--- Saul says ---
Nintendo's recent announcement of WiiWare was certainly not unexpected but still very much welcome. Back when the Wii's Virtual Console service was announced, Nintendo promised that eventually it would open up its doors to allow independent developers to create new content. This new content is intended to complement the growing number of classic titles already offered up by Nintendo and third parties.
Personally, I'm pretty excited about this service. While playing older titles is fun, the potential of creative new titles that use the Wii interface is intriguing. It remains to be seen if Nintendo can pull the resources together and form a certification system/team that can provide a constant stream of new games. Even Microsoft, with its vast resources, hasn't been able to flood the market with original games through its Xbox Live service.
Still, it's very likely that Nintendo will have at least one stellar showcase title for the service's launch. Something that will rival Microsoft's Geometry Wars and Sony's Calling All Cars. Which brings up another interesting observation: What took Nintendo so long? IGN's Wii editors have reportedly been working on an independent game, which they first discussed last year. Why has it taken Nintendo so long to make this announcement, and what prevents them from introducing the service this year?
Get ready to fork over more money to Nintendo!
--- Marc says ---
Honestly, I have no idea why it took them so long before it finally happened, but this is Nintendo so I guess we shouldn't be surprised! But when you think that both Microsoft and Sony had their own services ready for launch and how much some Xbox Live Arcade games sold, coupled with the fact that they are cheap to produce and are easy money for developers and publishers, I have no idea why Nintendo decided to wait and release its own version of it more than one year after its consoles has been released.
If you just knew how much money and time I have spent on Live Arcade games! They're usually really cheap (under $10) and for that price, I don't even think about it and just buy it since it doesn't really affect my wallet much and offers tons of gameplay hours, something that some $60 games can't even offer. Some are original titles, some are ports of older titles, but for the $10 or less price, it's often hard to resist.
Considering how popular those services are on PS3 and Xbox 360, Nintendo could make a killing here since the Wii is currently outselling both of those consoles, and the more people use it, the more they can sell! As long as it's easy to use and cheap there is no reason why it shoudn't be successful.
The biggest question here is what kind of content they will have at launch. Like you have mentioned, Saul, Nintendo will probably have something of its own, but since it hasn't revealed anything yet, it's hard to tell right now what it could be bringing to the table.
--- Clark says ---
You guys are absolutely right. The WiiWare channel should have been there from the start. This is the perfect opportunity for developers to take a risk without too much at stake. And it's a way for developers to get their great ideas out there without ruining them in a game that tries to do too much (or doesn't do enough for a $50 price tag).
I would also love to see the WiiWare channel become a place for classic game sequels. It wouldn't take a lot of resources to put together a Streets of Rage 4 or an Ice Climbers game that's actually fun. Fans would eat it up, and it would be a great tie-in with the VC service. Makes too much sense, though. Nintendo will never go for it.
The Wii is already getting flooded over with casual games, and I'm afraid the WiiWare channel will only worsen the situation. We're going to get a lot of Bejeweled and Breakout clones, no doubt. Yipee... I want to see a lot of these freeware companies move their stuff to Wii. I want Truck Dismount, Jump n' Bump, and Pekka Kana, games that embody the Wii philosophy by being simple fun for casual and hardcore gamers alike. This is where Line Rider should have gone instead of trying to be a full-fledged retail game.
My biggest worry, though, crosses over from the VC service. The Wii's 512 MB puts a damper on how many games you can have at once (and how big they can be). Plus, Nintendo recently debunked the possibility of an add-on hard drive any time soon. I believe that same announcement also said it hoped to convince developers to keep WiiWare games small. Great. Back to Bejeweled and Breakout, then...
--- James says ---
To take a different spin on the situation, I think the WiiWare service could be a solution to the flood of casual games that has arrived on our shelves. With simple, cheap and hopefully addictive games available without even needing to leave your sofa, casual gamers may well find themselves distracted from disc-based games, allowing for developers to concentrate on more hardcore retail offerings.
That said, while I'm all in favour of downloadable casual games, I'd like to see more complex WiiWare and perhaps some episodic content. This might be a way around the memory problems. Rather than downloading a memory-guzzling RPG, you simply download different chapters and erase as and when you finish them.
