Gameloft moving over to DSiWare
Avoiding Nintendo is the key to DSi success
ArsTechnica chatted with several developers about the feasibility of entering the DSi market, and it seems mobile gaming giant Gameloft is particularly interested in experimenting with the new handheld console’s direct download service.
Speaking at GDC, Gameloft’s Gonzague de Vallois explained the developer’s opinions on how to best succeed on a Nintendo platform – by keeping out of Nintendo’s way.
“You have to know that there is some area that Nintendo is going to cover, especially with their own IP, and it's going to be hard to compete with these IPs. When we think about the platform, that's where they are strong, with this publishing. I don't want to compete with these key assets.”
To kick things off, Gameloft has ported its iPhone football game, Real Sports Soccer, and will back this up with a lifestyle sim in which you manage your career as a rock star. This latter title is aimed more at girls, apparently, and makes use of the DSi’s inward facing camera to put gamers directly into the onscreen action.
Gameloft insists it’s chosen its launch games very carefully so as not to find itself going toe-to-toe with any first-party publisher DSi titles, which sounds like a very practical notion for testing out the DSiWare waters.
“This is the same on every console; we take that into account. But [the DSi] is mass-market, it's digitial distribution, it fits with our expertise,” concludes de Vallois. “Nintendo is playing really fair.”
