Nintendo raised quite a few eyebrows last month when it revealed during E3 that part of their online services for the forthcoming Revolution video game console would include a library of classic NES, Super NES and Nintendo 64 games that users can download, possibly free of charge.

GameSpot has confirmed from the latest issue of Japanese games magazine Famitsu that Nintendo is indeed hoping to offering every first-party title they have ever developed for the three pre-GameCube consoles, for a potential total of up to 221 classic game titles users can download right onto their Revolution once it launches alongside Nintendo's new online gaming service later next year in Japan.  You'll notice that first-party is the key word here:

"...it's also possible that the Revolution will actually end up playing more than 221 games. In a previous interview with Reuters, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata disclosed that he is in talks with third-party game publishers about including their old Nintendo console games in the Revolution's downloadable game library. Pricing for Revolution downloads hasn't been decided, though two possibilities are to charge users per game, or to sell prepaid cards in stores.

But will all of Nintendo's published games actually make it to the Revolution? One issue that could hinder the availability of some of the company's games is copyright problems. It's already happened with Nintendo's recent Game Boy Advance title, Mawaru Made In Wario (WarioWare: Twisted!). While Mawaru Made In Wario included minigames that were based on classic NES titles, the graphics and names for Kung-Fu and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out were altered from their originals, apparently to avoid intellectual property issues. (Kung-Fu was originally released in Japan as Spartan X, which borrowed the name of a 1984 Jackie Chan movie.)"

While there are definitely online plans for the Revolution in North America, it's much too early to say whether gamers outside of Japan will be able to benefit from this online library of past games.  Many Japanese NES and SNES titles in particular never saw the light of day outside of their homeland, so it's difficult to say whether it we would be able to play them all of sudden on North American Revolution consoles.  If anything, we can realistically expect to see at least the titles that were offered in our territories available for download.  It would definitely be a nice little bonus outside of the new Nintendo online initiative.

Update 2005-06-08:  GameSpot updates their information on Nintendo's "Virtual Console system" (the downloadable back-catalog) and confirms that not even the first-party games will be free, unfortunately.

"Iwata's comments contradict recent statements by Nintendo vice president George Harrison, who implied in a recent GameSpot interview that first-party Nintendo titles could be 'downloadable for free.' However, Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America's vice president of marketing & corporate affairs, told GameSpot that no pricing structure has been decided. 'For Revolution and accessing older games, we haven't finalized how we will structure it yet,' she said. 'It is possible that players will enjoy these games without a charge from Nintendo, or there may be some pay structure for accessing the actual product. We haven't finalized it yet. Our goal is to make it as easy and inexpensive as possible, which could be free.'

Iwata took a similarly ambiguous tone vis-à-vis pricing of downloadable NES, SNES, and N64 games. He said, 'We believe that there's a number of ways that we can use the system, such as to offer a bonus download with the purchase of a new game, or allow some games to be downloaded during a limited time during a campaign period.'"