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The State of WiiWare, Xbox Alternatives
CVG is running a piece discussing the current state of WiiWare, and where they expect it to go in the future. They point to the success of Mega Man 9 on WiiWare and other platforms, but worry that the perception will arise that certain games are "too good" to be featured on WiiWare. GameSetWatch has a related interview with independent developer Ninjabee discussing their recent games and comparing WiiWare with Xbox Live Arcade. Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced that the new Xbox Experience coming in November will included their Community Games initiative, which will allow amateur game developers to create and share games using the XNA development tools.
I bet they will allow it but be prepared for a hassle. I mean look at the friend code system they have for playing games with your friends.
The best bet to see how Nintendo will do this is to find the instructions they have right now for transferring your account from a dead Wii to a replacement unit. That will give you a general idea of how some future transfer of accounts will work.
Also this is the same company that wanted me to pay $5 for Super Mario Brothers (AGAIN). Nintendo should have made this a free download when the Wii launched. So expect anything from them.
Nintendo doesn't have any DRM issue that can't also be said of the 360 or PS3.
Of course there's the real issue. DRM is such an anathema around here that it doesn't even have to have real problems to be denounced. I get the impression that anything more than a note (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/9/24/) would automatically get a "brokenbydesign" tag and halfhearted calls to boycott it until they learn.
If you look at the complete mess Microsoft's first party lineup of developers it should be perfect obvious why Microsoft is making this move.
Sony has roughly 20 first party development studios + additional exclusive third party developers and exclusive PSN developers
Nintendo has about 10 first party development studios.
And Microsoft only has about 3-4. They've closed more studios over the past few years than they have total now.
That is the main reason Microsoft has had virtually nothing new to show for the past year or so at gaming shows. Other than the usual exclusive and mostly irrelevant exclusive PC ports the Xbox gets there just aren't enough developers making exclusive Xbox content for Microsoft.
Microsoft is really screwed in the console market. They have racked up almost similar losses to the first Xbox mess even though the Xbox team was given strict guidelines that the first XBox type losses would not be tollerated again. Shane Kim made it clear that pulling the plug on the 360 isn't an option like they did with the first Xbox. So Microsoft is in a position where they have a console that is content starved with another couple years on the market.
This is nothing more than a desperation move by Microsoft. The entire console business is based on making it worthwhile to game developers to support your platform because you filter out the mass of garbage that you get when everyone can dump crap onto the platform.
But the mass market does not want 2d games, they want 3d
Then why did Capcom make Mega Man 9 and not just release its N64 port of Mega Man Legends on Virtual Console?
The REAL problem with DRM is something common to WiiWware, 360 arcade, the PSN store, and virtually everything else DRM touches, namely:
What happens when the parent company gets tired of supporting it? What happens when they no longer answer the phone when you call them to transfer your account to a new console (or, alternatively, they answer and tell you "Sorry, we're no longer supporting that console model/DRM scheme")? What happens when they shutdown their old DRM servers (like Walmart threatened to do recently).
I'll tell you what happens. You kiss your "owned" music/games/movies goodbye. THAT'S the problem with DRM. Unlike with physical media, you never really OWN your media. All you've bought is an extended rental, whose rental period could end at any time.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.