http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/11/18/nintendos-steams-up-the-wii-u-eshop?abthid=50a827cdf570f63021000025
We still haven't been able to access Wii U's eShop, but that hasn't stopped us from learning what games will be available when it launches. Including Nintendo's own full-game offerings, like New Super Mario Bros. U, titles like Trine 2: Director's Cut will be available for download on launch day.
Though the eShop's overall user experience and sales will ultimately determine the success of the service, Nintendo's direct dealings with independent developers is just as important. On the eve of Wii U's launch, we chatted with Trine developer Frozenbyte on working with Nintendo for Wii U, and its perception of the improvements the publisher has made to the eShop as it heads into a new console generation.
"We started working with the Wii U back in March, right after Nintendo contacted us for the first time," said Mikael Haveri, a marketing manager at Frozenbyte. "We had the port of Trine 2 working in about two days and then after that it was just about getting the game to look nicer and to implement the touch screen related features."
Frozenbyte has documented its (easy) Wii U development process before, but what's a bit more interesting is the level of control it enjoys once its game is out in the marketplace. Wii U's eShop operates much like Apple's Appstore. Developers set their prices. More importantly, they also determine when they have sales.
"That's what we love about the new eShop," said Haveri. "We have the power to price our products as we please, with just some basic guidelines from the big guys. The step to this is purely from Nintendos's side and they clearly see that [their] previous installments have not been up to par. We can set our own pricing and actually continuing on that by setting our own sales whenever we want. It is very close to what Apple and Steam are doing at the moment, and very indie friendly."
Steam has certainly become the games industry standard for digital distribution, so there's something very significant about the fact that Haveri evokes (generally) positive comparisons between it and Nintendo repeatedly. In fact it's Steam's lack of price controls (and fees) that make it so appealing to developers, enabling such strong support for the service. Developers are able to track their sales, using price points as promotional tools to incentivize long-term sales. "As a small company we rely a lot on the long term sales of our games, not just how well the game does in the first month. Selling for more than two of the first weeks has been very difficult on the console side so far," Haveri said.
Control over initial and subsequent price payments are one thing, but what about patches or additional content downloads? Some controversy has emerged in recent years, as independent developers of games like Braid and Fez have complained about the steep prices required by publishers like Microsoft when issuing content updates. In the case of XBLA, the first update is free - and then you start paying.
That's not the case with Wii U.
"They have pushed away all of the old methods that have been established before," Haveri told me. "Simply put they've told us that there are no basic payments for each patch (which were pretty high on most platforms) and that we can update our game almost as much as we want. For indie developers this is huge."
Though Haveri likens Nintendo's new approach for pricing to Apple and Steam, he's a bit more cautious when it comes to repeated approval processes. Noting that the 20-something Trine 2 updates through Steam have been effortless (and allowed), Haveri does expect Nintendo to be a bit more in line with Microsoft and Sony when it comes to verifying and approving patches and added content. "We expect it to be longer than what Steam has, but still very competitive compared to the current console standards." Haveri noted that while Trine 2's DLC content is included with the Wii U version of the game, Nintendo has told the developer it has the same philosophy for added content as it does patches - it's free.
All of this is to say that Nintendo seems to be watching Apple and Steam, and reacting accordingly. "Nintendo messed up the worst last time around," Haveri said. "Now they really know that they have to make a huge improvement to get back into the game. What I have seen and heard so far is amazing and it's definitely going in the right direction as far as small developers are concerned."
Haveri also noted Miiverse is something Frozenbyte definitely has its eye on, not just in terms of letting Miis run around and interact, but creating a social avenue that might allow developers to more directly communicate with fans. It's something that's a bit unprecedented in gaming, but is an experiment that might well be worth a developer's time.
The eShop itself is also growing. Though the 3DS version was certainly improved over previous iterations, Wii U will have a larger shopping environment, allowing for more promotion and discovery. "Now we can actually just upload videos about our game after the launch and still have the players come back and have a conversation about it. This makes it possible for everyone to continue that mutual relationship a lot further, rather than having it stop at the transaction."
Haveri stops a bit short of giving Wii U's eShop complete praise, no doubt partly since the system and its online environment haven't even been made public yet. Even so, this is one indie team that's optimistic Nintendo will now be another great avenue for distribution. "Nintendo's eShop has the possibility of showing the way for the future of downloadable games on consoles. Not everything is up to par, but so far it looks like a far superior channel to be a part of. We hope that companies like us realize that and more indie games become available on the Wii U eShop. In the end this is how we see the future of console gaming and hopefully we are not too far away from that reality."
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