Topic: Penny Arcade Adventures Can't Come to WiiWare

[Pale]

WiiWare size constraints will keep the series off of Nintendo's recently launched service.
 http://nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=15952

 The teams at Penny Arcade and Hothead Games have been hard at work on a new episodic adventure series based on Gabe and Tycho from the Penny Arcade comics.  Earlier this week, the release date of the first episode was announced as May 21, 2008, where it will simultaneously be available via Xbox Live Arcade and Penny Arcade's Greenhouse service on PC, Mac, and Linux.    

Penny Arcade Adventures is developed using the Torque Game Engine.  Seeing as Torque does run on Wii (Torque for Wii) many fans have been hoping for a WiiWare release.  In fact, we asked Mike Krahulik (Gabe) last year during our Child's Play interview, and his response sounded positive.    

 NWR: Cool. So, one last question. Because we're a Nintendo website, I had to ask this. Do you guys have any plans, or have you thought about bringing your game Penny Arcade Adventures over to WiiWare, since it's been announced for Xbox Live Arcade?    

MK: It's definitely something that we're investigating. I don't think I can say anything more than that... I'll say I would love to, I would love to do it, man. I hope we can.  

   

It turns out there may have been a specific reason Mr. Krahulik was only hoping.  In a recent post in the official forum for the game at Penny Arcade, Hothead Games member Vlad Ceraldi has revealed that the current size restriction put on WiiWare titles could prevent Penny Arcade Adventures from ever coming to WiiWare.  "Until the size restriction is increased, the game will not be going to WiiWare. Sorry."    

So, unless Nintendo changes that limitation, Wii owning Penny Arcade fans are going to have to look at one of the other platforms before they can play the title.  Nintendo World Report has learned that Hothead Games is a licensed Wii developers and all parties involved (including Nintendo) wanted to see the title make it to the console.  In fact, the studio would most likely revisit the situation if the size requirements ever change.    

Considering the limited size of Wii's internal memory (512 MB minus system files, game saves, and installed channels) and comparing it with the current Xbox Live Arcade limitation of 150 MB, you can begin to see why there would be a problem.  Mr. Ceraldi also pointed out that he had to engineer a special compression technique for the Live Arcade release, and even then, Hothead Games was required to get special permission from Microsoft to break the limit.  Also, the PC/Mac/Linux versions of the game require 350 MB of available hard drive space.  This is all for the first part of an ongoing episodic series.    

It's clear that Penny Arcade Adventures will include a lot of content.  If fans are still hoping to see the game on Wii, the only two options are a retail release, as with Sam & Max, or a new storage solution of some sort for the system followed by changes to the WiiWare file size restrictions.

[Enner]

A bit sad to see that the scale of the game Penny Arcade is making just wasn't what WiiWare had in mind.

[Caliban]

360 version it is then, ah well.

[nickmitch]

Can Wii have a hard drive now, please?

[Shift Key]

Can Wii have a hard drive now, please?

[DAaaMan64]

This article is a DISGRACE TO PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM, PALE YOU ARE A FAILURE AND SO IS NINTENDO WORLD REPORT

[NWR_insanolord]

Can Wii have a hard drive now, please?

Let's hope the storage solution Iwata and the other guy were talking about is more than just talk, I want to see something at or before E3.

[Smash_Brother]

Can Wii have a hard drive now, please?

[WuTangTurtle]

Can Wii have a hard drive now, please?

Seriously...After purchasing two WiiWare titles already my Flash Memory is nearly gone, Thank god i don't have a N64 Virtual console game yet or it would all be gone.  How do they expect me to purchase WiiWare titles if i don't have the room to even download them.

[Nick DiMola]

This article is a DISGRACE TO PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM, PALE YOU ARE A FAILURE AND SO IS NINTENDO WORLD REPORT

QFT

[Djunknown]

Its a shame. With WiiWare now out in the wild, space is indeed a precious commodity.  Hopefully the big N has a solution to this problem as one of their surprises at E3...

[ShyGuy]

Release it on disc for $30.

[Shift Key]

Release it on disc for $30.

$10 more for a shiny disc? Try again

[ATimson]

Can Wii have a hard drive now, please?

But then why would developers ever bother to optimize their titles? We'd end up with the same bloatware that modern games, even the episodic ones, have become.

[NWR_insanolord]

Can Wii have a hard drive now, please?

