Nintendo planning to offer WiiWare demos
by JC Fletcher 
{ Nov 3rd 2009 at 3:50PM } 
The pilot program is intended to bring more attention to the Wii Shop Channel, which, Iwata said, is currently only used by people who already know what they want. He expressed some doubt as to the effectiveness of demos as a promotional tool, but the (test) market will decide that!
There was no word on whether Nintendo would also try the controversial "advertising" method of promotion, wherein a company tells its customers about its games.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
SpyderTaco (PSN: Ar4chNova89) @ Nov 3rd 2009 3:55PM
WiiWare depresses me.
At least we'll always have the weather channel.
samfish [wants to know: do midgets have night vision?] @ Nov 3rd 2009 5:40PM
WiiWare, for all the crap it has floating around on it, has the best over all content.
Meaning, if you threw all the WiiWare games into a bag, all the XBLA games into a bag and (maybe, I haven't thought about it quite as much, tbh) PSN games into a page, and reached in and randomly pulled one out, you'd have better odds of pulling out a decent, playable WiiWare game than you would in the XBLA and (probably) PSN bags.
WiiWare's problem is that, with a handful of exceptions, it doesn't have any marquee titles like XBLA and PSN get periodically. Pretty much the same problem the Wii itself has, really.
Hell, with the exception of the "Month of ____" things MS does twice a year, XBLA is nothing but pure garbage.
Marik @ Nov 3rd 2009 6:54PM
THANK GOD.
Now I can try it out without the risk of buying stuff I'll never play. This will be sad on my wallet though.
DBuck_Eye @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:00PM
Finally. Let's just hope these are demos for some of the hidden gems and not anything with the word "family" in the title.
acefondu @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:05PM
There are WiiWare games without the word family?? But seriously, never bought anything off that service unless it had a "video game" title like Contra, or Mario, or Mega Man. The service churns out about 2 good games a year...
Orion @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:00PM
I don't think this will really help the poor service, but at the very least it's a step in the right direction. PSN could learn something from this and Live.
Jason Statham (Has a ps3 now) @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:14PM
Absolutely agree on PSN as well. It really is kind of lame that I can't try out most PSN games before I decide to buy them.
Angie @ Nov 3rd 2009 5:38PM
While more could never hurt, I think there's a lot of demos on PSN. In fact most of my "games" are demos, and the ones I do own I tried in demo form for the most part first. I just wish they wouldn't wait a couple weeks before releasing them.
Marco le Polo @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:09PM
Why don't they have this now and in America?
Can they do the same thing for VC?
I'll just answer this one myself, "Yes." Will they? "NO".
INNUENDO 64 @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:46PM
you can always demo emulators and all that good stuff, and then argue that it's for 'demo purposes'
you just want to beat the game on an emulator to see if its worth buying on VC
tmacairjordan87 @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:11PM
Wiiware is a pretty sad service. I looked through the whole list for anything I would get after I get a Wii, and I couldn't find anything that looked decent other than the really short Lost Wind games.
Harrie @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:31PM
World of Goo, NyxQuest, Megaman 9, Contra Rebirth, Bit. Trip, Bomberman Blast, The Art Style games and more
you proved the impression I've had from you from reading a few of your comments; you will go on anything and badmouth it
you are a sad person
just don't get a Wii if you don't see anything positive on anything
tmacairjordan87 @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:34PM
Thankfully for me I'm not getting a Wii for Wiiware. None of those games impress me at all, and I couldn't stand world of goo on PC (but indie games are not for me anyway).
I'll have plenty to play when I get a Wii (like 17 games right away) but none of them will be from Wiiware.
Harrie @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:51PM
I don't like world of goo either but still I appreciate it as a good game
It has great graphics and sound but it's not my type of game
Mr Khan @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:49PM
I think the service has actually done pretty well for itself in terms of getting games that are unique and worthwhile. A helluva lot of shovelware too, of course, but the service has attracted some gems that you just can't get anywhere else, as well as normal (but still cool) downloadable fare like Bomberman.
My only qualm with WiiWare is that Nintendo themselves really don't support it enough. Excitebike World Rally is a step in the right direction, though.
