Nintendo Announces "WiiWare"

[Stephen Zepp]

WiiWare seems to be Nintendo's response to XBLA--with an interesting twist (maybe!):

On Wednesday morning, Nintendo will officially announce to the general public its plans for WiiWare, downloadable games for the wildly popular Wii videogame console. Unlike the vintage games already being offered for legacy systems (i.e. Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx 16) through the Virtual Console, these games will be built specifically for the Wii and sold via the Wii Shop Channel for Wii Points currency, much like the Xbox 360- and Playstation 3-specific games being sold on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.

What's more interesting is that Nintendo isn't only seeking WiiWare from established publishers and developers like Ubisoft and Sega. At a Nintendo developer's conference earlier this week, the company informed attendees that it was seeking from indie developers as well. Shorter, original, more creative games from small teams with big ideas; these are the buzzwords that you'll be hearing from Nintendo when its Wednesday announcement goes wide. Fils-Aime told us that while Nintendo, as the retailer, would itself determine the appropriate pricing for each game on a per-title bases, the games themselves would not be vetted by Nintendo. Instead, Nintendo would only check the games for bugs and compatibility, with developers and publishers responsible for securing an E for Everyone, E10+ for Everyone 10 or older, T for Teen or M for Mature rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board--Adults Only titles like Manhunt 2 aren't welcome.

Good side: cheap dev kits and a non-gating path to a console: good.
Bad side: devs/publishers having to get an ESRB rating on their own: very, very bad. IIRC, that's a $50k min investment per title.

A little birdie tells me there will be more info related to this release in the near future.

Personal Take: I've known about this for quite a while--and until I read the ESRB rating requirement, I was extremely excited. I can certainly see why, but that's a much bigger blocker to indie console development than, for example, MS's need for a (high priced) dev kit.

Follow up blog with some more info, especially a hint about pricing

[Yegolev]

Yikes.  Nintendo always finds a way to put a slice of ass into everything it puts out.

What does this have to do with Torque?

[Yoru]

I'll give you 10:1 odds that Nintendo starts vetting these titles for content once some M-rated semi-indie offering makes headlines - Wii Seal Clubber, anyone?

And that's presuming any indie developer is willing to cough up the stupid amounts of money it takes to get a rating anyway, in addition to the lock-in entailed by buying devkits and signing licenses.

Show me an unrestricted-access no-fee low-startup-cost platform and I'll show you a hot homebrew scene.

[Yegolev]

It won't take a M-rated game.  My first thought was to re-do Link to the Past.  That shit won't even fly as far as Miyamoto's spit-take when he finds out.

[schild]

Show me an unrestricted-access no-fee low-startup-cost platform and I'll show you a hot homebrew scene.

You mean the PSP. PSP Homebrew is awesome.

[Yoru]

It won't take a M-rated game.  My first thought was to re-do Link to the Past.  That shit won't even fly as far as Miyamoto's spit-take when he finds out.

Instead, Nintendo would only check the games for bugs and compatibility, with developers and publishers responsible for securing an E for Everyone, E10+ for Everyone 10 or older, T for Teen or M for Mature rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board--Adults Only titles like Manhunt 2 aren't welcome.

M-rated games are welcome.

Show me an unrestricted-access no-fee low-startup-cost platform and I'll show you a hot homebrew scene.

You mean the PSP. PSP Homebrew is awesome.

PSP, GBA, pretty much any cracked or reverse-engineered platform. Hell, Dreamcast has pretty good homebrew, I hear. Also, PC and web - Flash and Java games, dude.

[Kitsune]

If the cost of doing business involves kickbacks to the ESRB, I don't see how it's Nintendo's fault.  You can't expect them to put out fifty grand of their own money for every teenage programmer-wannabe's Geometry Wars clone.  If an independent developer writes the game that heralds the second coming of Jesus, they can surely find financial backers or a publisher willing to foot the bill.

[schild]

It's Nintendo's fault for requiring ESRB ratings when they could've just reviewed each game internally, cheaper.

[Yoru]

It's Nintendo's fault for requiring ESRB ratings when they could've just reviewed each game internally, cheaper.

Or having the guts to be the first major console to have fully-open homebrew development during the console's major lifecycle. As is, Microsoft is still leading the way on that, despite the $99 fee.

[schild]

It's Nintendo's fault for requiring ESRB ratings when they could've just reviewed each game internally, cheaper.

Or having the guts to be the first major console to have fully-open homebrew development during the console's major lifecycle. As is, Microsoft is still leading the way on that, despite the $99 fee.

Rumor has it Sony will be opening up RSX access in a future revision for linux.

That will be huge for the homebrew.

