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3rd party Wii games may lack key features

by Steven Williamson on 25 August 2006, 11:38

Tags: Nintendo Wii, Nintendo (TYO:7974), Wii

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We don't often hear negative press surrounding Nintendo's Wii console, but today we hear rumours that Nintendo are pushing aside a number of third party developers and not providing them with the support that they should be getting, which could result in a lack of online multiplayer games.

Currently Nintendo are the only developer to have confirmed games that includes online multiplayer because they haven't given 3rd party developers the necessary tools.

IGN are reporting that 'Nintendo will not release Wii Wi-Fi Connection libraries to third parties until early 2007, which means that no third party launch title will have an online mode.'

Source : IGN Wii


HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Posted by Steve B - Fri 25 Aug 2006 12:18
it doesn't sound very encouraging, but i suppose if i was rushing to nintendos defense, the ethos of the console is playing with your friends and having a laugh, something which you can do with online gaming, but its not as sociable as 4 people sitting in a living room with beer and swinging their arms like a loon hitting tennis balls:)
Posted by directhex - Fri 25 Aug 2006 12:23
this is a bit lame, to be honest - one of microsoft's key strengths in the console arena is how nicely they treat developers, especially third parties

withholding libraries isn't useful
Posted by Spud1 - Fri 25 Aug 2006 12:26
Makes sense - Nintendo have traditionally been terrible for 3rd party developers to work with, either in terms of the contracts (with nintendo taking massive cuts), the dev kit availability and as in this case, the available software libraries.

They have apparently got better in recent years since Yamauchi stepped down, but for their earlier consoles - the N64 in particular, they were apparently a right pain. (tip: read the book ‘Game On’ for more info on this)
Posted by tehsucks - Fri 25 Aug 2006 15:14
*shrugs* I don't use online gaming much anyway, and if Nintendo are planning to release the tool for the third party developers later anyway, then it shouldn't be too bad. We'll just have to wait and see what comes of this, hopefully it isn't too bad.