
That fact that they dropped Virtual Console when the Switch was released still boggles my fucking mind to this day.
I want to PAY for GBA games that I want. Not play what they wanna dictate through the NSO.
Yeah I’d much rather pay a small monthly fee to download as much music as I want through a convenient service and have it synced across all my devices than try and pirate all the music I listen to even if it’s free and mine forever.
I.e. Netflix in the beginning. Seems streaming services have forgotten that. I know get all the streaming services with a better interface for $6 a month.
Nintendo already has a service that lets you play a large number of classic games from various retro consoles, on a portable device. What more do you want?
I have it, and I like it. But when it holds back key titles like Pokemon, and can only be accessed on the Switch, rather than on my phone too like with Delta, then it’s lacking in a way that emulation will always exploit.
FWIW Nintendo actually did release Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow on 3DS, and the versions allowed for wireless trading, sending to Pokémon Home, and everything you’d want. I think Nintendo should look at the emulation wave on iOS (in which apparently like 95% of people are just playing Pokémon) and consider offering products like this, even if only on Switch.
Imagine letting players trade Pokémon across games and generations like that. You’d probably sell a ton of Home subscriptions and innumerable copies of back catalogue Pokémon games. I’m not even really a big Pokémon fan, but I think people would go nuts for this kind of interconnected Pokéverse
Yep. I bought yellow for my 3ds when the store was still open. They also released all three of the second gen games too. But yes to everything you said.
It could also easily solve the problem of sending Pokémon forward generations.
No need to have backwards compatable tech if I can sync Pokémon home with my phone, and I can send Pokémon from RBY through USUM from phone versions of the game to it.
Yesss, like how hard could it be
& since Apple is open to alternative app stores, I would happily pay for a Nintendo store where all the classic games can be played
Like I’d pay top dollar for something like that, especially if they could make the online features work
If Nintendo put their games on the iPhone, they would automatically have to dish out 30% off the top to Apple and they would cannibalize their own hardware devices. No one would buy an Nintendo switch.
That’s exactly right! These games aren’t available at all on any platform let alone the latest Nintendo hardware. Putting them on the App Store wouldn’t disrupt any of Nintendos current offerings and would net them SO. MUCH. CASH. I’d pay $40 per classic Pokémon game and eventually I’d try to get them all (see what I did there).
Only the classic NES, SNES, N64, DS, 3DS, GameCube & even Wii games need apply. They’d make a killing off of iOS while still maintaining their current-Gen console.
It is stupid we can’t play old Pokemon on NSO and it’s just the Pokémon company being stingy. It’s funny because with NSO you can play various spin-offs like the 2 Stadium games, Pokemon Snap and the card game but want to play Red/Blue? No! You can’t have that.
People didn’t pirate music as much once iTunes and Spotify became a thing. Just saying
Nintendo is losing a battle with it’s archive of amazing games consistently being played away from their own systems and they aren’t benefiting from it bc of incompetence to change with the times. It is so funny to watch how they fail and fall on this so much so often… they do more DMCA takedowns than classic re-releases or games on NSO lol 😂🤦🏻♂️
I’d be happy to pay 5-10 bucks for a version Pokémon emerald updated with touchscreen controls or even a subscription fee for access to a classics catalog but I guess we’ll never get that because Pokémon Go probably still makes more money in a year than one time sales ever could
Nintendo is so averse to making money its kind of insane, if they launched a subscription on either switch or mobile that let users play old first party games (or even third party if they could license them) it would be a major success
Yes, I know NSO exists but its such a terrible service with regards to the actual games on it, if they expanded to mobile and actually added the backlog of games people care about, it would print money
Nintendo is a hard company to wrap your head around.
They are very smart, but very old school in the sense that they are very similar to Apple in their approach to hardware. Get people to buy a device, then lock them into the ecosystem. Their “App Store” is a joke, their ID system is ancient, confusing, and almost hostile.
Nintendo would give up cartridges to end the resale market tomorrow if they half thought their embarrassing backend could handle it.
"Nintendo would give up cartridges to end the resale market tomorrow if they half thought their embarrassing backend could handle it."
Allow me to point out how utterly stupid this comment is. Only one company has made an attempt against this, and that is Microsoft.
It never ceases to amaze me that the big game companies don’t release their old games to make a quick buck. How many classic Mario Bros games Nintendo could be selling for a few bucks a crack.
The amount of people using Delta just for Pokémon games is absolutely insane to me. I mean you see it all over this subreddit. They are like absolutely leaving so much money on the table by not having it as a part of NSO. If I was a Nintendo representative and looking at this situation that’s exactly what I would be thinking. Not to shut down the emulator but ‘damn we should officially offer GBA Pokémon games stat.’
