New game channel for Wii

A brand new channel for Wii could be in the works, with an aim to bring original content to gamers in addition to the retro-focused thrills of the existing Virtual Console games channel, according to comments made by veteran developer Hudson Software.

John Lee, Hudson's director of marketing, was quizzed by Game Informer on the possibility of the developer bringing original content to the Virtual Console. Lee answered "No". But he then went on to advise that "in the future, you should rephrase that question to: 'Are there any plans to launch original content on some downloadable service on Wii,' and you might get a different answer".

Clearly, this isn't a direct confirmation of a new games channel but Nintendo can't be blind to the success of Xbox Live Arcade and the potential of letting developers play around with Wii's capabilities in cheap, quick-to-create original games.

Nintendo was unavailable for comment at the time of writing but we'll be hunting down a response in order to get to the bottom of this exciting tip-off.

January 26, 2007

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.