[YoshiRider123]

(First thread on GAF!)

I don't know about any other games or if it's the case outside of North America, but SimCity for SNES appears to be missing from the Wii Shop Channel.

For real! I even searched for it and it's just not there anymore.

When will this madness come to an end!?!?

Discuss.

[Zee-Row]

Damn i've been wanting to buy it for awhile. I guess Nintendo had a temporary agreement with EA?

[TheWesker]

It's the first of the year. Lots of licenses probably expired. They can't take away my cart though!

[perfectchaos007]

Did Nintendo buy the rights to sell these games on Wii but not Wii U? Now they are scrambling to add Wii U to the contract for hundreds of games? Damn licensing screws us all.

[BatDan]

Shit, first the DKC Trilogy now this. Hopefully Nintendo gives something official, especially about DKC.

[RawkHawk2010]

Nintendo's plan to dismantle the Virtual Console service shows no sign of slowing down.

[Berordn]

Did Nintendo buy the rights to sell these games on Wii but not Wii U? Now they are scrambling to add Wii U to the contract for hundreds of games? Damn licensing screws us all.

Nintendo published Simcity and DKC, so I doubt they lost rights to anything. The character of Mr. Wright is owned by Nintendo even.

[DidntKnowJack]

I wish they'd give us some warning before they do shit like this.

[Pyrokai]

Is DKC missing from the NA store? Holy crap.


I need a list of games that have been removed from the VC. Does one exist?

[BocoDragon]

Did Nintendo buy the rights to sell these games on Wii but not Wii U? Now they are scrambling to add Wii U to the contract for hundreds of games? Damn licensing screws us all.

Or it could be that they are putting them into "the vault", Disney style. That might be a smart business move if you want to relaunch these on a new Virtual Console service.

And DKC is also delisted, and I really doubt licensing issues for that one (I'm sure Nintendo owns that one, Rare be damned).

Nintendo published Simcity and DKC, so I doubt they lost rights to anything. The character of Mr. Wright is owned by Nintendo even.

Not to mention SNES SimCity's version of the giant lizard attack...

[BatDan]

Or it could be that they are putting them into "the vault", Disney style. That might be a smart business move if you want to relaunch these on a new Virtual Console service. And DKC is also delisted, and I really doubt licensing issues for that one (I'm sure Nintendo owns that one, Rare be damned).

A rep from Rare once said that Nintendo has every right to put DK64 on the Virtual Console, not understanding why they haven't. So I don't think Rare is the issue with DKC.

[Yagharek]

It's the first of the year. Lots of licenses probably expired. They can't take away my cart though!

EA will try and find a way.

[Fularu]

Nintendo published Simcity and DKC, so I doubt they lost rights to anything. The character of Mr. Wright is owned by Nintendo even.

They owned publishing rights for the SNES, then probably for the Wii (and for a specific time would be my guess).

They definitely don't have them with Maxis/EA for WiiU though. But since we don't have the licensing agreement, it's all speculation as to why those games were removed from the VC.

[Eric C]

Shit, first the DKC Trilogy now this. Hopefully Nintendo gives something official, especially about DKC.

Nintendo warned everyone weeks in advance about the DKC trilogy's impending removal from the eShop didn't they?

I wonder why they didn't do the same for this game?

[BatDan]

Nintendo warned everyone weeks in advance about the DKC trilogy's impending removal from the eShop didn't they? I wonder why they didn't do the same for this game?

No, they didn't do that. The removal of DKC was sudden.

[YoshiRider123]

Is DKC missing from the NA store? Holy crap. I need a list of games that have been removed from the VC. Does one exist?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...(North_America)

Wikipedia lists all of them and even crosses out the ones that aren't available anymore. Does this help?

[GAMERG0D]

I hate how games get removed from services, now the only way for me to play this (legally) is to hunt down a cart on eBay or something.

[BocoDragon]

A rep from Rare once said that Nintendo has every right to put DK64 on the Virtual Console, not understanding why they haven't. So I don't think Rare is the issue with DKC.

Good point.

(I bet they didn't want to emulate the Ram pack? No Super FX chip games either. Or it could be some bizzare Nintendo logic where they want to hold back the games with teh special chipz for future download services).

I hate how games get removed from services, now the only way for me to play this (legally) is to hunt down a cart on eBay or something.

Me too... Every time it happens I can only think... "I'm glad someone is archiving it out there....." and we all know who those someones Arrrrr.

[Shig]

Best SNES attract screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxSYzCesxfU

[Eric C]

No, they didn't do that. The removal of DKC was sudden.

what's this?

By the format of the date, it looks like NoE warned people.

[Danthrax]

EA probably asked Nintendo to take it down in an effort to starve the fanbase of all SimCity experiences in an effort to force them to buy the upcoming new SimCity.

A rep from Rare once said that Nintendo has every right to put DK64 on the Virtual Console, not understanding why they haven't. So I don't think Rare is the issue with DKC.

Probably because DK64 is embarrassingly bad. And has a curse word in its opening theme song.

[YoshiRider123]

I think it was NoE that gave a week's warning in advance about the DKC trilogy being removed from the VC.

NoA gave no warning whatsover. Not sure how it was handled elsewhere.

[RawkHawk2010]

A rep from Rare once said that Nintendo has every right to put DK64 on the Virtual Console, not understanding why they haven't. So I don't think Rare is the issue with DKC.

That was before this:

[Boney]

jeeesus why is this happening, can we get someone on it?

jonathan holmes save ussss

[Bulbagarden]

When will this madness come to an end!?!?

