Where does Nintendo fit within the realm of next-gen consoles, indie publishing, and initiatives like Steam Early Access? While Sony, Microsoft, and Steam have been aggressive about making their platforms approachable and easy for developers, Nintendo has remained comparatively quiet about Wii U.
“We’ve actually been very proactive in helping developers,” says Nintendo’s Dan Adelman, who launched Xbox Live Arcade before overseeing Nintendo’s digital business development. “We probably don’t do as good a job of broadcasting that as we should.”
He elaborates, “We have a place where aspiring developers go – it’s wiiu-developers.nintendo.com – where they can sign up to be a licensed developer. We have an introductory program where we’re making it easier for them to get dev kits.” From there, Nintendo provides Unity Pro tools to digital developers for free, saving them about $1500, in addition to waving licensing fees, which typically run “in the tens of thousands of dollars per title.”
Of course, this is for developers who decide to use Unity to build their games. That number is growing. To name a few notable Unity developers and games, for example, you’ve got Mojang’s Scrolls, Eidos Montreal’s Deus Ex: The Fall, and Rovio’s Bad Piggies, and more. Whether those games make their way to Wii U remains to be seen, and whether they’d do well is an even bigger mystery. As of July, Nintendo had sold under 4 million Wii U units.
“More and more studios are using Unity as their go-to engine, and the cost associated with supporting Wii U becomes dramatically lower,” says Adelman. “The break-even point is so low that you can afford to do something completely experimental, just a one-off, try it out, and still do well.”
To that end, exclusivity isn’t necessarily something Nintendo wants in its eShop releases. “I’m not sure it makes a lot of sense for us to give a developer a lot of money just for the sole purpose of keeping the game out of the hands of people who have not bought our platform,” Adelman explains. He’s appreciative of Wii U and 3DS’s exclusive games, of course, but says, “I don’t think that does anybody any good.”
Damon Baker with Nintendo’s marketing team says, “The idea of self-publishing, it seems to be this buzzword right now. It’s not new for Nintendo, though. I think that what we want to emphasize is that we’ve got some great platforms and unique experiences…. We’re going to be working with our independent developers as closely as ever moving forward. We’re excited about what kind of content we’re going to be able to show fans in the near future.”
We’re not quite there yet, to be able to launch the store on the web.
It’s more than a buzz-word, certainly, otherwise it wouldn’t be the industry standard and it wouldn’t be something Nintendo’s behind. Self-publishing the new norm, which means, going forward, we’re all going to have easier access to a lot more great games. Nintendo's digital marketplace is more than indie, too: Major retail games such as Animal Crossing see enormous success online.
“The biggest challenge that we’re going to face is in terms of discoverability,” says Adelman. “Right now there’s a good number of games on [eShop], with more and more coming. So how do we make sure that everyone can find the game that’s right for them? Discovering that diamond in the rough, that’s always going to be a challenge.” Promotion is part of that, but more importantly, “we’re also looking at making it easier to buy games.”
This comes in the form of “[purchasing] games off-device,” which Nintendo is “getting closer” to after a couple years. “We’re not quite there yet, to be able to launch the store on the web. Then we’re just looking at expanding the functionality, really enabling developers to do the kinds of business models that they would like to do.” Unfortunately, the prohibition of sensitive subject matter remains a problem on eShop.
Of course, that means you can look forward to free-to-play and in-app purchases in your eShop titles, which Adelman says certain games are “looking to support.” Adelman emphasizes that the strengths of Nintendos platforms is the hardware, with touch and motion controls, as well as playing games on Wii U’s GamePad screen.
With Nintendo’s increasing emphasis on digital games, the major lingering question is whether or not we’ll ever see a unified account system across Nintendo devices. “We don’t have anything to announce at this time, but I can assure you that your voice has been heard,” Adelman says. “We’ve heard this from quite a few of our fans out there. And employees!"
Like many things at Nintendo have been since the eShop opened, “It’s a work in progress right now.”
Mitch Dyer is an associate editor for IGN. He's currently one chapter from finishing Tom Bissell's short story collection, God Lives in St. Petersburg, and that bums his out. Follow his shattered dreams on Twitter.
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét