According to a report in the U.K.'s Develop magazine, as it prepares for its North American WiiWare launch on May 12, Nintendo is "actively briefing studios" on what makes the downloadable games service such a great platform to make titles for.
In particular, Nintendo looks to be stressing the fact that their service won't be flooded with retro titles and more importantly that developers can get a better royalty payout on WiiWare than on Xbox Live Arcade or PlayStation Network. Develop said that Microsoft recently halved the royalties paid for first-party Xbox Live Arcade from 70 percent to 35 percent for games that generate less than $4 million in revenues; that rate reportedly approaches 50 percent, however, when sales figures go over the magic $4 million.
"Nintendo has made it very clear to us that we'll not only be making a better royalty rate from WiiWare games, but we'll also have a better chance of selling games - the service won't be clogged up with the retro titles that have blighted the chances of many independent studios on Xbox Live Arcade," said one anonymous studio business development boss.
Another developer for WiiWare was even more blunt when it comes to Microsoft's service and the glut of classic titles: "Frankly, we're not looking at making games for Xbox Live Arcade because the service is full of sh*t."
Full of sh*t or no, Xbox Live is still the clear leader with over 10 million members, and Arcade has certainly been a successful endeavor for Microsoft. PlayStation Network and WiiWare/Virtual Console will have some catching up to do.