Probably not any time soon, at least not for games developed (and published) originally by 3rd parties.
Putting aside the potential issue perfectchaos just raised, in that Nintendo might only have had the license to do this for the Wii VC and are running into legal hurdles now that the Wii U is out....I suspect what may have happened here is that a lot of these contracts had time limits on how long the games would be available on the VC. For the 3rd parties, this may have been desirable in that it would put them in a position of power should the VC take off, allowing them to renegotiate the contracts with Nintendo at a later date and ask for a greater portion of the revenues. For Nintendo, it might have also been desirable in that it gave them an out to just not re-sign contracts on games which haven't been selling sufficiently in proportion to whatever license fees they're being charged.

It could also be that in this particular case, EA themselves walked away. Sim City is a pretty huge franchise, and with the new games out EA wouldn't really like you to be playing the old one. They'd much rather you play the new, more expensive one.

[Persona7]

Luckily I have the cartridge and have it backed up on my computer via my retrode.

[BatDan]

what's this?

Didn't know about that. ... Huh.
Still, weird it was removed. As well as Sim City.

[BocoDragon]

Probably because DK64 is embarrassingly bad. And has a curse word in its opening theme song.

Coconut gun fires in spurts? ;P

[NateDrake]

what's this? By format of the date, it looks like NoE warned people.

Wish I had DLed DKC3. Only did DKC1-2. Damn :(

[DidntKnowJack]

This makes me worried about the future of the Wii store and any history of my purchases. You just know at some point they're going to pull the plug on the whole thing and then you're download history won't mean shit. Maybe they transfer it over to the Wii U, but maybe they don't.

[shuri]

Nintendo, trying to hide away its past

[Roto13]

Does this mean I won't be able to transfer it over to Wii U?

[BocoDragon]

This makes me worried about the future of the Wii store and any history of my purchases. You just know at some point they're going to pull the plug on the whole thing and then you're download history won't mean shit. Maybe they transfer it over to the Wii U, but maybe they don't.

Oh certainly... there will be a point in time where it will be up to you to backup your games to SD card. I don't trust "redownload rights" long term.

[Fantastical]

They're probably just adding always online DRM, guys.

Badum tish.

[grandjedi6]

Nintendo's lawyers are notoriously overprotective and will block the release of anything that could even potentially lead to a lawsuit. So yeah I wouldn't be surprised if they removed this for such a reason.

[YoshiRider123]

Does this mean I won't be able to transfer it over to Wii U?

I believe you would still be able to do so.

[meltingparappa]

Pretty slick marketing move for the new game!

(some joke about it coming back with a patch that requires your wii to always be online)

[entrement]

Well I got it ages ago.

[Pociask]

Games disappearing isn't as big a deal as no warning at all from NoA. At the very least, you'd think they'd want a last-minute-shopper sale spike.

[Eric C]

Does this mean I won't be able to transfer it over to Wii U?

If you already bought them you could still transfer and redownload the DKC games on the Wii U.

[GAMERG0D]

Does this mean I won't be able to transfer it over to Wii U?

It should be fine, you can still redownload the games even if they are delisted so you shouldn't have problems transferring either.

edit: beaten

[richiek]

Isn't Shigeru Miyamoto good friends with Will Wright?

[Pyrokai]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...(North_America) Wikipedia lists all of them and even crosses out the ones that aren't available anymore. Does this help?

Yes! Thanks!!

Guess that means they're gone from NA, too :( . I didn't know that. Sucks.

[deviljho]

They're probably just adding always online DRM, guys. Badum tish.

Nintendo has to BE online first, to do this.

[RawkHawk2010]

Now watch as Brawl never gets a future digital-release because of the Dr. Wright assist trophy being caught up in some legal clusterfuck no one will do anything about.

(The horror! The horror!!)

[Dizzy]

Lol. The vc service seems to be losing more games than its adding these days. Shame.

[terrisus]

Not to mention SNES SimCity's version of the giant lizard attack...

This too:

[Quadraphonic]

Now watch as Brawl never gets a future digital-release because of the Dr. Wright assist trophy being caught up in some legal clusterfuck no one will do anything about. (The horror! The horror!!)

If they cared, they'd patch it to change the art to something generic or take it out.

This too:

Tripod is still around?

[Game Guru]

Good point. (I bet they didn't want to emulate the Ram pack? No Super FX chip games either. Or it could be some bizzare Nintendo logic where they want to hold back the games with teh special chipz for future download services).

Actually, if they couldn't release it due to the Expansion Pak, Majora's Mask would not have been rereleased. In any case, it is interesting that SimCity and the Donkey Kong Country trilogy were removed specifically. The only times previously when a game was removed from the Virtual Console were due to rights issues. Irem imploded in on itself when led to their games being removed, and Konami and Ubisoft lost the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license to, err, THQ though given THQ's current financial state, that may not be for long.

Donkey Kong Country and SimCity do have potential rights issues though, namely trademark issues. Nintendo does have to license out Rare's trademark from Microsoft to use Rare's logo for the DKC games, and Nintendo does have to license out EA's trademark on SimCity to use its name. Naturally, Microsoft wouldn't help a competitor and the rumors seems to have EA being angry at Nintendo for not using Origin for the Wii U.

Basically, there is every reason to believe that Microsoft and EA are just not playing ball with Nintendo anymore, and that's why the games they can affect are being removed from the service.

[joedick]

Isn't Shigeru Miyamoto good friends with Will Wright?

I don't think that means Will Wright will tell EA not to charge them licensing fees.

Not sure why people are shocked, the reasons for it seem more obvious than the DKC games being pulled.