US, March 18, 2008 - As it prepares to launch WiiWare, its original downloadable games service, Nintendo has apparently been trying to woo developers away from Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. According to a report from Develop magazine, Nintendo is addressing concerns that have been expressed about the competition and painting a rosier picture for WiiWare.
Development for Nintendo's service is seemingly cheaper, and developers can be flexible with their pricing. The Wii hardware is less expensive and the SDK Nintendo provides is supposedly very detailed. A developer can purchase two to four Wii dev kits for the same price as one Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 kit. The company is also offering a higher royalty rate. Develop says Microsoft recently cut the royalty rate it pays developers in half, from 70 percent to 35 percent for games that earn less than $4 million. As a trade off, Microsoft is now handling some of the localization and worldwide rating work, but game makers are apparently still angry.
Another aspect of WiiWare Nintendo is touting is the fact that it won't be focusing on retro games, instead allowing independent developers to release new content.
"Nintendo has made it very clear to us that we'll not only be making a better royalty rate from WiiWare games, but we'll also have a better chance of selling games -- the service won't be clogged up with the retro titles that have blighted the chances of many independent studios on Xbox Live Arcade," an anonymous source told Develop.
Another developer who didn't want to be named says, "Frankly, we're not looking at making games for Xbox Live Arcade because the service is full of s***."
Source- IGN