Rumor: WiiWare's sales threshold revealed

I know, That's why I think it's a load of garbage. Why would they make it harder for games to come to a service they want to promote?

Well, Nintendo is hosting the space in which the game can be sold. It's kind of like paying Amazon when your item gets sold 'x' amount of the value. Though I agree it's a strange way of doing business. You'd think Nintendo would just get a set % of the profits, or a one time payment to be allowed on the service (and with an approval process, I'm thinking of you Bob! lol).

Trying to discourage some devs from flooding WiiWare with a bunch of crap?

What I really want too know is, what is the XBLA or PSN policy for game sales? No one ever seems to mention that.

So far nintendo is the ONLY party benefiting from shovelware. Using this as a mechanism to limit shovelware is definitely out of the question.

It is a little unusual, but does actually make sense. What they're saying is, you can't put titles on there that are so bad (or so obscure) that nobody will buy them.

They might even have worked out the value so that by the time sales reach a certain point, Nintendo's cut has paid for their administrative costs. Although I assume they charge directly for certification too? Anyone know?

Look at this way - a simple WiiWare game would be priced at $5 or $8, let's say $8. Let's say the developer gets 70%. If it only sells 6,000 copies that is $33k. WiiWare is all about small cheap games, but do we really want games that are so small and cheap they can make a profit on less than $33k?

To put it in perspective, when you include office costs and not just salary, that would probably be about three months of one developer. You might want some art and music too...

Of course this sucks if the developer has made a quality game and is betting on making a profit on 15,000 sales, but the game bombs, sells 5,500, and now they lose everything.

Part of this might also be an accounting trick. Even if your game sells more than 6,000, you have to wait for those 6k sales before Nintendo send you anything - so Nintendo get the interest on your money.

I know you're just throwing numbers out there Sam but they're pretty low all around. A game developed in 3D even of the crappiest quality seen today would cost more than $33k.

But never mind semantics. The fact is that it seems like a strange way to do business. Usually with all products the producers will see a return of some sort if it has been sold, period. This unusual practice prevents any return from showing until the product has reached some arbitrary bar? Though, probably less arbitrary than the public eye can see, still, why they can't just take a single sum payment or a % of profit is beyond me.

Not every Wii is connected to the net.

At least half of them are, according to Nintendo.

So 6,000/25,000,000 still isn't too bad.

still, nintendo keeping all the cash below a set threshold is not right. it's bad enough if the sales are bad, on top of it developers can get nothing for their efforts.

They do too let them market.
There's no shortage of information on, say, Cave Story or Night Game out there. We heard plenty from the Lost Winds people and Square in the run up to WiiWare's launch, too. Ditto World of Goo, Tetris Party, Strongbad games all the games High Voltage has released...etc, etc.

Just because Nintendo doesn't market the games for them beyond a couple press releases doesn't mean the developer or publishers can't do it.

The lack of release lists in North America is particularly stupid, though, no denying that. Although the publishers seem to know when their games are going to be released, judging by past statements.

I blame Reggie, whatever problem there is with NA Nintendo always seems to go back to him.

Samfish, you truly are a fucking moron. If anyone enters into a business deal where they don't get paid a certain amount for each unit shipped (or in this case, downloaded) they are getting fucking screwed in the ass. Nintendo are total fucking dicks for doing this and to defend them is just plain asinine. This is some strong-arming bullshit. They aren't marketing them because they don't fucking care. Their online business model is so completely fucking horrible from the online gaming aspects to the VC and WiiWare handeling. Stop being their bitch and wake up to reality.

Wow, someone drank their Haterade today.

@Gavin: "If anyone enters into a business deal where they don't get paid a certain amount for each unit shipped (or in this case, downloaded) they are getting fucking screwed in the ass."

This is actually pretty normal practice in business and I have seen similar clauses in many contracts: "party A has to move N units per year, otherwise party B doesn't have to pay" and similar. (E.g. my employer, as a channel partner, has to sell bundled with main product particular number of 3rd party licenses to maintain its "OEM" status. And OEM status means that we can use their promotional materials, etc.)

Also the limit can be viewed in other light: Nintendo reminds devels that they need to invest into promotion too or they would get nothing. Even some trivial grass root advertisement can easily boost sales high over the level.

Gavin, YOU wake up to reality. This is a common business practice. Lots of industries, in particular print industries, do this. I fail to see how anyone who has so much as passed Business 101 at their local community college could see this as the horrible thing most gamers and bloggers are making it out to be.

REALLY not a big deal, guys.

Sure, then we can say the the PS3 has no games, and the Xbox 360 RROD's like hell, and any other trolling, anger inducing crap you want to do.

Sweet. I love when people incite actual emotion on internet comment sections.

dude, they're not exactly "making money" on the dev kit. it didn't just will itself into existence, and nintendo chose to charge people for it because they found it on their property fair and square or something

In other words, with this policy Nintendo is doing just the sort of thing that message boards everywhere have called for: quality control. I admit it's not as interesting as a good conspiracy theory, and it does eliminate the whole evil Nintendo story that we're all so eager to lap up. But it does have the benefit of being true.

Probably. :)