Why have the Nintendo Downloads sucked so hard lately?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blog/24023
A long time ago, about four months ago to be exact, I used to look forward reading Nintendo's weekly download releases each Monday morning. While Virtual Console was on life support even then, WiiWare and DSiWare churned out a steady stream of quality titles. Hell, I even organized two features on the good games on both services.
Now I'd be remiss to not point out that there is also a lot of crap on Nintendo's download platforms, but there would usually be at least one interesting or knock-out title each week between the two platforms a week. To me, that was enough.
Now, nearly two-and-a-half years since Nintendo started releasing new, original games on WiiWare, there are rarely any apparently redeeming games on the platform. It seems to have only gotten worse over the summer. By looking over the release list, it looks like there are about one or two intriguing games a month on WiiWare that didn't turn out to be utter crap. DSiWare is faring even worse. Hell, the DSiWare Wikipedia page is in total disrepair, which is a sign to me that not many people care about it.
Whenever I look over the press release each week, I usually just think of how funny the Nintendo release segment on Giant Bomb will be. Luckily, those guys have swooped in and made the Enjoy Your Massages, Deer Captors, and endless onslaught of myNotebook titles funny to hear about. I'd also like to think that the Newscast crew does an admirable job at informing you about these games and how apparently awful they are or might be. You can probably even tell the faint hint of depression at how pitiful the output has been.
Now there could be a number of factors for this, ranging anywhere from an accidental lull in releases to economic troubles of developers. In my opinion, one prevailing theory is becoming clearer. Nintendo does no favors for developers on either platform. There's a high barrier of entry and it's difficult to make money off of the titles due to the structure of the service.
There's also the public relations standpoint. As you might know from reading our site and following the games industry in general, public relations professionals are a big part of how games get covered, and for any PR reps working for these fledgling developers, it's a chore to get reviewable copies to the media, which is usually a surefire way to get some form of coverage.
"Unfortunately Nintendo doesn't help independent developers like us to give a privileged access of our game to the international press. I wish Nintendo would make more effort for DSi developers," said one anonymous European developer. "We are happy with our game and we enjoyed creating it, but we are not very enthusiastic about developing more DSiWare games in the future."
From what I understand, this is not an isolated incident. Plenty of developers, even ones who still make games for the platform (Bit.Trip developer Gaijin Games' Alex Neuse recently commented about how he's disheartened that the WiiWare demo service hasn't returned since it helped out sales of Bit.Trip Beat so much), have major issues with it. If WiiWare or DSiWare games are even successful at all, which I guess a few have to be, it seems to be an uphill battle.
You even have games such as Super Meat Boy jumping from WiiWare to other platforms. In this case, Xbox Live Arcade. While a WiiWare version is still coming, it will lack features and come out long after the XBLA version. Part of the reason why things like that are happening is because Microsoft seems to actually advertise its downloadable offerings. Outside of the occasional larger company releasing a known commodity (Capcom and the two Mega Man games), or Nintendo championing a little indie title (Cave Story, And Yet It Moves) or a Nintendo-published one (Fluidity), there isn't any large-scale advertising or knowledge for these games, even if you ignore the fact that most people only know about the games the day they come out.
There's also the structured price points that make iPhone ports sometimes five times the original price. You have the rigid space limit that will force some developers to skip WiiWare. There's the glut of Sudoku and solitaire games. Of course, you can always point to the lack of consistent Virtual Console releases as part of the reason the download platform has suffered as well.
The bottom line is that I miss looking forward to the weekly downloads each week. I really wish that interesting games would be released for these platforms on a consistent basis so that way when cool games come out, I don't immediately doubt their potential because of how terrible everything else looks.
Well that was depressing.
I just want to mention however that Edmund McMillen said on Bit. Transmission (Destructoid podcast) that the XBLA version of SMB was in development at the same time as the Wiiware version, it was just announced later, because Microsoft controls when you can announce your XBLA games (while Nintendo doesn't care when you announce it).
Name ANYTHING that someone else did first that Nintendo does well.
I've come to the conclusion that Nintendo sees their current online infrastructure as a lost cause, and is focusing its effort on totally revamping it for the next generation instead of fixing anything on the Wii or DSi.
Nintendo hates demos for one simple reason: they didn't come up with the concept first. Name ANYTHING that someone else did first that Nintendo does well.Backwards compatibility. Microsoft's sucked from the start on the 360, but they were there first, while Sony first gimped the PS3's then removed it entirely, but the Wii plays GameCube games perfectly (excepting those with special hardware - the modem, the LAN adaptor, and the GameBoy Player).
Nintendo hates demos for one simple reason: they didn't come up with the concept first. Name ANYTHING that someone else did first that Nintendo does well.Backwards compatibility. Microsoft's sucked from the start on the 360, but they were there first, while Sony first gimped the PS3's then removed it entirely, but the Wii plays GameCube games perfectly (excepting those with special hardware - the modem, the LAN adaptor, and the GameBoy Player).
Backwards compatibility isn't so simple. Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance in 2001, which played pretty much all games in the Game Boy library. Prior to that, Sony's PS2, which was released in 2000, played all old PS1 games, right? And before that, Nintendo's Game Boy Color played all previous Game Boy games as well.
The Genesis was fully compatible with all Master System games. If I remember correctly, I think the Atari 5200 was compatible with 2600 games via an adapter. I'm not sure if that was the first instance of backwards compatibility.
Nintendo doesn't want to admit that Sony or Microsoft have any good ideas. They have to always be different from those two.
I personally don't apply such a negative evaluation to their motives. I do agree that Nintendo always tries to be different, for better or for worse, but I think this is because they're making conscious and concerted efforts to stay competitive by always offering something new, different, or surprising.
Creativity should be saved for the games where it is welcome and appropriate.
I disagree vehemently. I feel that creativity is an essential problem-solving tool that applies to a huge number of topics, including things like business models, delivery methods, ergonomics, warfare, gardening, birthday parties...
QuoteI disagree vehemently. I feel that creativity is an essential problem-solving tool that applies to a huge number of topics, including things like business models, delivery methods, ergonomics, warfare, gardening, birthday parties...
I agree that it is an essential PROBLEM-solving tool. "Problem" is the key word. When something already works like a dream then there is no problem to be solved. By applying creativity to everything Nintendo breaks stuff that isn't broken.
I have been greatly dissapointed over the lack of advertising for the download services and for the lack of demos to try out. You MUST ADVERTISE for people to know what to buy or to get an idea to buy. Then the few advertisements we do get are only on the Nintendo Channel that not everyone can access. WTH?
