| famousringo said: I think Nintendo is more interested in growing the DD marketplace for third parties. That's why VC releases have been slow, and especially new Nintendo games on VC. It's a strategic decision to attract new developers to Nintendo platforms rather than just earn more money off of old games. They want to draw in fresh talent and ideas and get them comfortable with Nintendo hardware and market ideas. Every VC release draws attention and money away from new developers on WiiWare. |
While I agree this is Nintendo's reasoning (and this is expressly why DSi didn't launch with it's own VC), I still feel there's a terribly missed opportunity here. Retro services have almost always been handled badly, VC was really the best effort we've had so far but Nintendo's let it basically drop off. And not even for lack of their own games, they're basically holding back a significant supply of 3rd party content too.
Treating VC and WW as directly competitive is the wrong view too imo, the content served is differentiated enough and really serves different audiences too. The real problem with WiiWare is that it's stacked with shovelware and the barrier of entry too high for most truly "indie" devs (who stick to PC).... it's more become a dumping ground for mobile devs. If it had better content, it'd get better sales. Kneecapping VC in response is shortsighted, harms larger partners (like Sega, Hudson, Capcom, Square Enix, Namco Bandai, Lucasarts, etc), and long term will only do Nintendo's downloadable games services more net harm than good.
I'm excited for Game Room, largely because if it's a success, it could light a fire under Nintendo's ass....
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