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WiiWare Week Round Up
Mark Graham writes "All this week, UK games development site Develop has been running a series of articles under its 'WiiWare Week' banner, analyzing developer's affections for, and the potential success of Nintendo's upcoming WiiWare digital distribution platform. Most revealing is the claim that Nintendo has been secretly 'waging war' on the likes of Sony and Microsoft by capitalizing on frustrations over cuts to the Xbox Live Arcade royalty rate (down from 70% to 35% for any game making under $4m in revenue) and talking up the service's access to a wide audience to win over development support. It features commentary from both established developers (such as David Braben, creator of Elite, and Scott Orr, creator of Madden) — and indie teams (developers of new WiiWare games Pop and Gravitronix) making launch games for the service."
We might be seeing a different kind of WiiWare popping up soon... a new version of the "Twilight Hack" (a stack smash using a specially crafted Zelda save game) now supports running code right off an SD card instead of using a GameCube SD -> memory card adapter. I just played some ... umm... Tetris... and Linux hangs when it goes to boot... but it's only been a few weeks since the hack was first published. I personally can't wait to see what kind of homebrew people come up with,
I have a Wii I left in the U.S. and now I am considering buying one in my current location.
The thing about the Wii is while games like Mario Galaxy, Smash Brothers, etc. look fun, it seems like there are fewer longer games, or gamer's games (SRPGs, for example; the only one that comes to mind is Fire Emblem) for the system.
I see WiiWare as being an excellent antidote. Someone who wants to code a SNES style SRPG or RPG that last for 40 hours has the resources to do so. Moreover, with limits on file size, the developers are going to have to take some time with gameplay to make a successful game (the forthcoming Crystal Chronicles WiiWare title seems to encapsulate this; it looks good, but there is obviously some limit to what it can do graphically - this I hope will be made up for by richer game play).
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2008/03/14/twilight-princess-hack-bootloader-updated-supports-internal-sd-slot-now/
The locks on the Nintendo Wii have been comprehensively broken. Now, just by loading some code onto an SD card and sticking it into your Wii, you can unlock your console so that it will play homebrew games written by anyone, not just big companies that have paid big license fees to Nintendo!
And in other news, it still sounds incredibly gay to say "I'm going to play with my friend's Wii."
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Also, with the 360's declining sales this is not a smart move from Microsoft.
Interesting. I wonder how many Wii games will be multiplayer? Tennis or Golf with a distant partner would be perfect. Throw in DVD player and the Wii will meet most senior's needs.
nintendo ftw
This is all good and nice and all, but when will I be able to walk into a Best Buy/Wal Mart or any other store and actually buy a Wii Console ? The "shortage" is getting ridiculous.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
I don't really feel like paying for games I can only download online from any provider on any system. I don't have a hard copy, and I can't borrow a friend's. I can't rent such a game. I don't care about being able to download demos or play trials. I don't want any content locked down to one platform, because in the future there's no guarantee I'll be able to use it. My system may be broken. It may be a hassle to hook up to new TVs or even to get it out of storage and hook it up just to play for 5 minutes. I may lose my only copy* and the provider may refuse for whatever reason to get me another without hassle on my part. Copyrights or legal restrictions may affect distribution in the future and if my only copy bit the dust, or the only system I can play it on, then I won't be able to use what I paid for. There will also be no way for me to re-gain any of my investment, it won't even really be an investment anymore because there's no way to re-gain any value from it. You can't sell it on eBay if you wanted to. Who would buy a DRM'd file they can't do anything with? I really need a hard copy. Sorry guys but I won't be buying any WiiWare, or any PlayStation Network or Live Arcade shit either.
They can offer it online, I just want to have the choice.
* Yes I know you can make backups, but if I buy a copy from a company at least I'm guaranteed disc quality and minimal errors in the manufacturing process compared to a CD-R I choose at the store and may not know any better about what brand, or it depends on what I have around at the time sometimes, and maybe my burner is messing up and it won't be readable on other machines, or maybe there is some weird fungus growing inside my disc and in 2 years it'll be unusable. This is all extra hassle, and I just want a freakin' hard copy that I can get at retail.
Twinstiq, game news
Though Orr was obviously central in making "Madden" the monster console hit that it is and was (and has an impressive record on sports games going way back into the 80s), I would contend that most folks would give Trip Hawkins the title of "creator of Madden", if it can go to one person. Here's an interview from just the past week which goes into depth on the subject: http://www.vh1gamebreak.com/2008/03/exclusive-trip.html Obviously not the focus of TFA, but it is worth keeping the historical record straight on what was the most profitable title in games until "World of Warcraft".