But then why would developers ever bother to optimize their titles? We'd end up with the same bloatware that modern games, even the episodic ones, have become.

I'd rather be a little bloated than have to clean out the fridge.

[DAaaMan64]

Can Wii have a hard drive now, please?

But then why would developers ever bother to optimize their titles? We'd end up with the same bloatware that modern games, even the episodic ones, have become.

I'd rather be a little bloated than have to clean out the fridge.

Set a size requirement? With possible exceptions? 

Best of both worlds right there...

[Smoke39]

Can Wii have a hard drive now, please?

But then why would developers ever bother to optimize their titles? We'd end up with the same bloatware that modern games, even the episodic ones, have become.

Even with an optional hard drive, it'd still be in developers' best interest to minimize file sizes to reach the largest possible audience (i.e., to not exclude those who haven't purchased a hard drive).

[King of Twitch]

Hmm what's the Nintendumb thing to do here..

Nintendo will sell a proprietary hard drive and update the wii so only nintendo-brand h-drives are recognized. Of course the hard drive will last 1000 years so it'll be a trade-off.

[NWR_insanolord]

Hmm what's the Nintendumb thing to do here..

Nintendo will sell a proprietary hard drive and update the wii so only nintendo-brand h-drives are recognized. Of course the hard drive will last 1000 years so it'll be a trade-off.

Can I preorder one of those now or do I have to wait?

[Plugabugz]

Can Wii have a hard drive now, please?

But then why would developers ever bother to optimize their titles? We'd end up with the same bloatware that modern games, even the episodic ones, have become.

I'd rather be a little bloated than have to clean out the fridge.

Set a size requirement? With possible exceptions? 

Best of both worlds right there...

How so? My game is bigger than yours, give me more?

[NWR_insanolord]

Can Wii have a hard drive now, please?

But then why would developers ever bother to optimize their titles? We'd end up with the same bloatware that modern games, even the episodic ones, have become.

I'd rather be a little bloated than have to clean out the fridge.

Set a size requirement? With possible exceptions? 

Best of both worlds right there...

How so? My game is bigger than yours, give me more?

I think the mention of exceptions is because of the original article this is a TalkBack thread of, where it mentioned that the Penny Arcade game needed an exception from the size limit of Xbox Live Arcade.

[Shift Key]

Can Wii have a hard drive now, please?

But then why would developers ever bother to optimize their titles? We'd end up with the same bloatware that modern games, even the episodic ones, have become.

The fact that they had to ask Microsoft's permission to break their hard limit for XBLA games, as well as build a customized compression technique to keep space to a minimum, is a credit to them. They could have just said "Buy it on PC" (its available on freaking Linux for crying out loud)!

Don't paint all developers as lazy.

And that "clean out the fridge" spiel they came up with is a pathetic response to the issue at hand. You can't continue to offer more games on WiiWare/VC and simply tell people to micromanage the paltry space they have.

[Michael8983]

I can almost guarantee that Nintendo has a hard-drive add-on ready for a reveal at or around E3 and a release date set just soon after.

The fact that it will be an accessory to be purchased separately will actually benefit the Wii in the long-term.
If the Wii had a hard-drive from the start developers would have flooded it with bloated games and patches - the usual garbage. But the fact that the majority of non-hardcore Wii owners will never have one and stick to the supplied internal memory will prevent things from going down that route, while still supplying the hardcore VC/Wiiware downloaders a viable solution.

[Shift Key]

If the Wii had a hard-drive from the start developers would have flooded it with bloated games and patches - the usual garbage.

Haha, way to be an extremist. I'm still waiting for a chance to get my GHIII disc replaced. Its great being from a place that isn't the USA. If the Wii had the functionality to slipstream patches the issue would have been resolved a couple of weeks after it came out, without mailing the damn discs back.

Look at it this way:
Nintendo can already patch the firmware at anytime (sup Fwiiloader) by phoning home.
Nintendo controls what content appears in the VC and Wiiware channels, and licenses all the games.
Why does everyone think that enabling patches is going to cause hell to break loose? Nintendo already run their platform with an iron fist.

It'd need significant changes to the firmware (depends on the architecture and how the updates are actually used when you run the game - I haven't looked into it seriously).

And do you have a source for this hard-drive thingymajig rumour? If it does eventuate, it would go against everything coming out of NCL, NOA, hell, just about any Nintendo subsidiary.

[Ceric]

I do want to know this.  Since this is episodic content why not just split it up a little and lower the price?