New Wii Game-Creation Service Fully Detailed
Download the software. Make a game. Sell it. Easy.
Nintendo has just officially announced 'Wii Software', a game-creation service that will enable developers large and small to create new downloadable game content for sale by Nintendo through the Wii Shop Channel
'Wii Software' is pegged as nothing less than a “New Paradigm” by Nintendo with the added line of, “One Game Can Still Make a Difference.”
Inspiring stuff indeed, and SPOnG hopes that Nintendo is correct in its assertion that the search for the “next ingeniously ground-breaking video game has begun… the possibilities for Wii Software are limited only by the imaginations of developers.”
The hope is that Wii Software will pave the way for smaller, more creative games to make their way to the public at lower prices, without any inventory risk to developers. The first Wii Software content will launch in early 2008.
Laurent Fischer, Nintendo’s European Marketing Director, explains “Wii Software provides developers with big ideas, rather than big budgets, an easy and very accessible way to create new games and bring them to the marketplace, as well as offering great additional value for Wii owners who will be able to download fresh new game.”
Wii Software is all about reducing barriers to development – very much like Microsoft’s own XNA programme – providing game creators with a simple method by which they can create innovative and inexpensive games and, crucially, distribute them to a wider public.
Further pricing details and more on upcoming Wii Software projects will be announced at a later date.
'Wii Software' is pegged as nothing less than a “New Paradigm” by Nintendo with the added line of, “One Game Can Still Make a Difference.”
Inspiring stuff indeed, and SPOnG hopes that Nintendo is correct in its assertion that the search for the “next ingeniously ground-breaking video game has begun… the possibilities for Wii Software are limited only by the imaginations of developers.”
The hope is that Wii Software will pave the way for smaller, more creative games to make their way to the public at lower prices, without any inventory risk to developers. The first Wii Software content will launch in early 2008.
Laurent Fischer, Nintendo’s European Marketing Director, explains “Wii Software provides developers with big ideas, rather than big budgets, an easy and very accessible way to create new games and bring them to the marketplace, as well as offering great additional value for Wii owners who will be able to download fresh new game.”
Wii Software is all about reducing barriers to development – very much like Microsoft’s own XNA programme – providing game creators with a simple method by which they can create innovative and inexpensive games and, crucially, distribute them to a wider public.
Further pricing details and more on upcoming Wii Software projects will be announced at a later date.
Companies:
Nintendo
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Comments
YenRug 27 Jun 2007 16:01
1/11
"Wii Software"? Not WiiWare, as announced in the US? Are we being stuck with a really lame name for this, in Europe?
Ditto 27 Jun 2007 17:35
2/11
"Full details" is stretching it a bit - there's still not much useful information from Nintendo.
They should release both a basic free SDK (and emulator, although I guess this could be abused) and then a professional SDK designed for people who have got to grips with the basic version. Few small, cash-strapped developers are going to be able to fork out on an unknown SDK at the start.
They should release both a basic free SDK (and emulator, although I guess this could be abused) and then a professional SDK designed for people who have got to grips with the basic version. Few small, cash-strapped developers are going to be able to fork out on an unknown SDK at the start.
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Ditto 27 Jun 2007 18:17
3/11
This whole scheme stinks to me like PR with no substance.
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/archive/2007/06/27/reggie-on-his-big-plans-for-a-little-nintendo-wiiware.aspx
Getting a Nintendo SDK requires you to prove a background and appropriate finance etc etc etc. Too much for hobbiests and many indies (depending on how you define "indy").
So basically, Nintendo want to give existing and proven developers a cheap channel while not opening the market to students, hobbists and indies.
In otherwords, "do it yourself, we don't care". I would imagine only experienced developers will have the resources to get their games rated.
Nintendo wants the good PR here and good developers with zero effort and zero contribution to helping people new to the industry. Nothing changes.
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/archive/2007/06/27/reggie-on-his-big-plans-for-a-little-nintendo-wiiware.aspx
Nintendo wrote:
"First, the development tools and SDKs [software development kits] that enable developers to participate are already available," he replied, referring to the standard tools that Nintendo sells to its licensees. "We enable the marketplace where consumers can buy these games using Wii Points. Developers and publishers bring their ideas for games and marketing to entertain and entice consumers."
...
"All our SDKs and dev tools are already--I don't want to call them inexpensive--they're darn near free to developers. This is unlike our competitors, where you have to spend a lot of money building high-res assets to be competitive. So in that sense, there's almost no cost to developers; the tools are already available at rock-bottom prices. We're providing the venue and light of day for games that might not have gotten attention otherwise."
...
"All our SDKs and dev tools are already--I don't want to call them inexpensive--they're darn near free to developers. This is unlike our competitors, where you have to spend a lot of money building high-res assets to be competitive. So in that sense, there's almost no cost to developers; the tools are already available at rock-bottom prices. We're providing the venue and light of day for games that might not have gotten attention otherwise."
Getting a Nintendo SDK requires you to prove a background and appropriate finance etc etc etc. Too much for hobbiests and many indies (depending on how you define "indy").
So basically, Nintendo want to give existing and proven developers a cheap channel while not opening the market to students, hobbists and indies.
Nintendo will not do any screening of ideas," he said. "The games have to pass our bug checking process, but that's the only screening that we're doing." We couldn't let that line of inquiry go just then, not with the controversy over the Adults Only-rated Manhunt 2 still brewing like a cup of cappuccino. Was he saying that WiiWare would be the Wild West of videogames, where anything goes? No, he answered; the Entertainment Software Rating Board still has a role to play. "The developer is responsible for getting an ESRB rating for their game, just as with our current publisher agreements. We don't allow AO-rated games on our systems."
