14 DAY TRIAL // While online services can make or break a console these days, only Microsoft and Sony have really taken on each other in an arms race and are trying to implement every new feature into their Xbox Live and PlayStation Network services. Nintendo has, for the most part, been content with releasing WiiWare and steadily revealing small downloadable games that didn't really gain a lot of success.
This is why most Wii owners “don't even think about going online” with their console, at least according to Team17 studio director Martyn Brown, who talked to VideoGamer about online services and how his company's upcoming new Worms game and Alien Breed: Evolution titles are download-only.
While the Worms franchise already made an appearance on the Wii, thanks to the THQ-published Worms: A Space Oddity, Brown did mention that a WiiWare download-only title would soon appear for the small but extremely popular white console. Until then, Nintendo has to re-educate its users in terms of using digital download services.
“For WiiWare, we are actually doing a title on WiiWare Worms, we just have to see how that works. Nintendo have maybe got some re-educating of their marketplace with regards digital downloads,” Brown said. “A lot of the hardcore are downloading stuff. I just don't think people even think about going online with the Wii. It's a social, family thing.”
“We've had some sniff of numbers of what people have been doing. I think Final Fantasy stuff did really well on Wii. I would have hoped, given the strength of brand and watching it everywhere else, that maybe we've got a chance with Worms. People know it. Obviously it’s in Nintendo's interest to access the online side because that is the way everything is going to go. I think you're going to see more effort from Nintendo on that side.” he continued.
Don't forget that the Wii isn't exactly online-friendly, as gamers need to enter 12-digit Friend Codes in order to play online titles with friends. Also, the fact that it has a 512 megabyte internal memory, doesn't make it great for keeping downloadable games for very long.