Retro City Rampage developer doesn't expect to profit from WiiWare sales

Retro City Rampage developer Brian Provinciano doesn't expect to profit from bringing the throw-back fighting game to Nintendo's WiiWare service due to the costs associated with porting the title; however, he tells Nintendo Life, this is fine with him.

Prior to being given access to Nintendo's development kit, Provinciano was required by the WiiWare company to have legitimate office space from which to work from. As an independent developer this wasn't something that was necessary for him in typical development, but he invested in an office for Nintendo's sake. Another mountain to climb was the issue of needing to sell a particular number of units before Nintendo finally begins paying the developer their share in profits. With the relatively recent appearance of Wii U consoles, as well as the generally low sales of WiiWare titles overall, Provinciano doesn't believe he will recoup.

"Between the office rent, hardware, insurance, game ratings and other costs, had I not done the WiiWare version, I could've saved around $20,000 - not even including my salary in porting it. And as it stands, virtually no games hit the threshold these days, so it's only being released as fan service. A $20,000 gift to the fans."

Provinciano added that the weaknesses of Nintendo in regards to WiiWare game development are now fixed for future platforms such as the Wii U. "They listen to feedback and take action to improve things if there's a better way," he said. "In both cases, the original policies had the best intentions, but turned out to be a bit problematic."

Retro City Rampage hit WiiWare on Feb. 28. The game is also playable on Wii U through the Wii eShop in Wii Mode after being released last fall on PlayStation Network and Windows PC, and hitting Xbox Live Arcade earlier in the year.