Nintendo announces WiiWare downloadable games @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on June 27, 2007

News: Original downloadable games for the Wii have been officially announced.

Since the first announcement of the Wii's Virtual Console, Nintendo has made sure to mention that original games would appear on the service someday as well. That day appears to be today. Well, the official announcement that that day is coming sometime in early 2008 (when the service launches) appears to be today.

These "smaller, more creative games" will be sold through the Wii Shop Channel as "WiiWare." Nintendo has also said this program will not just be open to major developers and publishers, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has said "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. WiiWare brings new levels of creativity and value to the ever-growing population of Wii owners."

WiiWare games will be designed with the motion controls of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in mind, but I'm sure games built around the Classic Controller will also be forthcoming. Games will be priced on an individual basis.

While none of this is a surprise, what is a surprise is that Nintendo Power (Nintendo's nearly in-house magazine) has been referring to System 3's reimagining of Impossible Mission as the "first original downloadable title for the Wii" for a while now. Impossible Mission is still scheduled to come out this summer, so either that release date is wrong, or their game has been upgraded to a disc release.

Others have suggested the Wii version of Geometry Wars: Galaxies would be a logical choice as the first WiiWare game. But again, everything Vivendi Games has been saying about that title points to a fall 2007 release, well ahead of WiiWare's early 2008 launch.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see and maybe we'll learn more at this year's E3.