Space reserved for innovation

Apr 14, 2009 06:55 GMT  ·  By

WiiWare is more than one year old and Nintendo is still not getting more than one or two videogames on it each week. The reason for this has never been clearly explained by the company, which initially announced that WiiWare would provide a home for small titles that could be enjoyed quickly and without the need of more space on the limited Wii internal storage.

But an explanation for the limited selection of games available on the WiiWare has not been provided by the most important North American representative of Nintendo.

Reggie Fils-Aime, who is the president of Nintendo of America, has recently told GameTrailers TV that Nintendo is building its strategy for the WiiWare service not around numbers but around innovation. Those games that are sure to do well in retail are kept off the service, while more daring titles get released for digital distribution.

He said that “When we're gonna work on a Mario title, we're gonna bring it to Wii or DS. We want truly innovative content to be first launched on WiiWare. That's awfully tough to do with a Mario title.”

The model that Nintendo is watching as it tries to make WiiWare better is Microsoft's Xbox Live, which has quite a high number of members and has recently received an overhaul that makes it easier to use. But Nintendo is still more interested in getting out content that is tailor made for its audience, rather than copying what Microsoft is doing.

Still, it's pretty weird to see that Nintendo is not thinking of bringing more of its really popular titles on the WiiWare. After all, it's clear that there is a segment of gamers interested in getting the newest Mario game from WiiWare without going to a brick and mortar store, if only the Nintendo Wii had the capacity to store it.