Nintendo is pushing digital retail games aggressively with the Wii U and its new eShop service, according to a source who spoke with Wii U Daily. The source, working at a European developer who previously informed on Wii U Achievements (a report which was later confirmed by Nintendo), said that Nintendo is taking digital downloads seriously this time. He said Nintendo wants to offer all retail games — first and third party titles– available as downloadable titles on the console via the Wii U eShop.
“They’re offering insane incentives for publishers to sell retail games as downloads on the console. You’d be stupid not to take advantage of it and go retail box-only”, he said, adding “The new platform is perfect for indie devs, it’s a whole different ball game than WiiWare. They’ve learned a lot from that mess”.
When we asked what the “insane incentives” on the Wii U eShop were, he replied: “It’s just a much bigger revenue cut that you’d get selling it on any other platform at the moment, plus promotions on the online store. If they [Nintendo] pull it off and it gains traction, it’ll press the other guys [Microsoft and Sony] to give more of the revenue to the publishers. It’s very good for us who make games”.
“They’re offering insane incentives for publishers to sell retail games as downloads on the console. You’d be stupid not to take advantage of it and go retail box-only”Back in April at the annual shareholders meeting and analyst conference call, Nintendo revealed that they would offer full retail Wii U games as digital downloads at launch. The company didn’t provide any other specifics. A few days ago, the company reiterated that it had learned from the mistakes it made with the 3DS launch, where it wasn’t possible to download games and content. This comes from Nintendo UK’s David Yarnton, who said that the Wii U will launch with a larger portfolio of games and a games download service.
Many have proclaimed digital game sales as the way of the future, and Nintendo appears to be taking it very seriously this time around. One question still remains unanswered: how much storage will the Wii U have available for games? It’s been rumored to be around only 8 GB, which would barely hold a single game these days (the Wii U disc supports up to 25 GB by comparison). Of course, players will be able to hook up any USB storage device and store their games there.
“You’ll be making a lot more per unit sold digitally than at retail with the Wii U. And from day one”, the source concluded. We’ll have to wait and see what Nintendo has in store for us. No pun intended.