Harrie @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:59PM
@Mr Khan
I don't know if i see it from the right direction but I think Nintendo doesn't make a lot of games for WiiWare because they want to keep WiiWare for the smaller developers
If they release awesome Nintendo games every other month, the younger and smaller developers are not gonna have a chance to compete against Nintendo's games
sam @ Nov 3rd 2009 5:06PM
Tales of Monkey Island is great if you like adventure games (and if you didn't already get it on PC; the PC version's better, but I don't have a gaming PC so whatever).
yes, I realise I just use the phrase 'if you like' about tmac, who's famous for not liking anything, but.
There are some great puzzle games - I'd recommend Groovin' Blocks because the music is great, and Lit because the concept is cool, as well as Cubello because it's plain awesome. Maybe you don't like puzzle games either... I used not to be a puzzle-game person but when you can get them for $5-$10, I'm there.
Basically WiiWare is not really a service that reliably delivers top quality compelling games that could've sold for full price - more of a service that *occasionally* delivers something that's a pretty cool way to waste a few hours at a reasonable price. It's partly interesting because of the 'oh hey something cool' surprise you (occasionally) get that makes Mondays better.
As for the bit about advertising in the bottom of the post - so true. Sure, advertising costs money - so here's a solution for Nintendo. Put a different selection of these demos (three or four), plus promos for Nintendo Channel and WiiWare in general (that tell you how to use it), into every Nintendo disc-based game. These games sell millions and sticking in a little 'Bonus' option into the main menu wouldn't be too hard, now would it?
guttertalk @ Nov 3rd 2009 5:19PM
Shorter tmac: If I'm not interested in something, it sucks.
samfish [wants to know: do midgets have night vision?] @ Nov 3rd 2009 5:46PM
"My only qualm with WiiWare is that Nintendo themselves really don't support it enough."
Sad but true. I was expecting WiiWare to end up getting all the neat little games like the DS does...or more like the SNES 2.
But I have largely been over all let down from week-to-week.
If Nintendo was smart (says I!), they'd make DKC4, a new 2D Kid Icarus, a new 2D Zelda (or Link's Awakening remake!), Adventures in Snowland and finally release SNES Star Fox 2.
Also! A new Mystery of Murasame Castle!
Alas...I have been sorely disappointed with the lack of modern retro-style gaming goodness.
Jason Statham (Has a ps3 now) @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:13PM
Add this to the list of things that Nintendo should have done since the beginning. Seriously I never bothered buying anything from Wiiware since I didn't know what I was getting into.
Mr Mobius - the wandering artist @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:41PM
It's hard to type emails and send memos under a cascade of paper money though. It takes time to purchase Warehouses to store all that money from Wii and DS you know.
BPMOmega [XBL, PSN, Steam] @ Nov 3rd 2009 5:35PM
You could always, uh, read reviews? You got aggregate sites like Metacritic, and then user reviews from sites like GameFAQs. Unless NOONE has played a game, there's no way you can go into download-only game without knowing SOMETHING about it.
Jason Statham (Has a ps3 now) @ Nov 3rd 2009 7:46PM
Oh you're absolutely right, I could read a review but that doesn't guarantee me that I'll like a game like actually playing the game for myself. Call me spoiled but after being a 360 user for so long i do expect to be able to try a game before I even decide to put in money.
uncle jesse @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:18PM
Now I can finally try out Let's Catch for free and then decide if I want to pay for the extra catching available in the full game...
What?
Fernando Rocker @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:23PM
I bet that you peopel who are bashing the WiiWare service, are people who don't even own a Wii.
Problem is, you guys always remember the bad games, but you never remember the good games. WiiWare has excellent games and very original titles not available at any other service, and at a pretty good price.
These are the games I have: Mega Man 9, World of Goo, Lost Winds, Toki Tori, Final Fantasy: My Life as a King, Final Fantasy: My Life as a Darklord, Sword & Soldiers, NyxQuest, Alien Crush Returns, Bomberman Blast, Tetris Party, Art Style: Orbient, Art Style: Cubello, Art Style: Rotohex, Space Invaders Get Even, Bubble Bobble Plus, Arkanoid Plus, You, Me and the Cubes, Let's Catch, Defend your Castle, Dr. Mario, Gyrostarr, Driift Mania, all the StrongBad series, Gradius ReBirth, Contra ReBirth and of course, my favorite WiiWare series: Bit.Trip Beat and Core.
