Bofferbrauer2 said:
Or even with the Wii. To elaborate: WiiWare was was pretty much the first console platform which was specifically tailored to Indies, though AAA publishers also joined in with some smaller games and spinoffs. And while WiiWare died with the Wii, it laid the groundworks for Nintendo's relationship with Indies. When the Wii U came around and the big publishers jumped ship just a couple months later, the Indies stayed. Soon it became clear that they had the storefront practically for themselves and weren't drowned out by the bigger releases, and so they came in droves. And since they weren't drowned out and Wii U owners didn't have much else non-Nintendo stuff to play, they sold really well; better than on the more established competition despite the low install base. Nintendo realized this also and their loyalty to Nintendo and started actively pushing them, resulting in the Nindies moniker and program. And Nintendo thanks them to this day for keeping them alive by still coming with their Nindies Showcases (one probably comes this month btw, as there was always one either in December or January) even though they wouldn't really need them anymore to bolster their games catalogue, and even make regular mentions of them in other Nintendo Direct videos. |
As far as I can tell, not really?
The Xbox Live Arcade was originally the name of just the entire Xbox marketplace in general, but was rebranded as a store for "smaller games" from indie developers (mainly) and big publishers (secondarily) as soon as the 360's release, just like the Wiiware except 2 and a half years earlier. In fact by the time Wiiware came out Microsoft was already doing special promotions with XBLA, they even had an equivalent of "Platinum Hits" for Arcade titles.
