The release of WiiWare
May 17th, 2008 Posted in GamesWith WiiWare soon to be released across all Wii regions (although Australia, as usual, is yet to be given an official release date), Nintendo is now set to join Sony and Microsoft in the downloadable content race (if that is what it is). But what is it all, why now, and is it worth it?
Well, Xbox Live Arcade has been around for a while now, and has become quite popular. It is an good avenue for smaller developers to release their work to the public, as well as for older titles to be re-released for a younger audience. In fact, I have found it to be an extremely useful service, although at first I thought it was gonna be a waste of time, and probably money. As it is, however, I have spent a great deal of cash on XBLA games and, in fact, many of my favourite Xbox games are XBLA games. Of course, there are some pretty terrible games, but that’s life.
Then there’s the Playstation Network. Seeing the money to be made, Sony joined the fray with the release of the PS3. Some saw it as bandwagon-jumping, but in my opinion it was a sensible decision, as I think the future of gaming is in digital distribution. Pity that Sony just don’t have the clout that Microsoft does– yet. They’ll get there, and their redesign of the PSN GUI is evidence of that. All they need now is better quality games, and they are expected to arrive soon enough… Can’t wait for LittleBigPlanet, myself.
Following the release of the Wii, many gamers thought that Nintendo had limited themselves, as the lack of HDD in the Wii seemed to indicate that they were not interested in digital distribution. Many thought this was a bad move. Nintendo then sold a trillion systems, egg was on faces. The Virtual Console seemed like Nintendo’s answer to XBLA, and while it was an awesome idea to release the back-catalogue of games, I personally found that I wasn’t that interested… And it came down to the fact that I just didn’t want to fork out the cash for nostalgia (although I occasionally did), when I could spend the same amount on a new experience… Or a new SingStar song… Nintendo have, to their credit, released a crapload of VC titles, and they have been immensely popular, as I guess many of the trillion who bought the Wii did not have the cash to spend on an Xbox 360 or PS3, and so they don’t know what else is available (not that VC titles are crap).
So now comes WiiWare. Nintendo’s avenue for smaller, cheaper titles– titles that lend themselves to quick bouts. And it’s probably a great idea. Think about it. Twelve-teen-ty trillion people now own a Wii. Many of them are connected to the net. Some of them download VC titles, and many of them (probably) would prefer to buy new IPs. It’s probably going to net them a helluva lot of the cash, particularly given that of those who don’t buy VC titles now, some of them may be more likely to purchase WiiWare titles. Of course, this is all conjecture on my part, but I don’t think it’s a major stretch of the imagination.
Then there are the prices. I think VC titles are overpriced. I have a feeling WiiWare titles will be overpriced– I mean, 1500 Wii points for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My life as a King? Not sure if it’s worth it, but it really depends on the quality of the game– the same problem applies to XBLA and PSN, and I have paid up to $49.95 on those services. The difference there is that an expensive game is often a fully-fledged game, and X360 and PS3 both have space on their HDD’s for them, while the Wii doesn’t. So it’s hard to think that WiiWare will be a good service if there’s nowhere to save the games. Perhaps it’s time to allow the connection of external HDDs? Who knows… Nintendo had to have thought it through, yeah? I suppose we’ll find out in the coming months. In the meantime, what is your opinion on WiiWare, or digital distribution in general?
Nice writing style. I will come back to read more posts from you.
Susan Kishner