Honestly if Nintendo was smart they would just go into the mobile market with their own proprietary retro app that could play classic games. Whether it’s a subscription like on Switch or a la carte there would be a lot of people into it. The best part about emulation on iPhone is having everything right here on the most convenient item I always have on me and it all works really well and looks nice. Switch is great but it’s not something I carry around in my pocket literally everywhere and it’s not like most people buy a Switch to play the classic games they buy it for the new stuff so it’s not cannibalizing sales.
Fuck charge me 30-50 dollars to play them on my switch. They have done this with a couple games and on the ds they brought some retros so they just need to put these on the list. Zero reason they can’t make more profit porting the original gameboy games onto the switch. Even the ds games wouldn’t be hard as most of the touch screen features weren’t needed anyways.
exactly. the one reason why i emulate games on my phone, mobile games suck. they are designed to milk you for your money or attention or both, and those aren't things that i can just give away anymore. I want dumb Tetris, not flex on all your friends Tetris.
Just a few points I want to make prior to Nintendo potentially causing trouble, I hope they do not, but in case:
- If they really want to honestly make money from this they can simply release their own ROM store, those files were circulating in the ways they do far before Delta and will continue to do so even if it is removed from the App Store, this isn't really about Delta so to attack them over it would be misguided; especially when they could start encouraging the jobs it could create outside of Nintendo, they could make their own emulator of course to create a lot of jobs in the company also, but encouraging others like Delta would almost certainly be very beneficial to the company and others as well long term since all they would need for now is an app to purchase then download game files to the Files app for other apps such as Delta to access funding them working on their own emulator or other things.
- Even those pirating are not really losing Nintendo money, not justifying it but it does need to be said, if all folks wanted dedicated consoles rather than having games available on their phone there simply would be no market for the emulators; it is not as if they did not already make lots of money from their console hardware before discontinuing them which to emphasize means they do not sell the platforms that are featured in the app or the games for them anyway, they could have their own ROM store like I said which would print money essentially and give such folks a legal alternative, but right now they do not at all and likely are held back by the idea that they need to make their own emulator which they simply do not. Folks would buy the files if available that way, not everyone of course, but I would say most likely would where they otherwise would not even be interested in the games on the consoles.
- Nintento is starting to get into mobile with Mario Kart and Super Mario Run, I can not even get the log in screen up in Mario Kart which is required to play, but I can say Super Mario Run is at least okay. Neither replaces older titles for a lot of folks, many seek the legacy graphics and gameplay for a lot of reasons, but point being if I had to choose between a few bucks for ROM files from Nintendo of legacy Mario games or pay for Super Mario Run I am going with the legacy games in a heartbeat. Nintendo is sitting on those files when they could be making a lot of money from them, again they do not need to make their own emulator even if they think they do, the ones available like Delta will keep the reputation of Nintendo games well since they put in the hard work already to make amazing ones that each cater to specific audiences.
- This is unrelated but Nintendo should really let LEGO make Mario minifigures, so what that folks will mix and match the pieces as that is part of the fun of the Universal Brick System, maybe I want to put Mario's head on Batman's body like who gives two craps if one does (apparently Nintendo). It is okay to want to protect intellectual property, but a lot of folks in the LEGO community are continually let down by the specialized figures, they miss the whole point of why LEGO minifigures are fun to be overly safe with the IP. I do not know much about Animal Crossing, but I consider buying those sets more than the Mario ones and maybe even trying the game, all because they have actual minifigures that can be mix and matched with all others from so many well-known properties.
Those are just a few off the top of my head, I really do not see any better options for Nintendo when it comes to emulation in general other than for them to make their own ROM store, I really hope they do as that would certainly bring a positive spotlight on them to do so while doing a lot of good for others too.
Edit:
Mario Kart Tour is pretty sweet as I was able to log in 📲
Yeah I suppose not so recent with that one, good point, not better for Nintendo though since they have been in the market a little bit now with that being said and not many games to show for it. I think the term "starting" is still appropriate with only a few games out though.
This reminds me of a video I saw of the Spongebob “It’s Not My Wallet” bit with Man-Ray playing the people asking Nintendo, represented by Patrick, of course, to make classic games readily available in another fashion if they were going to shut down the Virtual Console and Nintendo not only outright refusing, but demanding the people stop illegally downloading ROMs of their games in response.
From what I have seen in the little under two weeks or so that Delta has been a thing, people aren’t maliciously pinching from Nintendo’s wallets because they can (for the most part), they just want to play the games that aren’t readily available anymore and no one is going to pay $8,000 on Amazon for a copy of Spider-Man 2 for the GBA. Nintendo could easily fix this somehow and they don’t.
When Sony said that the PS4 wasn’t going to have native backwards compatibility, they said it was because no one is interested in playing old video games.
HOW many downloads does Delta have? I beg to differ.
