Nintendo launches WiiWare with six games

Nintendo's WiiWare launched on Monday with six games from a series of developers.

(Credit: Nintendo)

Nintendo on Monday put its latest shot across the bow of Microsoft and Sony when it officially launched WiiWare, its new online repository of downloadable games.

Ostensibly a service where Wii gamers will be able to shop for new, independent games, WiiWare seems to be Nintendo's answer to Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade and its XNA Studio and to Sony's PlayStation Store.

WiiWare is launching with six games: Square Enix's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, Frontier Development's LostWinds, XGen Studios' Defend your Castle, Nnooo's Pop, High Voltage Software's V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack, and Gameloft's TV Show King.

Nintendo said it would add new games to WiiWare each Monday.

In February, Nintendo said in an interview with CNET News.com sister site, GameSpot.com, that there were as many as 100 WiiWare games in development.

And while many gamers would surely like to see more games in the system at launch, the fact that there are so many in the pipeline already means that Nintendo will likely not have to worry about populating the service with new weekly titles for some time.

For independent developers, the service also provides a new avenue for getting their work in front of gamers--and on a new platform. Microsoft has been very aggressive with using its XNA platform as a way of bringing independently created games to the Xbox community, and now Nintendo will be able to compete for some of those developers' time.

[LEOPiC]

Rock and Roll.

[quarky42]

Excellent. They are late to the party, so I hope they keep dishing out the goodies! Also, I hope they do it at a reasonable price. To me, that would be a winning combo. I have 2 each 2k points cards burning a hole in my pocket for some good cheap downloadable games from wiiware.

[LEOPiC]

The games range from 500 to 1500 Wii Points, read more here: http://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/3jT8hMPXjM2IaFJ0E87G7EMDyYoUtXwn

[QMT]

And watch how quickly that pittance of a half-gig of storage completely vanishes.
Nintendo needs a 'load from SD' or enable external HDs. Now.

[guest86]

I agree with QMT. We need more bigger storage for games, pictures, movies, etc, etc. We need USB Flash memory stick or USB hard drive connect to back of Nintendo Wii to allow store files or copy all files, etc. We need external HD now. SD card is not enough! We know Max GB for Wii is 2 GB on SD card only. 4 GB, 8 GB, and more will not work on Nintendo Wii right? Please bring USB update to allow to use webcam, keyboard, USB Hard drive, USB Joystick(Unlike Xbox 360, PS3, PC controller) and more. Keep coming! Nintendo Wii classic controller is bad for people. Because Wii classic controller don't have USB! Waste battery life and trash batteries many, many times. How we can stop waste our money spend on batteries? Think harder! USB is ready to power to all any controller, like that. Without worry about have batteries. Same as Wii remote and add on for remote too. Companies need wake up! Wake up companies and can make many USB things add on for Nintendo Wii! I am right?

[custompcmax]

This is awesome news. I just got a Wii and I am happy to hear that there will be a nice flow of downloadable games.