Nintendo Confirms Work on WiiWare Games

The company is toiling away at download-only games for its new Wii service; hints at pricing.

The Wii Shop has until now served as a museum for the riches from gaming's past. Starting next year, Nintendo will be using its download marketplace to bring fresh experiences to Wii owners.

On Wednesday Nintendo announced WiiWare (tentatively named Wii Software in Europe) - a new initiative that will let game developers bring their ideas to the Wii at a fraction of the cost of going the traditional retail route.

Essentially, WiiWare will be show up in the Wii Shop as a separate platform, alongside NES, SNES and the other classic consoles. And just like Virtual Console games, WiiWare games will be bought using Wii Points at the Wii Store.

"Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit," Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime said in a statement. "WiiWare brings new levels of creativity and value to the ever-growing population of Wii owners."

Nintendo announced the initiative to developers at an event on Tuesday. There's no word on which teams have signed on, as they've only just learned about it, but Nintendo's Robert Saunders told Kikizo that Nintendo is already working on WiiWare games.

The pricing of the games is still being decided, but Saunders said it would be similar to that of games already at the Wii Shop. Virtual Console games range in price from 500 points (around £4) for NES games to 1,000 points for Nintendo 64 games.

There aren't yet any details for specific titles but Nintendo said that the first WiiWare content will be hitting the Wii Store in early 2008.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo