Microtransactions coming soon to Nintendo Wii

by Scott Jon Siegel { Mar 14th 2008 at 12:40PM }

And the infernal circle is complete. Microtransactions will finally be making their way to the Nintendo Wii, largely by way of the upcoming WiiWare service. The Wii was the last of the three major consoles to not support microtransactions, and now no consumer is safe from the incessant nickel-and-diming for minor content.

IGN reports that WiiWare developer Genki will be selling an add-on pack for its puzzle game LONPOS. The expansion will cost 500 Wii points, half of the launch title's entire cost. Meanwhile, Siliconera is reporting that another puzzle game, Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Wii, will be selling additional puzzle stages for an as-yet unknown price.

As if that weren't enough to grind your gears, Madden creator Scott Orr spoke with Develop Magazine about his WiiWare title, Spogs Racing. According to Orr, the title will feature purchasable "racer packs," including cars parts and new tracks. Orr doesn't come right out and define these as microtransactions, however, instead masquerading the upgrades as "episodic downloadable content" (which it ain't). Looks like we're off to a great start already.

Read - WiiWare microtransactions priced [IGN]
Read - Go online with WiiWare and Mojipittan Wii [Siliconera]
Read - Madden creator on WiiWare episodic and user-driven content plans [Develop]

Tags: genki, lonpos, madden, microtransactions, nintendo, wiiware

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Zertoss @ Mar 14th 2008 12:42PM

Microtransactions aren't allowed until we get a hard drive.

ThePremierAssassin @ Mar 14th 2008 1:01PM

Exactly...

I'd be all for WiiWare and wouldn't even blink if Nintendo went down this path if I had a freaking storage device attached to my Wii!

I could go on and on and start a ridiculously long rant but I'll just summarize by saying this...

I love Nintendo and I love the Wii but it has some series limitations/flaws that not even I can ignore.

Dear Nintendo,

When next gen comes aroung in 2011 or w/e please up your game and create a system that can compete on the level of the 360 in terms of hardware...

Got it? Thanks!

Sincerely,
ThePremierAssassin
Wii60 Owner
Future Panasonic DMP-BD50 Owner

PojoMofo @ Mar 14th 2008 1:12PM

Why do you say that?? Its not that hard to d/l the game, play it off the WIi, hten back it up to an SD card, then to play it again, copy back to the Wii, then back to the SD card. That makes WAAAAAAAY more sense than a HD.

Curtis the Claw: Brawl Code 1075-0441-3284 @ Mar 14th 2008 1:20PM

@PojoMofo

If your being sarcastic that was a lame attempt, and if your not being sarcastic than wow...

WiNG @ Mar 14th 2008 1:24PM

Agreed.

I am not going to spend hours deleting, moving, and re-downloading files just because Nintendo is too lazy/stupid to

1. enable SD reading
2. Implement USB HDD support
3. Make its own first party solution.

CHOOSE ONE, NINTENDO. IT'S NOT THAT HARD.

Microswirl @ Mar 14th 2008 3:43PM

Who says you have to copy files back and forth? As SSBB has demonstrated, games can access the SD card directly. You could simply have the main WiiWare game stored on the Wii's internal memory, and then just have all the expansion material stored on the SD card, where the game could still access it. It's duh-tastic!

Nigeria: Cody ChesnuTT Defense Force @ Mar 14th 2008 12:47PM

Is 500 Wii Points really a microtransaction?

That's the cost of a Nes game, which is quite the ripoff in cost cases anyway. There really needs to be some variable pricing. 500 shouldn't be the lowest exchange.

Also, we should be able to return Virtual Console games, that we've finished or were disappointed with (Comiczone), to the virtual store and get some credits back. Say you trade in a Mega Drive game (800 points) you'd get 300 points back. It would really take the sting out of those bad impulse purchases.

Nigeria: Cody ChesnuTT Defense Force @ Mar 14th 2008 12:50PM

"That's the cost of a Nes game, which is quite the ripoff in cost cases anyway."

It should say "most cases". It should look better that way. Maybe.

umm....hello??? @ Mar 14th 2008 1:42PM

umm...try reading the part where it says "no refunds for this download" or something to similar effect. XBLA and PSN don't give refunds, neither does Nintendo. In fact, that's pretty much the whole idea behind downloaded content and microtransactions.

They're impulse buys because they're inexpensive one by one, but overall as a group, you don't realize how much money you're spending. That's why MS uses "points" which involve converting into a dollar amount, whereas at least Sony and Nintendo are ahead of the game by using dollar amounts (although Nintendo uses points, but 500 points = $5 is a simple conversion to do).

borland502 (SDF - Macross Ring) @ Mar 14th 2008 1:46PM

"They're impulse buys because they're inexpensive one by one, but overall as a group, you don't realize how much money you're spending"

I can attest to that! I used to buy every PSN game when it first came out (including Nucleus & Pito-something). It's only when I set a limit of $15/mo. that I started realizing I only treasured a few of them. Some of them are still cool of course, but just not my thing.

