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WiiWare demos to return (UPDATE: demos back in Europe on 5 November 2010)

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Cosmonaut X

Member
After a short-lived, limited series of demos hit the Wii Shop last year, everything went quiet. Now, according to NintendoLife, it seems as though the program is to start up again. Briefly:
  • Several developers have confirmed that Nintendo are accepting submissions for the program
  • It starts later this month and will run to "at least Christmas"
No more details yet, but here's hoping that we will see a more wide-ranging selection of demos and that it becomes a permanent feature of the service.

NintendoLife article

EDIT:

...and they're launching in Europe this Friday:


Wii SHOP CHANNEL LAUNCHES NEW SERVICE: ONGOING WiiWARE DEMOS FOR EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD

WiiWare demos join a host of new games available for download on WiiWare & Nintendo DSiWare this Friday

This week sees the launch of a new service added to the Wii Shop Channel, in the form of ongoing downloadable WiiWare demos. Containing a taster of the full version of a WiiWare game, WiiWare demos offer players the ability to trial select WiiWare games without using up any of their Wii Points, giving players the enjoyment of testing out the game before ultimately deciding whether to download the full version of the game or not using their Wii Points.

Every WiiWare demo featured on the Wii Shop Channel will be available for a limited time only ensuring the line-up is constantly kept refreshed to provide players with a varied and entertaining experience. Players will be able to see the WiiWare demos currently available for download via a dedicated list on wiiware.nintendo.co.uk as well as on the Wii Shop Channel itself.

Available across Europe from the 5th November 2010, players will be in for a treat as four WiiWare demos are made available to play including Furry Legends Demo (Gamelion), Jett Rocket Demo (Shin’en Multimedia), ThruSpace™ Demo (Nintendo) & Zombie Panic in Wonderland Demo (Akaoni Studio).

Be sure to also check out Nintendo of Europe's WiiWare portal, which functions as the main hub for the latest WiiWare news and game sites, while at the same time providing the perfect entry point for newcomers to the service. Weekly and all-time Top 10 lists show which WiiWare titles the UK Club Nintendo members are currently downloading most, and which are the most popular of all time.

The portal also provides step-by-step tutorials explaining how to connect the Wii console to the Internet and how to download WiiWare games, as well as a video showing how to use Nintendo Points. Visit www.wiiware.co.uk for all the details. Downloaded games can be saved to Wii's internal memory or SD card and added to the console's Wii Menu or SD Card Menu for anytime easy access.
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[Nintex] said:
Wow demo's I wonder what innovation Nintendo will think of next!
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*shrug*

It's good news for Wii owners and for WiiWare devs - but, hey, run wild with the sarcasm.

V_Ben said:
So, their test worked?
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ISTR the guys from Gaijin Games and 2D Boy (?) saying that the demo program last year led to an uptick in sales (can't find quotes right now) so it seems likely.
 
Great news, but I hope these demos are more convenient than the last set and ape the cues from the convenient and UI presentation of XBLA demos.

Cosmonaut X said:
*shrug*

It's good news for Wii owners and for WiiWare devs - but, hey, run wild with the sarcasm.
Click to expand...

It's difficult, in watching Olympic running, to cheer because the eighth place runner sped up from a leisurely jog when you're focused on the front of the pack guy setting a world record.
 
Stumpokapow said:
Great news, but I hope these demos are more convenient than the last set and ape the cues from the convenient and UI presentation of XBLA demos.
Click to expand...
I really doubt it.
 
Yay! I still have all 5 demos still in my Wii, I got My Life as a Dark Lord thanks to this! :D

Pokemon Rumble is a nice demo because 1500 is way too steep, and I think it's cool to play around in that little bit for free. :P
 
Great news, the last batch of demos helped clue me in to NyxQuest, hopefully there'll be other cool stuff to try this round.

Now Nintendo just have to stop removing DS demos every two weeks. Honestly, what possible justification is there for not leaving demos up indefinitely, it's just mindbogglingly stupid.
 
Stumpokapow said:
It's difficult, in watching Olympic running, to cheer because the eighth place runner sped up from a leisurely jog when you're focused on the front of the pack guy setting a world record.
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Dunno - I'm happy to applaud when the eighth place runner realises they're actually in a race and starts behaving accordingly, instead of plodding along at the back of the pack wondering why nothing is going their way ;-)
 
Why fucking bother now? This ship has sailed. Why they didn't keep this up from way back when, I will never know.
 
BikoBiko said:
Why keep removing the demos though? That just seems like a strange thing to do.

It's Nintendo!
Click to expand...

IIRC, the initial run of demos was said to be a "trial", hence the removal. If I had to guess, I'd say there was a fair amount of internal resistance to the idea of demos (active or passive, who knows) and the trial program was someone's way of gathering data to convince the company that it was actually a good idea.

loosus said:
Why fucking bother now? This ship has sailed. Why they didn't keep this up from way back when, I will never know.
Click to expand...

