Alternate title: shovelware-ing out its welcome?
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I thought this was an interesting article and a bit harsh in places but only in a fair way, really. It seems like the release of the dreadful The Letter has indicated a new nadir for games Nintendo is willing to have released on the eShop.
Some choice excerpts:
A lot more at the link, and I recommend reading the full article:
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...is_raising_tough_questions_on_quality_control
So, what do you think? Should Nintendo be better curating/promoting, even rejecting certain content on the shop? I know we have plenty of indie developers on this site who have games on or coming to the eShop, and I'm wondering what their take on this is, as well.
Reject this thread if old.
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I thought this was an interesting article and a bit harsh in places but only in a fair way, really. It seems like the release of the dreadful The Letter has indicated a new nadir for games Nintendo is willing to have released on the eShop.
Some choice excerpts:
Yet that's the topic we're raising here, and one that we'll assess with developers in the weeks to come. The question is simple: is the Wii U eShop platform now too accessible? Is Nintendo's desire for content on its stores, and its laudable efforts to enable developers with the tools and support they need, bringing us a negative flipside of titles arriving on the store that shouldn't be there, games that aren't good enough for a home console experience? This very topic is contentious, we're aware, but we also like to think that our efforts in covering the download sector for many years entitles us to tackle it fairly.
We'll be giving developers of various sizes and status to pitch in on the topic, but let's outline the core issue at hand to kick off the debate within the community. What level of quality is acceptable for a game on a Nintendo home console? Where do we draw the line between applauding plucky developers and questioning their place on the hardware? Should the eShop have standards of 'premium' content, or be open to all games, allowing consumers to ultimately decide?
In general a number of games through this framework have been decent, functional efforts that, in the eyes of our review team at least, have been worthy of middling scores and cautious recommendations better examples include I've Got to Run! and GEOM. If they cost less than a cup of coffee and provide up to an hour or more of decent entertainment, they arguably hit the mark, though recent weeks have perhaps brought cause for hesitation. We were critical of performance lag in Internal Invasion, for which the Framework platform itself was partially blamed in responses to our review, we slammed BrickBlastU!, and recently awarded a rare 1/10 to The Letter, which has done much to prompt this editorial. The latter can be beaten in under 10 minutes and, frankly, shouldn't be on a home console platform.
We do feel that the eShop is in a peculiar place, however, with a range of these inexpensive, low-budget products arriving in North America, particularly; Europe's ratings and localisation requirements have been beyond the scope, so far, for some of the latest generation of newcomers on the store. On the one hand we applaud Nintendo for providing opportunities to those that have never released a game before, or are doing so on a shoestring budget, yet on the other hand wonder whether some titles should actually be on an equal footing with larger, established download developers who's games are, to be blunt, in an entirely different league. From a business perspective, Nintendo must also consider whether the eShop could better present content to put its best foot forward, or whether it should actually be picky in what titles it invites on board, or at least those given significant shelf space. The platform lives and dies, remember, on the quality of its content and how it presents itself to consumers
A lot more at the link, and I recommend reading the full article:
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...is_raising_tough_questions_on_quality_control
So, what do you think? Should Nintendo be better curating/promoting, even rejecting certain content on the shop? I know we have plenty of indie developers on this site who have games on or coming to the eShop, and I'm wondering what their take on this is, as well.
Reject this thread if old.