Nintendo announces WiiWare for 2008
Aimed at indie devs with small budgets and big ideas. Full announcement inside
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Nintendo has announced what it calls a game-creation service that will let developers (large and small) create new downloadable games that will be sold via the Wii Shop Channel.
Nintendo says WiiWare, oddly renamed "Wii Software" for Europe, "paves the way for smaller, more creative games to make their way to the public at lower prices, without any inventory risk to developers." The first WiiWare content will launch in early 2008. You'd think they'd have one or two games ready though.
"Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "WiiWare brings new levels of creativity and value to the ever-growing population of Wii owners."
Nintendo apparently announced the introduction of WiiWare at a private developers conference this week. It said that the reduced barriers to development will provide developers "the freedom to create and an inexpensive, clearly defined path to reach consumers." It's then up to you to decide the next big thing.
WiiWare will be posted on the Wii Shop Channel. As with current Wii Shop Channel offerings, you'll need to redeem Wii Points to download content. It'll support a variety of pricing options and details of upcoming projects will be announced at a later date - maybe E3 in a few weeks?
In the meantime, check out our exclusive Wii Software Q&A, in which we get answers from Nintendo on everything you want to know about the new download service.
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
June 27, 2007


