Donkey Kong Country Trilogy Removed From Virtual Console

[SirPsycho]

^Nintendo owns DKC and all the characters Rare created for it.

Ah there we go then. I misremembered the deal as being Rare would own the rights for all characters they made. So now I'm stumped, it just seems like a really stupid move to take down one of the best selling SNES series from the VC then.

[AppleQueso]

I'm sure we'll find out exactly what went on in due time.

Watch it turn out that they were removed completely by accident or something dumb like that.

[AppleQueso]

Actually, one thing that occured to me is that despite Nintendo owning the Donkey Kong Country name, characters, world, etc. Rare might have some rights to the original games themselves. There was probably some licensing agreement they had worked out to put the games on VC.

My guess is that the license is simply expiring, and Nintendo doesn't want to bother renewing it because they plan to negotiate a different agreement for a Wii U eShop release or something later anyway.

Just a guess. Makes more sense to me than pulling them for a compilation (why would they do that when they didn't pull Kirby games for the Kirby collection?)

[equalsign]

Actually, one thing that occured to me is that despite Nintendo owning the Donkey Kong Country name, characters, world, etc. Rare might have some rights to the original games themselves. There was probably some licensing agreement they had worked out to put the games on VC.

My guess is that the license is simply expiring, and Nintendo doesn't want to bother renewing it because they plan to negotiate a different agreement for a Wii U eShop release or something later anyway.

This is my guess too. They may be bestsellers on the service, but that doesn't mean much nowadays. I don't think many people are purchasing VC games any more. I think it's telling that they've released a Wii revision that cannot even connect to the internet.

[Xeogred]

It's too bad Nintendo were dicks about keeping Goldeneye from Rare. They wanted to do an HD port on XBL but Nintendo wasn't going to let it happen. Luckily we got Perfect Dark since that's an original IP Rare owns, and I'm a rare fan who likes that one even more, but still would've been great to have gotten an upgraded Goldeneye... widescreen, dual analog support, better framerate. The XBL version of Perfect Dark is definitely amazing.

[equalsign]

I think Goldeneye already supports widescreen. Rare were forward thinkers.

[Jamisonia]

It did, and so did the original Perfect Dark, and DK64. DK64 even supported Dolby Pro Logic Surround.

[ExedExes]

It's not just the US and Europe

It's also being removed in Japan on December 8

Something's up now.

[Flake]

Okay, now that IS weird. As far as I know, Nintendo owns the rights to Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Cranky Kong out-right. I don't remember if Rare holds any copyright claims on the rest of the cast but even if they did, that would only mean that DKC2 and DKC3 would be subject to such a licensing problem.

From an IP stand point, the only thing different between DKC and Donkey Kong Country Returns is the Kremlings vs the Tiki's. Could the Kremlings be enough that the game had to be pulled down in all three primary regions??

[elmagicochrisg]

From an IP stand point, the only thing different between DKC and Donkey Kong Country Returns is the Kremlings vs the Tiki's. Could the Kremlings be enough that the game had to be pulled down in all three primary regions??

Wouldn't it be pulled down worldwide immediately if that were the case?...