Nintendo Strangling Profits For WiiWare Developers

By Luke Plunkett

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According to "multiple developers" speaking off the record to news site Gamasutra, Nintendo are operating a "minimum sales" policy on their WiiWare service, where developers only see profits if their games sell a certain amount.

These developers claim that, in the US, a WiiWare title is tasked with selling "in the mid-four figure range", while in Europe, the bar is set a little lower. If a game sells under this number? The developers don't get paid.

While Gama speculate that this policy was originally introduced to stop the WiiWare service being flooded with shovelware (oh, the irony), they then mention that "some lower-selling WiiWare games may have done worse than Nintendo expected".

Indeed, one small studio they spoke with reckon they'll never hit the threshold, and as such, won't ever get paid.

We contacted Nintendo for comment, but they would only say "Nintendo does not discuss its internal business dealings."

Report: WiiWare's Minimum Sales Threshold Affects Developers [Gamasutra]

makes sense, easier to control shovelware quality wiiware

Nintendo better not be getting arogant again like back in the NES days

so all they are expecting is it sell ~5,000 units.

That doesn't seem too bad to me. Seems like a good cover for costs to promote and distribute the game.

I think the thing I like best about sega4life's Wii threads are that he often (but not, admittedly, always) posts the exact same thing as someone else did hours ago, but he selects the more negative article and title.

Kudos, man. Kudos.

???? Somone just post this?

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another kotaku luke plunkett article, i have yet to see that guy do positive nintendo news.

i think the quality control should be the other way around, quality control on retail ( not as strict as old nintendo) and bit more laid back on wiiware