The title say it all. I found it quite strange that a lot of indie and kick-starter funding give stretch goal just for Wii U instead of Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, and PS4. I found it quite odd. Indies are developing for Wii U as a side while triple A publishers or developers are pulling Wii U support away from their games lately.
My question is:
What encourage these indies to develop games for the Wii U console?
Why the triple A publishers and developers pulling support away while indies trying to support the Wii U?
Its look like an equation such as:
decrease triple A support = increase indie support
increase triple A support = decrease indie support
Guesses:
1. Developers wanted to put stuff specifically on Nintendo for a while but Wii U is where it felt apparent Nintendo was being far more open and smarter with their downloadable gaming service.
2. Other places are already bombarded with indies every day so this is a chance for some games to find an audience where they might have gotten lost elsewhere
3. Nintendo's been actively working with certain indies that they feel go well with Nintendo (this is somewhat confirmed to be true in some instances)
4. Indies now have far less competition. I think the highest selling game on the eShop outside of Wind Waker HD (which was a downloadable code for all of the Wind Waker bundles btw) is Trine 2.
What encourage these indies to develop games for the Wii U console?
Nintendo offers the "Unity Engine" as well as their own "Nintendo Web Framework" for free for indie developers if they develop for the WiiU. That's a big initiative to develop for the system.
Why the triple A publishers and developers pulling support away while indies trying to support the Wii U?
Because developing a AAA-game cost a TON more than making a indie game. The whole point in creating a game is to at least get your money back and hopefully more, if it seems like you won't get anything in return, why even bother with the product?
So; Indie devs can earn money on the WiiU since their development process is usually a lot cheaper while bigger games tend to cost a lot more and won't sell enough to warrant the development costs.
These guys grew up on Nintendo consoles and for a lot of them it's a dream come true to see their titles on a Nintendo system. I think many of them are fans of how Nintendo's not influenced by the demand of violence, sexualisation, etc in games.
That, and there's fewer competition on Nintendo's online services than the alternatives.
I think a crucial factor is that these developers see that the Wii U has a game flow problem and think that their games will sell better from the lack of competition.
Nintendo lost the western third parties and are desperate for indies in the west.
That's not even what happened.
yeah, that happened in reverse order. (half-serious)
Well, they made it easy for indies to publish and develop for Wii U, before 3rd party support was questioned. I'm fairly certain that geting indies on Wii U, is easier than it is for Xbox One and PS4.
Indies would probably rather have their games on a new platform(ruling out Xbox 360/PS3), as well, so that leaves Wii U as the most viable option.
I don't even really think 3rd parties are abandoning Wii U. It can support a majority of upcoming games, so it would literally all be down to politics or intentions of said company. EA, Ubisoft, Capcom, Konami, Sega, and Namco still haven't ruled out support. They may not be releasing games for the system, but that's mainly because of information and plans that are being discussed, privately(admittedly in or out of favor, but that still doesn't mean anything, either way).
I actually wouldn't be surprised if Ubisoft drops support, because they've basically lost the most out of any big company, for Wii U. That's presumably when EA would start supporting them, but none of us know exactly what's happening, so that's just a wild guess. There's been some unrelated weirdness, regarding Watch_Dogs, so that might play a role.
All the aforementioned companies, above, do have their newest engines running for Wii U, so... I just find it interesting how all these companies had seemingly high hopes for Wii U, but once Xbox One and PS4 got announced, they shifted focus. I think Nintendo having the only next gen console gave immediate hope and inspiration, but Microsoft and Sony reacted quickly, causing that shift of focus.
Nintendo seems to be offering a pretty cheap development environment in the Wii U; I expect the only platforms that would be cheaper to develop for would be PC/Mac/iOS/Android, but unlike those marketplaces you have a less-crowded shop to sell in. Seems like a pretty low-risk endeavour if your budget isn't tens of millions of dollars. Plus you get the "wow" of having your game appear on the current console of the company that made that grey box you played games on as a kid.