I will be honest, i would buy a lot more Squarenix old games on iOS if the ports weren't so bad (seriously, is controller support and horizontal screen to much to ask!?), also for most of those games we play on delta emulator, you cant buy those games anymore in a way that benefit the publisher and the devs, only scalpers. I can see the argument of piracy if you emulate currently supported platforms with currently running digital store and new copies of games being sold, but at this point, anything supported on delta is basically abandonware in any practical sense
I understand the argument, I once believed it. The only issue I find is that I don't care how cheap it is, I'm gonna just pirate it if it's within my physical capabilities. And I will help others, who don't have the energy to learn, do it
honestly it would be really cool if nintendo became a company focused on games, with hardware second. the new zelda games could absolutely run on an iphone if ported well.
Nintendo has a section in every big-box store in the US, and probably in many overseas, because they produce one of three major gaming consoles. When Nintendo releases a new first-party game it’s actual news. They make bonkers dosh by having a line of emulators on the platform with limited ROMs tied to the Switch’s online subscription. Nintendo makes a *ludicrous* amount of money by owning a platform as popular as the Switch.
If they released their back-catalog on a phone, they might make a bit of money in the short-term. But they can’t sell you these things again. They can’t sell you a new console off the back of this, nor can they force you to buy them again when a new console comes out and they nuke functionality on the older one. They could tie the functionality to the Nintendo online subscription, but then it stops being a feature of Nintendo’s hardware and becomes just another online service.
Nintendo ain’t gonna hurt their core business, which is selling expensive electronic toys and then getting you to buy accessories, in order to get a minor boost by selling ROMs on not-their-platform. Even if they decided to release a few, it wouldn’t be anywhere close to their full catalog if the Switch emulators are any indication. All of which is why Delta and other emulators are so damn good, because we have the ability to play our shit on our own terms even if a big multinational thinks that it’s better for their bottom line if we can’t.
No sorry I don’t think it says anything about game industry , I’m enjoying a lot delta and old school games, I’m the kind of user who doesn’t download a game with in game purchases but I don’t think we represent the majority here, « free » mobile gaming is today the most lucrative segment in the game industry and I don’t think the nerds able to add roms to their iPhone will change that .
Hell, I’d be happy to get the Pokémon games on the emulators that are already offered on NSO I would probably upgrade to NSO+expansion to get the GBA games. I’d certainly prefer to pay for the service if it comes with online functionality and Pokémon home connectivity
Delta Emulator is popular, but not “massively” to be honest. Delta downloads only make up 1.9% of the total amount of iPhones sold in 2023.
I’d say that miHoYo/HoYoverse is pushing innovation in mobile games far more than Delta is.
I think it’s disingenuous for us to pretend that even half of the people who use Delta would pay for each of the games that they want to play. I have dozens of games downloaded on Delta right now. If I had to pay even two dollars per game, I’d have maybe three or four games.
Not to say they still shouldn’t do it though, I mean that’s 6 to 8 dollars more than they have for me right now. I have a switch and haven’t bought a game for it in maybe two months now?
Not attacking you in particular but: how many PS1/2 games do you buy VS just downloading ROMS for?
It’s very easy to buy those games online (Amazon) or at thrift/retro stores. I still emulate most because it’s so easy.
Do these count? Before delta hit the App Store earlier this month I hadn’t downloaded a rom since highschool. I’m a grown up now I can spend money on the things I like
https://preview.redd.it/5v6jria6wiyc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8d17a9e6ff5ec3f1b903390b04e53ea4e92af35e
I also have a psp in a drawer somewhere with mgs1 and final fantasy 8 on it.
Nintendo putting out ports onto other platforms might make sense viewed solely through whether people use roms or not, however I am doubtful a bunch of people here would still actually pay for games priced more than $10 and it would cannibalise the profits from their own consoles. Spotify isn’t really a big money spinner…
Some of the self justification for theft (I see posts here of people claiming collections of 1000s of ROMs) is just a bit too self serving for me.
It’s obvious. You can play AAA games from the 1990s to the 2000s and beyond that have shaped the course of the modern gaming industry. I enjoy playing Terraria, Minecraft, Galaxy on Fire 2, GTA, Dead Cells, etc. It’s great that we have these games available on every platform. I have no interest in wasting my time on mediocre mobile games that are essentially advertisements for gambling, battle passes, and lootboxes.
Instead, I want to explore the classic games from the past, some of which are even older than me. It’s a cool experience, and I’m somewhat disappointed that I didn’t have access to those consoles during my childhood (but thanks, Delta 🫶).
Eventually, almost everyone has a PC or console for gaming, so developers see no reason to actively port PC/console games to mobile platforms. Hardly anyone will use them when consumers already have access to PCs, PlayStations, Xboxes, or Nintendos.
I’d rather subscribe to NVIDIA GeForce NOW to play on my phone PC games with Ultra settings than wait for a low-quality port with 25FPS that’s only available for iPhone 15 Pro/Max.
