WiiWare (Wii Software in the UK) developers have revealed Nintendo's "secret war" with Xbox Live Arcade, in a series of chats with game dev website Develop.

The developers, who are conveniently speaking under conditions of anonymity, have revealed Nintendo's plans to capitalise on developer's frustrations with Xbox Live Arcade, which recently had its developer royalties slashed in half.

According to Develop, Nintendo has been pitching to studios what it says is a "more flexible" game download service. Allegedly, it's also been plugging the fact that unlike XBLA, WiiWare won't be clogged with retro releases - something goat man Jeff Minter famously threw a wobbly over.

"Nintendo has made it very clear to us that we'll not only be making a better royalty rate from WiiWare games, but we'll also have a better chance of selling games - the service won't be clogged up with the retro titles that have blighted the chances of many independent studios on Xbox Live Arcade," said one studio boss, who didn't want to be named.

Another WiiWare developer added: "Frankly, we're not looking at making games for Xbox Live Arcade because the service is full of shit," pointing at its abundance of retro titles. Big words for an anonymous man.

WiiWare is set to launch in Japan at the end of the month with launch games including Pokémon Ranch, Dr. Mario and Star Soldier R. Yep, no retro remakes there at all.

Courtesy of CVG.

Mar 14, 2008