Is it possible to have a successful business making new games for obsolete game consoles like the SNES and NES in 2024? And what I mean by that is selling them on actual cartridges. I know I can buy repro carts and pcb's for a few dollars on aliexpress so the profit margins would be pretty good if I sell games for $30+. Is there enough of a market for this sort of thing?
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You'd probably have a higher chance of success making reproductions of old games that cost a shit ton of money to buy legit
>making counterfeit copies of something and competing against 100 chinks doing the same thing at razor thin profit margins is more profitable than making and selling something original
I highly doubt that, and it's illegal anyway.
He didn't say counterfeits, Black personbrain. Retro-Bit and other companies have been making official reproduction carts for several years, licensed directly from Capcom, Data East, etc.
And why would capcom pay me to build repro carts for them when some chink company with a factory can already do it for much cheaper? As a westerner from a wealthy country with a high standard of living, the only way I can compete is by doing something that chinks can't do, like making and selling original new video games.
Capcom doesn't pay them either, they pay Capcom for the license.
Chinese would do this if they could profit from it or were nostalgic for it. They have no tradition of ever playing original cartridges like existed in Japan and the US.
There are probably a thousand old men on the entire internet playing on real hardware anon.
People do it. You won't.
There are tons of people doing that already, the pattern is usually
>kickstarter
>pre-order
>limits number of units in the low thousands
>they all get sold out on pre-order
>eventually the game gets released on platforms like Steam at a lower price on which they get between 3 and 50 reviews, meaning they sold between 500 and 1000 copies there
If you're actually capable of running a business you'll be able to do the rest of the math but who am I kidding, you'd have been able to do this little research already.
Can you give me some examples? The only one I can think of was Retro City Rampage, but they never actually released and sold the NES version of the game. I think there was a DOS version released on floppy disk at some point but that's it.
Micro Mages, Gargabe Pail Kids and the Quest for Stale Gum.
>successful business making new games for obsolete game consoles
Probably, yes.
>actual cartridges
No.
While I haven't looked into it, I'm guessing that the market for actual NES/Genesis/etc cartridges is probably fairly low and the cost to manufacturer cartridge chips, especially ones compatible with console lockout technology, is probably a bit high. Between the two, it's probably going to squeeze out any profit margins you could expect even before considering the cost to develop the games.
If you're talking about what's basically a flash drive with a SNES port, you could probably do it. That's basically what Limited Runs games is likely doing, since I'm guessing they aren't manufacturing new chips for all these game cartridges they're selling. Looking at the prices of cartridges on Limited Run, it's pretty telling what the market price might be for something like this ($60-$70) and that's well above even your $30 estimate.
This could work, but do you know if it's actual circuit boards and actual microchips, or is it just a glorified USB stuck inside a cartridge shell?
>a glorified USB stuck inside a cartridge shell?
Not them, but what exactly would be wrong with that?
A chip board is an expansion of the computer system it's plugged into. Not only does this let the game do some things that the base console might not be capable of, but it also means that (outside damage) it's not likely to change or degrade.
A USB flash drive can have its memory degrade and it's relying on a cartridge port-USB interface to work. If I wanted to buy a USB, I'd just plug it into my PC and play the game on an emulator.
>The 8 bit guy made a sega genesis cartridge. I'm unsure how well he profited from that
He made a video stating that he made basically no profit, and actually took a loss when shipping them outside the US.
>8 bit guy
The guy made a mint off of patreon. Then he stopped making content that people liked. Never took any sponsorships at the height of his popularity. Turned losses on some of his merchandise.
I'm convinced he's an idiot when it comes to business.
>Kept making content he wanted to make instead of the flavor the day
>Didn't start doing that bullshit where you advertise Raid Shadow Legends or Nord VPN acting as if it has changed your life because the sponsors demand you act that way
>Made the merch he wanted to make like physical SNES and Genesis carts of his game even though it was not very profitable
>Is still one of the more popular retro channels on YouTube
Yeah, what a horrible person
I didn't say anything about him being a horrible person. I said he's horrible at business.
I know a guy on youtube that makes a lot of money shilling seeds and beef jerky. The 8-bit guy could have hand selected who ever he felt the most comfortable will promoting.
He might be a horrible youtuber, but I'd never accuse him of being a horrible person.
>>Kept making content he wanted to make instead of the flavor the day
Also Patreon kind of makes that point moot. People supported him to continue making the content he was making when they signed up.
Nobody is using components that aren't things like flash memory because basically the only way to do it with period accurate components is to destroy existing carts, and people will rightfully hate you for it even if you think you're not doing any damage by destroy Barbie or football carts.
>Is it possible to have a successful business making new games for obsolete game consoles like the SNES and NES in 2024? And what I mean by that is selling them on actual cartridges.
Making NEW games and selling them on cartridge might be a business that can succeed, but you need a few things.
1)You need to be able to program a game within a short time-frame. Not polishing something over a few years, I'm talking a few months. This includes art and sound.
2)You need to make the games decent enough to keep the hardcore collectors coming back for more. If they look at it as a cheap cash-in, you'll get a handful of sales just so they can dump the ROM.
3)You need to be realistic about "successful." You won't get rich, and you won't replace your day job, but you might turn a small profit from your efforts.
