Nintendo hasn't had to deal with all that many bruising setbacks during its time in the world of video games, but the Virtual Boy has to rank as one of the most dramatic.
Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, the man behind the legendary Game Boy and Game & Watch, the Virtual Boy seemed like a sure thing on paper. Riding high off the success of its previous hardware, there were lofty hopes for the table-mounted 32-bit system – yet it reportedly only sold 770,000 units worldwide (despite Nintendo of America boldly projecting sales of 1.5 million) and was quickly discontinued.
Yokoi, a man who had generated millions of dollars in revenue for the company, left Nintendo under a cloud soon afterwards.
The scale of the console's commercial failure – and the sky-high hopes Nintendo clearly had for it, despite what has been written since – can be seen in the vast quantities of new "old" stock which regularly washes up in Japanese game shops.
These are brand-new games which have remained unsold since the mid-'90s, and often turn up in retailers in large numbers, presumably when boxes of software are found sitting in a warehouse somewhere.
This phenomena has been observed recently by UK-based retro game retailer Sore Thumb Retro Games, which is currently in Japan sourcing stock. "New old stock, brand new and I mean mint, Virtual boy games by their hundreds," the store writes on Facebook. "This chain must have bought out a warehouse full. I made a dint in the pile."
This isn't a story that's unique to this particular store, either; unsold Virtual Boy games can be found all over Japan.
[source facebook.com]
Comments 9
Or ebay, since JP game stores are often dumping their stuff online. I got 2 VB games in box/manual for less than $20 apiece this year. Vertical Force (as pictured here) and Teleroboxer
I briefly owned a Virtual Boy in the early 2000s. I’m very glad I experienced it, unfortunately I never got to play the Wario game which looks to be the best one. I sold it soon after when I realised it would just be a novelty piece taking up space.
Nintendo really missed a trick not releasing VB games on the 3DS.
and here i always figured they were rare because not enough were produced, and never thought to even look into what they cost. the more you know!
At the end of the real time period, new software was being sold for about 50 yen each.
You're probably not going to find the "Elite Four" Virtual Boy game which reportedly sell for thousands of dollars at this point.
I can imagine the failure: Nintendo Power was reviewing upcoming Virtual Boy games well into 1996 (including the action-RPG Dragon Hopper. Very sad to know some collector is hording a copy of that game, undumped.)
Yet not a single game was released in Japan at the end of 1995.
NP claimed Nintendo was planning for a "relaunch" in August 1996 (or somewhere about there) and that didn't happen. Happy 28th memorial, Virtual Boy! Your 3D games were sadly not for this 3D world.
Be sure to google "red-viper 3ds" and give it a whirl if you have the means.
I once picked up a copy of Telroboxer for 10¢ at KB Toys in 2000ish.
Can't that happen to the 32X and the Sega CDX ( Multimega) ?
New old stock just showing up
I can dream cant i ?
The Virtual Boy was a unique console with its own unique library of game. It was one of Gunpei Yokoi's masterpiece hardware and it showcase what virtual 3D would be like straight in your face that you could take anywhere with you. I don't think there are any company nowadays had ever invent or done what the Virtual Boy had done or outclass it better in any ways. It was its own kind of innovation and spectacle despite having its own flaws to deal with.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...