Topic: Nintendo Should Support WiiWare With First-Party Games

When WiiWare was launched, a big deal was made out of it being an excellent opportunity for indie developers, and rightly so. Excellent games such as World of Goo, Lost Winds and Bit.Trip have come from 2D Boy, Frontier and Gaijin, handing these developers a success they likely wouldn't have achieved in the vast world of retail.

However, what I also hoped for from WiiWare was some Nintendo input. I'm a big fan of peripheral characters, be it Ralph Wiggum in The Simpsons or Scruffy in Futurama or Toad in the Mario series. Mario has his franchise, Luigi took the lead in Luigi's Mansion (and should appear in another game, but that's another rant), Yoshi's platformers were fun, Peach had a go in a surprise delight and Wario has taken a crazy diversion.

But what about Toad? And Bowser? Branching outwards, after the character's success in Brawl, Meta Knight would be a perfect platforming hero. Rather than just have these characters knocking around waiting for the next sport or racer or Smash Bros title, give them their own games. WiiWare is a perfect medium for this; low risk, short and sweet games. Sure, Nintendo wouldn't make a shedload of profit (which is no doubt the reason behind their absence from WiiWare), but there would be profit. Plus, it would draw recognition to WiiWare, benefiting third parties. If a Mario fan with no previous care for WiiWare checks the service out hearing there's a Bowser platformer, what are the chances he might be tempted by Lost Winds or Max and the Magic Marker? A lot, I'd say.

Nintendo owe it to the fans and third parties to raise the awareness of the excellent WiiWare service. Plus, I would do just about anything to play a cartoony Meta Knight hack 'n' slash platformer.

Wow what a great idea.

Nintendo really has put alot of games on the Wiiware service. None of them are games with characters from a Nintendo franchise with the exception of 3 of them but alot of good has come out of Nintendo. Art Style, Bonsai Barber, and Fluidity being the most notable for me. That's not to say I don't want franchise games, I do. I do think they would make significant profit though. Have you seen Pokemon Rumble, Dr. Mario Online Rx and Mario vs. DK 3? they have all been in their service's top 20 since they all came out. People eat up Nintendo franchises and I think that's why they're scarce, they're trying to protect third parties.

There was an interview sometime last year where Reggie said Nintendo wouldn't be putting first-party games onto WiiWare because they wanted the service to focus on more innovative content, or something like that. there's video of that interview out there as well if you'd like to google it.

Nope, I want them to continue making full retail games

I think Nintendo's made the right choice, personally. They already have more on there and making more money on them than they really should be IMHO. Give the little guy a chance, man!

Agreed it should be more about innovation. A chance for less known developers to have a shot at making something good.

I totally disagree.
WiiWare is great because Nintendo isn't a source of competition.