When we shipped MDK2 there was a large confusion about demos on the platform and we never got a straight answer if demos were allowed. We were not allowed to set the price, Nintendo set the pricing, telling us after a week it would be 1000 points. As well, there was never any discussion of doing a sale or promoting the title. This all contributed to a title we worked very hard on not getting any differentiation from other titles in the WiiWare store. The result was large disappointment with the platform. - Beamdog's Trent Oster
Mr. Oster also admitting to not understanding the Wii when it came out, and now he's feeling the same way about Wii U.
"For the Wii U, I once again don't get it. I'm having a hard time seeing how a tablet controller & console system is going to be revolutionary. I could be wrong, but I think the gaming world has changed irrevocably and there are now two fronts: Triple A console titles which resemble blockbuster movies and freemium/app store titles which are closer to television. The triple "A" titles cost a ton to develop and there is a market for the best of the breed, with the major brands doing huge numbers but many titles not even breaking even.
The freemium/app space has everything from "assware" (my pet name for poor quality freemium titles), up to what I would compare to HBO television titles, which are high production quality and well executed games which sell in the $10-$30 price point. The PC platform bridges both models, which makes it an interesting target to develop for. To me, the Wii U doesn't fit into either model and I see a lot of difficulty for it on either front. The app store/freemium model has redefined consumer pricing expectations, making consumers much less likely to invest $60 in a title without playing it first. The triple "A" model focuses on delivering the experience you expect at the agreed upon price, which is going to be hard to sell conceptually with a new platform like the Wii U. I wish Nintendo the best and I hope they can hit big with a major success."
I am puzzled as to why Oster decided to create a port for WiiWare at all. Seems like he doesn't really understand the platform's aim or restrictions. At least he wishes Nintendo well!
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Mr. Oster also admitting to not understanding the Wii when it came out, and now he's feeling the same way about Wii U.
"For the Wii U, I once again don't get it. I'm having a hard time seeing how a tablet controller & console system is going to be revolutionary. I could be wrong, but I think the gaming world has changed irrevocably and there are now two fronts: Triple A console titles which resemble blockbuster movies and freemium/app store titles which are closer to television. The triple "A" titles cost a ton to develop and there is a market for the best of the breed, with the major brands doing huge numbers but many titles not even breaking even.
The freemium/app space has everything from "assware" (my pet name for poor quality freemium titles), up to what I would compare to HBO television titles, which are high production quality and well executed games which sell in the $10-$30 price point. The PC platform bridges both models, which makes it an interesting target to develop for. To me, the Wii U doesn't fit into either model and I see a lot of difficulty for it on either front. The app store/freemium model has redefined consumer pricing expectations, making consumers much less likely to invest $60 in a title without playing it first. The triple "A" model focuses on delivering the experience you expect at the agreed upon price, which is going to be hard to sell conceptually with a new platform like the Wii U. I wish Nintendo the best and I hope they can hit big with a major success."
I am puzzled as to why Oster decided to create a port for WiiWare at all. Seems like he doesn't really understand the platform's aim or restrictions. At least he wishes Nintendo well!
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RSS Feeds:
Tons of devs: "The Wii U is going to be revolutionary!"
Dev that's mad at Nintendo: "I don't see how it's revolutionary"
Nintendo just pay this guy he's getting really annoying.
Ok, I'll be honest with you guys. Despite "assware" having some games and the ability to have virtual console games, IT IS NOT A GOOD SERVICE. E-Shop at least shows potential in the near future (it has more ability and power compared to wiiware).
While I don't agree with everything he wrote but RMC you gotta admit that the Wii Ware does have it's flaws and it could of been a whole lot better but instead nintendo just didn't do much except having a 50 Mb limit. I guess the Wii Ware really was just a test to see how Nintendo could handle the download gaming world. Now that the E-shop is flooding with great downloadable games to play, I really hope the Wii U shop channel or whatever its going to be called addresses the feedback/reception/flaws/suggestions/etc from the Wii Shop channel and makes it a better experience for gamers/developers world wide
So far I have downloaded 15+ Wii ware games and 20+ virtual console games and I want to triple those numbers when the Wii U releases because I honestly think the Wii U shop channel could have potential if Nintendo can pull it off. I dont want to have to download the next gen versions downloadable games like Burger World Tour. I wanted to buy it on the Wii Ware (wii mote controls interested me) but after hearing all the stuff that was cut out of the game in order to meet the 50 Mb requirements I decided to download the psn version
yeah, i think companies like shin'en, nnooo, renegade kid, 2d boy, gaijin games, nicalis, wayforward and even TELLTALE (to name a few) are proof that if you know what youre doing, you can have success on the system.. in doing some research i even found this snippet from an interview with 2d boy's ron caramel:
"WW: As indie developers what has it been like to work with Nintendo on getting this game ready for release?
Ron: So far so good. They're have dealt with us very honestly and fairly and are perfectly fine with us doing our thing and being totally hands off. They've helped us a lot with publicity, and the terms of their distribution agreement for WiiWare are very fair."
so, while i still think nintendo couldve handled things better, it wasnt sour grapes for everyone
* i never said traveller's tale, i have no idea what youre talking about
He's just a bit bitter... even if he has a valid reason to be upset.
he's all over the place , i understand the money problem , it should have been a sure thing , but like many downloadable release it wasn't . Going by his definition of the new landscape , mdk is not a AAA and not a freemium , so yeah that's unfortunate .
wii u won't be as successful as the wii or it will , but it's really not related to those games
He has a point, and that is assware.