Could be a weird split of big titles appearing on PC/iOS/Android/PSBONE and indie titles appearing on PC/iOS/Android/Wii U. I'm sure 3DS fits in their somewhere, but that seems a little more involved to get to grips with. From recent statements it looks like future devices from Nintendo will run the same OS so the split between mobile and console titles will go away - pretty groovy.
as to Kickstarter they know Wii U has not many games and Nintendo has lot of fanboys who are willing to put money down just so their beloved console gets so game, they are basically exploiting nintendo fanboyism...... as to non-kickstarter games I guess is the same situation as in Vita, lack of competition from triple A titles means little games have a better chance of being noticed in Vita or Wii U than on the other platforms.
These guys grew up on Nintendo consoles and for a lot of them it's a dream come true to see their titles on a Nintendo system. I think many of them are fans of how Nintendo's not influenced by the demand of violence, sexualisation, etc in games.
That, and there's fewer competition on Nintendo's online services than the alternatives.
Pretty much this. The indie guys are fans of Nintendo and putting their game on a Nintendo console is a feather in their cap. Nothing else to it beyond that.
To be completely pessimistic I think a good chunk of the Kickstarter indie support was for two reasons.
1.The xbox indie stuff hadn't been done yet.
2.Kickstarter is paying for the development of the Wii U version.
I'd also take into consideration for traditionally funded projects that the Wii U will probably in the long road have less compettion than the XBO and PS4. Plus a lot of the big guys are like Shinen who primarily work on Nintendo consoles only.
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Nintendo offers the "Unity Engine" as well as their own "Nintendo Web Framework" for free for indie developers if they develop for the WiiU.
That's 99% of the reason I think. It was a brilliant move by Nintendo and it pays off. Lots of indie projects in the pipeline, hopefully they will be released consistently.
These guys grew up on Nintendo consoles and for a lot of them it's a dream come true to see their titles on a Nintendo system. I think many of them are fans of how Nintendo's not influenced by the demand of violence, sexualisation, etc in games.
That, and there's fewer competition on Nintendo's online services than the alternatives.
Pretty much this. The indie guys are fans of Nintendo and putting their game on a Nintendo console is a feather in their cap. Nothing else to it beyond that.
Monetary reasons are going to trump loyalty, where there is any level of risk involved. So from what I've seen, Nintendo is embracing indie games more than we've seen even their competitor companies achieve.
These guys grew up on Nintendo consoles and for a lot of them it's a dream come true to see their titles on a Nintendo system. I think many of them are fans of how Nintendo's not influenced by the demand of violence, sexualisation, etc in games.
That, and there's fewer competition on Nintendo's online services than the alternatives.
Pretty much this. The indie guys are fans of Nintendo and putting their game on a Nintendo console is a feather in their cap. Nothing else to it beyond that.
Monetary reasons are going to trump loyalty, where there is any level of risk involved. So from what I've seen, Nintendo is embracing indie games more than we've seen even their competitor companies achieve.
You haven't been paying much attention to Sony that. have you. As far as indie support I'd say it goes
Sony>Nintendo>Microsoft
Sony is doing the best expourse wise highlighting indies at big shows like E3 and gamescom.
Nintendo is doing really good on the back end with the unity deals. All I ever here is good things about them and stuff like the super indie connection sale will only do wonders for thier PR.
Microsoft has been the slowest but the
ID@Xbox program is in oar with the other two abs they're even giving Unity Away like Nintendo started to do. I'm guessing they may pull a lead once they turn on the feature for every One unit to become a Dev kit, and pushing cross development with windows and windows phone.
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If indie devs go with Nintendo, they have access to tools like this, at no extra cost. The money they would be spending on a development kit, goes towards developing and publishing a game, instead. Nintendo is quite literally a step ahead, in this regard.
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As far as I can tell, Sony is just straight up funding select indie games. Nintendo has set up deals and benefits for all of their indie developers, so it's not restrained to ones that Sony hand picks.
If indie devs go with Nintendo, they have access to tools like this, at no extra cost. The money they would be spending on a development kit, goes towards developing and publishing a game, instead. Nintendo is quite literally a step ahead, in this regard.
Microsoft is doing the same thing also giving you unity for Windows 8 and Phone as well.
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Topic: What the deals with these indie's love for Wii U?
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