Reports indicate that Nintendo is bringing demos back its online service.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rumor/24386
Website NintendoLife is claiming that Nintendo's abandonment of WiiWare game demos earlier this year was not permanent. WiiWare demos will apparently return to the service in "the near future" for at least a limited run.
According to "several WiiWare developers", Nintendo has again begun accepting demo submissions, with a scheduled start date of some time in November. The demos will remain available until at least Christmas.
The last round of demos were removed from the store this past January, with no reason given. The removal of the demos was puzzling; Nintendo Co. Ltd. President Satoru Iwata singed out the program as a "success" during an earnings meeting in November of the 2009.
Wii SHOP CHANNEL LAUNCHES NEW SERVICE: ONGOING WiiWARE DEMOS FOR EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD
WiiWare demos join a host of new games available for download on WiiWare & Nintendo DSiWare this Friday
This week sees the launch of a new service added to the Wii Shop Channel, in the form of ongoing downloadable WiiWare demos. Containing a taster of the full version of a WiiWare game, WiiWare demos offer players the ability to trial select WiiWare games without using up any of their Wii Points, giving players the enjoyment of testing out the game before ultimately deciding whether to download the full version of the game or not using their Wii Points.
Every WiiWare demo featured on the Wii Shop Channel will be available for a limited time only ensuring the line-up is constantly kept refreshed to provide players with a varied and entertaining experience. Players will be able to see the WiiWare demos currently available for download via a dedicated list on wiiware.nintendo.co.uk as well as on the Wii Shop Channel itself.
Available across Europe from the 5th November 2010, players will be in for a treat as four WiiWare demos are made available to play including Furry Legends Demo (Gamelion), Jett Rocket Demo (Shin’en Multimedia), ThruSpace™ Demo (Nintendo) & Zombie Panic in Wonderland Demo (Akaoni Studio).
Be sure to also check out Nintendo of Europe's WiiWare portal, which functions as the main hub for the latest WiiWare news and game sites, while at the same time providing the perfect entry point for newcomers to the service. Weekly and all-time Top 10 lists show which WiiWare titles the UK Club Nintendo members are currently downloading most, and which are the most popular of all time.
The portal also provides step-by-step tutorials explaining how to connect the Wii console to the Internet and how to download WiiWare games, as well as a video showing how to use Nintendo Points. Visit www.wiiware.co.uk for all the details. Downloaded games can be saved to Wii's internal memory or SD card and added to the console's Wii Menu or SD Card Menu for anytime easy access.
Also sounds like their way of highlighting specific games by only allowing a certain amount of demos at a time.
But we all know Nintendo is 4-5 years behind when it comes to online. They are making progress one step at a time, and I'm sure this is to test the servers/demo system for the 3DS launches early next year too. So they better do all the testing they need now and deliver an up to date experience when the 3DS launches.The 3DS is more powerful though, so it should be able to handle this kind of thing better.
Nintendo seriously believes that demos hurt sales.
Also sounds like their way of highlighting specific games by only allowing a certain amount of demos at a time.
Personally, that sounds like Nintendo PR spin to me to hide the fact that Nintendo doesn't want to pay for servers to store all these WiiWare demos at once. New demos every week or so will highlight the particular games. You don't have to remove the old demos to make the new ones feel "special". I don't see Sony and Microsoft removing demos to make the new ones "fresh" and they get downloads just fine.
They don't believe that anymore. Both Iwata and Reggie (to me personally) have said that the trial was a resounding (and surprising) success that led to more sales. But they do believe that they need to be limited.
With MS demos are a standard thing that comes out along with the game, Nintendo seems to use them as a tool to promote specific high quality games. If you look at the demos they had in the last run they were for good games, many of which didn't become that popular so the free demos drew all attention to them. With too many demos available they'd lose the focused attention boost.
But I'm also puzzled as to why the older demos would need to be removed. Why couldn't they just have a *Featured Demos* section at the top of the Demo Channel and then all the older demos listed below like they do with the VC selection when you go into the WiiShop? or even better, just make the demo another button on the games page and then you don't have to remove it completely, it just won't be "featured" anymore.
