Nintendo throttling Virtual Console to make way for WiiWare
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 10:44am by Jack
At the micro level, it would appear as though Nintendo is gimping its Virtual Console releases as of late. From December 2007 onward, the steady stream of three titles a week has slowed to a trickle, to the point where some weeks have seen just one release or, more recently, nothing at all.
Enter Gamasutra and its bar graphs, however, and a new, more optimistic picture begins to take shape—if you like WiiWare, that is.
With over 200 virtual games released so far, and a wad of cash to show for it, Gamasutra puts forth, and I agree with, the opinion that Nintendo’s online strategy has shifted away from “safe” games to interesting, innovative new ones (A brief aside: people won’t pay a premium for emulated games they already have, they said—pshaw!).
The chart above is the macro view; the omega to the alpha I alluded to before the jump. You can see that a definitive trend has taken shape in the past two months, and it isn’t shaped like an 8- or 16-bit game from yesteryear.
To the traditionalist, this is a slight tragedy, I imagine. There are PLENTY of awesome NES and SNES games left to release (Actraiser or SoulBlazer in the US, please?), not to mention titles from the other fine systems that grace the Wii Shop Channel today. I’m all but certain they’ll still be around, and will make a resurgence in the winter holiday months, but for now we can see they’ve done their job, and will go into semi-retirement as the new class takes their seats.
The Virtual Console titles were the hook, in a word, that caught nostalgic gamers and new ones alike. They got us used to Nintendo’s clunky (but maturing) online system, and made us comfortable with the idea of downloading a title from an online service (if you weren’t already). They made Ninty a lot of money. Again.
And on that note, Nintendo, for its part, is apparently more comfortable with online distribution than we give it credit for. Thanks in part to the Virtual Console, which sells cheap old school games for an incredible profit, Nintendo has effectively made more money–and produced more games–online than the supposed gatekeeper of online play, Microsoft, as well as the me-too PlayStation Network.
Granted, as I said, the majority of these titles are re-releases of older games from older systems, but I have yet to find the place where it it is written in stone that says the standard for online play is 16-player deathmatch. On the contrary, online is online, and I think far too many people today incorrectly cede the advantage to Xbox Live because it can handle huge multi-player FPS games.
But, Gamasutra notes that even with WiiWare, Nintendo seems to be slowing its entire online release schedule. This goes against the company’s stated goal of reshaping the standard industry release schedule (front loading strong games in November/December and coasting the rest of the year), but I think there could be a few explanations.
First, you don’t want an online system to be seen as overwhelming your customer base, especially if that base is a bunch of newer players who are unaccustomed to video games, let alone video games that connect to a server. Second, E3 is next month. Like any good, highly secretive company, I imagine Nintendo is saving a few announcements for its prized online baby for then. What better way to disrupt the common release schedule than announce a few games, physical or online, at a July show, with immediate availability (or August)? How very Apple of them it would be, not to mention a great publicity stunt and a solid way to disrupt the annual release cycle in one fell swoop. Lastly, maybe Nintendo does see some slowdown in downloads. Maybe the summer doldrums are here to stay, Nintendo’s grand strategy for year-wide releases be damned. If that’s the case, then they’ll be sitting on games until the fall or winter.
I severely doubt it, however, especially if all those rumors about new franchises, rebirths and first-party titles for Q3/Q4 come true at E3. Nintendo would be competing with itself if that were the case, so I’m going guess that the virtual, online wing of Nintendo is what’s going to sustain the company during the summers and late spring. It sort of already is, when you look at those graphs.
Regardless, the Virtual Console has officially taken a backseat to bigger, better, and unknown things. The numbers are there, and numbers don’t lie. Personally, WiiWare games are right up my alley right now: beautiful, short little games that don’t require a big investment in time or money. That’s not casual in any sense of the word. My pants are casual–I on the other hand am passionately involved in the short games I’m playing, or quirky ones I’m watching others in the room play. That someone is stupid enough to think a puzzle game is the death of video games means very little to me and even less to Nintendo, and they have the profits to prove it.
June 18th, 2008 at 11:05 am
eh. i’d rather have new games than re-released old games any day of the week (including monday).
June 18th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Yeah, I agree ben. Wiiware is actually new and original content, something the Wii really needs right now.
June 18th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I just wish they would give me some Pilotwings and PW64 lovin’.
June 18th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Check your facts Actraiser is available in North America
June 18th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Who needs VC games anyway! That crap is for geeks and otakus!
June 18th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Well said.
June 18th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Nice article, but I do belive the Wii can handle many players online at once in a deathmatch, it just doesn’t do it too often.
Our system is missing updates for flash, but it has the best console browser of the bunch. How great and sad at once. Unless of course the people using the PS3 version of firefox are overexaggerating, which I think they may be.
June 18th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
@gametaku: Oh, I agree. I know the Wii can handle them. My comment was directed more at “common knowlege,” which to date has implied that to succeed online means you have to be able to hold, market and promote the fact that you can have 16-player deathmatches.