My biggest worry here is momentum. The VC has a steady momentum of releasing two to four games every week without fail. Since these are going to take longer to develop, as developers will be building them from the ground up, I expect releases will be few and far between. Once a month at the very most. After all, the first wave of WiiWare won't be with us until early next year, and it's unlikely that Nintendo would have announced it if there weren't titles already in development. If it is going to take over six months just to release the initial batch of titles, I think it's very unlikely we'll reach a stage where we check for new WiiWare every week.
Let's just hope we get more than puzzle games...
--- Clark ---
Hey... that's a great thought, James. Casual Wii Ware titles could mean a better separation between them and hardcore games. We need it, too, because I am so sick of mini-game compilations and brain games. I need substance! This would only work, though, if the usability of the Wii's online service can see some improvement. I have so much trouble getting onto the Shop Channel, no matter where I try to connect from. Sometimes, it takes me an hour of deleting old settings and running new connection tests just to get in and download a VC game. Casual gamers won't put up with that.
--- James ---
That's odd, because none of the four or five Wiis I've helped to connect to the net have ever had a problem.
If anything, I see the Wii interface as an advantage of the Wii's online system, because even casual and non-gamers can work out how to download VC titles and play them. At GDC, Shiggy even said how his wife has little to no interest in games but she was able to download the Everybody Votes Channel on her own.
While my experience of XBLA is limited, the interface seemed a little intimidating, or at least it would to me if i were a casual gamer. The Wii is so simple that anybody can enjoy it, and this is why WiiWare could potentially have a massive impact.
--- Marc ---
I started thinking more about it, and I realized that they might be holding on to the Wiiware channel for a bit longer as they want games to be finished or close to be and have a steady online offering. I mean, maybe some people started work on theirs a little late, and by pushing back the release date, it might give some more time for polish and others time to complete. All they need to do afterwards is pace them so they don't release them all at the same time to give small developers a chance, but also don't release them at the same time as big releases. Each game needs its time in the spotlight, much like Microsoft is doing on Live Arcade and Sony on the Playstation store.
Like when Microsoft announced the Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays, I remember that a bunch of people online (myself included) would be chatting online and waiting until the midnight release just to buy the new games each week. Since it was one release per week, it was plenty of time to sell a bunch of copies, and since people wanted new content they'd end up buying each new release every other week.
The Wiiware channel has huge potential, and its failure rate is non-existent as it has been done successfully on other systems before. Where there is money to be made, I cannot see Nintendo failing! No one does it better than them!
Small fun games + cheap admission price + Wii controls = It Prints Money!
--- James ---
That does, of course, depend on whether or not people are willing to spend money or Wii points on these titles.
Personally, I'm very reserved with my Wii Points at the moment, since they're so expensive in the long run. The only VC games I have downloaded are classics I once played and owned or games that I know will be good, such as the Mario and Zelda titles. Aside from that, certain titles intrigue me, but I'm not willing to spend 800 points on a game that I don't know.
The WiiWare titles need to be well thought out and very appealing to people, otherwise they will simply sit there, clogging up the Shopping Channel. We need the media, including our good selves, to give accurate impressions on whether or not each WiiWare title is worth our money.
Obviously, when a pricing plan is revealed we'll be able to make better judgement, but my concern about people's reluctance to spend points will probably remain.
Nintendo needs to introduce a try-before-you-buy scheme (and, if possible, expand that to the VC) so that we can be sure we know what we're getting. To my knowledge, such a system is not available on XBLA or PSN, so if Nintendo did introduce it, that would give them another advantage over the competition.
--- Marc ---
There are demos for all Xbox Live Arcade so you can try them out before buying it. Same goes for PS3 downloadable games as far as I remember.
--- James ---
I stand corrected then. I've only got a Wii, so I didn't know about the other systems. The point stands, though, that Nintendo need a demo scheme, and it needs to arrive hand-in-hand with the launch of WiiWare.
This late, can Nintendo outdo the competition?
--- Clark ---
I've been crying about a demo service since the VC launched. It's really hard to guage if a VC game is going to be good, because many reviews are based on nostalgia and/or are written by people who are much more forgiving of the 8 and 16 bit era. Everyone raved about how great Gunstar Heroes was, but I didn't find it to be that fun.
