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Technology Lifestyle Nintendo's WiiWare opens game development to indies
Technology Lifestyle Nintendo's WiiWare opens game development to indies | Nintendo's WiiWare opens game development to indies |
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| by Stephen Withers | |
| Thursday, 28 June 2007 | |
  
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For developers, minimal supervision by Nintendo means they can back their own judgement of what will appeal to the market. "Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. Nintendo will reportedly filter games by ESRB ratings (no AO, so it won't be a backdoor route to market for Rockstar's Manhunt 2) and will do some QA work in terms of testing for bugs, but apart from that it's all down to developers. Wii development is already relatively cheap. Fils-Aime told Newsweek "All our SDKs [software development kits] and dev[eloper] tools are already - I don't want to call them inexpensive - they're darn near free to developers. This is unlike our competitors, where you have to spend a lot of money building high-res assets to be competitive. So in that sense, there's almost no cost to developers; the tools are already available at rock-bottom prices." Yes, WiiWare developers will be able to exploit the Wii's range of controllers, but it's up to them to choose between a classic control model and the Wii's motion-sensing capabilities. The spiralling cost of game development has been a concern for parts of the industry. The investment needed and the uncertain returns act as a barrier to entry and help explain the predominance of franchises and movie tie-ins. WiiWare will also give developers a low cost, low risk distribution channel. Electronic delivery means there will be no inventory cost and (compared with the PC games market) no struggle to get a new title onto store shelves. With luck, WiiWare will bring a breath of fresh air to the console market, allowing exciting new ideas to reach a mass audience. It will inevitably bring a raft of 'me too' products, but that's a price worth paying. Just as the Wii has attracted a broader demographic than other consoles, Nintendo seems set to bring new names to game development. WiiWare games will go on sale in early 2008. They will be purchased with Wii Points, and the service "will support a variety of pricing options." Exactly what that final point means is unclear, apart from the obvious interpretation that it will not be iTunes-like 'one price fits all' situation.{moscomment} |
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