Wii Ware info reveals 40MB cap for games - ideal fit for your fridge
No fatties on Wii Ware, please. Those obese games with megabytes of data rolling over the top of their belts had better get into shape: Nintendo are only allowing those weighing in at skinny 40MB or less onto their download service, according to an info drop on IGN’s Wii podcast this week. All you graphic intensive games, go off and cry on the PC, you big bloated pigs.
Evidently, Nintendo are going to lengths to ensure that the lack of memory space on the Wii doesn’t become too much of a problem, at least not initially. In comparison to the Wii’s limit, the Xbox 360’s arcade service originally capped games at 50MB to cater for their non-hard drive users. It didn’t take long, however, for that to balloon to 150MB in order to accommodate certain titles, e.g. Symphony of the Night.
We’re sure the Wii won’t go the same way. Nintendo have put across that they want to focus on ideas rather than spectacle for Wii Ware. As an incentive, they’ll be making sure that those developers who work their magic on making files as small as possible will be rewarded better than those who don’t. Additionally, they’re restricting each developer to only one title a month in order to stop shovelware and thus force people to use each opportunity to create something small but worthwhile instead.
You might think we’d be concerned about a 40MB limit. Not at all. When you’ve got infinite space to work with sometimes you tend to get lazy and cut corners (or delay for years and years). Some of the best games come out of restrictions imposed on game makers. When they don’t have their precious cut scenes and HDR lighting, they’ve got nothing to do except create something that plays good. Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network have already thrown out a few gems, and surely Wii Ware will do the same. Well, that’s the theory, at least. Don’t blame us if it doesn’t work out that way.
As for pricing, it looks like this will be the developer’s decision, not Nintendo. Which is a little surprising. We wouldn’t have expected such an open market policy on the Wii. We’ll take this piece of news with a slight pinch of salt just now.
Source: Nintendic
Related posts: How Pop popped onto Wii Ware, Iwata: over 100 WiiWare games in development
Loading ...
November 14th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Nintendo commented about this but they didn’t reveal much. They didn’t say whether they are confirming what it said in the IGN podcast.
They said something about: ‘We said there were going to a variety of sizes, but the smaller, more compact games will be rewarded more…’ or something