The real reason Fez isn't on Nintendo platforms

[famousringo]

theRepublic said:

Mr Khan said:

pokoko said:
Another one for the Nintendo hate list, huh?

As for Greenlight, there are plenty of valid criticisms, but the project had good intentions. Even Steam has said that it's not working out the way they wanted. They've learned that people often vote for some pretty stupid reasons. Greenlight probably won't be around much longer, I would imagine.

In contrast, Nintendo's restrictions were just messed up. They were the results of apathy and arrogance toward the indie community. I have no idea how anyone could argue otherwise. It was a big, fat, "we got Mario and Wii Fit, we don't need you."

The threshold for making money back was super-low, for any game of any competence whatsoever. It was a mean way to thrust the developers up against the acid test of a game's appeal, that's for certain, and there were other problems that were purely Nintendo's fault (developer needs an office, developer can't publish outside their home country), but the sales threshold thing was an attempt to keep out the riff-raff.

 

Seems pretty low to me.

"North America
If game is over 16MB - 6,000 units
If game is under 16MB - 4,000 units

Europe
If game is over 16MB - 3,000 units
If game is under 16MB - 2,000 units"

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2009/04/wiiware_sales_targets_more_details_emerge

 

Let's suppose you're a one-man developer who put out a 40MB game in NA and sold 5900 copies at $10 a piece. Without the threshold you would have earned $41,300, enough for one adult to live for a year. But with the threshold, you see $0, and have to move back in with your parents while Nintendo pockets forty grand to pay for servers.

Spending a year on a game that doesn't take off hurts. Spending a year on a game and getting nothing at all is just savage. It only works if a publisher is backing your efforts (ie, you aren't actually an indie).

None of this changes the fact that Phil Fish is a total douchebag. Which is sad, because I would buy the special edition Fez Wii U that JazzB1987 mocked up.