In fact, when many media sites review or preview games, they often moan about the ones that don’t have “online play.” Reading between the lines, what they always mean is multiplayer deathmatch, or similar derivatives.
It’s actually kind of insulting to developers and innovators to say such a thing, considering the potential that exists in online, and yet people still say it as if it’s gospel.
June 18th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I would be excited about this but so far Wiiware has proven to be a big disappointment. I haven’t seen a single title that makes me say “ooh! I just GOT to have that one! It looks SO cool!”
I’m stickin’ to the VC. I’m a hardcore gamer. I need hardcore games. King of Fighters ‘94, Gunstar Heroes, and Sin and Punishment fill that gap for me. Wiiware titles like Cocoto Fishing master, TV showking, and Dr. Mario DON’T.
Let’s see Nintendo show some balls and put up some interesting new downloads for Wiiware that are more arcade-action than relaxing and casual (hate to use the “c” word).
June 18th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
@gojiguy:
Hey, you remember when VC first started, too???
That was pretty bad. It took ‘em a few weeks to set everything into motion, and I think the same process will have to happen to WiiWare, as well.
June 18th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
One thing about Wiiware development is you can switch things around so much. There are plenty of games that can come out on the VC yet I’m pretty happy with what came out. Man some of you guys really do hate old game huh?
June 18th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I think you’re missing some of what’s going on with XBOX Live.
First, let me say that I’m very glad for the Nintendo having an online download scheme at all, and I’ve really enjoyed playing Sin and Punishment for the first time. But the sheer volume of titles available doesn’t paint the whole picture.
For starters, there’s the crucial “quality over quantity” argument that has plagued Nintendo since the Wii and DS became hits. Sure, there are lots more games, but the average metacritic rating of those games is lower. There is a lot of garbage, especially on the VC and Wiiware.
Next, you have to include game demos in the XBox Live experience. They offer a ton of great game demos for full release games and, of course, demos of every single live arcade title. They do that because one of the early pioneers of XBLive came from Seganet, and learned early on that providing demos creates tremendous conversion rates (much more people buy the game if they can try it). The full-game demos on XBLive are often hour-long or multi-hour long demos that add a lot to the value of owning an XB360 and a live account. In some cases, this includes access to BETA versions way ahead of release.
Also, you can’t really compare XBLive to Wii because XBLive Arcade titles have extensive testing requirements to be able to support features like multiplayer, coop, leaderboards, and gamerscore. Just the simple fact that you can see what your friends are playing, what their scores are, what achievements they have unlocked, and whether they are online right now to play is eons above the Nintendo experience. The games simply take more to author and verify that they will work on the network without issue, so there will be fewer of them. It’s not, as you say, all about massively multiplayer FPShooters. Take a look at the top arcade games this week below to see what I mean.
I’m glad they have more downloadable original games coming, and I’m sure there will be some gems in there. there’s no reason, for example, that Midway Pinball couldn’t have been a digital download, and a great one at that.
Here’s that XBox live arcade list:
Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3
2 UNO
3 Aces of the Galaxy
4 DOOM
5 N+
6 Worms
7 Penny Arcade Episode 1
8 Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting
9 Marble Blast Ultra
10 Sonic The Hedgehog 2
June 18th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
@FoolThrottle:
Ok, interesting.
Quality over quantity, huh?
Well here’s the main reason why Nintendo does quantity - they have a wider audience than X360 does. Can’t deny it. So what could appear as shovelware to you, a hardcore gamer, could prove to be a successful game to a person who is casual. If you try to expand your market, you will profit more than that of a company that sticks to its “safety zone”.
XBox Live - making your customers pay just so they can go online is a huge, huge, huge x100million bad idea.
Not only does it make your customers unhappy, them having to pay a monthly/yearly fee, it will probably not be profitable to you because most of your customers will be turned away by the additional fee to go online.
WiiConnect24 completely eliminates that…and that makes a larger amount of people happier.
XBox Live - for hardcore gamers.
WiiWare/VC - for anyone.
Which is the bigger market? Anyone.
Metacritic…well, sorry you’re falling back onto that reason.
Metacritic has a ton of flaws in its data/rankings/ratings, whatever. It’s just not fair to use it to determine what’s a good title, and what isn’t. Same thing with IGN/EGM/Gamepro, whatever; all Nintendo-console games are severely biased against them. None of those worthless reviewers ever give a damn about Nintendo, and they have to go and slam them whenever because they hate creativity. They are afraid of new people coming into the market to play video games, especially when the video games they play are not in their own niche!
Don’t go posting a lot of 360 crap on here, either.
This is a Nintendo-fan site, and you’re poisoning it.
VC and WiiWare is doing great right now in its current status, and while I do agree VC has slipped a bit recently, there’s other reasons behind it (of which I cannot disclose at this moment).
June 18th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
^I think that you need to realize that you are getting a Premium service with Xbox Live. The service offers a full online experience something that I don’t forsee Nintendo ever offering with the Wii. Even though I do not plan on buying an Xbox 360, I think that Xbox Live is fantastic and a much more attractive proposition then their core, hardcopy content. The strong sign ups to the service invalidate your point.