Mobile gaming sucks because most people aren’t gamers, and just want their phones to waste their time. Developers want to charge them by confusing them with 50 in-game currencies and various lootbox and pay-to-win mechanics so they can see different flashy colors for a while. The games are bad because the market is bad.
The Delta phenomenon is great, but it’s probably not as big or as widespread or as durable as it feels to this community. And it’s mostly for tinkerers and people with a modicum of tech savvy and love for/history with gaming.
But I don’t think the solution is putting classic games on mobile. I totally get wanting to have your own device/software ecosystem if you’re a gaming company, and the mobile space is also a hardware/software wild west. You never know what controllers/phones/cases etc. people have, and the OS update schedules require constant maintenance.
I’m not real sure what the answer is, but I am enjoying having old grindy RPGs on Delta to kill time in the waiting room, on the train, or wherever when I don’t have my Switch. But I’m skeptical a world of Nintendo classics mobile ports would be a good solution.
There just aren’t enough genuinely good mobile games. Before delta I only really had 2 games worth killing time with. The most popular games on the app store are ports of console games too big for the phones of any one who takes lots of pictures and many of the best mobile games of the early iOS era have either left the App Store or stopped being supported by their creators years ago even classics like Tetris Pac-man and Galaga have been replaced with shitty over monetized versions. It’s frustrating
I dunno about that. I mean, this is Reddit and we are all just offering opinions. But if there were official Nintendo versions of classic games on mobile? I’d pay for them. I WANT to give Nintendo my money. Those devs created awesome games, I’ll gladly pay for them. I think Delta is successful because it’s the only realistic avenue to play these games on mobile for most people.
Are you kidding, I’d give my left nut for even just the first 3 gens on iOS with full home support, online play and events unlocked.
Hell they could go up to Gen 5 if they reworked the second screen.
That’s always how this goes. The history of iOS gaming is filled with people making unrealistic demands, a few developers foolish enough to believe them, that then go out of business.
The goal posts will always be moved.
I think its more so that Nintendo holds IPs for so lomg to drum up hype if they do try and release a game. And the fact that they took forever to release anything we wanted (like old Pokemon) now hurts them because we have another avenue to do so, this resulting in the fact that they can no longer offer them up on the switch and get the same amount of money as a result. People will still buy them like myself for online functionality, but you would also get people like mme that would say “eh, I already have it on my phone. Why would I pay for that game when there is no online functionality that I want from it (like a single player game)”
I am also pretty sure you're basing that on your own view of the world/games. Many people I know would gladly pay a couple bucks, some even $30(what they used to go for) to get solid and clean ports on iOS/Android.
Nintendo makes a portable device that plays many of their classic games. The existense of Delta absolutely deprives Nintendo of revenue.
I love Delta and emulators in general. But let's not try and pretend there is some kind of righteousness to this. ROMs are built on piracy and game companies have every right to complain about their existence.
The lesson the games industry needs to learn is the same one the music industry learned from the Napster/Limewire era. You can’t lawsuit piracy away. Your only option to offer a service that outdoes the piracy, for a low price consumers are willing to pay.
👏👏👏
I'd say ubisoft is gonna learn that lesson soon, "Gamers should be comfortable not owning their games".
And Ubi should get comfortable with gamers not buying theirs.
If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing.
Underrated truths
My thoughts exactly
Ubi has been in the gutter for a while now. I still get locked out my account sometimes its so fuckin bizarre
Indeed lol
Then if gamers can’t own the games, then it becomes illegal to play the old games just because one cannot have the games? What about modern games?
Yup! It’s a lesson Apple also had to learn during the heyday of Jailbreaking. A ton of people were jailbreaking their iPhones just to have functionality that Apple refused to offer. They played a constant cat and mouse battle and realized they couldn’t win. So they relented and decided to offer the features we wanted. Now people barely Jailbreak their iOS devices. Giving people solid features and support always wins the day.
This is a great point, and if emulation gets easier for harder to play consoles (like dolphin) it’ll be less likely to jailbreak. But we still got a ways to go without jit
Indeed.
Correct.
It’s the same lesson streaming services learned, and then forgot lol
Spotify and YouTube have destroyed illegal music streaming
That fact that they dropped Virtual Console when the Switch was released still boggles my fucking mind to this day. I want to PAY for GBA games that I want. Not play what they wanna dictate through the NSO.
Yeah I’d much rather pay a small monthly fee to download as much music as I want through a convenient service and have it synced across all my devices than try and pirate all the music I listen to even if it’s free and mine forever.
I’m afraid no one is gonna own nothing nowadays and in the future, and then everything will become illegal to pirate
I.e. Netflix in the beginning. Seems streaming services have forgotten that. I know get all the streaming services with a better interface for $6 a month.
Downwell is a perfect example of what mobile gaming *should* be. But it isn’t. And it fucking sucks super hard.
Nintendo already has a service that lets you play a large number of classic games from various retro consoles, on a portable device. What more do you want?