An option I would love to see Nintendo consider (which will never happen) is letting people sell their games back. Even if all you got was a paltry 100-200 Wii points, that'd still be a cool feature. It would probably make more money, too, because, in a fit of rage or desperation, people would sell their games back but then decide they wanted to keep them after all. Cha-ching!
--- James ---
That would certainly be useful. We've got trade-in schemes for retail games, so why not digitally distributed ones too?
I confess I'm having trouble with WiiWare. When I heard about the Wii, I knew what sort of games I would want to be playing: shooters, swords and lighstabers. When I head about the VC, I knew which games I wanted to see on it: Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Sonic.
With WiiWare, the potential is so vast, I can't predict what I would want developers to offer me. I wouldn't mind a puzzler or two, but I can get those from VC and I don't want the Channel to become inundated with clones or Bust-A-Move or Bejeweled. I'd like to see a few games that actually use the motion controls in vein of Wii Sports, Wii Play, etc., but again, not too many.
What is the one thing you guys want to see? What genres do you think will become oversaturated on the Channel?
--- Clark ---
I suspect puzzle games will be the most prevalent. What I'd like to see, though, is a game that has you hold the remote upright, and you wiggle it side to side like a walking/waddling robot. It would be great for, say, a game about a domino that goes around knocking things over. Somebody do it! Seriously, though, I want to see developers do WiiWare games that use the remote in interesting ways which may not necessarily make for great retail games.
--- Saul ---
I don't ever see a digital distribution scheme where you give up the download rights for some sort of credit. It's about as unlikely as them allowing users to "trade" files. They've already got your money, and they gain absolutely nothing from giving you back credit. Any hope that Nintendo would handle digital distribution in a more consumer-friendly way than Microsoft went out the door with the restrictions they placed on the file and the way they priced these ROM dumps. Not being able to download and play games you own on a friend's console is disappointing. Having them backed up on a memory card but not being able to take that game to another console is also very limiting. Once Guitar Hero III comes out and microtransactions infect Nintendo's console, there won't be a single consumer-friendly console maker left for digital distribution.
It'll be interesting to see Nintendo's pricing and demo options for the WiiWare program. The promise of cheaper content because of digital distribution's ability to bypass distribution/packaging/shipping just hasn't come to fruition. Hopefully Nintendo can make it happen.
Nintendo's recent announcement of WiiWare was certainly not unexpected but still very much welcome. Back when the Wii's Virtual Console service was announced, Nintendo promised that eventually it would open up its doors to allow independent developers to create new content. This new content is intended to complement the growing number of classic titles already offered up by Nintendo and third parties.
Personally, I'm pretty excited about this service. While playing older titles is fun, the potential of creative new titles that use the Wii interface is intriguing. It remains to be seen if Nintendo can pull the resources together and form a certification system/team that can provide a constant stream of new games. Even Microsoft, with its vast resources, hasn't been able to flood the market with original games through its Xbox Live service.
Still, it's very likely that Nintendo will have at least one stellar showcase title for the service's launch. Something that will rival Microsoft's Geometry Wars and Sony's Calling All Cars. Which brings up another interesting observation: What took Nintendo so long? IGN's Wii editors have reportedly been working on an independent game, which they first discussed last year. Why has it taken Nintendo so long to make this announcement, and what prevents them from introducing the service this year?
Get ready to fork over more money to Nintendo!
--- Marc says ---
Honestly, I have no idea why it took them so long before it finally happened, but this is Nintendo so I guess we shouldn't be surprised! But when you think that both Microsoft and Sony had their own services ready for launch and how much some Xbox Live Arcade games sold, coupled with the fact that they are cheap to produce and are easy money for developers and publishers, I have no idea why Nintendo decided to wait and release its own version of it more than one year after its consoles has been released.
If you just knew how much money and time I have spent on Live Arcade games! They're usually really cheap (under $10) and for that price, I don't even think about it and just buy it since it doesn't really affect my wallet much and offers tons of gameplay hours, something that some $60 games can't even offer. Some are original titles, some are ports of older titles, but for the $10 or less price, it's often hard to resist.
Considering how popular those services are on PS3 and Xbox 360, Nintendo could make a killing here since the Wii is currently outselling both of those consoles, and the more people use it, the more they can sell! As long as it's easy to use and cheap there is no reason why it shoudn't be successful.
The biggest question here is what kind of content they will have at launch. Like you have mentioned, Saul, Nintendo will probably have something of its own, but since it hasn't revealed anything yet, it's hard to tell right now what it could be bringing to the table.