I’d love to hear what you think of Nintendo’s free online service when they begin to charge money for a premim service (in which they are BTW, look for the red Wifi sticker ;)).
June 18th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
@Joltman - I hear what you’re saying about not posting too much XBOX stuff on here and I’ll try to refrain. I’m actually a much bigger Nintendo fan than Microsoft and far more than Sony, who I truly despise.
To your point about XBL being a mistake because it’s a pay service, it still has free options and pay options, as will the Nintendo service. Both of their digital downloads are overpriced to my taste, but it’s obviously working for them.
And you’re right, metacritic is terribly flawed. I shouldn’t have used that to support my argument, but I do wish there were more great games for Wii. It feels like the 3rd party developers aren’t putting their A-teams on Wii development, and the heaps of bad titles are making great games like Zak & Wiki suffer.
If they only had a downloadable demo system - I bet Zak & Wiki and Boom Blox would have sold 3-10x more
June 18th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
I sure as heck want more VC titles. I never owned a SNES. I want to play some of those classic games. You never see them though, and it won’t any time soon with one VC release per week of something of pure crap. Heck there are good Sega games I want that haven’t come out either.
I want the RPGs Nintendo. Give them to us now.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:18 am
To the comment above about why Xbox Live is better because it offers a premium… there’s a really good article from Games Radar up this week about what you “really” get for your $50 that’s above and beyond Sony or Nintendo. It’s something, but it’s not much.
http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/f/why-xbox-live-isnt-free/a-20080617101147502012
Check it out.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:39 am
@Jack The games radar article isn’t entirely accurate, but they’re completely right with the conclusions: XBL is overpriced, but it is the leader from the perspective of gamers and developers. Their comments about how the Wii online network is lagging are pretty accurate, as well.
Within the article they point out that Sony is swiftly catching up to XBL - and they are. As a Nintendo fan, I simply wish Nintendo was doing the same or better. I wish Motorola would catch up to Apple. I wish American car makers would catch up to the Japanese. I wish the Boston Bruins would catch up to ANYONE.
June 19th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
@FoolThrottle:
LOL. You actually think Sony is catching up to Microsoft?
IN WHAT?
If I recall correctly, P.O.S. 3 hasn’t even gotten NEAR the numbers of an X360 - and the Wii has outsold X360 for the first time ever!
Please don’t be using numbers for P.O.S. 2 to compare to X360 - that’s completely misleading to us all. P.O.S. 2 is last-generation.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Ummm….he said XBL. That means Xbox Live. Try reading a little harder.
Plus I assume you’ve never tried PS3’s online. Which for a free service, it’s actually very good. Fool is likely talking about the fact that the PS3 online soon is going to have the equivalent to achivement points and be able to communicate with friends in game, which will make it very similiar to XBL. So yes…in that regard they ARE catching up to Xbox.
And BTW, your over the top fanboyism is really giving Nintendo fans a bad name.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
That makes sense. Plus if they gave too much to the VC it would overshadow the Wii itself, which is the releases are paced. Just wish they were paced better. They should have dropped the big games out between major releases and before Wiiware launched. We should have been inching into the lamer VC games now when VC was launching, not still expecting to get VC titles that are going to fiercely compete with WW games when they first release.
It’s also the reason we probably can’t play multiplayer WW games online with people on our Wii Friends list. The VC would become bigger the Wii itself, at least in mindshare online from the people writing editorials and stuff. It would be their biggest bullet about the Wii’s block to better games or something.
June 19th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
@ResEvil:
You probably don’t know me, but I am a purist. That means I have never touched a non-Nintendo console in my entire life.
However, I do analyze all the sides of the equation, so I am not narrow-minded like many other similar fanboys.
Yes, this site is slanted towards Nintendo, so of course you are going to get slammed for mentioning non-Nintendo stuff, be it by me or someone else.
I really don’t see how I can be affecting the name of Nintendo fans out there - my degree of fanaticism is just greater than other people.
I am not the #1 Nintendo fan out there, I’m guessing; so I can’t really influence other people.
While it may be cool to talk with people online while playing games, it really isn’t necessary - it actually detracts from the fun of the game.
So while techies notice the new ability to talk online, it’s just a gimmick. And that gimmick is unneccessary for Wii to achieve greatness.
It takes time to develop a great online service.
X360 has been on the market for 4+ years now, and Wii’s only established itself for almost 2 years.
You expect a new console to have a completely fleshed-out and perfected online service in that short of a time?
How long did it take XBL to get to its status now? That’s right, 4 years. So you can’t say that WiiConnect24 isn’t up to snuff; you need to be fair and look at its status after 4 years to see if it has greatly improved or not.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:09 am
It’s not much of a loss if the keep putting out crap titles like they have recently. I know they want pacing, but please - give us the titles we’ve been wating for - Don’t esrb approve mariorpg and earthbound and then keep them from us, i’ll even pay the extra 100 wii points like japan.