The developer behind Retro City Rampage has taken to Facebook to explain to fans that the WiiWare version of the game didn’t do as well as expected. The developer says that the game is still 750 units from hitting the WiiWare sales threshold in North America. Developers must reach the threshold within the first two years, or the developer won’t see a penny. Here’s what the developer had to say.
“Thanks everyone for the support and making Retro City Rampage such a huge success!”
“Unfortunately, the WiiWare version hasn’t done so well. While I knew the odds of releasing on this platform were stacked against me, it was a labor of love and I did it to keep my word, and for the fans. The challenge though, is that it hasn’t made a cent in revenue yet, due to the WiiWare sales threshold. WiiWare games must sell a minimum number of units for the developer to be paid, and sadly, too few gamers buy WiiWare games.”
“Retro City Rampage for WiiWare is still 750 units from hitting the WiiWare sales threshold in North America (850 in EU). The threshold must be hit within the first two years, or the developer won’t see a penny, and at the current rate, it won’t reach it.”
“Especially if you downloaded a .wad and enjoyed the game, please consider buying a copy on WiiWare. Remember, you can grab it on both the Wii and Wii U (in Wii mode) via the Wii Shopping Channel.”
Thanks, WiiUMasterRace
This story originally came from Nintendo Life. If you guys got the story from there, give it credit. It’s a basic journalism rule. Just put Source and Via in the bottom. Not that hard… Plus, it helps with search rankings and stuff.
Except for the fact that Nintendo Life originally got the source from the dev’s Facebook post, so it’s NOT originally from NL.
This was emailed in. The source I was given was Facebook.
Yep. The dev posted it on FB
@Ramish1067
… Shut up meg.
Dummy it came from Facebook
Sad… I loved the game on my Wii, sad to see the devs not seeing the fruits of their labor
I’ll support Nintendo with so many things they do, but Wii Ware was an absolute disaster on numerous levels
I don’t really know anything about WiiWare, but it sounds like Nintendo used a horrible business model for it, at least from the perspective of a 3rd party developer.
The idea was that it would were out bad content that wouldn’t sell.
It was full of shovel ware…unlike WiiU, a lot of the games are great, and if shovelware shows it’s face, Miiverse burns it to the ground.
I’m not surprised. This is literally one of the last WiiWare games and the Wii was dying at the time. I don’t know why anyone would even consider getting it on Wii when the other versions are higher res/ achievements and trophies and 3DS with 3D.
I didn’t even know there was a Wii version until now, actually. As he says, it was a very bold move.
That’s probably how it flopped. Nobody even knew it existed, not even me.
3DS version came long after the Wii version though. But yeah, Wii was already dead.
what are you talking about?
nintendo life isn’t being mentioned once
I bought my copy there! That’s a shitty way to pay a game studio though, I hope the eShop has loosened things to be more indie friendly.
It must have, indies seem to be embracing it after all :D
Don’t they know that Wii is dead now?
He knew his odds, as stated in the post. Still he did it because he was committed to the few fans who wanted it on the Wii. It’s kind of sad though, since this has been an almost decade long labor of love he poured into making the game, basically all on his own.
Wow. He build the game alone for years? Now thats dedication. I’m sure it’ll do better on Wii U eShop if he choose to try again now that Wii U fixes most flaws of Wii’s online infrastructure and ecommerance.
Not battlefield 4 or a dildo to shove up my black ass.
0/10
Ha.Ha.Ha
Someone tekl me WTF is this joker besides the other self-racist joker I know.
Only time I used to go to WiiWare is when I wanted to download a free game demo, because I used to do game reviews (for my own self and family). I had over 50-something demos downloaded. Then after I reviewed them all (and insulted them like I usually do), I never got around to editing the videos and finishing them. So now (along with hundreds of other videos) they’re stuck in my external hard drive forever. And I have no computer. Oh well.
Well what did they expect?They put it on a already dead platform:the Wii.Don’t get me wrong,I don’t hate the Wii,I just thought is was stupid to put it on there instead of the Wii U.It’s not like the Wii is Indie friendly like the Wii U is.We even said that we wanted it on the Wii U instead of the Wii,but no,they said”Well if you want it on the Wii U,you could just buy it on the Wii,and then play it on the Wii U due to backwards compatibility”(or something like that).Yeah because you could’ve played it with the Wii U GamePad right?It’s a bummer that it failed on the Wii,but they should’ve expected that ;/
It was a gift for the fans
if it was a gift, then he shouldn’t complain (or make public) that he wont be compensated for it…. what it was in reality was a very ill-advised business move…releasing it on a dying console on a poorly constructed distribution channel was dumb. he should’ve released it on Wii U eShop… these type of titles do well on that avenue… I would buy this on Wii U eShop. I hope he reconsiders and releases it on Wii U eShop.. .as I (and others) will buy it… until then… NO SOUP FOR YOU.
Oh, no. He expected to get paid for a game he made that lots of people asked for on a specific platform because he’s trying to be a decent person? How dare he? No really, go fall in a hole, loser.