Topic: La Mulana cancelled - final nail in the WiiWare coffin?

[ejamer]

WiiWare has been a struggling platform for a long time. Releases have been irregular and rarely get much promotion or hype (let alone solid release dates) before they appeared on the service.  Even when good games are released, gamers largely ignored them for a variety of reasons.


Today Nicalis announced that La Mulana, a game that has seen a lengthy development cycle and been "coming soon" for many months, was finally cancelled. The basis of the decision was that timing just wasn't right and WiiWare didn't offer a reasonable chance for success if the game was released there.  Not a decision I personally like hearing, as La Mulana was a title that looked very enjoyable, but one that makes a lot of financial sense and seemed inevitable given the long delays.


Best of luck to NIGORO (the developers) with their PC release of La Mulana, and Nicalis with their projects for other platforms.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Yeah, you really cannot blame them, especially after hearing one must sell over 5000 units just to start seeing any revenue. The way Wii has been slowly dying, I have no doubt Wiiware sales have slowed drastically as well. It is sad, but is likely a wise choice.

[broodwars]

Well obviously the timing wasn't right.  La Mulana was getting in the way of the dozen or so more ports of Cave Story Nicalis probably has planned over the next 3 years.

[Retro Deckades]

Well son of a bitch. I had been looking forward to this one for quite some time.
Here's hoping that it turns out to be downloable on the Wii U.

[TJ Spyke]

Yeah, you really cannot blame them, especially after hearing one must sell over 5000 units just to start seeing a profit. The way Wii has been slowly dying, I have no doubt Wiiware sales have slowed drastically as well. It is sad, but is likely a wise choice.

5,000 is not a lot if to do if the game is any good. At this point it might not happen, but it's possible. Maybe it will be a eShop release on Wii U instead.

[ejamer]

Yeah, you really cannot blame them, especially after hearing one must sell over 5000 units just to start seeing a profit. The way Wii has been slowly dying, I have no doubt Wiiware sales have slowed drastically as well. It is sad, but is likely a wise choice.

5,000 is not a lot if to do if the game is any good. At this point it might not happen, but it's possible. Maybe it will be a eShop release on Wii U instead.

Normally I agree: 5000 should be a doable number if the game is good.  But WiiWare as a platform is so dead right now that I think it would take something really special to reach that number.  Even among Wii enthusiasts, most people just don't care enough about digital content right now to fire up the Wii Shop Channel any longer.  When you are talking about an original IP with only minor "buzz" surrounding it that is also available on PC, the risk starts to look pretty unappealing.


I wouldn't bet my money that this game could sell more than 5000 copies at this stage, despite the tremendous install base for Wii and personal interest in La Mulana.  Would you take that risk?

[Oblivion]

Why couldn't this one have made a profit? There are a bunch of indie games that amazing reviews and sales on WiiWare then go off and show up on Steam and iOS.

[Plugabugz]

Selling 5000 copies only generates revenue, not necessarily profit. That figure is probably much higher.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Selling 5000 copies only generates revenue, not necessarily profit. That figure is probably much higher.

Yeah, you are right (was tired when I wrote that), I meant the 5000 or so mark is when they actually start seeing any kind of revenue on it. We have no idea what the budget is, but they'd probably have to sell several thousand additional units after the 5k mark to make a profit.

[ejamer]

Why couldn't this one have made a profit? There are a bunch of indie games that amazing reviews and sales on WiiWare then go off and show up on Steam and iOS.

It could have made a profit, but it also could have been a complete bust with no revenue at all if too few copies were sold.  Lately, it seems like there have been more titles falling into the latter category... so how much of your money are you willing to gamble on seeing any return?


And it's not just about quality - even very strong games on WiiWare that came from seasoned development teams have sold poorly. Good reviews didn't help MotoHeroz or escapeVektor. Even the excellent, Nintendo-published Fluidity (aka: Hydroventure) didn't make much of a splash when released at the end of 2010. Consumer interest has simply moved to other platforms that are more consistent and better advertised.


Smart money means releasing content on a new platform when you can take advantage of eager consumers and limited selection. WiiWare was a viable platform early on, and most of the real success stories are found in the first few years of service. Sadly it has dropped out of favor long ago, and even it's most ardent supporters can't deny that new games face a tough challenge to be successful on the platform.

[Flames_of_chaos]

There is still one high profile WiiWare game coming one, not exclusive but still high profile. Retro City Rampage.

[Kytim89]

There is still one high profile WiiWare game coming one, not exclusive but still high profile. Retro City Rampage.

It could end up cancelled for Wiiware.

[TJ Spyke]

There is still one high profile WiiWare game coming one, not exclusive but still high profile. Retro City Rampage.

It could end up cancelled for Wiiware.

Except that the developer has said he will release the WiiWare version no matter what, even knowing that there is a high chance he will take a loss on it. So that is good news.

[Uncle_Optimus]

There is still one high profile WiiWare game coming one, not exclusive but still high profile. Retro City Rampage.

It could end up cancelled for Wiiware.

Except that the developer has said he will release the WiiWare version no matter what, even knowing that there is a high chance he will take a loss on it. So that is good news.

Good news is relative :\
One of the ideas that make me frown after learning of Nintendo's WiiWare policies was the thought that they may be sitting on some hundreds of thousands of revenue that developers will never see because their game could not cross the threshold. That money is peanuts to an organization the size of Ninty but may be life or death for small developer teams.
I understand that this is the agreement the developer entered into willingly, but it makes me frown nontheless.

[fiendcode]

Hope springs eternal!  Nicalis may have majorly dropped the ball with La-Mulana, but now it seems other publishers are interested in picking it up and Nigoro is committed to seeing a western release no matter what the WiiWare market looks like.

http://la-mulana.com/en/blog/a-gold-rush.html

[Retro Deckades]

Operation: Rainfall this biatch!