Last week we reported the story that WiiWare titles were given threshold sales targets which they had to hit before developers would see a return. Now Kotaku have provided some more information from an un-named source, apparently in the know, as to how that breaks down.
“North America
If game is over 16MB – 6,000 units
If game is under 16MB – 4,000 units
Europe
If game is over 16MB – 3,000 units
If game is under 16MB – 2,000 units
Once those goals are met, the developer starts seeing a return (which is based upon every sale, not just those made once the target is reached). And that return is split 65/35 between the developers/Nintendo.
Games have two years to hit their mark. If they haven’t hit it by then, sorry, no dice.
Interesting that games are divided according to size, which seems pretty arbitrary. On the bright side, though, that profit split is a healthy one, particularly if a small team is able to create a cheap game that beats the sales targets.”
Again, this does very little to paint a rosy picture of developing for the WiiWare platform. While people are trying to spin this off against how many Wii consoles have been sold there’s no confirmation as to what percentage of users actually take their consoles online to make purchases. After all, Nintendo’s pushing of the service leaves a lot to be desired, especially amongst the more `casual` purchaser (a market Nintendo have in the bag) who could be tempted in to making a purchase and generating more revenue.
The targets may also be the reason why companies like Gamesloft etc have ported a lot of their mobile titles over to the service due to the overheads being quite low.
Source: Kotaku
