Wii U eShop 'close to Steam,' Trine 2 dev claims

Trine 2 developer Frozenbyte has complimented Nintendo's new guidelines for developers, including the ability to set prices, no cost for basic updates or downloadable content, the ability to put games on sale.

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Some developers were quite livid with Nintendo's approach to downloadable games with the Wii Shop. However, it appears Nintendo's newly launched eShop for Wii U dramatically improves the experience for devs. According to Frozenbyte, the studio behind Trine 2, the eShop is competitive to services like Apple's App Store and Steam.

"That's what we love about the new eShop," marketing manager Mikael Haveri told IGN. "We have the power to price our products as we please, with just some basic guidelines from the big guys. The step to this is purely from Nintendos's side and they clearly see that [their] previous installments have not been up to par. We can set our own pricing and actually continuing on that by setting our own sales whenever we want. It is very close to what Apple and Steam are doing at the moment, and very indie friendly."

Developers have complained about the lack of price flexibility on Xbox Live Arcade. In addition, title updates can prove to be quite costly on both PSN and XBLA--a non-factor for Nintendo's new system. Haveri also said the company isn't charging basic updates or downloadable content, and can update almost as often as they'd like. "For indie developers this is huge," he said. On the other hand, he did note that he expects Nintendo to require an approval process, which would make it "longer than what Steam has, but still very competitive" with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 approvals.

"Nintendo messed up the worst last time around," Haveri said. "Now they really know that they have to make a huge improvement to get back into the game. What I have seen and heard so far is amazing and it's definitely going in the right direction as far as small developers are concerned."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 19, 2012 12:49 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Trine 2 dev lauds Nintendo's approach to Wii U indies.

    Trine 2 developer Frozenbyte has complimented Nintendo's new guidelines for developers, including the ability to set prices, no cost for basic updates or downloadable content, the ability to put games on sale.

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      November 19, 2012 1:38 PM

      MS please take note and fix your shit for the next system! We need more cool indie games on the next system (seems like Sony got a lot of them this time around). While you are at it build a nice section on the dashboard for them which isn't impossible to find!

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      November 19, 2012 1:42 PM

      Nice.

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      November 19, 2012 1:58 PM

      Nintendo went from being the idiot cousin in the online services to being a player with the stuff on Wii U. I can buy and download their top tier games on the day it's released. If the 360 did that I'd probably play it more on impulse buys.

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        November 19, 2012 2:14 PM

        [deleted]

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          November 19, 2012 3:28 PM

          The interface in general, just going from menu to menu seemed very, very slow on the Giant Bomb quick look.

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            November 19, 2012 3:32 PM

            [deleted]

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              November 19, 2012 3:44 PM

              At least the UI stuff can be fixed with a patch.

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                November 19, 2012 3:47 PM

                Not having a system, I can only guess they made it slow on purpose. AKA, it's a "Feature".

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                  November 19, 2012 8:54 PM

                  Nah, it really feels like a ver 1.0 software thing. It's otherwise pretty snappy.

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                    November 20, 2012 8:14 AM

                    Agreed, it'll get snappier after a few firmware updates. I remember the Wii being a lot slower to switch back to the OS from a game or channel early in it's life. Many of the updates were to speed up menu transitions and the like.

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      November 19, 2012 2:01 PM

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      November 19, 2012 2:04 PM

      [deleted]

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      November 19, 2012 8:50 PM

      Wow I was ignoring this because I was bitter about the Wii, but I love indie games so things just got interesting.

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        November 19, 2012 9:29 PM

        Yeah, I was super stoked about Frozenbyte working so closely with Nintendo, especially with the prominent position they had at E3. I've always thought that Nintendo is more in tune with what is fun than the competitors, and it shows with how they handle indie and middle-budget titles.

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      November 19, 2012 8:51 PM

      [deleted]

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      November 20, 2012 5:04 PM

      Making the Wii U the ultimate indie game console platform would be very cool.

      And give Nintendo a big edge on the new videogame trends.

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