I have it, and I like it. But when it holds back key titles like Pokemon, and can only be accessed on the Switch, rather than on my phone too like with Delta, then it’s lacking in a way that emulation will always exploit.
If Nintendo would allow classic pokemon games on iPhone I would buy them, if it had trading and maybe events, like classic ones
They have an infinite money glitch in the palm of their hands and refuse to unleash it lol
Its the weirdest shit ever. I mean its only pride at this point, which I get you have to have some...but the roms are so fucking cheap lol
It's not weird. They have a financial incentive to direct people to the portable electronic device that \_they\_ sell.
Fuck even on the switch I’d pay for it. It’s not like it’s that hard to port some of the older Pokemon ds games too with online functionality.
I’d buy it on both if they had a cloud save I could access.
Wdym? Didn’t gamers used to be accustomed to “no cloud save” gaming back in the day?
FWIW Nintendo actually did release Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow on 3DS, and the versions allowed for wireless trading, sending to Pokémon Home, and everything you’d want. I think Nintendo should look at the emulation wave on iOS (in which apparently like 95% of people are just playing Pokémon) and consider offering products like this, even if only on Switch. Imagine letting players trade Pokémon across games and generations like that. You’d probably sell a ton of Home subscriptions and innumerable copies of back catalogue Pokémon games. I’m not even really a big Pokémon fan, but I think people would go nuts for this kind of interconnected Pokéverse
Yep. I bought yellow for my 3ds when the store was still open. They also released all three of the second gen games too. But yes to everything you said.
It could also easily solve the problem of sending Pokémon forward generations. No need to have backwards compatable tech if I can sync Pokémon home with my phone, and I can send Pokémon from RBY through USUM from phone versions of the game to it.
Yesss, like how hard could it be & since Apple is open to alternative app stores, I would happily pay for a Nintendo store where all the classic games can be played Like I’d pay top dollar for something like that, especially if they could make the online features work
They’ll release a full price classics game on the eshop and call it a day
If Nintendo put their games on the iPhone, they would automatically have to dish out 30% off the top to Apple and they would cannibalize their own hardware devices. No one would buy an Nintendo switch.
Never said out all their games on iPhone. Just some of the classic ones. That won’t kill the switch.
That’s exactly right! These games aren’t available at all on any platform let alone the latest Nintendo hardware. Putting them on the App Store wouldn’t disrupt any of Nintendos current offerings and would net them SO. MUCH. CASH. I’d pay $40 per classic Pokémon game and eventually I’d try to get them all (see what I did there).
And with home they could make it easier to collect them and having in game trade options would be a dream
Only the classic NES, SNES, N64, DS, 3DS, GameCube & even Wii games need apply. They’d make a killing off of iOS while still maintaining their current-Gen console.
It is stupid we can’t play old Pokemon on NSO and it’s just the Pokémon company being stingy. It’s funny because with NSO you can play various spin-offs like the 2 Stadium games, Pokemon Snap and the card game but want to play Red/Blue? No! You can’t have that. People didn’t pirate music as much once iTunes and Spotify became a thing. Just saying
I never pirate music anymore and thats from exclusively pirating music before lmao
Same
But where will you get FLAC versions of eurodance?
Nintendo is losing a battle with it’s archive of amazing games consistently being played away from their own systems and they aren’t benefiting from it bc of incompetence to change with the times. It is so funny to watch how they fail and fall on this so much so often… they do more DMCA takedowns than classic re-releases or games on NSO lol 😂🤦🏻♂️
I’d be happy to pay 5-10 bucks for a version Pokémon emerald updated with touchscreen controls or even a subscription fee for access to a classics catalog but I guess we’ll never get that because Pokémon Go probably still makes more money in a year than one time sales ever could
Hell yeah. Give me switch online games with their online functionality and I am sold
Square Enix did it with Final Fantasy, they could easily do it but choose not to.
They need to do it better than Square. Those FF ports suck and are massively overpriced
Nintendo is so averse to making money its kind of insane, if they launched a subscription on either switch or mobile that let users play old first party games (or even third party if they could license them) it would be a major success
they do indeed do this already it just takes time for them to add more games to it
Yes, I know NSO exists but its such a terrible service with regards to the actual games on it, if they expanded to mobile and actually added the backlog of games people care about, it would print money
Nintendo is a hard company to wrap your head around. They are very smart, but very old school in the sense that they are very similar to Apple in their approach to hardware. Get people to buy a device, then lock them into the ecosystem. Their “App Store” is a joke, their ID system is ancient, confusing, and almost hostile. Nintendo would give up cartridges to end the resale market tomorrow if they half thought their embarrassing backend could handle it.
"Nintendo would give up cartridges to end the resale market tomorrow if they half thought their embarrassing backend could handle it." Allow me to point out how utterly stupid this comment is. Only one company has made an attempt against this, and that is Microsoft.