Why not? There are still developers bringing games to WiiWare, and there are still games up there that may see more sales because of demos - better that something is being done than letting the service wither away completely.
 
Cosmonaut X said:
Dunno - I'm happy to applaud when the eighth place runner realises they're actually in a race and starts behaving accordingly, instead of plodding along at the back of the pack wondering why nothing is going their way ;-)
Click to expand...

To bring it back to games, I think someone's level of happiness or skepticism when looking at a company catching up (not just Nintendo on online, but also Sony on OS/profile/etc. Support) is that people who are more heavily invested in a platform are optimistic and want it to I prove, while people on the outside wondering if they should invest in the platform are going to be skeptical unti, real progress is made.

Many people on GAF are avid Steam, XBLA, and PSN users with Nintendo dd services being seen as relatively irrelevant, so if you apply the suggestion I just made, the reactions might be no surprise
 
Cosmonaut X said:
Why not? There are still developers bringing games to WiiWare, and there are still games up there that may see more sales because of demos - better that something is being done than letting the service wither away completely.
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I'm not against it or anything. It's just bizarre that, this late in the game, they're finally doing something that makes sense. I mean, they've let it wither this long, so why turn it around now?
 
BikoBiko said:
Why keep removing the demos though? That just seems like a strange thing to do.

It's Nintendo!
Click to expand...
Seriously, it's like it hurts Nintendo to be up to date with the rest of the guys... :S

Glad they're coming back though.
 
loosus said:
I'm not against it or anything. It's just bizarre that, this late in the game, they're finally doing something that makes sense. I mean, they've let it wither this long, so why turn it around now?
Click to expand...

Probably so they can learn from it and grow on it next gen.
 
Stumpokapow said:
To bring it back to games, I think someone's level of happiness or skepticism when looking at a company catching up (not just Nintendo on online, but also Sony on OS/profile/etc. Support) is that people who are more heavily invested in a platform are optimistic and want it to I prove, while people on the outside wondering if they should invest in the platform are going to be skeptical unti, real progress is made.

Many people on GAF are avid Steam, XBLA, and PSN users with Nintendo dd services being seen as relatively irrelevant, so if you apply the suggestion I just made, the reactions might be no surprise
Click to expand...

There are also people who use all of these services and simply want to celebrate one of them becoming better.
 
So I still have all 5 original demos, and I'm kinda running out of room (my SD card is small), so I was wondering, if I delete them, will I be able to redownload them later like you can do with regular WiiWare/VC games? Or are they gone for good since they were removed from the shop?
 
I noticed there was a message on the shop channel saying the shop would be down for maintenance on Nov 9th for 4 hours and Nov 16th for 8 hours

Maybe this has something to do with the demos?
 
cooljeanius said:
So I still have all 5 original demos, and I'm kinda running out of room (my SD card is small), so I was wondering, if I delete them, will I be able to redownload them later like you can do with regular WiiWare/VC games? Or are they gone for good since they were removed from the shop?
Click to expand...

Gone for good unless they put them up again. Copy them off your SD card onto a computer and then you won't be out of room.
 
cooljeanius said:
So I still have all 5 original demos, and I'm kinda running out of room (my SD card is small), so I was wondering, if I delete them, will I be able to redownload them later like you can do with regular WiiWare/VC games? Or are they gone for good since they were removed from the shop?
Click to expand...

If it's gone from the Shop, you won't be able to redownload it.


...and yes, I did wonder if the maintenance was tied into the demo program returning.
 
cooljeanius said:
So I still have all 5 original demos, and I'm kinda running out of room (my SD card is small), so I was wondering, if I delete them, will I be able to redownload them later like you can do with regular WiiWare/VC games? Or are they gone for good since they were removed from the shop?
Click to expand...
if you care that much about demos, why not just buy the things?
 
It's kind of sad that this is just now happened, but it's still good. I don't give nearly as much attention to Wiiware as I do XBLA and PSN and that has a lot to do with the fact that there are no demos.

one small step in the right direction
 
I'll never understand why they just can't be left up once they're there. I have a hard time convincing people to check out WiiWare games without demos.
 
Cosmonaut X said:
No more details yet, but here's hoping that we will see a more wide-ranging selection of demos and that it becomes a permanent feature of the service.
Click to expand...

I hope so. It was nice of them to toss a few demos up there last year, but there were only a handful and then they yanked them a few weeks later.

