Touch Ruminations: DSi Shop (and how it could be more important than WiiWare)
In Touch Ruminations, former DS and Wii Fanboy Lead David Hinkle talks about whatever he feels like. He's a jerk like that. This week, he talks about the Nintendo DSi and its compares its DSi Shop to WiiWare. The opinions expressed here belong to the author and don't necessarily reflect those of Joystiq, Weblogs Inc. or its affiliates.
Have you had ample time to recover from Iwata's keynote? I have, and thinking about the DSi (I can't help it, I wants it), I believe that the DSi Shop is easily the most exciting and important feature of the new handheld. And I think it's a service that could be more important than WiiWare.
Several factors brought me about to this conclusion, the most notable of which is scale/affordability. Creating products for the DSi Shop can't be that much of a lengthy and expensive process compared to developing on other platforms, which allows for less resource devotion,directly benefiting us, the end user, with more affordable experiences. Also, titles on a smaller scale means that development time is also cut down, meaning we can get smaller, bite-sized content more regularly than what's available at retail.
Then there's Nintendo's reliance on the platform from a revenue generation standpoint. It's no secret that the DS Lite has been selling like hotcakes ever since it burst on the scene (the DS Phat did the same thing), but how is Nintendo going to maintain steady profit with the DSi? A lot of folks with DS Lites don't really see the need to upgrade, because there hasn't really been much in the way of DSi-exclusive content yet. So right now, Nintendo is hoping the features of the handheld will sell the system, but down the road, they're going to have to rely on DSiWare more and more if they want to maintain profits, interest, and value in a handheld that is pretty close to the same thing as its predecessor, yet $50 more. But I digress.
Another key item is third-party support. The DS has been supported with an overabundance of quality, AAA titles from third-party developers and publishers, but what about DSiWare? When WiiWare burst on the scene, it was an untested delivery system on a console that had no storage solution (of course, things are different now). The DSi has SD card support right from the get-go, so users won't need to worry about storage space and will feel free to download everything they want. Aside from that, just the general enthusiasm surrounding Nintendo handhelds and the large install base of current DS owners should help entice some third parties. WiiWare provided us with amazing, unique content in Art Style, World of Goo, and Bit.Trip: Beat, and I think the DSi is going to do that much more. As it stands now, it looks like it'll be a slow start for the service, much like WiiWare, but down the road things should pick up drastically.
What about the free content? Nintendo revealed the pricing structure for DSiWare and, unlike WiiWare, if offers up free original games and apps. This is something that's been proven to be a big draw with another handheld: the iPhone. If you can get a user into your store, and have them try some free products, they're going to be less timid about using said store and could be more inclined to actually pay for something in the future. Plus, it's just free stuff. Everybody loves free stuff.
The Wii has been selling crazy, sure, but a lot of Wii owners don't take their consoles online. The same could happen with the DSi, and only time will tell with that, but I think it's an exciting platform and one that has a lot more potential than WiiWare. Smaller, cheaper downloads that take less time and release more often? What's not to love about that!
