"We expect it to be longer than what Steam has, but still very competitive compared to the current console standards." Haveri noted that while Trine 2's DLC content is included with the Wii U version of the game, Nintendo has told the developer it has the same philosophy for added content as it does patches - it's free. Noting that the 20-something Trine 2 updates through Steam have been effortless (and allowed), Haveri does expect Nintendo to be a bit more in line with Microsoft and Sony when it comes to verifying and approving patches and added content. Play Though Haveri likens Nintendo's new approach for pricing to Apple and Steam, he's a bit more cautious when it comes to repeated approval processes. "Simply put they've told us that there are no basic payments for each patch (which were pretty high on most platforms) and that we can update our game almost as much as we want. "They have pushed away all of the old methods that have been established before," Haveri told me.
In the case of XBLA, the first update is free - and then you start paying. Control over initial and subsequent price payments are one thing, but what about patches or additional content downloads? Some controversy has emerged in recent years, as independent developers of games like Braid and Fez have complained about the steep prices required by publishers like Microsoft when issuing content updates. Selling for more than two of the first weeks has been very difficult on the console side so far," Haveri said. "As a small company we rely a lot on the long term sales of our games, not just how well the game does in the first month. Developers are able to track their sales, using price points as promotional tools to incentivize long-term sales. In fact it's Steam's lack of price controls (and fees) that make it so appealing to developers, enabling such strong support for the service. It is very close to what Apple and Steam are doing at the moment, and very indie friendly." Steam has certainly become the games industry standard for digital distribution, so there's something very significant about the fact that Haveri evokes (generally) positive comparisons between it and Nintendo repeatedly. We can set our own pricing and actually continuing on that by setting our own sales whenever we want. The step to this is purely from Nintendos's side and they clearly see that previous installments have not been up to par. "We have the power to price our products as we please, with just some basic guidelines from the big guys.
"That's what we love about the new eShop," said Haveri. More importantly, they also determine when they have sales. Wii U's eShop operates much like Apple's Appstore. Play Frozenbyte has documented its (easy) Wii U development process before, but what's a bit more interesting is the level of control it enjoys once its game is out in the marketplace.
0 kommentar(er)
