Nintendo announces WiiWare!

Thursday 28th June 2007 - 11:00

New games application to make it easier or developers to share games, Forza stays top of the charts and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty screens

The search for the next ingeniously ground-breaking video game has begun. At a private developers conference this week, Nintendo announced the introduction of WiiWare, a game-creation service that will allow developers large and small to create new downloadable video game content for sale by Nintendo through the Wii Shop Channel. WiiWare paves the way for smaller, more creative games to make their way to the public at lower prices, without any inventory risk to developers. The first WiiWare content will launch in early 2008.

"Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit," says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "WiiWare brings new levels of creativity and value to the ever-growing population of Wii owners."

WiiWare will be posted on the Wii Shop Channel. As with current Wii Shop Channel offerings, users will redeem Wii Points to download content. It will support a variety of pricing options. Details about that and upcoming projects will be announced at a later date, but if it means the chance to play titles with original gameplay at a fraction of the High Street cost then all the better!

Meanwhile there's no change at the top of the charts as Forza Motorsport 2 retains pole position for the third successive week - fighting off stiff competition from the likes of rival racer Colin Mcrae's DiRT that manages to wheel spin into third spot - one behind Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer that claims second place.

Finally we finish with a brand new selection of screens from Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, forthcoming on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC towards the end of this year from Codemasters. This game promises to be a break the mould of traditional war shooters as it offers an alternative ending to WWII involving a successful Nazi invasion of 50's America! We expect to get our hands on some playable preview code by the end of the summer.

To view more images, click here