WiiWare: What is a Small Budget?

WiiWare launches today in the USA. We are told that the Nintendo Wii addition, "showcases original ideas in the most democratic environment in industry history (by) connecting the people who make games more directly with the people who play them". Europe is due to get WiiWare on May 20th. Japan has been waring (sic) Wii since March 25th.

Democracy, eh? Dangerous yet loveable. It's a system of voting in which everybody (who is allowed to vote) votes and therefore makes their individual voice heard, sort of! Huzza!

In June 2007, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said of WiiWare "Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit".

Back in February this year Nintendo of America's project development senior officer, Tom Prata, said, “There are about 100 projects that are under development which are coming to the North American market, and we're going to spend time with them [the developers] to find out what their schedule is because once again we're not requiring a particular type of product.”

Today we are told, "WiiWare is to the video game industry what independent films are to Hollywood", and that's from Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing.

So, are the words 'independent' and 'small budget' being used as more than a convenient tag to excite the 35+ age group of casual gamers who equate 'independence'' with 'freedom' and small budget with 'creative'? Let's have a look at the first few game developers on the roll-call...

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King comes from, erm, Square Enix for 1,500 Wii points. Final Fantasy and Square Enix? How confused are we by Reggie's idea of "Independent developers armed with small budgets"? Very confused indeed, which is why Reggie is multi-rich and successful and we live in the underwater castle sharing one tin of sardines.

But no one ever said that democracy was solely for the small people - why the hell shouldn't royalty like Square Enix get a crack at WiiWare (if it bloody well wants to put its toe in the ware-ter?)

LostWinds from David Braben's Frontier Development for 1,000 Wii Points. Right, David Braben... okay, Braben's been a maverick and a legend. Here's what Frontier says about itself, "Frontier's founder David Braben's work started way back in 1982 when David wrote the seminal game Elite together with Ian Bell.

"Since then Frontier has built a track record comprising games that have defined genres, been critically acclaimed and sold many millions of copies.

"We strive to make games that will put both Frontier and the games industry itself at the forefront of the world entertainment industry.

"We work with top publishers and are currently developing for all major platforms including Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Windows PC."

Okay, moving on...

Defend your Castle from XGen Studios for 500 Wii Points. Xgen is, according to itself "an award-winning developer, publisher, and technology provider for games on the Internet, WiiWare, and PC CD/DVD. Since its inception in 2001, XGen Studios has grown into a thriving online community with over 3 Million monthly players."

Next... let's have this independent film comparison... go on!


Pop - Nnooo for 700 Wii Points. Okay, getting closer, here's what Sydney, Australia-based Nnooo has to say about itself, "We have, collectively, been in the industry for over 10 years and have decided it was time to try making the sort of games we have always dreamed of making. We have worked at or with: Electronic Arts, Atari, Lego, Sci, Vivendi and Sierra."

Next!

V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack from High Voltage Software for 700 Wii Points. So, what about High Voltage? Here's what it says, "Serious enough to employ 130 of the game industry's top talents in a turnkey 28,000 square foot independent game studio... Entering their 14th year in business, High Voltage is one of the most established and reliable names in the game game development (sic). With clients like Microsoft, Disney, Cartoon Network and Ubisoft, HVS is the industry's one-stop shop for video game development. High Voltage software has shipped games for almost every console in existence since 1994 and almost every genre. There's really not a game we can't do."

Erm...

Finally, TV Show King from Gameloft for 1,000 Wii Points. You remember Ubisoft buying Gameloft's Mumbai studio? Well, here's what it says about itself, "Gameloft is a leading international publisher and developer of video games for mobile phones. Established in 1999, it has emerged as one of the top innovators in its field...

"Partnership agreements with leading licensors and sports personalities such as Ubisoft Entertainment, Universal Pictures, ABC, Touchstone Television, DreamWorks Animations SKG, Endemol, 20th Century Fox, Viacom, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Paris Hilton Ent., FifPro, Lamborghini, Lleyton Hewitt, Gus Hansen, Kobe Bryant, Robinho, Patrick Vierra, Christophe Dominici, and Jonny Wilkinson allow Gameloft to form strong relationships with international brands. In addition to the partnerships, Gameloft owns and operates titles such as Block Breaker Deluxe, Asphalt: Urban GT and New York Nights.

"Gameloft has worldwide offices in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Montreal, Mexico, Buenos Aires, Paris, London, Cologne, Copenhagen, Milan, Madrid, Warsaw, New Delhi, Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Sydney."

We're still confused by 'small budget' and 'independent developer' - so, we assume that what is meant is, 'not owned by a platform holder' and 'small budget in comparison to Ocarina of Time'.

Let's go back to the democracy thing again...remember WiiWare "showcases original ideas in the most democratic environment in industry history (by) connecting the people who make games more directly with the people who play them." So, how does that more direct connection work because basically, you're still downloading a game to be played on your Wii? Do you get to speak to the developers?

Basically, you get to pay for the games using Wii points and then, after an hour, you can vote on the game. Votes are then collated, updated and displayed. So, it's the 'vote' word that provides the 'democracy' tag. This then enables developers effectively to create 'pilots' of games that might otherwise not have made it off the drawing Thinkpad. They can then receive some form of feedback more rapidly than having to wait for Nintendo to provide download figures. At least that's how we figure it works...

Let's hope it takes off and can provide what we consider small budget, independent developers to take off. Imagine, Nintendo inventing punk for video games?

We wait for the European launch.