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WiiWare Demos Missing in Action

By Warren Stallworth on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 7:48 AM EST  

WiiWare Demos Missing in Action

It looks like Nintendo is showing its age and relevance in the marketplace when it comes to the Wii, this time with WiiWare, set to debut in North America on May 12th, 2008. N’Gai Croal of Newsweek’s Level Up blog fame had a little Q&A with Frontier Developments founder David Braben on which Tom Prata, Nintendo of America’s Director of Project Development, sat in to answer any questions that went beyond Braben’s scope of knowledge.

WiiWare is Nintendo’s newest download service, which is set to compete against Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade and Sony’s PlayStation Network. Developers of all shapes and sizes will have the opportunity to release bite-sized games through WiiWare. Users can then purchase the games with the same points they use for Virtual Console games now. There isn’t an across the board cost for games, so prices will be set on a per game basis, with games sharing the same spectrum of pricing as those on the Virtual Console.

Because the price of both retail and downloadable games are such a hot button topic, it’s essential that companies provide demos for their products. Nintendo doesn’t think so, however. Though companies can provide demos if they so choose, Nintendo is not mandating that they do. In fact, in a follow up to the Q&A, Nintendo’s PR Agency Golin Harris added:

“We do not intend to have a ‘try-before-you-buy’ model that requires developers to create expensive demos. Nintendo plans to provide information on games similar to what Nintendo in Japan is doing with the Everybody’s Nintendo Channel where creators can share information on their game directly to Wii consumers.”

Perhaps for a game company, foregoing the development of a demo might help in the initial R&D phase, but the lost sales could end up hurting in the end, especially the independents who have no track record in the marketplace. Even if the Wii isn’t aimed at the core gamer, core gamers are more likely to spend hard earned points on games released through WiiWare. It would be prudent if Nintendo enforced demos, in turn forcing developers to make quality games or find themselves at the bottom of the rubbish heap. Unfortunately, at this stage in the game, it’s not likely to happen. Hopefully developers will see all the good that comes about from releasing demos and opt to do it instead of foregoing the option. One can hope.

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