In otherwords, "do it yourself, we don't care". I would imagine only experienced developers will have the resources to get their games rated.
Nintendo wants the good PR here and good developers with zero effort and zero contribution to helping people new to the industry. Nothing changes.
Joji 27 Jun 2007 18:47
4/11
How does the ratings thing work on Live Arcade games?
I do hope it's open to the same kind of crowd as XNA (from bed/living room teams to established developers). Hopefully we'll learn more next month.
I do hope it's open to the same kind of crowd as XNA (from bed/living room teams to established developers). Hopefully we'll learn more next month.
Hypnotoad 27 Jun 2007 23:37
5/11
So true. And you can be sure that the 'bug check' process comes with a hefty slice of the action, should it actually ever make a sale.
Plus, MSFT has been offering FREE dev tools to the indy community for almost a year now. Sure the Wii dev kit is cheap ($1500 I believe) but that's not free so I don't know where Nintendo get off laying the blame on 'high res assets' ??? What a joke - a quirky fun game made by a team of one can just as easily have insane high-def gfx/models than some s**tty low-poly fest. They are usually only ever one scene and/or scenario. In fact, you'll find most home-brew people are far better at producing high-poly material and lack the skill at producing efficient low-poly models. Perhaps taking longer to optimise on archaic hardware costs more than it would to throw a heap of insane unoptimized assets at say 360 which can chew it up?
"Oh the ironing is delicious."
Plus, MSFT has been offering FREE dev tools to the indy community for almost a year now. Sure the Wii dev kit is cheap ($1500 I believe) but that's not free so I don't know where Nintendo get off laying the blame on 'high res assets' ??? What a joke - a quirky fun game made by a team of one can just as easily have insane high-def gfx/models than some s**tty low-poly fest. They are usually only ever one scene and/or scenario. In fact, you'll find most home-brew people are far better at producing high-poly material and lack the skill at producing efficient low-poly models. Perhaps taking longer to optimise on archaic hardware costs more than it would to throw a heap of insane unoptimized assets at say 360 which can chew it up?
"Oh the ironing is delicious."
Steve Lodge 28 Jun 2007 17:16
6/11
where can we actually get this software from?
Dreadknux 29 Jun 2007 10:09
7/11
Hypnotoad wrote:
Plus, MSFT has been offering FREE dev tools to the indy community for almost a year now.
Really? That's news to me, considering you have to pay a $99 subscription charge for the privilege to make or play the games. I'm not sure how successful XNA's really been because to be fair, the model should allow for gamers to pay-per-download (like the micro-payment content) and be more accessible/promoted on the XBOX Dashboard.
Not that Nintendo aren't being unnecessarily vague here (although they do have half a year so why the hell not) themselves, but your post does smack of irony a little bit. XNA is cheaper than Wii dev kits, yes, but free? Hardly.
I'm pretty sure, if Nintendo really want the homebrew scene involved, that they'd have a more accessible option than farming them a $1500 piece of official kit. Mind you, Nintendo could simply mean 'smaller developers' rather than homebrew coders - the isolation here might be damning compared to XBOX 360's offering in that case, but for small indie dev's $1500 probably won't break the bank, particularly considering the massive attention the console is getting right now.
Ditto 29 Jun 2007 13:16
8/11
Svend Joscelyne wrote:
Really? That's news to me, considering you have to pay a $99 subscription charge for the privilege to make or play the games.
But the point is that MS are offering all the development tools, even if they are in the annoying C# language, for free. I have them on my home PC at the moment.
tyrion 29 Jun 2007 16:13
9/11
Adam M wrote:
Svend Joscelyne wrote:
Really? That's news to me, considering you have to pay a $99 subscription charge for the privilege to make or play the games.
But the point is that MS are offering all the development tools, even if they are in the annoying C# language, for free. I have them on my home PC at the moment.
Correct me if I'm wrong guys, I'm going from memory here. As far as I remember, it's free to d/l to XNA studio tools and produce games for PC, but you have to pay to join a club-like arrangement in order to get the libs required to develop for the 360. I think that's what Scend is getting at.
Ditto 29 Jun 2007 18:41
10/11
tyrion wrote:
As far as I remember, it's free to d/l to XNA studio tools and produce games for PC, but you have to pay to join a club-like arrangement in order to get the libs required to develop for the 360. I think that's what Scend is getting at.
Yeah, but you can basically develop your entire software and then only outlay when you're ready to run on the 360 (and even then the outlay isn't great). And if you just want to play with the tools then you can play for free - hence it's widening the people who have access to some game development tools. This same widening will not happen with Nintendo's offering.
tyrion 30 Jun 2007 14:21
11/11
Ditto wrote:
And if you just want to play with the tools then you can play for free - hence it's widening the people who have access to some game development tools. This same widening will not happen with Nintendo's offering.
I've said it before and I'll say it again; releasing a free development environment like XNA is one of the best things that Microsoft has done for the games industry ... ever.
Think about it, all of the people who grew up with C64s, Spectrums, Amigas, STs and the like had easy access to a programming language and many used that access to get into programming. I know I did. That's where most of your older devs working in the industry now got their start.
However, since the Amiga died and consoles took over, we really haven't had easy access to those sorts of development environments, so games developers have had to rely on University educated people to fill their ranks. It's only in the last few years that universities have started offering games-related courses, so people who fell into the gap had to be re-trained to think like a games programmer.
Hopefully XNA will catch on and we'll get young people interested in programming again. Well done Microsoft.