Wii U eShop lets indie devs set prices and issue free patches
Trine 2 developer Frozenbyte has revealed a number of small concessions Nintendo has made with the Wii U eShop which make it a highly attractive destination for indies and smaller companies.
Speaking to IGN, Frozenbyte marketing manager Mikael Haveri said the Wii U eShop leaves a lot of power in the developer or publisher's hands.
"That's what we love about the new eShop, we have the power to price our products as we please, with just some basic guidelines from the big guys," he said.
"We can set our own pricing and actually continuing on that by setting our own sales whenever we want. It is very close to what Apple and Steam are doing at the moment, and very indie friendly."
On top of that, Nintendo doesn't charge indies for patches, something which often leads to major delays on console games getting fixes.
"Simply put they've told us that there are no basic payments for each patch (which were pretty high on most platforms) and that we can update our game almost as much as we want. For indie developers this is huge," Haveri said.
Haveri said Nintendo's embrace of a more flexible approach to digital distribution is an acknowledgment that its earlier eShops weren't "up to par".
"Nintendo messed up the worst last time around. Now they really know that they have to make a huge improvement to get back into the game," he said.
"What I have seen and heard so far is amazing and it's definitely going in the right direction as far as small developers are concerned."
Frozenbyte's Trine 2: Director's Cut launched on the Wii U eShop today; here's the launch trailer.