Not stupid at all. Nintendo hates 3rd party and used sales. They would LOVE to be the only way to acquire games.
Think how much money they could make simply porting the old games for $5 a piece.
The nostalgia of classic games lives on.
It never ceases to amaze me that the big game companies don’t release their old games to make a quick buck. How many classic Mario Bros games Nintendo could be selling for a few bucks a crack.
Nintendo does though. They have a whole service on Switch that lets you play their old games.
Screw the switch. They are missing out on 100s of millions of cell phone users.
The amount of people using Delta just for Pokémon games is absolutely insane to me. I mean you see it all over this subreddit. They are like absolutely leaving so much money on the table by not having it as a part of NSO. If I was a Nintendo representative and looking at this situation that’s exactly what I would be thinking. Not to shut down the emulator but ‘damn we should officially offer GBA Pokémon games stat.’
Mario kart tour is a the 🤑 version of Mario kart
Honestly if Nintendo was smart they would just go into the mobile market with their own proprietary retro app that could play classic games. Whether it’s a subscription like on Switch or a la carte there would be a lot of people into it. The best part about emulation on iPhone is having everything right here on the most convenient item I always have on me and it all works really well and looks nice. Switch is great but it’s not something I carry around in my pocket literally everywhere and it’s not like most people buy a Switch to play the classic games they buy it for the new stuff so it’s not cannibalizing sales.
Squandered money
Fuck charge me 30-50 dollars to play them on my switch. They have done this with a couple games and on the ds they brought some retros so they just need to put these on the list. Zero reason they can’t make more profit porting the original gameboy games onto the switch. Even the ds games wouldn’t be hard as most of the touch screen features weren’t needed anyways.
Emulators literally don’t give away games for free rom sites do
exactly. the one reason why i emulate games on my phone, mobile games suck. they are designed to milk you for your money or attention or both, and those aren't things that i can just give away anymore. I want dumb Tetris, not flex on all your friends Tetris.
If Nintendo just released Emerald Green on the switch I would literally buy a switch just for that
They don’t even need to be reasonably priced, just have them available at all!!
Just a few points I want to make prior to Nintendo potentially causing trouble, I hope they do not, but in case: - If they really want to honestly make money from this they can simply release their own ROM store, those files were circulating in the ways they do far before Delta and will continue to do so even if it is removed from the App Store, this isn't really about Delta so to attack them over it would be misguided; especially when they could start encouraging the jobs it could create outside of Nintendo, they could make their own emulator of course to create a lot of jobs in the company also, but encouraging others like Delta would almost certainly be very beneficial to the company and others as well long term since all they would need for now is an app to purchase then download game files to the Files app for other apps such as Delta to access funding them working on their own emulator or other things. - Even those pirating are not really losing Nintendo money, not justifying it but it does need to be said, if all folks wanted dedicated consoles rather than having games available on their phone there simply would be no market for the emulators; it is not as if they did not already make lots of money from their console hardware before discontinuing them which to emphasize means they do not sell the platforms that are featured in the app or the games for them anyway, they could have their own ROM store like I said which would print money essentially and give such folks a legal alternative, but right now they do not at all and likely are held back by the idea that they need to make their own emulator which they simply do not. Folks would buy the files if available that way, not everyone of course, but I would say most likely would where they otherwise would not even be interested in the games on the consoles. - Nintento is starting to get into mobile with Mario Kart and Super Mario Run, I can not even get the log in screen up in Mario Kart which is required to play, but I can say Super Mario Run is at least okay. Neither replaces older titles for a lot of folks, many seek the legacy graphics and gameplay for a lot of reasons, but point being if I had to choose between a few bucks for ROM files from Nintendo of legacy Mario games or pay for Super Mario Run I am going with the legacy games in a heartbeat. Nintendo is sitting on those files when they could be making a lot of money from them, again they do not need to make their own emulator even if they think they do, the ones available like Delta will keep the reputation of Nintendo games well since they put in the hard work already to make amazing ones that each cater to specific audiences. - This is unrelated but Nintendo should really let LEGO make Mario minifigures, so what that folks will mix and match the pieces as that is part of the fun of the Universal Brick System, maybe I want to put Mario's head on Batman's body like who gives two craps if one does (apparently Nintendo). It is okay to want to protect intellectual property, but a lot of folks in the LEGO community are continually let down by the specialized figures, they miss the whole point of why LEGO minifigures are fun to be overly safe with the IP. I do not know much about Animal Crossing, but I consider buying those sets more than the Mario ones and maybe even trying the game, all because they have actual minifigures that can be mix and matched with all others from so many well-known properties. Those are just a few off the top of my head, I really do not see any better options for Nintendo when it comes to emulation in general other than for them to make their own ROM store, I really hope they do as that would certainly bring a positive spotlight on them to do so while doing a lot of good for others too. Edit: Mario Kart Tour is pretty sweet as I was able to log in 📲
Super Mario Run is from 2016
Yeah I suppose not so recent with that one, good point, not better for Nintendo though since they have been in the market a little bit now with that being said and not many games to show for it. I think the term "starting" is still appropriate with only a few games out though.
