Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal has some big news for us today! On Wednesday morning (today, technically), Nintendo is expected to reveal its full plans for the WiiWare section of the Wii Shop Channel. While the Virtual Console will be reserved for retro and classic games, the WiiWare section will be opened up to original content and games, much like Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network allow for on their respective consoles.
Nintendo will be opening up the service to not only big-name publishers (EA, Sega, Ubisoft, Konami, etc.), but to independent developers as well. While Nintendo will handle pricing for each game on an individual basis and check each game for bugs and compatibility issues, they will not control or evaluate the games. The publishers and/or developers wishing to place original content in the WiiWare section will be responsible for getting their games rated by the ESRB, AO-rated titles excluded.
Nintendo is working with third parties to flood the WiiWare section with games. The games should be available by early next year.