--- Clark says ---
You guys are absolutely right. The WiiWare channel should have been there from the start. This is the perfect opportunity for developers to take a risk without too much at stake. And it's a way for developers to get their great ideas out there without ruining them in a game that tries to do too much (or doesn't do enough for a $50 price tag).
I would also love to see the WiiWare channel become a place for classic game sequels. It wouldn't take a lot of resources to put together a Streets of Rage 4 or an Ice Climbers game that's actually fun. Fans would eat it up, and it would be a great tie-in with the VC service. Makes too much sense, though. Nintendo will never go for it.
The Wii is already getting flooded over with casual games, and I'm afraid the WiiWare channel will only worsen the situation. We're going to get a lot of Bejeweled and Breakout clones, no doubt. Yipee... I want to see a lot of these freeware companies move their stuff to Wii. I want Truck Dismount, Jump n' Bump, and Pekka Kana, games that embody the Wii philosophy by being simple fun for casual and hardcore gamers alike. This is where Line Rider should have gone instead of trying to be a full-fledged retail game.
My biggest worry, though, crosses over from the VC service. The Wii's 512 MB puts a damper on how many games you can have at once (and how big they can be). Plus, Nintendo recently debunked the possibility of an add-on hard drive any time soon. I believe that same announcement also said it hoped to convince developers to keep WiiWare games small. Great. Back to Bejeweled and Breakout, then...
--- James says ---
To take a different spin on the situation, I think the WiiWare service could be a solution to the flood of casual games that has arrived on our shelves. With simple, cheap and hopefully addictive games available without even needing to leave your sofa, casual gamers may well find themselves distracted from disc-based games, allowing for developers to concentrate on more hardcore retail offerings.
That said, while I'm all in favour of downloadable casual games, I'd like to see more complex WiiWare and perhaps some episodic content. This might be a way around the memory problems. Rather than downloading a memory-guzzling RPG, you simply download different chapters and erase as and when you finish them.
My biggest worry here is momentum. The VC has a steady momentum of releasing two to four games every week without fail. Since these are going to take longer to develop, as developers will be building them from the ground up, I expect releases will be few and far between. Once a month at the very most. After all, the first wave of WiiWare won't be with us until early next year, and it's unlikely that Nintendo would have announced it if there weren't titles already in development. If it is going to take over six months just to release the initial batch of titles, I think it's very unlikely we'll reach a stage where we check for new WiiWare every week.
Let's just hope we get more than puzzle games...
--- Clark ---
Hey... that's a great thought, James. Casual Wii Ware titles could mean a better separation between them and hardcore games. We need it, too, because I am so sick of mini-game compilations and brain games. I need substance! This would only work, though, if the usability of the Wii's online service can see some improvement. I have so much trouble getting onto the Shop Channel, no matter where I try to connect from. Sometimes, it takes me an hour of deleting old settings and running new connection tests just to get in and download a VC game. Casual gamers won't put up with that.
--- James ---
That's odd, because none of the four or five Wiis I've helped to connect to the net have ever had a problem.
If anything, I see the Wii interface as an advantage of the Wii's online system, because even casual and non-gamers can work out how to download VC titles and play them. At GDC, Shiggy even said how his wife has little to no interest in games but she was able to download the Everybody Votes Channel on her own.
While my experience of XBLA is limited, the interface seemed a little intimidating, or at least it would to me if i were a casual gamer. The Wii is so simple that anybody can enjoy it, and this is why WiiWare could potentially have a massive impact.
--- Marc ---
I started thinking more about it, and I realized that they might be holding on to the Wiiware channel for a bit longer as they want games to be finished or close to be and have a steady online offering. I mean, maybe some people started work on theirs a little late, and by pushing back the release date, it might give some more time for polish and others time to complete. All they need to do afterwards is pace them so they don't release them all at the same time to give small developers a chance, but also don't release them at the same time as big releases. Each game needs its time in the spotlight, much like Microsoft is doing on Live Arcade and Sony on the Playstation store.
Like when Microsoft announced the Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays, I remember that a bunch of people online (myself included) would be chatting online and waiting until the midnight release just to buy the new games each week. Since it was one release per week, it was plenty of time to sell a bunch of copies, and since people wanted new content they'd end up buying each new release every other week.