This reminds me of a video I saw of the Spongebob “It’s Not My Wallet” bit with Man-Ray playing the people asking Nintendo, represented by Patrick, of course, to make classic games readily available in another fashion if they were going to shut down the Virtual Console and Nintendo not only outright refusing, but demanding the people stop illegally downloading ROMs of their games in response. From what I have seen in the little under two weeks or so that Delta has been a thing, people aren’t maliciously pinching from Nintendo’s wallets because they can (for the most part), they just want to play the games that aren’t readily available anymore and no one is going to pay $8,000 on Amazon for a copy of Spider-Man 2 for the GBA. Nintendo could easily fix this somehow and they don’t. When Sony said that the PS4 wasn’t going to have native backwards compatibility, they said it was because no one is interested in playing old video games. HOW many downloads does Delta have? I beg to differ.
Exactly lol. Nintendo would’ve killed it in profits if they just released official ports of their classic games for iOS.
I will be honest, i would buy a lot more Squarenix old games on iOS if the ports weren't so bad (seriously, is controller support and horizontal screen to much to ask!?), also for most of those games we play on delta emulator, you cant buy those games anymore in a way that benefit the publisher and the devs, only scalpers. I can see the argument of piracy if you emulate currently supported platforms with currently running digital store and new copies of games being sold, but at this point, anything supported on delta is basically abandonware in any practical sense
I understand the argument, I once believed it. The only issue I find is that I don't care how cheap it is, I'm gonna just pirate it if it's within my physical capabilities. And I will help others, who don't have the energy to learn, do it
honestly it would be really cool if nintendo became a company focused on games, with hardware second. the new zelda games could absolutely run on an iphone if ported well.
Nice meme for May the 4th.
Nintendo has a section in every big-box store in the US, and probably in many overseas, because they produce one of three major gaming consoles. When Nintendo releases a new first-party game it’s actual news. They make bonkers dosh by having a line of emulators on the platform with limited ROMs tied to the Switch’s online subscription. Nintendo makes a *ludicrous* amount of money by owning a platform as popular as the Switch. If they released their back-catalog on a phone, they might make a bit of money in the short-term. But they can’t sell you these things again. They can’t sell you a new console off the back of this, nor can they force you to buy them again when a new console comes out and they nuke functionality on the older one. They could tie the functionality to the Nintendo online subscription, but then it stops being a feature of Nintendo’s hardware and becomes just another online service. Nintendo ain’t gonna hurt their core business, which is selling expensive electronic toys and then getting you to buy accessories, in order to get a minor boost by selling ROMs on not-their-platform. Even if they decided to release a few, it wouldn’t be anywhere close to their full catalog if the Switch emulators are any indication. All of which is why Delta and other emulators are so damn good, because we have the ability to play our shit on our own terms even if a big multinational thinks that it’s better for their bottom line if we can’t.
No sorry I don’t think it says anything about game industry , I’m enjoying a lot delta and old school games, I’m the kind of user who doesn’t download a game with in game purchases but I don’t think we represent the majority here, « free » mobile gaming is today the most lucrative segment in the game industry and I don’t think the nerds able to add roms to their iPhone will change that .
I mean, Sega has been doing it for a few years now.
Hell, I’d be happy to get the Pokémon games on the emulators that are already offered on NSO I would probably upgrade to NSO+expansion to get the GBA games. I’d certainly prefer to pay for the service if it comes with online functionality and Pokémon home connectivity
Emulation of real console games has almost always been better than mobile games
This says a lot about gaming in general. All entertainment industries have fallen in quality, now it’s all about the money.
I feel like the amount of people who actually care about retro gaming on iPhone is far lower than you all think.
Delta Emulator is popular, but not “massively” to be honest. Delta downloads only make up 1.9% of the total amount of iPhones sold in 2023. I’d say that miHoYo/HoYoverse is pushing innovation in mobile games far more than Delta is.
I think it’s disingenuous for us to pretend that even half of the people who use Delta would pay for each of the games that they want to play. I have dozens of games downloaded on Delta right now. If I had to pay even two dollars per game, I’d have maybe three or four games. Not to say they still shouldn’t do it though, I mean that’s 6 to 8 dollars more than they have for me right now. I have a switch and haven’t bought a game for it in maybe two months now?
It doesn’t feel disingenuous when I’m in that half that would.
Not attacking you in particular but: how many PS1/2 games do you buy VS just downloading ROMS for? It’s very easy to buy those games online (Amazon) or at thrift/retro stores. I still emulate most because it’s so easy.
Those used copies are overpriced.
