Topic: Dsiware question

now i'm not complaing, i want that to be clear. But i been wondering lately to why dsiware games are still coming out, especially in high volumes? The 3DS has been out for over a year now and sold a decent number. By now i would think that the eshop would be pumping out 2-3 3dsware games every week. instead it's dsiware that takes that role. is it due to a backlog of games that nintendo had for the eshop? is it a budget thing, that dsiware is cheaper to create? or is it due to the number of dsi handheld out there?

thanks for your comments and opinions in advance

It's probably a mixture of things.

There's a larger audience (both DSi & 3DS owners), so potentially greater profit to be made. I'd imagine they'd be somewhat more inexpensive to produce (again, meaning it might not take as much to get their money back, and thus start profiting sooner).

Also, it can take up to a year or two to get certain Japanese titles over, for whatever reason.

I like DSiWare and that's all why Nintendo keeps releasing them.

Not every developer has access/the budget to create 3DS games, while pretty much everyone and their mother can develop for DS(iWare). Still, there aren't many big-name games still in the pipeline for DSiWare. About the only announced ones are CIRCLE games (which includes another Castle Conqueror or two and @HugoSmits's upcoming one) and Ikachan (by Nicalis, but there's a different version of Ikachan coming to the eShop), and barring the 4SA re-release and the 3DS Transfer Tool, the last 1st party DSiWare title was Snapdots iirc, which came out in October 2010. (Side note: Holy S*** it's been over two years since a proper 1st-party DSiWare game)

I hope they start dishing out at least DS titles on the eShop, I'd like to buy Super Princess Peach and a few others on eShop

I can't see how it would make more cash unless you already have a DSiWare devkit or the price is even more ridiculous to an extreme degree.

I mean, at the very least, almost all 3DSWare games have ratings in the hundreds and plenty in the thousands, which mark a fraction of the sales. The same can't be said for DSiWare, with great games like Digger Dan & Kaboom and Flipper still stuck in the double-digits. Developers also have a lot more freedom with much more memory and faster CPU speeds. Gimmicky 3D only helps sales.

If we ever get another DSiWare game like X-Scape, I'll be depressed knowing it won't sell as well.

I think it is because DSiWare is an easy platform to develop for, which attracts indie games without huge budget, which are by far the majority of the latest DSiWare releases. Even though most of these devs don't make much money on DSiWare, I think its acts well as a stepping stone to bigger projects.

But wouldn't it make more sense to bring it to 3DSWare? Not for the 3D feature but the amount of file size they are allowed to have. Either that or allow the dsiware to have some 3ds features like suspension feature. Even the NES games have that.

Also thanks for the awesome comments above. Especially from Morphtroid, i knew they had to be doing this for someone

Keep them coming