Nintendo Europe has confirmed that Dillon’s Rolling Western for the Nintendo 3DS eShop is available to download now. Dillon’s Rolling Western was previously scheduled to come out last week in Europe. The game will set you back £9.00.
Forecasting & Analyzing Digital Entertainment, has revealed the best-selling games on the Nintendo 3DS eShop in 2011, along with revenue generated in US dollars. Nintendo certainly did well as the company managed to scoop 81% of gross revenue for downloadable titles in 2011. Here’s the top ten in its entirety:
As Nintendo and Konami promised the Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D demo is now available to download on the Nintendo 3DS eShop. Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D is due for release February 21st in North America and March 8th in Europe. What are your impressions of the demo?
Just a quick reminder to let you know that you only have 8 days to download The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords absolutely free if you have a Nintendo 3DS or a Nintendo DSi. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords will remain free until February 20th, and after that it will be a either be a paid download or it might be removed.
Nintendo has officially confirmed that Kirby’s Dream Land 2 will be joining Wario Land and Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters on the Japanese Nintendo 3DS eShop. Kirby’s Dream Land 2 is due to be released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop this week in Japan, but Nintendo has yet to confirm when we will get it in the West.
Tyrone Rodriguez, CEO of Nicalis, the development team behind Cave Story, has told Destructoid that the eShop has really turned things around for Nintendo. Rodriguez is immensely happy with what Nintendo has managed to achieve with the eShop, and he believes that it’s a vast improvement for both consumers and developers.
“The eShop, I feel, has really turned things around for Nintendo on the digital side because the storefront is heavily feature-driven. Any publisher can still produce whatever it wants, similar to iOS in both regards. However, given the feature-oriented nature, the eShop is quasi-curated without being some lame PR line like, ‘consciously developing a curated portfolio’ . That’s a steaming pile of PR right there, but that’s another story altogether.”
“If we look back at WiiWare, that system was broken because it was trying to be fair and feature nothing. WRONG. In the WiiWare system all games were created equal, but life’s not fair and all games are NOT made equal. Some suck hard, particularly on WiiWare. However, that doesn’t matter much in a system like the WiiWare shop because customers aren’t being directed anywhere. The top 20 is the easiest filter and being on the top 20 doesn’t mean a game is good/great, it just means they sell. Frogger, really?
I’m pretty certain that the number of total downloads (across all games etc) on most platforms typically hovers around the same rough figure. So, say you have 200 total customers to a given service per day, in the case of WiiWare, they’re getting lost in an ocean of blah. Other services, like eShop, have systems in place to control what people get to see and, to me, this is ideal.
Since the eShop is heavily feature-driven, this not only helps promote titles, it forces publishers and developers to make better games, hopefully. You want to get featured? You better have something good to show, curated or not. Will this change in the future? I have no idea as I’m not Mr.Iwata, but I do know that compared to how we did on WiiWare and DSiWare, eShop has a much better outlook. ”
Nintendo Europe has announced via press release that a playable demo for Crush 3D will be appearing on the Nintendo 3DS eShop on Thursday. Also of note is Kirby’s Block Ball which will also be appearing on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console, where you will require lightning fast-reactions to get to the final showdown and defeat the evil King Dedede.
Help Danny in Crush3D Demo, as he’s stuck inside the C.R.U.S.H. machine, wandering the worlds created by his worries. It’s your job to get him out by plotting the correct route through his confused and tangled imagination. Available only on Nintendo 3DS, this innovative game contains a range of bonus features including the ability to exchange gifts with friends via StreetPass and the chance to access exclusive artwork, collectibles and much more.
Renegade Kid’s creative director Jools Watsham has tried to explain to GamaSutra why he feels that Nintendo 3DS digital games will never be as cheap as the games on Apple’s immensely popular iPhone:
Perhaps $40 for a 3DS game is outrageous, but what surprises me is when people scoff at the cost of $5 and $10 Nintendo eShop games. Really? Now even $5 or $10 is too much for a game?
Time for some perspective: our best selling DS game has sold around 100,000 copies worldwide. Based on how the average original non-licensed game sells on the DS market, 100,000 copies is a big success. On a side note, we saw no profits from this title due to the broken business model of retail – but that’s a different story.
In my opinion, iPhone games have a greater chance of selling closer to 200,000 copies due to the nature of the platform and the audience using it (they also have the same chance of selling zero copies due to how flooded the market is).
But, they have to be the right types of experiences for the iPhone audience.
Games that go beyond literal simple pleasures take time and money to create. This will never change. If people are unwilling to pay higher prices for richer experiences, then these types of games will cease to exist. You know supply and demand and all that.
We will then be left with a market full of simple gaming experiences that offer the same value as what you paid for it.
Nintendo has announced that the classic Super Mario Bros will be coming to the Japanese eShop for 500 yen starting January 5 in Japan. Super Mario Bros is the second paid NES download for the eShop with The Legend of Zelda appearing last week. Nintendo has yet to announce the games for the West.
Nintendo Europe has announced that Metroid II will be appearing on the Virtual Console section of the Nintendo 3DS eShop this Thursday and will be priced at £3.60/€4.00. Nintendo of America has yet to announce when the game is coming to North America.
