40MB WiiWare titles? Not so fast, says Nintendo
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 2:20pm by Jack
So apparently there was a slew of information generated by a recent IGN podcast about Nintendo’s WiiWare program (Wii Software for you Europeans). We reported on it here at Infendo, but it would appear as though we’ve been had!
When we first talked about this yesterday, 40MB was floated as a possible file size ceiling for WiiWare titles. Personally, I thought that smelled pretty fishy, given the in-game Final Fantasy videos and cutscenes we’re seen already. Turns out I did smell fish.
Eurogamer, via Wired blogs:
A Nintendo spokesperson told Eurogamer that Nintendo is encouraging developers to make “smaller, more compact games” for the service. Not a cap, per se, more of a suggestion. Probably a very strong suggestion. Developers will more than likely be limited to one release a month, at least at first, so that Nintendo might “address potential volume issues.” The rep didn’t want to clarify much about just who will be setting WiiWare prices, simply saying, “it is important to remember that one of the keys aspects of the WiiWare service is to allow everyone access to fresh, new content at a low price.”
What? You mean the Internet once again jumped to conclusions about unconfirmed news? No way.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
“You mean the Internet once again jumped to conclusions about unconfirmed news?”
Awfully hard to point fingers when this site posted the news as well.
November 14th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
So let me get this right. IGN reports that there could be 40MB WiiWare games, Infendo does nothing to disprove the 40MB cap because it only talks about suggestions (and does not include any numerical figure, although I heard that it was suggested at 16MB), then Infendo thinks they’ve disproved something.
Infendo, if you’re going to go about putting down other sites for what they report, you should at least disprove what they’ve said… not rely on smarmy remarks on smelling something fishy.
November 15th, 2007 at 6:47 am
josh, infendo did disprove it, by reporting what a nintendo rep says. how does an official nintendo response not disprove matts info, however he got it? are you just trying to be a douche?
also everybody pointed out the same info as infendo did. nobody expected to disprove it because matt most likely was convinced himself, and who would think matt lies? (i personally cant stand matt for his wild speculations, teasings, and whiny rants)
andrew, this site didnt report speculation, they reported what they believed to be news from what is supposed to be a reliable source. i know matt is unreliable, but for some reason the rest of the internet thinks he is, and he of course things he is.
November 15th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Just reporting on the tone of the post.
As for the question in the graphic, what’s so great about XBLA? Here’s some things that are great about XBLA:
Bomberman Live
Catan
Carcassonne
UNO
Street Fighter II HD
TMNT Arcade Game
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Lumines Live
Worms
Band of Bugs
Aegis Wing (for free)
Pac Man Championship Edition
Assault Heroes
Voice Chat in every game
Camera Support in several games
Ample Storage to download as many games as you like, without need to delete and redownload
Downloadable content for many of these games
Online Multiplayer
Free demos for EVERY game on the service.
Just saying, there is no need to slight XBLA in this post. XBLA is a solid service that does a lot of things right, and not many things wrong. Praise WiiWare all you want, but it’ll take a very long time for WiiWare to become even half as attractive of a service as XBLA.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Andrew-MG is a Microsoft fanboy
November 15th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Just keep telling yourself that.
November 15th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Wow… great reaction.
First off, there’s nothing wrong with poking fun at how “the Internet once again jumped to conclusions about unconfirmed news”. Especially since there is no reason to assume that Infendo has excluded themselves from the list of so-called jumpers. We’re all guilty of jumping to conclusions, so let’s all laugh at ourselves… harharhar.
Second, what’s wrong with reporting speculation? Rumors and speculation make up a sizable portion of gaming news… and as long as the source is clearly labelled (and the reporters maintain a healthy sense of skepticsm when posting) there is nothing wrong with this.
Third, lots of people found a hard limit of 40mb for WiiWare games fishy. Many sites reporting the rumor openly questioned how the Final Fantasy demo could fit that limitation. But without details (which aren’t yet available for the general public) about how WiiWare contracts are laid out, we still don’t know how tight Nintendo’s “recommendation” is that WiiWare be under 40mb… Sure, Square might receive an exemption from sizing guidelines - but that doesn’t mean that independant developers will have the same options.
Finally, Andrew-MG is right. At the moment, XBox Live Arcade does have some serious advantages over WiiWare - only a full-fledged fanboy could argue otherwise. XBLA is *good right now* while WiiWare titles are have *good potential*. If potential was all that mattered, then we should all be looking at PS3 news right now! (Yes, that was a dig at the PS3.)
November 15th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
ejamer, that’s some comment of the week material right there.
November 15th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
walter mh -
The quote in the gray box from the Nintendo PR person did not say there can’t be a 40MB WiiWare game, or that the cap is not 40MB. In fact, very little of that gray box is actually quoted from the Nintendo rep, and ‘40MB’ is never mentioned in it. Therefore infendo did not disprove that there is a 40MB cap on WiiWare games, which is what the whole post is about.
And props to ejamer for his comments. Well done. If only walter mh could take a few cues from you about organzing an argument and grammar.