Hollis: Nintendo isn't "putting a great deal of energy" into WiiWare promotion
But developers can still sell units and make money if they're smart, says Zoonami boss
Zoonami founder Martin Hollis has told GamesIndustry.biz that he believes Nintendo has not sufficiently promoted its WiiWare download service.
Speaking ahead of his talk at this week's GameCity event, Hollis remarked that the download market had instead been cornered by the iPhone.
"Apple have had such massive success in capturing media attention - they've sucked all of the air out of it," he said. "I don't know that Nintendo's putting a great deal of energy into trying to generate PR for WiiWare or DSiWare."
The director still saw potential in WiiWare as a business model, however.
"My impression is that you can make a game if you've got a few thousand Euros, Dollars, Pounds - because you will need a dev kit or two.. [If] you've got two really talented guys, you can make a game, and you can sell 200,000 and upwards. Some of the titles are £8 or £10.
"So the opportunities are there for people, you have to make a game that fits in with Nintendo - has a Nintendo feeling."
Hollis also felt that the relative paucity of titles on WiiWare could be a strength.
"I think it's a very fine thing. The best thing about it is the size of the marketplace you can access. There's a huge number of people who have a Wii, and a goodly proportion of those download games from WiiWare - it's tens of millions of people, and it's not overloaded with games, unlike some other app stores I could mention."
"Our experience was extremely positive, but our title was a second-party title and it did have some TV advertising with a spot inside a larger advert for Wii," Hollis continued.
"We assume that has to have an impact. As for margins, it's always the case that, if you make a good game you're selling ten or a hundred times as many units as the guy who made a mediocre game, a game that's maybe a little bit sub-par. Not much, but just a little bit. So that factor completely overrides any other."
For the full interview, including Hollis' feelings about the GoldenEye remake, WiiWare as a service and his role at GameCity, read the full interview on the frontpage.