Even if you aren't budget constrained, set a limit on those downloads. You'd be surprised how much you can pass up then.

Nigeria: Cody ChesnuTT Defense Force @ Mar 14th 2008 2:28PM

"(although Nintendo uses points, but 500 points = $5 is a simple conversion to do)."

But in Europe, 500 points doesn't equal €5/£5. It's £3.50, in England anyway, which equals $7. Which is quite a big jump, considering.

I guess my point is that Nintendo should use real world currency to make it less confusing - something which has scared my friend off the virtual console - and display uniformity in pricing throughout the various territories.

umm....hello??? @ Mar 15th 2008 1:23AM

Nigeria-- good point. MS points can be converted into many currencies, but points not equaling a dollar amount for currencies outside of the US do involve computing, which if I remember correctly is actually one of the 2 reasons MS probably decided on a point system.

1) points disconnect you from thinking about how much money they represent (also why credit cards are powerful--you no longer are holding onto your cash physically--it's disconnected into a card with a potential X amount of spending limit--regardless of whether or not you have the money in your bank account to pay it off by the end of the month!!)

2) X amount of points are bought for Y amount of money in each individual currency of Z countries.

vidGuy @ Mar 14th 2008 12:49PM

Agreed about the need for a harddrive, or at least USB media support. I've got a 40GB drive in an enclosure sitting here waiting for the Wii to be updated for support.

I personally like microtransactions as long as they are truly new material instead of something that was kept out of the game so that it could be charged for later. New maps? Great. Maps that were kept out of the game so that I had to fork over $10-$15 to get them later, bad.

I'm a little suspicious of any material that makes it to the market within a few weeks of the game's release. Even considering production and delivery time, that's too close to say that the developers didn't intentionally keep the stuff out of the game.

playwhutyalike @ Mar 14th 2008 12:57PM

That is what marketing is all about. Hold back material and make money on it later. Nobody is forcing you to buy anything.

SoulBlade @ Mar 14th 2008 12:57PM

"I'm a little suspicious of any material that makes it to the market within a few weeks of the game's release. Even considering production and delivery time, that's too close to say that the developers didn't intentionally keep the stuff out of the game."

Couldn't have said it better. If it's worth it, I'll buy it, but if it's something they release soon after the game hits shelves, I'll avoid it just out of spite!

vidGuy @ Mar 14th 2008 1:08PM

No, I'm not forced to buy microtransactions, but if they left it out of the game intentionally then I SHOULD already have the material when I paid $60 for the game!

I know this has changed somewhat, but the originally proposal for Gran Turismo 5 scared the crap out of me. You'd be paying $40-$60 for what's essentially the game engine and some menus. Pay as you go for cars and tracks. That's horrendous considering the number of cars and track in GT4. Even if you only got a few dozen cars and tracks you'd be looking at a game that cost you well over $150.

playwhutyalike @ Mar 14th 2008 1:28PM

Well, I see your point there with the Gran Turismo, that is kind of horseshit. But, if you have a million people who feel the same way, then you should boycott from buying games that are run like that to hammer it home to the developers that you aren't going to take it.

No we aren't going to take it, anymore.

Sorry about that.

ssuk @ Mar 14th 2008 1:37PM

One thing to point out, "weeks" after a game's release could be months after the game went gold (was ready to be pressed to disc) in that time they may have fixed something which was wrong in one part of the game which kept it out of the game. Of course, since the budget for the game's design normally ends when the game goes gold, they reclaim that extra few month's worth of pay from the DLC.

Can't say I know of an example, however I'm just saying you have to keep an open mind on some of these. Although in the end most of them are just to sucker people into forking over more money for a game they probably paid over-the-odds for in the first place.

RabbidMickeyMouse @ Mar 14th 2008 1:03PM

The suspicion that developers may hold back resources to purposely sell individually later, I agree is a problem, but given the easy profits available in a time of tight budgets for non-blockbuster games, this is simply going to be another facet of gaming we'll have to get used to.

It'll be interesting to see how microtransactions will appeal to the Wii audiance, or at least watch how it'll be marketed on a system touted as the casual gaming console. Hardcore gamers have remained the ones who end up buying the extra maps and so on more than the majority of players (if they buy anything at all after the game), and given the number of casual players to hardcore on the Wii, I wonder if microtransactions won't be as popular as they are on other consoles such as the 360 because of the difference in demographics and purchasing habits between the two.

umm....hello??? @ Mar 14th 2008 1:47PM

the only problem with this is when they release a game, add d/l content, and a year later or two release the same game with all the add-on's for the same or lesser price as the original game (ie- Oblivion) or re-releasing a game with new features (ie- LostPlanet v1.5)....

