How big are wiiware games?

[Splutter]

Hopefully not been asked before and no this isn't another why don't they bring out a hard drive thread. Just wondered how space I'm going to need to make for Final Fantasy, surely hard drive support must be around the corner, I mean I've even got a hard drive attached to my DVD / DIVX player.

But if not, are there any confirmed sizes?

[ICEknight]

They're gonna be this big.
:P


Now seriously, I don't think they've announced any official sizes for the games... I guess we'll have to wait for the 25th.

[Angelic Lapras King]

40MB has been thrown up in the air a bit, so thats a possibility...

[Jogurt the Yogurt]

I was under the impression that Nintendo has set a universal upper limit for WW game size. I'm guessing that's what the original poster wanted to know—how big they can be.

[Joxe]

Dunno about that really, wasn't there a game that moved to WiiWare from XBLA because of the 150 MByte limit?

I certainly hope that they aren't too big, otherwise they just have to release a harddrive.

[Jogurt the Yogurt]

Actually, you're right Joxe, I think I was getting that exact story mixed up in my memory. Nintendo apparently wants to give developers a lot of freedom with WW, which probably means not meddling in size requirements too.

I'm sure the developers (WW and otherwise) would love Nintendo to release external storage, too.

[Angelic Lapras King]

Sounds about right. Now pick up this Nintendo!

*Crosses fingers for some sort of annoncement either around Japanese WW launch or even E3*

Although, a Firmware update that allows use of any external HDD, like people suggested, could be a possibilty come launch day...

[McFearless]

I have a theory that the wiiware update allows wiiware stuff to be saved direct to SD cards, allowing them to be used direct from there, saving the internal memory.

[Jogurt the Yogurt]

Originally Posted by McFearless

I have a theory that the wiiware update allows wiiware stuff to be saved direct to SD cards, allowing them to be used direct from there, saving the internal memory.

I don't mean to poop in your parasol, but I highly doubt it.

[pdRydia]

It seems that many of the articles quoting the 40 mb figure ultimately link back to a podcast by IGN. I seem to recall originally reading about the supposed 40mb cap size in the context of an interview with a WiiWare developer, but I can't seem to find the article I read. If that's the case, though, the speculation might have come about by talking with developers who over-generalized their specific circumstances to be standard or restricting to all WiiWare developers.

Originally Posted by Joxe

Dunno about that really, wasn't there a game that moved to WiiWare from XBLA because of the 150 MByte limit? I certainly hope that they aren't too big, otherwise they just have to release a harddrive.

That'd be Bernard's Eternity's Child, if Joystiq isn't mistaken. The article has some speculation as to how that might work. It also links to a Eurogamer article with some relevant text on the issue:

Nintendo has disputed some of the Wii Software (WiiWare) details announced in an IGN podcast this week, which claimed that WiiWare titles would be capped at 40MB, that developers would set their own prices and be limited to releasing one game per month.

"I can confirm as we originally said at the announcement of the Wii Ware service earlier in the year that Wii Ware games will come in a range of sizes but we will encourage smaller, more compact games for the service," a Nintendo spokesperson told Eurogamer today.

"I can also confirm we are contemplating that developers will be able to release one game per month during the launch window in order for us to address potential volume issues.

"We have not revealed any details about who sets pricing for Wii Ware titles. However it is important to remember that one of the keys aspects of the Wii Ware service is to allow everyone access to fresh, new content at a low price."

There we go. Another example of video games journalism at its finest. ;]