Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Under the cover of anonymity, Wii Ware developers are coming out in support of Nintendo's download service, to the detriment of Xbox Live Arcade. According to Develop Magazine, Nintendo has been marketing Wii Ware to developers as an alternative to Microsoft's popular store, citing advantages like flexible pricing and smaller budgets.

Their most attractive pitch: more money. Microsoft recently changed the royalty structure for XBLA games, which results in a lot less income for many developers. Also, Nintendo's division of VC and Wii Ware titles makes it easier for original games to be noticed and not lost in a pile of retro games -- a problem from which both XBLA and the PlayStation Network suffer, according to the interviewed developers. This problem led one developer to declare XBLA "full of shit."

Wii Ware's developer-friendliness isn't just good for them, it's good for us. Wii Ware is a lower-cost, higher-profit alternative to XBLA on a system with higher sales. Who's not going to want to make games for that?

Although the Wii had many good games this year, it's clear that some developers noticed the Wii's hype and have put out some unsatisfactory products in an attempt to ride the popularity wave. We're often critical of such games, "tsk, tsking" at them to our hearts' content, but it makes us feel better when developers notice this trend since they're the ones with the power. It's up to the developers to really push themselves and the machine they're working with, and as time goes on, the process becomes easier and more efficient.

Tancred Dyke-Wells, the creative director of Kuju (the company behind the Wii's Battalion Wars 2), recently criticized many Wii developers for "under-exploiting" the little white console. We tend to take his word seriously, since we think that BWII "has just about everything that fans of first-party Nintendo games are looking for," as you can see in our review of the game.

Dyke-Wells' main beef with developers is with the way in which graphics are handled on the system. While the Nintendo Wii can't compete in the graphics department with Sony's Playstation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360, he believes that the Wii is a "pretty good piece of kit" that overpowers the GameCube "by a factor of two."

In the end, Dyke-Wells thinks it comes down to how much respect these developers have for their companies, their products, and their consumers, and we can't help but agree. The possibility of making a quick and easy buck is tempting, but we expect developers to make good games simply because they can.

[Via Aussie-Nintendo]

WayForward has actually had a Wii development kit since last year (they got access to some early pre-release duct tape) and they've been doing research and development since then. We know the licenses are coming, but we're really hoping that WayForward will have the time and resources to do some original stuff too.

[Via DCEmu]

All those Wii and DS profits must have been burning a hole in Nintendo's pocket, because they went developer shopping and picked up Monolith Soft. We guess they really liked that one screenshot of Disaster: Day of Crisis.

Monolith Soft is responsible for the reviled Xenosaga series (the Japanese limited edition release of Xenosaga II included the unfortunate figurine seen here, nicknamed MOK-KOS), the crossover strategy game Namco X Capcom, and, in conjunction with Tri-Crescendo, the two Baten Kaitos games. Maybe now we'll get that pseudo-religious science-fiction Kirby RPG we've all been waiting for!

Shigeru Miyamoto sat down with Newsweek's N'Gai Croal earlier this month and aired out his concerns with third party developers not putting their best efforts behind games for Nintendo systems. Companies often find that their biggest competition on consoles like the Wii and DS is Nintendo themselves, but according to Miyamoto, most third parties aren't rising to the challenge with their top development groups. Instead, they're depending on third- or fourth-string teams to produce their titles.

While not every game from Nintendo is a blockbuster hit, Miyamoto says that the company makes sure to put its best people behind titles that are "designed to really support and sell hardware." Can most third parties say they're doing the same? If not, then how much longer will it take before developers approach their Wii releases seriously and start using their star teams to create AAA titles for the console?