The Wiiware channel has huge potential, and its failure rate is non-existent as it has been done successfully on other systems before. Where there is money to be made, I cannot see Nintendo failing! No one does it better than them!
Small fun games + cheap admission price + Wii controls = It Prints Money!
--- James ---
That does, of course, depend on whether or not people are willing to spend money or Wii points on these titles.
Personally, I'm very reserved with my Wii Points at the moment, since they're so expensive in the long run. The only VC games I have downloaded are classics I once played and owned or games that I know will be good, such as the Mario and Zelda titles. Aside from that, certain titles intrigue me, but I'm not willing to spend 800 points on a game that I don't know.
The WiiWare titles need to be well thought out and very appealing to people, otherwise they will simply sit there, clogging up the Shopping Channel. We need the media, including our good selves, to give accurate impressions on whether or not each WiiWare title is worth our money.
Obviously, when a pricing plan is revealed we'll be able to make better judgement, but my concern about people's reluctance to spend points will probably remain.
Nintendo needs to introduce a try-before-you-buy scheme (and, if possible, expand that to the VC) so that we can be sure we know what we're getting. To my knowledge, such a system is not available on XBLA or PSN, so if Nintendo did introduce it, that would give them another advantage over the competition.
--- Marc ---
There are demos for all Xbox Live Arcade so you can try them out before buying it. Same goes for PS3 downloadable games as far as I remember.
--- James ---
I stand corrected then. I've only got a Wii, so I didn't know about the other systems. The point stands, though, that Nintendo need a demo scheme, and it needs to arrive hand-in-hand with the launch of WiiWare.
This late, can Nintendo outdo the competition?
--- Clark ---
I've been crying about a demo service since the VC launched. It's really hard to guage if a VC game is going to be good, because many reviews are based on nostalgia and/or are written by people who are much more forgiving of the 8 and 16 bit era. Everyone raved about how great Gunstar Heroes was, but I didn't find it to be that fun.
An option I would love to see Nintendo consider (which will never happen) is letting people sell their games back. Even if all you got was a paltry 100-200 Wii points, that'd still be a cool feature. It would probably make more money, too, because, in a fit of rage or desperation, people would sell their games back but then decide they wanted to keep them after all. Cha-ching!
--- James ---
That would certainly be useful. We've got trade-in schemes for retail games, so why not digitally distributed ones too?
I confess I'm having trouble with WiiWare. When I heard about the Wii, I knew what sort of games I would want to be playing: shooters, swords and lighstabers. When I head about the VC, I knew which games I wanted to see on it: Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Sonic.
With WiiWare, the potential is so vast, I can't predict what I would want developers to offer me. I wouldn't mind a puzzler or two, but I can get those from VC and I don't want the Channel to become inundated with clones or Bust-A-Move or Bejeweled. I'd like to see a few games that actually use the motion controls in vein of Wii Sports, Wii Play, etc., but again, not too many.
What is the one thing you guys want to see? What genres do you think will become oversaturated on the Channel?
--- Clark ---
I suspect puzzle games will be the most prevalent. What I'd like to see, though, is a game that has you hold the remote upright, and you wiggle it side to side like a walking/waddling robot. It would be great for, say, a game about a domino that goes around knocking things over. Somebody do it! Seriously, though, I want to see developers do WiiWare games that use the remote in interesting ways which may not necessarily make for great retail games.
--- Saul ---
I don't ever see a digital distribution scheme where you give up the download rights for some sort of credit. It's about as unlikely as them allowing users to "trade" files. They've already got your money, and they gain absolutely nothing from giving you back credit. Any hope that Nintendo would handle digital distribution in a more consumer-friendly way than Microsoft went out the door with the restrictions they placed on the file and the way they priced these ROM dumps. Not being able to download and play games you own on a friend's console is disappointing. Having them backed up on a memory card but not being able to take that game to another console is also very limiting. Once Guitar Hero III comes out and microtransactions infect Nintendo's console, there won't be a single consumer-friendly console maker left for digital distribution.
It'll be interesting to see Nintendo's pricing and demo options for the WiiWare program. The promise of cheaper content because of digital distribution's ability to bypass distribution/packaging/shipping just hasn't come to fruition. Hopefully Nintendo can make it happen.
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