If you can't pump the games out quickly and make a half-way decent product, you won't succeed. If you just want to reprint already existing games by getting a license to do so, that's a different story and you're already facing competition.
games like Micro Mages and Tanglewood exist, but they're also offered without the cartridge.
an arcade here has Micro Mages in a PlayChoice-10 xD
How many people do you think still own these pieces of junk? The only retro console that still has a big presence is the PS2, and making new games for the PS2 would be really stupid because what you'd be competing against would be:
-truckloads of used games
-OPL
-PCSX2
>How many people do you think still own these pieces of junk?
Not OP, but probably tens of millions if not hundred of millions of people.
>The only retro console that still has a big presence is the PS2
What the hell is this delusion?
>tens of millions if not hundred of millions of people
You have to be kidding. I doubt more than a million working SNES consoles exist in the world.
>49 million snes sold
>somehow, at some point, 48 million snes were broken, broke down, or thrown away
Yeah sure.
you have to think of it in sets
>of those 48 million snes, the majority are either in landfills, inventory in retro game stores, or gathering dust in attics completely forgotten about
>of what's left, the majority of snes are hooked up to TVs but haven't been touched in years
>of what's left, the majority of snes are used a couple times/year by people only interested in playing the games from their childhood
>of what's left, most snes are used many times/month by people only interested in playing the library from the 90s
>of what's left, most snes are used by enthusiasts that may be aware of the fact that some people come out with new snes games but don't actively take an interest in it
and then of what's left of that segment is your potential market of people that are aware of new snes games and will actively seek them out. and as you can deduce, it's most likely not a lot of people in the grand scheme of things
>PCSX2
If you're making a new game for an old console, you must realize emulation is your customer base and not your competition.
stupid bait
ok,moron
>The only retro console that still has a big presence is the PS2
Go to bed kid it's a school night.
And honestly, OP, it would be hard. Very hard, but you can do it. Your games are going to have to kick ass full thrust.
Maybe do what you want to do and other stuff?
I would not enter into that hoping to make money. People will be able to smell it a mile away. Sales quantities will be small. You are marketing to hardcore enthusiasts. Do it because you love it, or don't do it.
You need to se the games for $75 but they should include a nice case, poster etc.. even then I doubt that is could be very profitable. As a hobby it could be fun. I know some big companies like retro-bit sell such new games and re-released for genesis. If you are making a high quality reproductions the cost could be a little higher. The 8 bit guy made a sega genesis cartridge. I'm unsure how well he profited from that but he seemed to sell out fast.
Check out itch.io at some point OP. Plenty of cool stuff like this on there.
i did a nes kickstarter a few years ago and got a lot of preorders. the boxes and manuals are pretty inexpensive, its the cartridges and boards that take up the manufacturing cost. i was able to make about 15 bucks profit per game sold. a lot of people backing your kickstarter are only in it to resell your game for 200+ dollars on ebay so there is definitely money to be made. put it on itch.io and you're golden.
What's a lot of preorders.. 50? 1000? Cool you did it anon.
it was about 400 total when including the people that just emailed asking for multiple copies. i also sold some copies to random game stores across the globe that emailed me asking for some. i personally wouldn't ever do a kickstarter again due to how stressful developing a game, getting it out on time, and putting all the cartridges, shells, and boxes together on my own was. it'd be better to do it through a company that specializes in nes homebrew production instead. the passive game sales on itch.io are some nice fluff even after it all. some people will even tip ya even though you're just selling a nes rom.
What game?
id rather not say so i dont dox myself
That's fair
Thats not much, I'm happy to pay more if its a good game. I can see why people just put it on steam.
I was thinking about it since I think I could make a good game with enough time but postage really killed it for me, if your in America then postage costs are way cheaper and you have the most customers. I wanted to buy this Amiga game called Reshoot 3 Proxima for about 50 euro, I was fine with that price but the postage would have been something like 30 euro. I'd rather just buy these games on steam but I have brought some physical new retro stuff before. I think if you make a premium thing you can sell it for a premium price, that can include custom pcb that only you use or foil packaging or a shell in a colour only you have. After all it is mainly a display piece most of the time. I think I should get more since they don't lose value and look nice.
I don't think it could pay as much as a normal job but could be decent in a low cost of living area as you have a bigger library to sell over time. Pixel heart, wave game studios and bitmap beuro are a couple that do it.
I think some people are resorting to using microcontrollers as they can be programmed to act like a rom chip but better.
It would be good if it was possible to make sega saturn discs that work in a non modded system, I wouldn't bother to try and sell homebrew on it otherwise.
>Thats not much
yep physical media is expensive
As in your only source of income? No, the market is far far FAR too small and niche for that.
As some kind of hobby or side-project in addition to a far more realistic source of income? Yes.
the biggest hurdle is acquiring or faking the security chip (that little empty space on the bottom left that reads SCiC). those were proprietary, and i don't think they were reverse engineered. if you want a cart that works, you either have to cannibalize an existing cart or modify your SNES so that the complementary chip in the console is disabled
No. Kids emulate and don't want to pay for anything. Adults don't want bootlegs.
I don't know how profitable it is but people definitely do it.
Yes, it's been done before.