Nintendo Offering "Insane Incentives" to Publish on Wii U eShop

Unprecedented level of revenue and marketing offered.

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Nintendo Offering "Insane Incentives" to Publish on Wii U eShop
Nintendo is getting serious about digital distribution. Following the announcement that 3DS games will soon be offered on both store shelves and the Nintendo eShop (starting with New Super Mario Bros. 2), a European developer has apparently gone on record to state that the Japanese publisher is offering "insane incentives" to encourage third parties to do the same on Wii U.

According to an unnamed source at Wii U Daily, Nintendo's new digital distribution strategy is "perfect for indie devs, it’s a whole different ball game than WiiWare. They’ve learned a lot from that mess.

"[Nintendo is] offering insane incentives for publishers to sell retail games as downloads on the console," the source continues. "You’d be stupid not to take advantage of it and go retail box-only."

Such incentives include a much bigger cut of a game's revenue - "a much bigger revenue cut that you’d get selling it on any other platform at the moment, plus promotions on the online store. You’ll be making a lot more per unit sold digitally than at retail with the Wii U. And from day one."

It seems the level of revenue offered by Nintendo, a company notorious for its licensing fees and strict third-party developer contracts, is very unprecedented, and could force its competitors to follow suit. "If they [Nintendo] pull it off and it gains traction, it’ll press the other guys [Microsoft and Sony] to give more of the revenue to the publishers. It’s very good for us who make games."
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