AfterDawn: News

Nintendo adds full demos to WiiWare

Nintendo will add fully playable demos for video games to WiiWare in an effort to increase traffic to the stagnant Wii Shopping Channel.

CEO Satoru Iwata confirmed recently to shareholders that WiiWare and DSiWare remain small markets and that the Shopping Channel and the DSi Shop are only browsed by gamers who have looked up games they want to purchase beforehand.



Iwata says by introducing the playable demos, the company hopes to increase traffic to the channel and add to sales. The CEO readily admits that demos will not solve the problem all together, however, says GI.biz.

The demos will start in Japan next month and move globally sometime after.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 4 Nov 2009 21:48

• Previous article

• Five PSP bundles headed to Japan

• Next article

• Secret ACTA Internet chapter leaked: Global DMCA and 'three strikes'

• 9 comments

• KSib

  It seems like Nintendo is behind once again in the Internet technology department. Everyone else has had downloadable demos except for them. I really need to dust off my Wii...

  5.11.2009 06:55 #1

• Gh0ce

  What they need to do to make them better than "everyone else" is to have decent playable demos. Do the demo's like how they used to do the shareware games (like castle of the winds or duke nukem or commander keen or doom or ....): give you a ton of stuff to play with for free to get addicted to the game, then charge you to keep going with your half finished story. Castle of the winds I played through (took quite a few hours to level up and all that junk) and after finishing it, I thought that I needed to finish #2 to complete the story.
  I don't like the demo's that start you half way through the game, where you know nothing of the story or what is going on, and you have too high of a level or too much ammo or too strong of weapons and it makes the game seem super easy (like the ff12 demo). Make the demo start at the START of the game, and let you play through to get addicted. Then make you buy the game in order to complete the story (but offer a way to "continue" from where the demo left off...).
  Just my 2 cents...
  The Gh0ce_>0

  5.11.2009 10:58 #2

• emugamer

  Originally posted by Gh0ce: What they need to do to make them better than "everyone else" is to have decent playable demos. Do the demo's like how they used to do the shareware games (like castle of the winds or duke nukem or commander keen or doom or ....): give you a ton of stuff to play with for free to get addicted to the game, then charge you to keep going with your half finished story. Castle of the winds I played through (took quite a few hours to level up and all that junk) and after finishing it, I thought that I needed to finish #2 to complete the story.
  I don't like the demo's that start you half way through the game, where you know nothing of the story or what is going on, and you have too high of a level or too much ammo or too strong of weapons and it makes the game seem super easy (like the ff12 demo). Make the demo start at the START of the game, and let you play through to get addicted. Then make you buy the game in order to complete the story (but offer a way to "continue" from where the demo left off...).
  Just my 2 cents...
  The Gh0ce_>0+1
  I like that unique concept!!

  5.11.2009 11:58 #3

• hastypete

  What they need to do is charge $1 for NES games instead of $5

  5.11.2009 15:14 #4

• KSib

  I like that idea a lot Gh0ce. Also, that $1 for NES games idea is only something us poor people are interested in. People with jobs don't really care that much about $5 on an NES game so I don't see that changing.

  5.11.2009 19:50 #5

• jpc1284

  i still think the wii brings video games to new level becuase of how innovative the game play can be. i just wish they could make good games that target the nintendo generation. mostly people in there mid 20's

  5.11.2009 20:30 #6

• jpc1284

  i still think the wii brings video games to new level becuase of how innovative the game play can be. i just wish they could make good games that target the nintendo generation. mostly people in there mid 20's

  5.11.2009 20:30 #7

• emugamer

  Originally posted by jpc1284: i still think the wii brings video games to new level becuase of how innovative the game play can be. i just wish they could make good games that target the nintendo generation. mostly people in there mid 20'sEarly to mid 30's wippersnapper! I've got 7 years of Nintendo on you!

  5.11.2009 21:59 #8

• Unfocused

  @emugamer
  
  Right on! I've been jamming on Mario since it was released in '84. Know Your Roots!

  6.11.2009 00:27 #9