Beamdog founder Trent Oster: "We don't do Nintendo development"

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http://www.gamespot.com/news/we-dont-do-nintendo-development-says-baldurs-gate-dev-6372032

Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is headed for iPads and PCs, but don't expect the Overhaul Games revival of the BioWare role-playing game to hit the Wii U anytime soon.

When asked on Twitter about the possibility of a Wii U version given the system's iPad-like touch-screen controller, founder of Overhaul parent company Beamdog Trent Oster didn't dance around the subject.

"We don't do Nintendo development," Oster said. "Our previous experience with Nintendo was enough to ensure there will not be another."

Last year, Beamdog released a port of the BioWare action game MDK2 for WiiWare. In a follow-up post, Oster explained what about that experience soured him on working with Nintendo again.

"My problems with Nintendo are: requiring 6,000 unit sales before payment, a certification process that took us 9 months, and a 40MB limit," Oster said.

Oster went on to call the Wii a toy instead of a console, citing the system's low attach rate. "You buy a Wii, Wii sports and never buy another game," Oster said. "Bad for devs."

Due out this summer, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition runs on an updated version of the Infinity Engine and will include the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack. In addition, Overhaul Games is adding never-before-seen content to the game, including a "new adventure" and party member.
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UPDATE:

Father_Brain said:
Don't think anyone posted this here yet. `One of the better Nintendo fansites asked Oster to elaborate, and he responded:
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Beamdog's Trent Oster has not been shy about discussing the problems the company had with bringing MDK2 to WiiWare. NWR recently reached out to Mr. Oster to learn more about his experience with WiiWare and also to seek out his perspective on the Wii U. Below is his response:

"I'm not an oracle on the problems with WiiWare, but from my perspective the platform hasn't been a success for many developers outside of Nintendo.

The 40MB size limit on WiiWare makes it very difficult to bring larger games to the platform. We had to go to war on MDK2 to get it to fit within the 40MB constraints, taking a 400 plus megabyte game and cutting it a full order of magnitude in size. We put a lot of effort into managing the compromises to get the game down in size and still keep the quality level high.

When we shipped MDK2 there was a large confusion about demos on the platform and we never got a straight answer if demos were allowed. We were not allowed to set the price, Nintendo set the pricing, telling us after a week it would be 1000 points. As well, there was never any discussion of doing a sale or promoting the title. This all contributed to a title we worked very hard on not getting any differentiation from other titles in the WiiWare store. The result was large disappointment with the platform.

When the Wii first launched, I didn't understand it. I thought it was just a gimmick. After playing with it I could see the mass appeal, but I was afraid it would be treated like a toy by the family purchasers, where they would buy the Wii bundle with Wii Sports and never buy another game. I think for a lot of the family purchases this was true and a huge number of the Wii units only ever sold one or two games. The initial third party titles didn't do a great job with the controller implementation and I think that really hurt the perception of third party titles on the Wii as a whole. The end result was a platform where the perception was only Nintendo could make money.

For the Wii U, I once again don't get it. I'm having a hard time seeing how a tablet controller & console system is going to be revolutionary. I could be wrong, but I think the gaming world has changed irrevocably and there are now two fronts: Triple A console titles which resemble blockbuster movies and freemium/app store titles which are closer to television. The triple "A" titles cost a ton to develop and there is a market for the best of the breed, with the major brands doing huge numbers but many titles not even breaking even.

The freemium/app space has everything from "assware" (my pet name for poor quality freemium titles), up to what I would compare to HBO television titles, which are high production quality and well executed games which sell in the $10-$30 price point. The PC platform bridges both models, which makes it an interesting target to develop for. To me, the Wii U doesn't fit into either model and I see a lot of difficulty for it on either front. The app store/freemium model has redefined consumer pricing expectations, making consumers much less likely to invest $60 in a title without playing it first. The triple "A" model focuses on delivering the experience you expect at the agreed upon price, which is going to be hard to sell conceptually with a new platform like the Wii U. I wish Nintendo the best and I hope they can hit big with a major success."
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This already got flogged in the other thread.

Small team, need to do dev on PC anyways, iPad is huge target, makes sense.

I don't know what bent them out of shape about nintendo specifically but it's probably - definitely - not worth getting bothered over.
 
Lord Ghirahim said:
I'm not even sure which part of that I should quote and mock first.
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How about this part?

"My problems with Nintendo are: requiring 6,000 unit sales before payment, a certification process that took us 9 months, and a 40MB limit,"
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Make sure to direct your mocking at Nintendo.
 
My problems with Nintendo are: requiring 6,000 unit sales before payment, a certification process that took us 9 months, and a 40MB limit,
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If this was their experience then its an absolutely fair and reasonable criticism to offer. Absolutely. I can understand why such difficulties would put anyone off.

The rest comes across as bitter pained ramblings though. The fact that he is adamant that New Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart, Wii Fit, DKCR, Smash Bros and Wii Sports Resort simply don't exist is rather pitiable.
 
I'm so offended, that i won't be buying this game.

He needs to pick up the phone and personally apologise to Reggie and Iwata.

Nothing else will do.
 
Zefah said:
Make sure to direct your mocking at Nintendo.
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If only there was some way that those problems could be fixed, oh wait, they already have been!

