What is WiiWare?Level Up Gets the Scoop On Nintendo’s Brand New Bag N’Gai Croal Patience is a virtue, a wise man once said, and nowhere is this more true than the circumstances surrounding the story we’re about to bring you right now. A month or so before the March Game Developers Conference, Nintendo’s PR agency approached us about a hush-hush new content initiative that the company had been cooking up, and wanted to know whether or not we’d be interested in being the first to get the lowdown. We were. But GDC came and went without any more information. From then on, we’d check in with Nintendo from time to time, but no new information was forthcoming, not even about when new information might be forthcoming. So we began to despair. But on Monday, the folks at Golin Harris PR reached out to us again to inform us that the time was now, that the offer was still on the table, and that Nintendo of America president Reginald Fils-Aime would be available to speak with us Tuesday afternoon. We spoke with him, and here’s what we learned.On Wednesday morning, Nintendo will officially announce to the general public its plans for WiiWare, downloadable games for the wildly popular Wii videogame console. Unlike the vintage games already being offered for legacy systems (i.e. Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx 16) through the Virtual Console, these games will be built specifically for the Wii and sold via the Wii Shop Channel for Wii Points currency, much like the Xbox 360- and Playstation 3-specific games being sold on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.
What’s more interesting is that Nintendo isn’t only seeking WiiWare from established publishers and developers like Ubisoft and Sega. At a Nintendo developer’s conference earlier this week, the company informed attendees that it was seeking from indie developers as well. Shorter, original, more creative games from small teams with big ideas; these are the buzzwords that you’ll be hearing from Nintendo when its Wednesday announcement goes wide. Fils-Aime told us that while Nintendo, as the retailer, would itself determine the appropriate pricing for each game on a per-title bases, the games themselves would not be vetted by Nintendo. Instead, Nintendo would only check the games for bugs and compatibility, with developers and publishers responsible for securing an E for Everyone, E10+ for Everyone 10 or older, T for Teen or M for Mature rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board–Adults Only titles like Manhunt 2 aren’t welcome. Look for the first WiiWare titles from Nintendo and third-parties to become available next year. And check back shortly with Level Up for more details on our conversation with Fils-Aime.
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