Exclusive: Frontier Developments' David Braben Hopes His Game LostWinds Will Soar Right Alongside Nintendo's Coming WiiWare Launch

re: Exclusive: Frontier Developments' David Braben Hopes His Game LostWinds Will Soar Right Alongside Nintendo's Coming WiiWare Launch

Evilbaby — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:42:46 GMT

So N'Gai....based on your conversation what were they thinking the price point would be? Are they thinking full Wii game pricing. No difference between the cost of this and a physical disc copy? Are they thinking half price?

re: Exclusive: Frontier Developments' David Braben Hopes His Game LostWinds Will Soar Right Alongside Nintendo's Coming WiiWare Launch

N'Gai Croal — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:50:22 GMT

@Evilbaby: Given that Braben said "We want it to essentially, therefore, not to be a big sort of undertaking price wise," the impression I get is that $50 or even $25 is unlikely. I suspect that pricing won't be that different from what we've seen on Xbox Live Arcade or Playstation Network. But until Nintendo and various WiiWare publishers start announcing their pricing, it's just a guess.

re: Exclusive: Frontier Developments' David Braben Hopes His Game LostWinds Will Soar Right Alongside Nintendo's Coming WiiWare Launch

Ginger Yellow — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:22:45 GMT

Did Braben say anything about how The Outsider is coming along?

"One of the beauties about the whole WiiWare process is it enables us to do games that would be very hard to describe and that's actually part of the problem that we're experiencing now. "

Surely that's why you have a free demo. Nintendo are really shooting themselves in the foot over this. Demos are a huge part of the success of XBLA - I've bought a ton of games I'd never have tried without a demo. .

re: Exclusive: Frontier Developments' David Braben Hopes His Game LostWinds Will Soar Right Alongside Nintendo's Coming WiiWare Launch

Evilbaby — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:35:58 GMT

"I've bought a ton of games I'd never have tried without a demo."

Of course I've also avoided a lot of crap I probably would have bought straight out thx to Demos. I'm looking at you Wing Commander!

@N'Gai - So your point about demos seems to focus on the idea that demos are needed for DLGames because the "enthusiast" press doesn't cover them very often. I think its more of a failing of the games reviewers in this area then of the developers. Isn't it really just a matter of time before we get a Down Load only or Casual gaming corner podcast on the 1up network and their ilk? Seems like there is to much growth potential in the genre for the press to ignore it for to long.

To me there is no substitute for playing the game yourself. Even if there is an adequate amount of coverage for DLGames I would still want demos available.

re: Exclusive: Frontier Developments' David Braben Hopes His Game LostWinds Will Soar Right Alongside Nintendo's Coming WiiWare Launch

imaballa — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:04:59 GMT

@ N'Gai,

So do you think 3rd party Wii development is fated to be doomed? I think I kinda got that vibe from you during the Bonus round conversation with Michael Pacther. 3rd party devs. on the Wii are not making money, I think one of the examples that were given was Zach and Wiki, a great game yet undervalued.

Side note, hows GDC going? Did you see the "In-shirt XMB" T-Shirts Sony is giving out? All I can say is Awesome. Saw the BBC news clip of one of the Xbox 360 demo units RROD'ed. Gotta be embarrassing.