Talk is growing about digital distribution and how it may or may not affect the non-digital retailers. So, who better than Nintendo Europe head honcho Laurent Fischer to chime in on the conversation and let us know how Nintendo’s digital efforts are going to dominate the world and put every brick and mortar retailer out of busi… huh? He did not say anything like that?
Fischer spoke with Develop and indeed pointed out two separate ways that WiiWare and DSiWare could actually help retail. “There are two ways that WiiWare and DSiWare offer benefits to retail of physical goods. The first is having more people being able to play games. We know from all our experience that what people enjoy on the services makes their appetites for playing games far bigger. That’s the first benefit to retail.”
He continued, “The other way is that WiiWare is a laboratory. What we know is that some of the games that are – you could say ‘tested’ through this platform – they may one day get access to the normal retail channels. That’s because the developers have managed to polish their software through the WiiWare experience. That is going to provide sales.”
