They didn’t use to, but they've been more proactive the last decade or so, securing companies that they have strong ties to.

Good GOD, some people need to go outside and touch some grass.

I do think there should be a distinction to be made between “preservation” and “availability.”

I suspect because most gamers are the type that play something once and never touch it again.  “Game preservation” is really not a major issue to but a handful of committed gamers.

We live in a timeline where a small segment of gamers thought developers should finish a game for free after being laid off.

As I understand it, Square brought in quite a few people from outside the company to work on Chrono Trigger’s development; and due to the way that Square did things (and to a degree still does things), all of those contracted contributors have to be on board for Square to do anything with the assets (be they art,…

I strongly suspect that for the overwhelming majority of people that once Nintendo shuts down this particular online service, there’s not going to be that many people who care.

Because Chrono Trigger had a lot more moving parts than even your typical Square game at that time. It was in many ways an “all star” team production involving a lot of players, many of which weren’t even employees of Square.

Chrono Trigger is such a liscensing nightmare that I'm amazed it ever gets re-released at all.

That was going to be the kicker.  If the expansion pack is going to include pretty much all first party DLC, THAT will make it an increasingly better deal.

It’s less a matter of “better,” (because damn near any system of economics is better at any given time) and more “non-exploitable,” which is nigh trickier and probably impossible.

Well, then Sid Meier simply buys it and it becomes “Star Civilization.”

They aren’t wrong in the sense there IS toxic segment of gamers that view ANY statement from developers as a promise, and they will get furious if those “promises” aren’t manifest, and they WILL be VERY loud in their displeasure.

The joke was that Elon himself fit that description almost perfectly.

I fail to see what Elon Musk has to do with this.

As long as there is no intent to distribute, you’d be correct.

Well, there’s also that annoying part of the Legend of Zelda being a trademark of Nintendo (and yes, it’s a trademark, not a copyright).  Even if these guys were to completely rebuild the game from scratch in a “clean room approach,” the fact that they are using Nintendo’s intellectual property will doom the effort if…

Only if Nintendo has plans to design and sell their own Legend of Zelda Lego World Map.

It’s not even really about money. Nintendo has frequently passed on fairly easy money making opportunities over the decades, and only because it would mean they would have to cede control over their intellectual property.

On the contrary. Nintendo’s preservation is second to none in the gaming industry. Developers actually go to them for source code for the developer’s own games... because Nintendo actually has the foresight to keep that shit when most companies don’t bother.