Yet the Nintendo talisman praises the platform’s capacity for opportunities
Nintendo Development GM Shigeru Miyamoto has questioned the benefits of digital distribution for game developers.
Though the dev pioneer acknowledged that digital distribution can offset certain costs – “packaging and things like that” – he claimed that “it's not changing how much money [developers are] bringing in.”
In an interview with SiliconValley, Miyamoto said that digital delivery hadn’t shifted Nintendo’s focus.
“However, I think it creates a lot of opportunity for a lot of different developers,” he added.
“The thing for us is we really don't see the future of video games being merely confined to digital distribution or moving solely or even to a majority of our products being distributed that way.”
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The longstanding developer said that despite using digital platforms such as iTunes, he feels more “reassured” owning physical data.
“Entertainment is something that will not just become digital. If I look at Wii MotionPlus, this is something that you're not doing via digital distribution,” he said.
Miyamoto regretted not being able to discuss some software projects Nintendo is working on with the Wii’s newest peripheral curiosity, the Wii Vitality Sensor, though assured that the company has “lots of very creative ideas” in the pipeline.
More can be found at SiliconValley.
I've heard a lot of indie developers are making a pretty penny on iphone apps, a platform that's astoundingly more powerful than miyamoto's beloved wii (tinyurl/kvdyok).
OK some of the retro games they offer are cool, metal gear for the neo-geo and sonic et-all. But why people would ever pay Nintendo for such aged downloadable content when they've been accessible via emulators for a while baffles the noggin.
Yeah a lot of devs are making money from the App Store, but for every success story there's ten devs quietly licking their wounds about Apps which didn't turn a profit.
No idea how you can claim the iPhone is more powerful than the Wii. It isn't, in both processor speed and GPU power and (i think) memory.
Funny you should be surprised that the mass media isn't using emulators. As an iPhone fan yourself (guess), surely you know why millions of people are downloading legitimate copies of songs via iTunes, instead of jumping on the torrent boat.
iTunes, the Wii, the iPhone:
All massive successes. All ridiculously simple to use! :)
Follow the tinyurl link, which I provided to give you an idea, youll have to add the .com bit in yourself.
I wasn't surprised, I was only outlining a reason why miyamoto might not think that downloadables are all that important, then again I don't have a wii so admit im not fully aware of whats on offer - I cited the iphone purely to illustrate a success story of this model.
Link to the extended article appears broken.
