March launch for Wii Software service?

By Games Industry.biz Published 10 January, 2008

That's WiiWare to the US and Japan.

WiiWare, Nintendo's download service for original content, will launch in March according to Engine Software, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

The company is preparing Project Bang, a casual game aiming to take advantage of the Wii remote, for one and two players.

"Nintendo's WiiWare service is a new downloadable game content service that is scheduled to be launched in March 2008," stated Engine Software.

Engine is currently working on DS projects Dragon Quest for PlayLogic and GoPets: Vacation Island for Konami.

"We are very excited about our first game for the WiiWare service," commented Ruud van de Moosdyk, VP of development at Engine.

"When we acquired our official Wii licence last year we already had several concepts written up that would be ideal for WiiWare, and Project Bang is the first to actually go into production."

Although the company hopes to have the game completed "early on in the service's operational status", it has not yet confirmed an exact release date.

WiiWare (Wii Software in Europe) was unveiled by Nintendo in June last year, and intends to offer developers a chance to produce small budget titles for digital download, much like Sony's PSN service and Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade.

GamesIndustry.biz has contacted Nintendo for clarification of the WiiWare launch period.

GamesIndustry.biz writes lots of news, you know. It's difficult to keep up with stealing it.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • jonsaan #1 4 years ago

    March in EU?? Or do we have the usual 1.5 year wait?

  • Eighthours #2 4 years ago

    Change the bloody UK name to "WiiWare", Nintendo! So much better than the generic "Wii Software" rubbish.

    Project Bang

    Featuring Barry Scott?

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #3 4 years ago

    Why does europe get the name change, were we considered to ignorent to get the play on words that was 'WiiWare'

  • chrisjm #4 4 years ago

    'the usual 1.5 year wait? '

    apart from animal crossing GC i cant think of anything we had to wait that long for lately!

  • Daymare #5 4 years ago

    I want a full-blown Tanks game asap!

  • toythatkills #6 4 years ago

    "Engine is currently working on DS projects Dragon Quest for PlayLogic..."

    Are you suuuuure about that? Dragon Hunters, perchance? ;)

  • DonnieDarko333 #7 4 years ago

    It'll be March for US and Japan. 2009 for Europe.

  • jonsaan #8 4 years ago

    @Chrisjm

    Look at the DS. There are loads of games that NEVER come out here. Load Runner DS for example. How about Super Paper Mario? Endless Ocean? Maybe 1.5 years was a bit of a stretch but we are still kept waiting on a lot of things that other regions have had for ages.

  • sickpuppysoftware #9 4 years ago

    "The company is preparing Project Bang, a casual game aiming to take advantage of the Wii remote"

    Just what the system needs!

  • ilmaestro #10 4 years ago

    Unless you're specifically talking about Europe (as I concede you might be), this was announced ages ago.

  • CallousB #11 4 years ago

    "How about Super Paper Mario? Endless Ocean? Maybe 1.5 years was a bit of a stretch but we are still kept waiting on a lot of things that other regions have had for ages."

    Super Paper Mario is a fair enough complaint....but Endless Ocean is a poor example...Japan had it in August 2nd, we had it in Europe on November 9th....the US release is January 21st. .

  • secombe #12 4 years ago

    Looking forward to this. I'm one of the few people that loved what Wii Play had to offer (specifically, Laser Hockey and Tanks!) so more games in that sort of mould will be an awesome addition to the Wii line-up. I am a high-score gaming whore though, so anything that is relatively simple and offers a high-score table is fine by me.

    It should open up the Wii to developers who have the ideas but not the funds to produce a full title. But it would also be nice to see established titles such as Peggle and Line Rider turn up through this as well.
    Edited by 1 at 10/01/08 @ 13:24

  • Muddtallica #13 4 years ago

    Eighthours: I would bite off your arm if you offered me that game. "Look what it does to a penny!"

    I also agree about "Wii Software"...could they have possibly devised a more boring name? It's just like the US Check Mii Out Channel being changed to "Mii Contest Channel"...do they think that Europeans don't get wordplay, or what?

  • Daryoon #14 4 years ago

    iirc, Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Phantom Hourglass and the majority of big Nintendo titles have had almost universal releases. And let's not forget all the VC games we've had before the Americans too.

    Nintendo are no worse than any other company for releasing games in Europe. Sometimes a lot better! It's certainly not like it was 20 years ago, when we had to wait years for anything!

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #15 4 years ago

    They've still not got Endless Ocean in the US iirc

  • shadaik #16 4 years ago

    "Why does europe get the name change, were we considered to ignorent to get the play on words that was 'WiiWare'"
    Probably because not all of europe is speaking English while the terms "Wii" and "Software" have established in other languages, too.

    Blending two words to get a new one is quite frequent in English and Japanese, but it is very rare and thus counter-intuitive in most european languages including the largest ones (German, French and Spanish).

  • Muddtallica #17 4 years ago

    shadaik - I can't speak for French and Spanish, but what you said doesn't seem to tally with my seven years of learning German...in my experience, if they can get away with combining the meaning of a whole sentence into a single 38-letter word, they will.

  • smelly #18 4 years ago

    I'd imagine it's called "wii software" in europe.. because europe is made up of MANY MANY MANY more countries than just England and English speaking people?

    Maybe there was trademark issues with "wiiware" in europe (for example a french company might already have that name)?

    Maybe "Wiiware" translates to something rude in german?

    Maybe "wiiware" makes fuck all sense to spanish people?

    Etc.

    Yeah, i'm SURE they're just doing it because they HATE english people!


    As for paper mario being late. How long do you think it takes to translate a text heavy game like that to all the european languages? How long do you think it takes to take a complex idea like the 2d to 3d transition and get it working on 50hz PAL tvs?

    THINK ABOUT IT PEOPLE (before you start you whinging again). I'm SURE they released paper mario late in europe, killing potential sales bought on by (easier) global marketing - because they just HATED you...