Topic: This Week in Awful Downloads

[NWR_Neal]

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.

[Pandareus]

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).

[NWR_Neal]

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).

I stand a little bit corrected then. The fact is that the WiiWare version is coming out later and won't feature all of the content of the XBLA one, though, which still sucks.

I've enjoyed a lot of games on WiiWare, and as is widely known, I freaking love DSiWare, but the output lately has been terrible.

[Halbred]

I own maybe six DSiWare games, two of which were free.

Part of the problem with DSiWare and WiiWare is that the interface is TERRIBLE, and there are no demos. That's an enormous error. I'll bet WiiWare sales went UP during that short-lived demo experiment. I bought NyxQuest based on the demo alone. That should tell Nintendo that demos work! But they seemed pissed off that demos were being tried in the first place, and eager to end that service.

One could theorize that Nintendo is killing the Virtual Console to make way for a 3DS Virtual Console, I have my doubts. I just don't think that Nintendo's focus is or ever will be downloadable platforms.

[MegaByte]

I don't get the lack of demos.  Reggie himself told me that their demo trial run was unexpectedly very successful -- it led to a great many purchases.  Why aren't they doing it more?

And why do they have a minimum profit threshold?  They're still stuck half-way in their old business model while crowing about the successes of WiiWare.  They may be running QA, but it's not like the rest of the service is very conducive for developers to have to pay a premium.  And with all the crap that's getting through lately, it's certainly not actual game quality they're concerned with.  It's appalling that the store is filling up with multiple color versions of a notebook application.  Colors should be a built-in option, and space should never be an issue -- the system has an SD card slot!

Also, their interface sucks.  I'd be more inclined to try more games if I didn't have to stumble over their garbage interface and wait for each title to download.  There really isn't any excuse for that -- Nintendo prides themselves on being accessible to everyone.

[BeautifulShy]

*Reads blog*

*Walks away from topic*

[Ian Sane]

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.  Nintendo nails things when they are the innovator but can find ways to **** up the most obvious straightforward stuff if they're the follower.  They insist on doing things their own unique way which is great when they're blazing the trail but is counter-intuitive and just outright stupid when an obvious and working solution already exists.  Nintendo can't do demos, or at least can't do them in a normal way, because they have to do it a unique Nintendo way.  Unfortunately distributing demos is not a very complicated concept so all the GOOD ways of doing so have been done before, thus leaving Nintendo to continually **** everything up as they try to reinvent a concept that is just too damn straightforward to reinvent.  We've been on their ass regarding demos since the Cube launched in 2001.  Nine years and you can't figure it out?  Okay, you're just REFUSING to figure it out.

A poor WiiWare service though makes sense as it all relates to third party support, which we all know Nintendo is terrible at attracting.  Whether it's retail releases or download titles it's all third party relations and in some way Nintendo is uninviting to other developers.

[vudu]

Name ANYTHING that someone else did first that Nintendo does well.

Video games

[King of Twitch]

Making a profit

[NWR_insanolord]

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.

[Sarail]

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.

Agreed. I'd like to think that any remaining Nintendo releases that would have come out on Virtual Console are being held back because of a new infrastructure for the next console. I mean, seriously.. where's Star Tropics!?

[NWR_Lindy]

Online anything is simply not Nintendo's strength as a company.  They will always be awful at it unless the company goes through a massive philosophical overhaul of some sort, which isn't really necessary because they're do what's important (make great games) extremely well.  They've never seen online functionality as 1) overly profitable or 2) really necessary to achieve their goals.

Sony's big strength is its hardware (you can't say Sony's hardware isn't slick as hell from a purely technical standpoint), Microsoft's big strength is networking (Xbox Live, again, slick as hell), and Nintendo's big strength is its original software.  All three companies face major challenges in other areas of their businesses, but are strong enough in these areas to stick around or be successful.

