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The Wii Shop channel is a place where a man/woman can go, and indulge in the smaller games. Whether it be by way of the Virtual Console, or when the WiiWare Channel launches. The WiiWare titles who for the most part, will be developed by smaller developers and publishers. I found an interesting bit of news today by the way of IGN, about the pricing structure of the WiiWare titles.
Animales De Muerte, An Interesting Title Slated To Release From WiiWare
Here, is a snippet from the interview between IGN, and Andy Kniaz, the executive director of Target Toss Pro: Bags:
IGN: Finally, how much will Bags cost on WiiWare?
Andy Kniaz: In the end, Nintendo sets all pricing for WiiWare based on the game and its contents, so because we are not in the launch window final pricing hasn’t been established yet. I can say based on discussions we have had with Nintendo, that Bags will be competitively and aggressively priced. Our pay to play product usually costs about a $1 each time you play, so we believe that players will be happy with what we come up with.
It looks as though the pricing of the WiiWare titles, will be decided on by Nintendo, not the publishers. This decision leaves me a bit puzzled. While I’m not totally shocked by the decision, I’m wanting to know more about the reasoning behind it. The WiiWare channel is a portal for games to be released; Nintendo has no hold on intellectual property or the like. So I don’t see why they’re able to decide how much a game is going to be released for. This decision tends to be left up to the publishers, since they have a financial stake in it.
The most interesting aspect of this is how devs and publishers will react to it. I’d venture to say that alot of publishers are going to want a say for how much their product sells for. Of course, going by Kniaz’s statement, he doesn’t seem to be all that worried about it. So what are your thoughts on the topic, is Nintendo too involved in the process? Or are they just making sure that pricing stays fair?