And soon we will have Bit.Trip Void (and 3 more games in the series), La Mulana, Cave Story, Super Meat Boy, Castleania ReBirth, etc...
Name a bad game on my current WiiWare games. Every title I have is excellent, and it's definitely a nice addition to my Wii collection.
uncle jesse @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:27PM
Lighten up. Nintendo, MS, and Sony all offer a wide variety of great games and lots of crap to choose from.
Fernando Rocker @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:31PM
Really, I'm just reading the list of the games I have (I have my Wii turned on... I was watching the Weekly Show at the Nintendo Channel), and I was surprised by how much money I have spent on the WiiWare service, and non of my games are bad. Not a single one (well, maybe Gyrostarr).
uncle jesse @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:37PM
Well, different tastes, right? Some of them aren't that hot, but there's lots of good ones on there, that's for sure.
Also, how do you manage all of that content? Is your Wii full or what?
Fernando Rocker @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:41PM
Well... the Wii storage problem was fixed a long time ago... firmware version 4.0 introduced the SD Card Channel (you can use SDHC cards up to 32GB of storage... I have an 8GB card and I still have plenty of space).
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/25/walkthrough-using-wii-system-menu-4-0s-sd-card-channel/
Orion @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:50PM
Dude, chill out. I can't speak for everyone here, but most of us (including myself) own or have owned a Wii. In fact, it's kinda hard to find gamers who haven't.
But hey, you'll blindly defend everything they do as normal and refuse to see how lousy of a service it really is compared to others. I'm sorry, but you really can't compare WiiWare to Live, or even PSN for that matter. I'm not saying there aren't good games there.. there are a few that I bought and liked.. but I'd hardly call WiiWare a "selling feature" for the Wii.
All in all, chill out, buy some other systems, and enjoy games for them too. You might find out you're relentlessly defending the company who's not really putting out the best goods be it online or offline.
Orion @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:51PM
PS:
Don't try to counter my statement with a List ware either. I can make a pretty good list of great titles for the Virtual Boy and N Gage, but it doesn't mean I'd recommend buying them.
Fernando Rocker @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:56PM
Orion... when did I say that PSN or Live Arcade didn't have good games?
I have a PS3 (heck, I even play online with tmac) and I had a 360 (in fact, I own tons of 360 games and I still buy games for the system, but I won't buy other system until the console is more reliable).
sam @ Nov 3rd 2009 5:10PM
Bad game: Alien Crush Returns. Sorry, it's crap. Probably the worst WiiWare game I tried (note - there are very many worse WiiWare games, but I didn't buy those).
I think the best computer pinball game I ever played was Epic Pinball. And only the shareware table of that one was any good! Damn. (Yeah, yeah, different opinions, some people like Alien Crush even though it's self-evidently shite, etc.)
I forgot about You, Me and the Cube. Hmmm. Maybe I should pick that up.
SoshiKitai @ Nov 3rd 2009 5:50PM
"Don't try to counter my statement with a List ware either. I can make a pretty good list of great titles for the Virtual Boy and N Gage, but it doesn't mean I'd recommend buying them."
There's a problem with that statement:
1. You have to buy those in order to play the games... only a few rare people still own a VB or NG, so recommending those few games to the ones who don't have either of those wouldn't be the same as recommending WiiWare games to those who already own a Wii.
2. Virtual Boy, no matter how good the games were (I enjoyed some) could never replace the backbreaking positions you had to get into to play them (hunching forward or downwards for hours) + the damage that thing did to your eyes once you went back into normal lighting. So that's still not a fair comparison.
3. People look down on WiiWare too much, including Wii owners. There are pretty decent games in there other than the list given. However, those games weren't exactly top quality, but they added something to the system that no other systems offered.
We're not saying WiiWare's the best, but we're saying that it's not such a crapfest as everyone makes it out to be. They say it fails in comparison to XBLA or PSN, but really I've seen as much crapfest coming from those two as well. At least some developers are trying in WiiWare, and you gotta' give them that credit instead of just bashing on it just because "Nintendo let you down (whine whine)".
