Every Wii U eShop Developer Gets A Free Unity Licence And Can Self-Publish

Lol, they announced that like a year ago

"This sudden upsurge of interest can surely be contributed to the fact"

attributed?

Yeah, this has been known for quite some time. If you look at his Twitter feed in context, he was referencing it as an example for why the positive media spin on the recent news that Microsoft offers free Unity licenses to people who develop games published by Microsoft Studios is unwarranted.

I just hope Hat in Time's eShop release won't be too far from the Steam version's.

Insanely promising news. Good stuff Nintendo!

thats awesome! this means microsoft are in trouble unless they change their attitude with indies.

@MilesVor Excactly. xD

I want to be an exclusive developer for NINTENDO, and this just sweetens the deal.

We're working on a couple things that might appear on Wii U sometime later this year.
Nothing big at first, but it'd be exciting to release something on a Nintendo platform.

"Keeping all revenue & no pitching and no negotiation"
Well, nintendo still takes a cut at the door as it is their platform, of course. And you do have to submit the game to their quality control, before it is released which is still a little bit on the strict side compared for instance to Android.

Man, I'd love to become a Wii U indie developer but I know they'll only be giving that to developers that are already pretty successful or that they know are going to make games that sell lots of copies. My company wouldn't even get accepted as an official developer in the first place.

@Kirk
Never say never. They've loosened up CONSIDERABLY on the terms for who they accept as a developer, and they're willing to loan out development kits free of charge until you actually release something with them.

@Pod
Well how do I even get in touch with them in the first place regarding this?

I can't see any obvious developer contacts or a developer registration page on their site or anything like that...

WarioWorld.com is for large developers, but the indies can start out by going to
https://wiiu-developers.nintendo.com/ and filling out the short form.

@Pod
Cool.

Cheers.

@allav866 A Hat in Time doesn't have a confirmed eShop release. That game's built in Unreal Development Kit (UDK) rather than Unity, which is not free to eShop developers. It's inexpensive to develop for PC with UDK (with the basic engine being free and a fee required to start selling), but apparently a lot less so on consoles. They're still looking for a publisher who can provide the UDK license necessary for an eShop release.

And on another note, it doesn't have a confirmed Steam release yet either, mostly because Steam Greenlight is a terrible system.

@Pod
I'd heard of the WarioWorld.com site, and was planning to apply there in order to get a Dev kit, but hadn't heard of the Wii-developers.nintendo.

Is the dev kit hardware the main difference?

@Dyltheman unless...? I think they're in trouble anyway, in the gaming market. Wouldn't know how their latest Windows is doing... still using XP since I rarely need it anyway.

It's good to see indies showing an interest in the console.
Can't wait to see good things from all of you on the Wii U.^_^

Heh-ha! This is pretty amazing. Unity support on the WiiU has been overwhelmingly positive so far. This just sweetens the deal.

i'm gonna put myself to game programming soon then I too will put up a game on eshop

@Foxxen
The difference is that the Wiiu-developers site has a shorter application form, and they will get back to you more quickly. You will then be asked to fill out the WarioWorld.com application afterwards, but they will secure you a shorter processing time for your application (down to under a week from 4-6 weeks.)

In the end the result is the same, and the development kits are something you order from WarioWorld.com, but the processing time is shorter, and your first application can be sent without having all the informations they ask about in the long form.

I wonder if this free Unity license can be used to push games to other platforms including Wii U.

@BeeZeroOne1: Huh, I was just wondering today why I saw so many Microsoft Studios published indie games on Steam lately.

I hope the news of this gets spread to the ears of other developers. Why constrain your game to PC and 360 (and in the future, XBone) because it's in the hands of Microsoft when you can get an SDK liscense from Nintendo and keep your publishing rights, allowing you to port to other consoles?

If that's the case, and we've known about this for a year now, it begs the question why he only released Retro City Rampage on the Wii, and not the Wii U.

@Pod

Thanks Pod! I'll start at https://wiiu-developers.nintendo.com/ and see where it takes me!

My only concern is Game Development experience(havent released any commercial titles), however im a senior at a University learning modeling, rigging, animation, and design hopefully that will be enough to qualify.

@Pod
Thanks! I've been writing software for 11 years now for Windows, OS X and a little on Linux. Would love to get something on the WiiU. I wonder if you can still publish for Wii too?

@Pod but how many of those untested games are fuil of adware, viruses and constantly crash? A lot of them, and it makes sense they have to pass muster as no one wants to pay for a crap game, just look at the War Z on Steam, absolutely a terrible game with a cash grab mindframe worse than any other Ive ever seen.

wiiU versoin of retro city rampage!

Hmm... how long does it take to get a response from Nintendo? I already filled out the developer form about a week ago.

@BlackStar9000
Oh I'm certainly not sad in any way that Nintendo still enforces quality control, even on self-published titles.

I'm just notifying people that it may seem somewhat strict compared to OUYA and Google Play, where anything goes, and things become available the moment you submit them. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Nobody likes rubbing shoulders with broken garbage.

But you do have to wait up to a few weeks from submitting a game until it's available, is what I hear.