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DSiWare, eShop Games Have No Sales Threshold for Royalty Payments

by Karlie Yeung - August 9, 2011, 5:10 pm EDT
Total comments: 8

Unlike WiiWare, royalties to developers are not held until a certain sales threshold is reached.

Games published for Nintendo's DSiWare and eShop services are not required to reach a sales threshold before royalties can be paid to the developer. This is in contrast to WiiWare, for which a minimum number of downloads must be reached before royalties are released.

We spoke to Nic Watt, creative director of Nnooo, recently about their download titles. He told us that since WiiWare games require server support and uniformity testing for all titles, regardless of how well they sell, this is partly a measure to recoup costs. Whilst a final specification for Nintendo 3DS was not available, the eShop is thought to have the same policy as for DSiWare and as of now we don't know of any sales limit for 3DS downloads.

Our full interview will be up shortly.

Talkback

broodwarsAugust 09, 2011

Well, I suppose that explains all the "My Notebook" "games" on DSiWare.  ;)

famicomplicatedJames Charlton, Associate Editor (Japan)August 09, 2011

Quote from: broodwars

Well, I suppose that explains all the "My Notebook" "games" on DSiWare.  ;)

It's the theory of "if we throw enough crap out there, someone, somewhere, will buy it"


As much as I'm for this royalty system, it's a shame it attracts all this App Store style crap to the DSi. I hope it doesn't continue on the 3DS. (3D Notebook anyone?)
Here's hoping the eShop rating system helps filter out the crap.

Flames_of_chaosLukasz Balicki, Staff AlumnusAugust 09, 2011

Quote from: famicomplicated

Quote from: broodwars

Well, I suppose that explains all the "My Notebook" "games" on DSiWare.  ;)

It's the theory of "if we throw enough crap out there, someone, somewhere, will buy it"


As much as I'm for this royalty system, it's a shame it attracts all this App Store style crap to the DSi. I hope it doesn't continue on the 3DS. (3D Notebook anyone?)
Here's hoping the eShop rating system helps filter out the crap.

If a person bought a "3D Notebook" they would be a fool considering how you can suspend your game and take notes.

Quote from: famicomplicated

As much as I'm for this royalty system, it's a shame it attracts all this App Store style crap to the DSi. I hope it doesn't continue on the 3DS. (3D Notebook anyone?)
Here's hoping the eShop rating system helps filter out the crap.

I would argue that the threshold does little to filter out crappy titles. The reason we see these kinds of things on DSi is because it's more apt for apps (how useful would a notebook be on your TV?) and they're relatively cheap (200 points minimum compared to 500). The fact that the Notebooks have been such hot sellers means there must be some subset that actually wants them, and if it helps fund larger titles, then by all means, go for it. The only real downside was that they took up space in the store, but the eShop's new interface shouldn't suffer from the same kind of clutter.

SeaNetAugust 09, 2011

I bought one of the notebooks, the blue one.. it's handy when you cant find anything else. However I don't use it that much.
I don't know why they would need to put out like the 15 ones that they have already! Three different colors would have been enough.

leahsdadAugust 09, 2011

Quote:

The reason we see these kinds of things on DSi is because it's more apt for apps (how useful would a notebook be on your TV?) and they're relatively cheap (200 points minimum compared to 500

Ah..hence, Iwata's argument against the race to the bottom.

As a parent, I also have to say that I love how no downloadable titles on Nintendo platforms support in-game purchases or in-game advertisements.  I'm smart enough to turn off in-app purchases before I give my iphone to my little one, but the ads, which you can't turn off, drive me nuts. 

broodwarsAugust 09, 2011

Quote from: leahsdad

As a parent, I also have to say that I love how no downloadable titles on Nintendo platforms support in-game purchases or in-game advertisements.  I'm smart enough to turn off in-app purchases before I give my iphone to my little one, but the ads, which you can't turn off, drive me nuts.

Actually, that's not true.  Mega Man 9, Mega Man 10, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Final Fantasy: My Life As a King (I think), and Final Fantasy IV The After Years all have in-game purchase menus for DLC.  They may be few in number, but there definitely are games like that on the Wii Shop Channel.

Quote from: SeaNet

I bought one of the notebooks, the blue one.. it's handy when you cant find anything else. However I don't use it that much.
I don't know why they would need to put out like the 15 ones that they have already! Three different colors would have been enough.

Yeah, IMO, that's tantamount to spam, and they shouldn't have allowed that. The only valid excuse I can think of is that maybe the different colors would have broken the DSiWare size limit if combined into one app?

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