[Yoru]

It's Nintendo's fault for requiring ESRB ratings when they could've just reviewed each game internally, cheaper.

Or having the guts to be the first major console to have fully-open homebrew development during the console's major lifecycle. As is, Microsoft is still leading the way on that, despite the $99 fee.

Rumor has it Sony will be opening up RSX access in a future revision for linux.

That will be huge for the homebrew.

Rumor also had it they were developing a waggle controller. Keep it in your pants.

[schild]

It's Nintendo's fault for requiring ESRB ratings when they could've just reviewed each game internally, cheaper.

Or having the guts to be the first major console to have fully-open homebrew development during the console's major lifecycle. As is, Microsoft is still leading the way on that, despite the $99 fee.

Rumor has it Sony will be opening up RSX access in a future revision for linux.

That will be huge for the homebrew.

Rumor also had it they were developing a waggle controller. Keep it in your pants.

Wait a minute.

I don't actually care about the waggle controller. Nintendo has proven to me that it's some gay shit.

Guncon or bust.

[CmdrSlack]

I don't actually care about the waggle controller. Nintendo has proven to me that it's some gay shit.

Sure seemed like you cared about it in the other thread. 

[schild]

No comprendo.

[Margalis]

Do we really need yet another thread of people arguing with schild about PS3 vs Wii?

[schild]

Do we really need yet another thread of people arguing with schild about PS3 vs Wii?

I think this conversation is the only one to have UNTIL EITHER OF THE SYSTEMS GETS SOME MOTHERFUCKING GAMES. <growl>

[Merusk]

It's Nintendo's fault for requiring ESRB ratings when they could've just reviewed each game internally, cheaper.

And then been wholly responsible when "Hot Coffee" showed up in some otherwise innocuous little game.

Yeah, I see their side very well.  You distribute AND rate and you don't have any outs at all.

[Chimpy]

It's Nintendo's fault for requiring ESRB ratings when they could've just reviewed each game internally, cheaper.

And then been wholly responsible when "Hot Coffee" showed up in some otherwise innocuous little game.

Yeah, I see their side very well.  You distribute AND rate and you don't have any outs at all.

shhhhhhhh

schild is trying to get Nintendo to do that so that they will get annihilated in lawsuits and his predictions of "Wii is doomed" will be shown as true.

 

[Stephen Zepp]

I did a bit more research (read that as talked to people in the office that have more recent numbers), and my $50k per rating per title is high. No one had exact numbers, but the rough estimate (we haven't actually had to get a game rated ourselves in quite a long time) was between $7,500 and $20,000 or so.

Still, not the straight from the garage to everyone's console level of indie support, but it's a big step.

[schild]

Honestly, before today, I had no clue that it cost more than $500 to get an ESRB rating.

I'm more disgusted than ever with the industry now.

[Stephen Zepp]

Honestly, before today, I had no clue that it cost more than $500 to get an ESRB rating.

I'm more disgusted than ever with the industry now.

I was hesitant to repost any numbers at all because I haven't had time to actually do the research. I plan on spending some time tomorrow finding out exactly the cost (if I can), because I hate giving out something that could be very misleading, but the revised number was the best I could do.

Of course, if any other red names (or anyone else) out there know for sure, please speak up :)

[Jain Zar]

Why announce it when everyone KNEW it was coming?

Hell, Retro Gamer had a freaking full page ad for Impossible Mission already.

(Yes, "Come Stay a While, Stay... FOREVER HAHAHA!")

[Koyasha]

On the ESRB topic, I'm astonished considering the costs they're talking about there...  What exactly does the ESRB do when they rate a game?  From some of the news I heard about the 'hot coffee' thing and other 'controversial' content in games I've heard discussed, it was my understanding that the developer is responsible for providing them with a video of the most extreme parts of the game for them to rate, they watch a video that's a few minutes to an hour or two long, and then they rate the game based on that.  I agree with schild, how could that possibly justify a cost of more than a few hundred dollars?

For thousands of dollars I would expect them to hire a few guys to play the game for a couple weeks and give me a comprehensive report on its contents and the reason for the rating.

[Merusk]

Let's see, where could their costs be going...

Press, Lobbists, High-paid executives, staffers for said execs, more lobbists and more press.

Yeah, it's still crazy-high.

[Tale]

Cool, soon I can have Wii cricket.

[cmlancas]

Anyone here play the Adult Swim game Five minutes to kill yourself? I think that'd be a wicked fun multiplayer game for the Wii.


Drunken Gamer One: Wow! That was fucking cool how you just sliced your face off with a stapler!
Drunken Gamer Two: Yeah, you got served. Sorry your microwave couldn't fry you in time.


Or am I the only one who thinks that suicide games are hilarious and good fun?