WiiWare sales ‘almost non-existent’

Game sales on Nintendo’s digital platform WiiWare are almost non-existent, claims the founder of indie publisher Nicalis.

Speaking to GoNintendo, Tyrone Rodriguez said that he was forced into cancelling Nigoro’s side-scrolling game La-Mulana after two years of development because of the tiny customer-base on the system.

He added that the game had also failed to pass Nintendo’s submission process in the US and EU, despite already having DLC in place.

“The decision to cancel publishing of La-Mulana was a tough call, but waiting two years for Nigoro to finish development has made it near impossible to sell sufficient units on Wii,” said Rodriguez.

“The WiiWare market has a fraction of the players from 2008. The window for release and success of software on the platform ended in 2009 and took a very steep decline. Players have moved onto other digital download platforms.”

Nintendo announced last week that it would making digital much more central to to the Wii U, a big move for a company which has historically taken a cautious approach to utilising online services.

The console giant revealed that the “majority” of first-party Wii U and 3DS titles would be available to download digitally at the same time as retail release, marking a distinct change in strategy.