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Nintendo Virtual Console

Virtual Console
Wii Virtual console Logo.png
Developer Nintendo
Type Classic video game re-release distribution
Launch date Wii
November 19, 2006
Nintendo 3DS
June 6, 2011
Wii U
January 23, 2013 (soft launch)
April 26, 2013 (official launch)
Platform Wii
Nintendo 3DS
Wii U
Website Wii
Official US website
Official UK website
Official Japanese website
Nintendo 3DS
Official US website
Official UK website
Official Japanese website
Wii U
Official US website
Official UK website
Official Japanese website

Virtual Console (Japanese: バーチャルコンソール Hepburn: Bācharu Konsōru?), sometimes abbreviated as VC, is a specialized section of the Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo eShop online services that allows players to purchase and download retro games (mostly unaltered) for Nintendo's Wii and Wii U home gaming consoles and the Nintendo 3DS portable gaming console.

The Virtual Console lineup consists of titles originally released on past home and handheld consoles. These titles are run in their original forms through software emulation (excluding GBA titles on 3DS), and can be purchased for between 500 and 1200 Wii Points (Wii), US$2.99 and US$6.99 (3DS) and US$4.99 and US$9.99 (Wii U) depending on system, rarity, and/or demand. Virtual Console's library of past games currently consists of titles originating from the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Wii, as well as Sega's Master System and Genesis/Mega Drive, NEC's TurboGrafx-16, and SNK's Neo Geo. The service for the Wii also includes games for platforms that were known only in select regions, such as the Commodore 64 (Europe and North America) and MSX (Japan), as well as Virtual Console Arcade, which allows players to download video arcade games. Virtual Console titles have been downloaded over ten million times. The distribution of past games through the Virtual Console is one of Nintendo's attempts at preventing software piracy.


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