Virtual Portable Console “…we have no plans for that…”

At the beginning of last month I had written an article about Nintendo and the path they are following with Wii. This article is a bit of a follow up to that one, though this time I’d like to focus on the DSi specifically. E3 has come and gone and while we got to enjoy at least ONE nice surprise, the rest of what Nintendo showed at E3 was horribly predictable.

I was really sure that Nintendo would announce that the DSi would be getting “Virtual Portable Console” support during this year’s E3. After all, it would make sense on so many levels… though at this point, I don’t really know what to think with Nintendo. They obviously have a plan they’re following which they think will get them a lot of money for the least amount of effort, that much is obvious…

Putting the “Are Nintendo supporting the hardcore or not?” argument aside, it puzzles me as to why Nintendo didn’t announce VPC. In fact, Reggie Fils Aime, Nintendo of America’s President was quoted as saying that they had no plans for such a service.

So then why would a company who obviously wants to make a lot of money as easily as they can pass up on something like this? I mean, it’s not like they’d have to put any huge effort into bringing back the library of ye olden Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games of the past. We all know that Nintendo as well as Sega and other third parties have milked quite a lot out of Wii’s Virtual Console. It really is easy money and would convince a lot of people who don’t already own a DSi to actually buy one.

To top it off, the DSi Ware I’m seeing at the moment is extremely uninspiring. There are a couple of gems in there, of course… but overall there’s nothing I would like to spend my free 1000 Nintendo points on. Maybe if they release a VPC version of Metroid II: Return of Samus and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, I’d actually have something to look forward to on the download content front.