And he didn't think to check this things before he released a game on WiiWare? Isn't that clever of him!

So basically, the guy's an idiot, and it's his loss. Less money for him!

Zekes! said:
What's the Wii's attach rate like anyways?
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Last I heard, better than the PS3 at least. 360, I'm not so sure about.
 
My problems with Nintendo are: requiring 6,000 unit sales before payment, a certification process that took us 9 months, and a 40MB limit," Oster said.
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This shit will bite Nintendo in the ass. I don't see the point for such daft measures.

Y'see, this is the sort of nonsense that makes me realise why devs tend to dance around talking about the Wii-U.
 
Nintendo has a lot of work to do if they want a similar level of 3rd / indie party support to PS3-X360.
I do not think they will actually do a effort to get it.
 
Baron said:
C'mon, throw your hat in the ring. I wanna know if I should laugh at you.
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Let me answer that by asking you a question. Is it sensible to not port a game to Wii U because of restrictions that exist on the predecessor?

Not saying he's obliged to port it but his reasoning is poor at best.
 
jump_button said:
What could go wrong wii was only a monster hit and DS only a monster hit and 3DS only out selling all other together in Japan sounds like a good business plan
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What are 3rd party WiiWare sales like? Hell, what are any WiiWare sales like?

Diddy Kong said:
"I can't make a game that will sell 6,000 copies so Nintendo is stoopid"
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Do any other companies have a limit of how much you can sell before you make money?
 
Zekes! said:
What's the Wii's attach rate like anyways?
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I wouldnt mind knowing this either. I dont follow Nintendo very much so their sales performance is a mystery to me.


What I would really like to see is an accurate sales count for the Top 10 3rd party games on the Wii. There should be some really good numbers there with the amount of units the Wii sold.
 
Zefah said:
Oh, I definitely think Nintendo will get their shit together for the Wii. I hope so at least.
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PairOfFilthySocks said:
This shit will bite Nintendo in the ass. I don't see the point for such daft measures.

Y'see, this is the sort of nonsense that makes me realise why devs tend to dance around talking about the Wii-U.
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3DS eShop says "Hi!"

I doubt anyone was asking for Baldurs Gate on the Wii considering the Wii can't even render at the original BG's resolution, let alone BG2.
 
I'm not sure if I want to support a guy like this anymore. Was going to buy Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, but after such ridiculous claims, he doesn't deserve a sale from me. Sure some of that is reasonable critisism, but with claims like Wii is a toy and no one buys more than one game for it is ridiculous.
 
The long certification process and sales quota are legitimate concerns, but otherwise this guy's assuming the system won't change at all with the Wii-U. I can't imagine WiiWare on Wii-U having a 40mb limit. Does the 3DS eShop even have a 40MB limit?
 
RedSwirl said:
The long certification process and sales quota are legitimate concerns, but otherwise this guy's assuming the system won't change at all with the Wii-U. I can't imagine WiiWare on Wii-U having a 40mb limit. Does the 3DS eShop even have a 40MB limit?
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no it's already changed with the 3DS.
 
Mama Robotnik said:
If this was their experience then its an absolutely fair and reasonable criticism to offer. Absolutely. I can understand why such difficulties would put anyone off.

The rest comes across as bitter pained ramblings though. The fact that he is adamant that New Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart, Wii Fit, DKCR, Smash Bros and Wii Sports Resort simply don't exist is rather pitiable.
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I was about to say exactly the same thing.
 
The certification process is his only legit gripe, and that falls directly on Interplay, the publisher of his WiiWare title. So.... yeah....
 
SuomiDude said:
I'm not sure if I want to support a guy like this anymore. Was going to buy Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, but after such ridiculous claims, he doesn't deserve a sale from me. Sure some of that is reasonable critisism, but with claims like Wii is a toy and no one buys more than one game for it is ridiculous.
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Just so everyone's aware, the only thing this company put on the Wii was that awful port of MDK2.

You know, that revivla of the well-known killer franchise that everyone was anticipating?
 
I H8 Memes said:
What I would really like to see is an accurate sales count for the Top 10 3rd party games on the Wii. There should be some really good numbers there with the amount of units the Wii sold.
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If I had to guess I would say lots of dancing and fitness games with the occasional Call of Duty title sprinkled in.
 
I'm wondering how this question even comes up. I never even considered using the Wii U controller that way.

Was Beamdog support expected prior to this comment?
 
Glass Rebel said:
Let me answer that by asking you a question. Is it sensible to not port a game to Wii U because of restrictions that exist on the predecessor?

Not saying he's obliged to port it but his reasoning is poor at best.
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No, I don't think it's sensible. But I can understand his bitterness, to a point. I'd probably feel the same way. Will developing for future Nintendo platforms bring more money to his business? Sure, that's always a possibility. Will not developing for them hurt his company? Likely not, there are plenty of other platforms out there. Everyone loses, really - Nintendo loses a potential developer it treated poorly, and the developer loses out on opportunities.
 
BattleMonkey said:
Didn't really help sales of most 3rd party games though.
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Lack of marketing and/or lack of quality and/or niche appeal didn't help most third party games, either. If I recall, Call of Duty and Guitar Hero did incredibly well, so third party games that sell well on the HD twins seem to sell pretty well on Wii as well.
 
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