Topic: WiiWare Demos Making a Comeback?

[NWR_Lindy]

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.

[Mop it up]

It's good to hear more demos are on the way, but it's perpetually confounding that they're a limited time deal.

[xcwarrior]

They need to make demos permanent. It would promote people to go to the Wii Shop channel and, you know, buy a game if they like it. Why doesn't Nintendo get this concept?

[BlackNMild2k1]

WiiWare Demos Launch This Week with Four New Downloads
http://wiiware.nintendolife.com/news/2010/11/wiiware_demos_launch_this_week_with_four_new_downloads

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.

So to summarize:

WiiWare Demoes return this Friday (in Europe)
Individual Demos are available for a limited time
New Demos will be cycled into the service to keep things fresh
1st 4 demos are: Furry Legends(Gamelion), Jett Rocket(Shin’en Multimedia), ThruSpace™(Nintendo) & Zombie Panic in Wonderland(Akaoni Studio)

[broodwars]

Typical Nintendo: 1 baby step forward, 1 step back.  It's great to see WiiWare demos return (hey, it only took them an entire year!), but even if we are allegedly going to see a steady influx of demos, why are these demos limited?  Just how cheap is Nintendo that they won't pay to keep a bank of demos up for the long term?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Sounds like this is their way of making you check back more often.
Also sounds like their way of highlighting specific games by only allowing a certain amount of demos at a time.

[broodwars]

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.

[BlackNMild2k1]

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.

[vudu]

NWR_Lindy Making a Comeback?

[Peachylala]

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.

[Ian Sane]

You know I actually didn't know there ever were WiiWare demos to begin with.  I remember hearing something about Nintendo maybe doing it at some point and then I figured nothing came of it.  I missed the limited time period Nintendo was doing it.  But honestly I'm more interested in demos for the retail titles.

Nintendo seriously believes that demos hurt sales.  They figure if you get the demo you don't need the game so you don't buy it.  I disagree with them but I'm sure that's what they think.  So of course the demos will be limited time because if they existed in perpetuity why would you buy the game?  You can keep playing the demo forever, right?

Standard rule applies though that if Nintendo didn't do it first (or thinks they did it first) then they will always **** it up.

[MegaByte]

Nintendo seriously believes that demos hurt sales.

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.  I don't understand why it took so long to bring them back.

[Mop it up]

Well, at least they're planning a steady stream of demos it would seem. That's better than just putting up a couple of demos for a month and then waiting another year to put up more.

[NWR_insanolord]

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.

WiiWare games are limited to 40 MB as it is, and I'd imagine these demos would be even smaller. There's no way this is an issue of server space; I don't think they make servers small enough that you'd need more than one to hold everything on the Wii shop plus demos for all of them.

[MegaByte]

Sad thing is, the difference in space between the demos and full versions is probably not that much since any significant amount of assets is already prohibited due to space constraints.  But yeah, I don't think this has anything to do with server space; it's probably strategic.

[Ian Sane]

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.

So then it really is a "someone else did it first so we have to do it in a stupid unique Nintendo way so as to not suggest that our competition has good ideas" situation?  If they don't think demos are bad for business I don't see any other reason to offer them only for a limited time.  Keeping them around for good seems to work fine for Sony and MS and is considerably more user friendly.
 
It's weird Nintendo stubborness or as others have suggested there is some maintenance cost that Nintendo is cheaping out on.

[KDR_11k]

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.

[BlackNMild2k1]

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.

I made the same point earlier in this thread but

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.

You can still highlite a few select titles without removing all non featured demos.