According to an anonymous developer, the rumored WiiWare ‘threshold’ is real, but the press has misinterpreted the facts.
The so-called ‘threshold’ means that indie developers who create titles to sell via WiiWare have to sell a significant amount of the game to receive any revenue from Nintendo.
“I’m concerned this recent threshold news is generating an artificially negative wave of press. The spirit of the threshold was never to screw the developer - it was, as far as I can tell, a quality control mechanism to prevent the service from getting overrun with a bunch of crappy games,” says the source.
“Once the threshold is crossed, the developer is retroactively paid for every single unit sold below the threshold. I know there has been confusion on that point in the past.
“From the stats I’ve seen and heard developers report, the threshold is easily surpassed within the first day, or at least the first week, for many games.”
“I hear rumours within the dev community that Nintendo recognises a problem here, where occasionally an entirely legitimate game just doesn’t make it, and is looking for a way to make exceptions, to ensure small devs are paid even if the threshold is not reached. Just rumours though, so who knows.
“I just fear this is one of those things that sounds a lot more evil than it actually is,” concluded the source.
Result for: wiiware
Nintendo’s WiiWare service has finally launched in Japan and the company says there will be nine titles available on launch day.
Following the Japanese launch is the North American launch on May 12th and finally the European launch (to be known as Wii Software not WiiWare) sometime later this year. Each title will cost between 500 and 1500 Wii points and the list, courtesy of GI.biz is:
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
Plonpos
Okiraku Ping Pong
Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan
Dr. Mario
Saku Saku Animal Panic
Star Solider R
Tenshi Solitaire
Pokémon Ranch
At the same time, Sega has announced that it will be bringing Master System classics Wonder Boy and Fantasy Zone to Nintendo’s Virtual Console with more titles promised soon.
Result for: wiiware
Nintendo has announced the launch of the highly anticipated WiiWare and with it, the availability of six WiiWare titles.
The cheapest title available is the popular Internet flash game “Defend Your Castle” from XGen Studios which sells for 500 Wii Points ($5 USD). The most expensive game is “Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As King” from Square Enix which will sell for $15 USD. The other games available are Frontier Development’s “LostWinds”, Nnooo’s “Pop”, High Voltage Software’s “V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack,” and Gameloft’s “TV Show King” which range from $7 to $10.
In its press release the company said that the release process for the new games would be the same as Wii Virtual Console games, which are released every Monday.
Back in February, Nintendo said in an interview that over 100 WiiWare games were currently in development.