Jody Anthony (Good Eats Fanboy) @ Mar 14th 2008 1:17PM

unless it is something amazing, I will not pay more than 200 points for any addon for anything.

samfish @ Mar 14th 2008 2:07PM

I would pay up to 800 points for Mega Man in Brawl.

mr mobius @ Mar 14th 2008 3:13PM

I'd pay 500 points for an additional Galaxy for Super Mario Galaxy wiht 6 stars, even if they didn't count towards the total star total.

samfish @ Mar 14th 2008 4:48PM

Oooooo, that would be so awesome!

Martez @ Mar 14th 2008 1:23PM

All they need to do is throw in external HD support via USB. I've got a 120gb WD Passport that I use all the time with my PS3, and I'd very much like to use it with my Wii as well.

Jhongerkong @ Mar 14th 2008 1:27PM

This is really a pain in the...

$5 to see the rest of the comment.

playwhutyalike @ Mar 14th 2008 1:29PM

Do you accept mouth-dollars?

whymog @ Mar 14th 2008 1:34PM

For a company that managed to come back and dominate th handheld and console markets simultaneously in terms of sales and profits, it astounds me that they can be so ass-backwards about the idea of online distribution of original content.

In other words, Nintendo clearly doesn't know dick about downloadable content.

Markez @ Mar 14th 2008 1:35PM

Ahhhhh, I love the smell of capitalism in the morning.

Mills and Boom @ Mar 14th 2008 1:35PM

Bugger, not on the Wii plz.

D_Average @ Mar 14th 2008 1:40PM

If the developer Genki is related to this band in any way, I'm sure the title will be solid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhFiZ_GyCxE

Drago Dracini @ Mar 14th 2008 2:37PM

What they should really work on is getting the Wii some real online gameplay support and drop the friend codes. ;p

Roto13 @ Mar 14th 2008 2:15PM

GH III DLC plz k thx?

Spin44 @ Mar 14th 2008 2:25PM

its sad to see nintendo go this route

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Mar 14th 2008 4:25PM

Why is this a bad thing? Nintendo sees that Microsoft and sony are making a lot of money off of Microtransactions. Why shouldn't Nintendo do the same?

Sam @ Mar 14th 2008 2:32PM

All i hear is "coming soon." WiiWare "coming soon." Guitar Hero DLC "coming soon." Microtransactions "coming soon." Hardcore Wii Pr0n "cumming soon."

Fucking DO IT ALREADY!

Zsavior @ Mar 14th 2008 2:54PM

Everybody wanted their consoles to connect to the net, well welcome to a world of BS. A world where companies make half assed games just to be patched some where down the line. A world where a game is not nearly finished is sold to you at FULL PRICE and then the actual content little by little.

I mean isn't that the same thing we do with consoles? We buy a machine that can play games, that comes with no games, we then by their 50-64 dollar game, the game then charges us for content lacking in said game we bought, and the cycle of bitch slap continues.

But lets look at the up side now I can frag people online...I could do that with the PC. Oh wait but now I can talk to them..... hmmm yea PC. But no I can now dl Indie games for a low cost. Well Consoles got the PC beat there because they are usually free to down load on your PC. There is one thing the PC can't give you that consoles have totally got them beat with..... ACHIEVEMENT POINTS! WOOT

I have yet to see how the console online option has made gaming better, maybe if I never knew or played my PC this would make sense. But at this point everytime I see microtransactions, friend codes, and crap like that all I can think is console gamers got suckered big time. It feels like the internet option on console gaming is just another way to milk the gaming populous while just giving them the bare bones abilities that you can get on your computer.

Alexxxxx @ Mar 14th 2008 3:17PM

I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but come on nintendo! YOUR SERVICE WILL FAIL WITHOUT A HDD!

Mills and Boom @ Mar 14th 2008 4:39PM

Untrue. It completely depends on how big the DLC is. Considering maps without textures and unique internal coding they can be stupidly small (a few kb, technically). Like the Smash Bros maps, they're just tiny.

I'm saying DLC can be small. Make of that what you will.

benmully @ Mar 14th 2008 4:28PM

I completely agree, where the hell is that hard drive Nintendo??????

Mr Khan @ Mar 14th 2008 4:33PM

It's a pipe-dream without more memory, obviously. Wii doesn't need a full-scale HDD, but a 2-4 GB Proprietary thumb drive (or open thumb drive support) would fit the bill nicely

HDD levels of memory aren't needed, because the console was not designed with HDD in mind, they would never be able to roll out such large-scale memory consuming projects without alienating the vast majority of the Wii userbase