The Adventures of Cesaria Across the 8th Dimension! @ Nov 3rd 2009 6:11PM
Seeing Fernando put up a list of WiiWare games brought back good memories of Joystiq circa '06. Ah, those were the good days.
Warlock @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:25PM
Nintendo baffles me sometimes. Iwata explains the problem - "People who don't spend their time reading video game news/review sites have no knowledge about WiiWare titles and don't buy", and yet he doesn't think demos, you know, the thing that lets you try out a game before you buy it, will promote sales??
I really don't get this philosophy. I can tell you right now, if there had not been demos for Crackdown or Dead Rising on Xbox 360, there is no way I would now own those games. I 100% bought those games based on how much I enjoyed the demos for them. I just don't understand why Nintendo doesn't see that free demos = sales...
Arex @ Nov 3rd 2009 6:07PM
The "problem" with demos (from the developer's standpoint) is that they can also cut into sales (of subpar products). For every game that someone buys because he or she enjoyed a demo immensely, there are probably five games that the person won't pick up specifically because he or she either thought the demo sucked, or got his or her fill of the game based on the demo alone.
In that sense, the consumer wins doubly because he or she can avoid steaming piles of garbage, while forcing developers to step up their games by generating sales based on developing quality products instead of tricking the consumer with pretty box art.
As for myself, I like demos because I no longer have time to play games for more than a couple of minutes at a time anyway, so they allow me to experience new games without having to shell out any money for a product that I will, in all likelihood, not have an opportunity to use anyway. (I'm still only partially through Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3 and Super Mario Galaxy after so many years of Wii ownership. So sad.)
Sempuukyaku @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:25PM
"There was no word on whether Nintendo would also try the controversial "advertising" method of promotion, wherein a company tells its customers about its games."
Sigh....this type of ridiculous tripe is what videogame journalism has been reduced to now. Sad really.
Anyway, Excitebike comes out next week on WiiWare! Whoo!
Roto13 @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:34PM
´´There was no word on whether Nintendo would also try the controversial "advertising" method of promotion, wherein a company tells its customers about its games.´´
I get emails about every single WiiWare update every week. More WiiWare games get advertising than full retail games, probably.
Warlock @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:35PM
Only because you signed up for their newsletters.
Nigeria: Charmy Bee DF @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:42PM
There's probably a bunch of games I'd like to test on the Wiiware service, but, even with this demo scheme, navigating through that awfully slow interface would be too much of a pain.
Or maybe it's just my connection.
A demo was the reason why I bought Jurassic Park Operation Genesis on the Xbox. With such little press coverage of both both VC and Wiiware, Nintendo should have gotten around to this ages ago - yes, I'm one of the ten guys that still care about the VC.
GohanGVO @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:47PM
It's your connection.
INNUENDO 64 @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:49PM
i still kind of care about vc. i occasionally check to see of there's anything good in the new releases because i already bought all the games currently on there that i want
Warlock @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:56PM
It's not your connection - Wii menus are very slow.
sam @ Nov 3rd 2009 5:13PM
Agree - if demos take as long to load as the full games (or even any proportion of that), don't think I'll bother. The DS demos are cool, but I imagine they're rather smaller.
Could be my connection too, it's not very fast.
TheOverlord#2[ OMGITSJAD on Youtube :D] @ Nov 3rd 2009 11:14PM
If you have a hard time downloading Wii Shop Channel games, then it's your connection. I just downloaded Zombies ate my Neighbors a few days ago and Mario & Luigi didn't even get to swim through the screen before the download completed.(and that's on a crappy few year old router)
Mark @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:47PM
I've been begging for WiiWare demos on Club Nintendo surveys for a while now, citing demos as a reason for purchasing a lot of DS games. This isn't confirmation of demos for North America, but it's demos for somewhere - better than nothing.
Atlantis1982 @ Nov 4th 2009 12:44AM
Watch they only do this in Japan, and see that they don't get many people using the demos and say, "Ah fark it, bad idea."
Jake'm @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:49PM
I believe many people have said this already, but what the hell.
About fucking time.
Mr Khan @ Nov 3rd 2009 4:51PM
It's strange for them to make a move at a time like this. Not that it isn't welcomed, but you figure that's the sort of thing you either have planned from the beginning or just don't do at all, not introduce halfway through the life-cycle.