WiiWare details emerge
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 7:38pm by Blake
Here are the goods steaming from an IGN podcast:
- Game size limit is 40MB (as opposed to XBLA’s 50)
- Most game budgets are coming in under $100K
- Smaller companies are trying some “really weird deals” with their business models in order to keep profit high, and risk low (I have no clue what that’s really supposed to mean)
- Nintendo to share profits with developers 35%/65% (with devs getting the larger portion - this is evidently very similar to XBLA)
- If developers can keep their file size down, they will get paid more quickly (this is to entice devs to create smaller games)
- Prices to be set by the developers themselves
- Developers are only allowed one release per month in order to keep the quality high
Transcribed by Evil Avatar.
November 13th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
I hope that these games are reasonably priced, otherwise few people will take the risk of actually buying the games. This would result in the entire concept becoming a failure before it gets off the ground, which would be sad.
I will only be buying games if they are very competitively priced, there are just so many games out right now, its not worth the risk…
I hope this concept takes off and we get some original, fun and cheap littel games.
November 13th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
40MB each, eh? I wonder how many games of that size we can fit on our Wiis. Any idea how many MB per Block?
November 13th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
I imagine that Nintendo will probably set the standard for pricing and if developers get greedy I don’t think it will pay off b/c Nintendo developed titles will almost certainly be of a higher quality, so they’ll need to stay competitive to get very many sales. We’ll most likely see a pricing structure similar to the VC 500 - 1000 for most games and 1000 - 1500 for more complex titles. Nintendo is really setting this up to be a huge success… if only we has some place to store all these new games…
November 13th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
SD cards are apparently the way Nintendo wants to go. Kind of like AA batteries in the Wiimotes. Tough love, Infendo.
I’m going to throw out $20 per game, on average. Developers like Square Enix will get away with substantially more, I imagine.
November 13th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
After hearing that 40mb limit, one must wonder how that is going to be possible with that FFCC WiiWare game. -.-
November 13th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Xbox Live Arcade games had a maximum limit increase to 150 MB a few months ago.
To keep the profit high and risk low, some publishers are offering developers a full payout for development costs and a very low amount of profit sharing. That way they keep costs low, get a game to put out, and rake in most of the profits, and keep the developers at an outrageously low payout. Nearly 5% or less according to some probable numbers from the podcast (or they may have actually said 5 cents, not 5% which is worst in all situations where games games cost $1.01 and higher).
Of course it could be argued since the publisher is ponying out the dough completely in advance, that their devs are receiving a good deal, but it’s really sad.
November 14th, 2007 at 5:19 am
jack, they already announced that S-E FFCC game will be $15. i think $20 will be the roof for vc games if even they get that high. which i kind of doubt since that will be competing with such groups as players choice titles (assuming they get there) and retail discs which tend to cost about $20-30 when they get to their lowest price msrp. (typical for nintendo system software, though i know ps2 got lower prices evenf or some games)
i hope that games like pop are $5, and the average does become no more then $10 but i suspect that nintendo will have a little say in pricing so prices dont go wild.
nintendo likes to keep things organised so the consumer doesnt start expecting things and become disappointed too often.
for example, FFCC is a HQ game for $15, i dont think nintendo would let a competitor go under $10 for a similar quality game so as to not scare developers from putting HQ titles on for what they feel would be reasonable price for their risk and yet having to compete with a company putting, at least what appears to be a similar level of quality game for half the price.
November 14th, 2007 at 5:24 am
also, i thought they would go for a 50MB limit, but 40MB still shouldnt be a problem. depending on how they do it some games may not look great fully scaled to 50in tvs, but otherwise they should be fine for indie titles.
so far FFCC is the only title that has me curious how they will do it, all other titles look fine. its all in how well you code it, and audio tends to take up most space in games, and i doubt very much audio will be in wiiware games, then it will of course be mostly midi, if not all.
keeping voice over, if any, to a minimum.
we may, if lucky see more SNES or even n64 lvl development. think of snes style games with power of wii. i am hopeful for some games that take the challenge of space and see if 2d is really unwanted
i know i still want it.
November 14th, 2007 at 9:41 am
XBLA raised their file size limit to (I believe) 150. Also, if Nintendo wants us to use our SD cards, which I am perfectly fine with, they need to start letting us play games directly off of the SD card. I’m not going to download games if I have to shuffle stuff on and off my SD card every time I do. I’ve downloaded like 15 or so VC games, and my internal Wii memory is simply not going to cut it much longer.
November 14th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I think that the WiiWare games would have to cost no more than VC titles. Many people believe the VC prices are too high for games that are 20+ years old in some cases. The only way people are justifying these prices is because of nostalgia. You remember having a blast playing these games as a kid, so you don’t mind spending the extra dough to relive those good times.
The problem is, these WiiWare games are brand new, for the most part. Consumers won’t know what to expect. Not only that, they’re not full-blown games in the same sense as retail games. It’s almost like comparing online Flash games to Half Life 2. Also, there are Wii games out now that sell for $30 and under, and we haven’t even gotten to the point yet where Player’s Choice/bargain bin games are common. Are most people really going to pay $15-20 for a WiiWare game when they can get full-blown retail titles for not much more?
I’m not saying I’m not going to be purchasing WiiWare games. I can’t wait until the service begins. I’m just talking about the average Wii owner. I think they’re going to have to consider the pricing strategy very carefully for WiiWare titles. We want the developers and Nintendo to make money off these indie titles because it’s such a great idea, but the service won’t be successful if nobody is willing to fork over the cash for the games.
November 14th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
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