They should really try to keep the demos available on the service permanently. If they're going to remove the demos after a few weeks like they did the last time, then the least they can do is quickly introduce another new batch demos to take their place.
 
jooey said:
if you care that much about demos, why not just buy the things?
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I'm a poor college student trying to save my money.
Stumpokapow said:
Gone for good unless they put them up again. Copy them off your SD card onto a computer and then you won't be out of room.
Click to expand...
OK, looking at my SD card's contents on my computer, which are the actual game files and which are just the ones the Wii needs to recognize the SD card? Or can I just move the entire Wii folder over and have things still be okay?
 
Cosmonaut X said:
Dunno - I'm happy to applaud when the eighth place runner realises they're actually in a race and starts behaving accordingly, instead of plodding along at the back of the pack wondering why nothing is going their way ;-)
Click to expand...

If/when Nintendo do actually realize that and actually start clearing the minimum hurdles for having a modern online service, I will cheer the hell out of them. :lol
 
Stumpokapow said:
It's difficult, in watching Olympic running, to cheer because the eighth place runner sped up from a leisurely jog when you're focused on the front of the pack guy setting a world record.
Click to expand...

Its more like watching the first place runner walking backwards, while everbody is wondering how the hell he won the race.
 
I can't say whether I'm looking at this optimistically or not because there are plenty of reasons to be either up or down about it.

First off, the original WiiWare demos were planned to be Christmas-season sellers. Make demos available to those who buy Wiis so that they most likely purchase those and other WiiWare titles. The fact that this is being opened again at the peak time of Christmas shopping is not a good sign. It could go on until February and then disappear again.

However, the demos did very well, boosting every game with demos. Looking at the Top 20 listings at the time, each game which had released beforehand boosted upward as a result of demos, especially BIT.TRIP BEAT and FF:CC:MLAADL. As for NyxQuest, it appeared briefly on the Top 20 near the end of the service, but it may have been Nintendo Week's coverage of it that helped moreso. World of Goo boosted the least, I think, but it was enough to push it back up a few spots among the top. Pokemon Rumble launched with a demo, and looking at the position it is in (STILL in the top 5), it didn't need one.

So it definitely helps sales, and holiday shoppers need guidance to good entrants to WiiWare. So, the demos coming back now is entirely expected.

Will it stay? I'm going with no. It makes other developers of lower-tier products nervous and move to other venues (not like they aren't already), and Nintendo is never really the type to hold up something like this forever. At the best, I think Nintendo will have rotating demos, no more than 5, with one or two being changed a week if there are that many being submitted.

By the way, I totally expect a Pokemon Dungeon Demo.
 
Excellent news! I bought Pokemon Rumble because of the demo and it was totally worth it (played it for more than 80 hours) Would be nice if they went all out this time with demos for just about every wiiware game and vc demos as well.
 
Stumpokapow said:
To bring it back to games, I think someone's level of happiness or skepticism when looking at a company catching up (not just Nintendo on online, but also Sony on OS/profile/etc. Support) is that people who are more heavily invested in a platform are optimistic and want it to I prove, while people on the outside wondering if they should invest in the platform are going to be skeptical unti, real progress is made.

Many people on GAF are avid Steam, XBLA, and PSN users with Nintendo dd services being seen as relatively irrelevant, so if you apply the suggestion I just made, the reactions might be no surprise
Click to expand...
Steam and XBLA I'll give you. The PSN Store, however, is equal as horrid as the Wii Shop channel (Especially in PAL-land).
 
Luigiv said:
Steam and XBLA I'll give you. The PSN Store, however, is equal as horrid as the Wii Shop channel (Especially in PAL-land).
Click to expand...

You are wrong but I would still like to hear why you think this would be the case :)

oh and keep in mind PSN is not region locked (unlike the Wii Shop)
 
TheUnknownForce said:
It makes other developers of lower-tier products nervous and move to other venues (not like they aren't already), and Nintendo is never really the type to hold up something like this forever.
Click to expand...

???
 
SolidusDave said:
You are wrong but I would still like to hear why you think this would be the case :)

oh and keep in mind PSN is not region locked (unlike the Wii Shop)
Click to expand...
Well that's definitely an advantage. Still, terrible interface and crappy, counter intuitive layout is no better then what the Wii offers.

Well, okay, I'm being entirely fair:

JPN PSN > US PSN = Wii Shop > Pal PSN

But really, that's just ranking varying levels of suck. They're all horrible.
 
Luigiv said:
Well that's definitely an advantage. Still, terrible interface and crappy, counter intuitive layout is no better then what the Wii offers.

Well, okay, I'm being entirely fair:

JPN PSN > US PSN = Wii Shop > Pal PSN

But really, that's just ranking varying levels of suck. They're all horrible.
Click to expand...


I guess opinions about designs&layouts can't be argued with, but I certainly would not use these aspects to conclude which DD / online shop is better Oo
 
I feel like I probably would have spent a couple hundred more dollars on WiiWare by now if this had been a feature from the start.
 
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