[NWR_insanolord]

Multiple people at Nintendo (including Iwata and Miyamoto) have recently expressed a desire to improve their online implementation. That, and the fact that they've apparently started to care what third parties want in their hadware, gives me hope that there will be significant improvement in this area next time around. It's not going to be Xbox Live, but I don't think it's unrealistic to think they can do something on the level of PSN.

[NWR_Neal]

StarTropics came out on Virtual Console. I own it on Virtual Console.

[Jonnyboy117]

Both StarTropics games are in fact available. But Neal is totally right in his criticisms, and I have recently been having similar thoughts about the lessened enthusiasm for Monday's announcement of the new download games.

[ATimson]

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).

[Retro Deckades]

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 PS3 still plays PS1 games.

[Shaymin]

I don't want Nintendo doing an XBL or PSN. I want them to rip Steam off wholesale, though - since everything's gratis and focused on just games.

I'd also like the epic sales, but that'll never happen while Nintendo's a publicly traded company.

And add me to the list of people who bought NyxQuest off the demo.

[vudu]

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.

[Ian Sane]

Backwards compatibility is something Nintendo has done nearly perfect.  But they did it with the GBC before the PS2 did it.  Yes the Atari 5200 and Genesis both allowed it with an adapter but "with an adapter" is key since the GBC did not need an adapter, thus Ninendo could feel they were innovating.  Now the Atari 7800 actually was outright backwards compatible with 2600 games so it is first.  But that's an American company with a console that no one bought or gave a **** about.  Nintendo may very well have been unaware that it did it first.  Plus Atari was not a competitor when the GBC came out.

Nintendo doesn't have to actually innovate they just have to look like they're doing it first or at the very least be the first to be successful with an idea.  They were the first to have backwards compatibility be a successful idea and that's what matters to them.  Nintendo technically wasn't the first to do an analog stick either or four controller ports but, again, those ideas were introduced on unsuccessful consoles from companies that were not competing with Nintendo when the N64 was released.  Thus Nintendo could lay claim to coming up with the idea and get away with it and also not make any of their current competitors look good.

Nintendo doesn't want to admit that Sony or Microsoft have any good ideas.  They have to always be different from those two.

[TJ Spyke]

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.

In order to play Master System games on the Genesis, you had to buy a very expensive add-on called the Power Base Converter. The Atari 5200 did indeed have a adapter that let it play Atari 2600 games.

Counting these adapters, the earliest system I can find with "backwards" compatibility I can find is the ColecoVision. When the system launched in 1982, Coleco also sold the Expansion Module #1. This device let people play Atari 2600 games on their ColecoVision (which seemed a little odd since 2600 games looked so much worse than ColecoVision). This of coarse prompt a lawsuit from Atari, they eventually reached a settlement where Coleco would pay Atari royalties for every unit sold.

Imagine if Sony released a adapter that you play Xbox 360 discs on your PlayStation 3?

[MegaByte]

Microsoft threatened to release a Playstation emulator for Xbox, but it never happened.

[bubicus]

I just wanted to point out that Rytmik is an exception: it's a pretty good download.  However, it's not a game.

[Kairon]

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. Up against companies as powerful, resourceful, and knowledgeable as Sony and Microsoft, I think they may see "following" as the first step towards "imitating," and "imitating" as the first step to getting trapped in a slugging match with their bigger opponents.

Nintendo obviously needs to make major strides in many areas. For instance, I harbor a hope that they've realized the inadequacy of their online connectivity process, offerings, and capabilities, especially with regards to new and lapsed users interfacing with their technology. This is a hope I feel is supported given the fact that Nintendo has made several concerted attempts to get more Wii users in the Japanese market to connect to the internet on a more frequent basis.

Still, Nintendo never became the videogame company they are today by incrementally outperforming their competitors. Innovation, surprise, and thirst for new gaming frontiers seem to have always been the key essential ingredients for that inexplicable, yet irresistible, quality that fans have known for years as, fittingly, the Nintendo "Difference."

[NWR_insanolord]

Holy ****, it's Kairon! Where the heck have you been?