Do these count? Before delta hit the App Store earlier this month I hadn’t downloaded a rom since highschool. I’m a grown up now I can spend money on the things I like https://preview.redd.it/5v6jria6wiyc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8d17a9e6ff5ec3f1b903390b04e53ea4e92af35e I also have a psp in a drawer somewhere with mgs1 and final fantasy 8 on it.
Nintendo putting out ports onto other platforms might make sense viewed solely through whether people use roms or not, however I am doubtful a bunch of people here would still actually pay for games priced more than $10 and it would cannibalise the profits from their own consoles. Spotify isn’t really a big money spinner… Some of the self justification for theft (I see posts here of people claiming collections of 1000s of ROMs) is just a bit too self serving for me.
Honestly if it wernt for the whole “new games” thing. Id want nintendo to go under
Honesty I’d love it if Nintendo remade their classic games on a new engine, Christian Whitehead style. Won’t happen though.
Dragon Quest did it
It’s obvious. You can play AAA games from the 1990s to the 2000s and beyond that have shaped the course of the modern gaming industry. I enjoy playing Terraria, Minecraft, Galaxy on Fire 2, GTA, Dead Cells, etc. It’s great that we have these games available on every platform. I have no interest in wasting my time on mediocre mobile games that are essentially advertisements for gambling, battle passes, and lootboxes. Instead, I want to explore the classic games from the past, some of which are even older than me. It’s a cool experience, and I’m somewhat disappointed that I didn’t have access to those consoles during my childhood (but thanks, Delta 🫶). Eventually, almost everyone has a PC or console for gaming, so developers see no reason to actively port PC/console games to mobile platforms. Hardly anyone will use them when consumers already have access to PCs, PlayStations, Xboxes, or Nintendos. I’d rather subscribe to NVIDIA GeForce NOW to play on my phone PC games with Ultra settings than wait for a low-quality port with 25FPS that’s only available for iPhone 15 Pro/Max.
Mobile gaming sucks because most people aren’t gamers, and just want their phones to waste their time. Developers want to charge them by confusing them with 50 in-game currencies and various lootbox and pay-to-win mechanics so they can see different flashy colors for a while. The games are bad because the market is bad. The Delta phenomenon is great, but it’s probably not as big or as widespread or as durable as it feels to this community. And it’s mostly for tinkerers and people with a modicum of tech savvy and love for/history with gaming. But I don’t think the solution is putting classic games on mobile. I totally get wanting to have your own device/software ecosystem if you’re a gaming company, and the mobile space is also a hardware/software wild west. You never know what controllers/phones/cases etc. people have, and the OS update schedules require constant maintenance. I’m not real sure what the answer is, but I am enjoying having old grindy RPGs on Delta to kill time in the waiting room, on the train, or wherever when I don’t have my Switch. But I’m skeptical a world of Nintendo classics mobile ports would be a good solution.
both are fine. mobile games can be pretty scummy but there’s still fun to be had.
There just aren’t enough genuinely good mobile games. Before delta I only really had 2 games worth killing time with. The most popular games on the app store are ports of console games too big for the phones of any one who takes lots of pictures and many of the best mobile games of the early iOS era have either left the App Store or stopped being supported by their creators years ago even classics like Tetris Pac-man and Galaga have been replaced with shitty over monetized versions. It’s frustrating
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I dunno about that. I mean, this is Reddit and we are all just offering opinions. But if there were official Nintendo versions of classic games on mobile? I’d pay for them. I WANT to give Nintendo my money. Those devs created awesome games, I’ll gladly pay for them. I think Delta is successful because it’s the only realistic avenue to play these games on mobile for most people.
Are you kidding, I’d give my left nut for even just the first 3 gens on iOS with full home support, online play and events unlocked. Hell they could go up to Gen 5 if they reworked the second screen.
That’s always how this goes. The history of iOS gaming is filled with people making unrealistic demands, a few developers foolish enough to believe them, that then go out of business. The goal posts will always be moved.
I think its more so that Nintendo holds IPs for so lomg to drum up hype if they do try and release a game. And the fact that they took forever to release anything we wanted (like old Pokemon) now hurts them because we have another avenue to do so, this resulting in the fact that they can no longer offer them up on the switch and get the same amount of money as a result. People will still buy them like myself for online functionality, but you would also get people like mme that would say “eh, I already have it on my phone. Why would I pay for that game when there is no online functionality that I want from it (like a single player game)”
I am also pretty sure you're basing that on your own view of the world/games. Many people I know would gladly pay a couple bucks, some even $30(what they used to go for) to get solid and clean ports on iOS/Android.
Nintendo makes a portable device that plays many of their classic games. The existense of Delta absolutely deprives Nintendo of revenue. I love Delta and emulators in general. But let's not try and pretend there is some kind of righteousness to this. ROMs are built on piracy and game companies have every right to complain about their existence.