Why does this guy keep popping up everywhere? We all know he hates Nintendo, great. Let's move on to bigger, better things now, K? It's starting to seem like he just wants publicity...
No sh!t. Everyone knows the system is flawed. The argument here is why wasn't this developer able to work within its flaws so late in the game when other devs handled it just fine from the get go.
Hey we dont take to kindly to reason around these here parts!
While I don't think WiiWare was/is a perfect service, I've lost all sympathy for this guy and his company. Games bomb all the time. I didn't even know this one existed on WiiWare until all the controversy, so maybe they should share in the blame as to why it didn't hit the 6000 threshold. The restrictions Nintendo put in place suck...we get it, but it's not like they didn't know before they started the project. This is info that is widely known by fans and the media, so you can be damn sure that they also knew about it. If they didn't like it, they shouldn't have put their game on the service. Period. Pull up your skirt, take responsibility, and act with the accountability a company president should.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not defending Nintendo's WiiWare policies. They're dumb and cause problems, but acting unprofessional and not accepting a share of the responsibility for the game bombing is ridiculous. It's time for him to shut up. Hey buddy! No one wanted your port of a 11-12 year old game. Get over it. It's not like you did anything to try and drive sales, anyway.
EDIT:I'm just happy that the eShop has changed things for the better. It seems like it's been a lot healthier environment for developers and publishers and there have been quite a few success stories on the service already. Hell, many top-tier DSiWare games have gotten thrust back into the spotlight and I would be shocked to hear that they haven't benefited from that alone. Too bad this company (and probably a few others) have written off Nintendo's new online distribution strategy without even checking it out.
I know he is correct, Nintendo needs to impove online capabilities/restrictions (and where is my social elements, Nintendo? where is my achievements?). I know Nintendo is wrong this time, but man....
Can we just stop now? This guy didn't even tried to make some research....
"I could be wrong, but I think the gaming world has changed irrevocably and there are now two fronts: Triple A console titles which resemble blockbuster movies and freemium/app store titles which are closer to television. The triple "A" titles cost a ton to develop and there is a market for the best of the breed, with the major brands doing huge numbers but many titles not even breaking even."
Yeah.. I'd say your wrong Trent if only about it being irrevocable. Games will continue to fail if they think they just need to be developed with more money that only serves to push up the selling price and pushing down the sales, only to spell out a developers own demise by simple mathematics.
I'm pretty sure we will see the notion of, 'just keep spending more money, it will fix everything!' will be proven wrong once the dollar is worthless and we have worldwide debt defaulted on..
In the mean time lets try to be sensible about development? Make smaller scale but amazingly fun games and sell at the appropriate price, you'll do better, sell more, and access to customers increases because you don't break their budgets.
Some of his points are valid but just looking at the 3DS alone, a lot has been fixed and changed since Wiiware. I don't think he should ride the Wii U or 3DS off.
for every idiot like this guy, there is a Renegade Kid or the Bittrip guys or a Nnooo or whatever, all who love the eshop or Wiiware.
I'm sorry for his loss and I agree with him on the first Wii's eShops riggidnes, but how any of this relates into Wii U's online shop. Does he know Wii U's shops business model better than the Wiis? Every online shop(exept for the iStore it seems) has some sort of barrier that shields most of the assware(excellent pet name, made me lol, and I'm going to use it from now on), which would hurt him just the same. The WiiWare has that 6000 limit making sure you at least try to make decent software, but I understand that otherwise the costs are pretty low? It would have been similar kind of flop in any online market(especially as the pointer controls made this game relevant one more time).
That, and the way how he smudges his failure into other aspects of the console makes me wonder if he is something more than just bitter. What he is developing now, and for whom? Not "understanding" what the tablet is good for makes me relieved that it doesn't sound like he is going to waste any more of his efforts in trying to figure out how to make old game play fit into new input devices; perhaps its better that those kind of developers stay on last gen controllers. The lack of ability to think out side of the box makes even big budget games ass ware for me. There are so many games, that I would love to play, but the last gen controls made them feel awkward for some one who is accustomed to wider range of input finesse.
Talk about beating a dead horse..Haven't we heard all of this before? Years ago when Nintendo was still trying to promote it's WiiWare service..I guess what I'm trying to say is this is not the first developer to bash the service-but we are moving on to the Wii-U now ,,what is the point in talking about the mistakes of Nintendo's past system when they are clearly gearing up for their new system and about to leave the Wii for dead anyways-Damn beam dog way to stay relevant..
precisely. if he had read the terms from nintendo from the beginning before they signed the contract, then he should've realised this already.
Doesn't this guy's family make blenders? Although "assware" is classic.
Damn, this guy got screwed up.
he seems like an idiot
He sounds like a complete idiot and whines like a B---h
I knew the restrictions before the service was even up...I'm not a game developer. The policies he mentioned were public information....
"I am puzzled as to why Oster decided to create a port for WiiWare at all."
I am puzzled as to why anyone decided to make a Wiiware game if this is the kind of shovel they had to put up with. I can't even think of a 3rd party Wiiware title aside from World of Goo that saw any substantial success on the service either.
Of course, it looks like Nintendo's learning from their mistakes... slowly but surely.
some other ones that have done well have been, cave story, mega man 9 and 10, the strong bad series, lost winds, final fantasy cc: my life as a king, tetris party and so on and so forth.
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