gumby_trucker said:
Nintendo have allowed demos as well as patches on a few rare occasions, but like anything Nintendo isn't determined to do, it was a classic half-assed case of 'too little, too late'. Developers still have nearly no control whatsoever of the amount of exposure their games receive on the service, as well as no option to respond to criticism and demands from the market. Tying their hands in such a manner is simply absurd, and counter productive to everybody, including the consumer.
Examples of developers that deserved better include Way Forward with their game LIT - this is a game that was released with some control issues early on in WiiWare's life. It was clearly a game that had effort put into it, but due to some of its problems was not recommended by some reviewers. The European release, which came a bit later, actually had many of these problems addressed, but Nintendo wouldn't allow the team to patch the American release to include the improvements made later down the line. This is a silly and stupid decision, considering the quality of the product and level of commitment the developer has to Nintendo platforms.
Another example is of course Team Meat - say what you will about them, but at the end of the day these are two really inexperienced developers who apparently made a superb game, and deserve to reap the rewards from it! A classic example of what Nintendo had in mind when they created WiiWare to begin with. But instead of the filesize limit helping to level the playing fields between smaller and larger developers, it worked against them in this case, as I'm sure it did in the case of many other developers who weren't as vocal. The idea that lesser experienced developers can be just as good at squeezing their game into a minuscule forty megs as more proficient ones is also absurd and counter productive if any thought is given to it!
Another example of a committed developer who wasn't given the freedom it deserved was Tell Tale. These guys released no less than TEN (!) good quality games on WiiWare, and obviously where held back by the size restriction. As if that wasn't enough, while they could offer sales and even reduce the price of their games on any other platform, they had no control either of initial pricing or changes in price according to market trends on WiiWare. This created the ridiculous situation where you could buy their games on PC or PS360 and get a better experience for LESS MONEY! Why anyone would purchase them from WiiWare at this point is beyond me... Obviously, sales suffered as a result.
Yet another committed developer who was given the shaft when it came to WiiWare was High Voltage with the game 'Animales de la Muerte'. Once again, your personal opinion about the developer or the game matters not, this was a product with a following who was eager to play it and the game was practically finished!
I can go on and mention other cases of games that offered something interesting and had effort put into them, but could have used a few additional months of polish in order to live up to their potential (HoopWorld, 3D Pixel Racing, etc) but I think you get the general idea.
Not every bad game released on the system was made by EVIL DEVELOPERS out to screw over Nintendo or the innocent consumer. Some of the games that failed commercially generated actual interest from fans, but where gimped in one way or another that was either out of the developer's control, or where not allowed to be repaired once the criticism was more obvious.
If you take a look at how these kinds of issues are handled on Steam, for example, the difference is like night and day!
Patching is simple, pricing is flexible, sales are frequent and every game has its own dedicated forum which the developers visit often in order to hear complaints from fans and issue fixes accordingly. This translates into better sales in the short term, and better communication between devs and consumers in the long term, both of which are essential in maintaining a healthy, growing market.
To conclude, let me just state that this was obviously also a symptom of retail games both for Wii and DS (and no, DS demos don't count if you have to buy a $250 console to experience them yourself!), and that creating such high levels of fear and doubt amongst developers and publishers can go against common business sense if taken to the extreme. Of course all of this doesn't mean 3rd parties don't have a lot to be blamed for too, but that topic has been discussed to death.
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