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| Nintendo winning the download war with WiiWare?
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| Friday, March 14, 2008 |
Nintendo winning the download war with WiiWare?
Developers are impressed with Nintendo's WiiWare service, suggesting that it's winning a behind-closed-doors war.
March 15, 2008 - Nintendo has been briefing developers on the advantages of its WiiWare service over competitor offerings like Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade, according to DevelopMag, with factors like cheaper development and more flexible pricing just some of the things being boasted about.
Among the specific complaints from Xbox Live Arcade developers is the apparent halving of royalties paid for first-party games from 70 per cent to 35 per cent on ones that make less than US$4m in revenues, and the overpopulation of retro products. Nintendo's said to be keen to capitalise on these issues with WiiWare.
One anonymous business development boss said, "Nintendo has made it very clear to us that we'll not only be making a better royalty rate from WiiWare games, but we'll also have a better chance of selling games - the service won't be clogged up with the retro titles that have blighted the chances of many independent studios on Xbox Live Arcade."
And another anonymous WiiWare developer pointed to the retro products, saying, "Frankly, we're not looking at making games for Xbox Live Arcade because the service is full of shit."
Nintendo's certainly not about avoiding classic games -- afterall, it's got the Virtual Console. Separation seems to be the difference with Wii though, according to Jesse Lowther, the president of Medaverse. "Nintendo will make it quite clear regarding where you can go for new software as opposed to VC games," he said. "That alone should do a better job of directing people to the new games."
Nnooo's Nick Watt added, "I think having a clear delineation between old and new is really important. For us having a dedicated store which promotes all the new content is great. Customers will come to the store for perhaps the new Pokemon game or Crystal Chronicles or even Pop and see all the other great new titles and hopefully purchase them too. If the content was mixed in with the Virtual Console releases it would make it that much harder to find."
Standing against such established properties must be an intimidating proposition for smaller developers, though. Skye J.W. Boyes, the president of Canadian outfit XGen said, "With existing IP's such as Dr. Mario, Pokemon, and Final Fantasy slated for WiiWare, a number of titles based on familiar properties will be available soon after launch. I think the success of new concepts will be ultimately determined by whether smaller studios, such as ourselves, can compete with veteran developers and licensed IP."
James Brooksby, the studio head of Kuju's Doublesix, which is a team focussing on digital download channels, concluded, "There are still a lot of unknowns about WiiWare but the potential of highly varied sizes of games with proportional prizes is going to make for a varied landscape on the platform. Combine that with the innovative controller and I think you will see some games to play that you would never see on the other digital distribution platforms."
Source: SourceLabels: Microsoft, Nintendo, WiiWare, xbox live |
posted by Perimbean @ Friday, March 14, 2008
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