As digital distribution gains a greater and greater presence in the video game industry, the threat posed to the retail sector naturally increases as consumers download new games rather than walk into their local games shop. Nintendo, however, believes that digital distribution for now can be complementary to retail, and even benefit retailers in some cases.
Speaking about the WiiWare service with Develop, Nintendo Europe boss Laurent Fischer explained, "There are two ways that WiiWare and DSiWare offer benefits to retail of physical goods. The first is having more people being able to play games. We know from all our experience that what people enjoy on the services makes their appetites for playing games far bigger. That’s the first benefit to retail."
He continued, "The other way is that WiiWare is a laboratory. What we know is that some of the games that are – you could say ‘tested’ through this platform – they may one day get access to the normal retail channels. That’s because the developers have managed to polish their software through the WiiWare experience. That is going to provide sales."
That is certainly one of the nice things about digital distribution; because of the lower cost and decreased risk, developers can feel free to try out fresh, new ideas that might not necessarily be greenlit by a major publisher for a retail SKU.
1 Comments
January 31, 2010
I didnt even know Wiiware and PSN didnt have demos. Glad i could enjoy the Lucidity demo on Xbla since that gave me all i needed from the game for free. The look and music is fantastic but i had enough after playing the demo levels. I want to try all games on the service so demos is great. Havent had the time to play demos lately though. Too much retail games to play.
cheap dsi r4