Retro City Rampage Developer Reaches Out to GBAtemp

[Another World]

A recent post here on GBAtemp by McHaggis summarized into a news article points that the developer behind Retro City Rampage had made public. To catch up you quickly, Brian Provinciano needs to quickly move a remaining number of Wii RCR units before he can receive a single cent of revenue from Nintendo. The deadline to sell the last few units is fast approaching. He has reached out to the public (Twitter, Facebook, etc) and asked for fans of the game to consider making a purchase. Specifically he has mentioned those who perhaps acquired a copy through less-than legal means. What he said and what he meant where somehow lost along the way.

Since the news article was posted, gamers have been debating how pirates were to blame. Incorrectly assuming that he [Provinciano] was directly calling out pirating as the source of his problems. Well, post about it, discuss it, and Google will propagate it. Thanks to a random search, Provinciano has contacted me directly with some words that he hopes will set the story straight.

Hi,

I stumbled upon the gbatemp forum thread through google, and wanted to pipe in a bit...

1. I'm not blaming pirates for RCR not hitting the WiiWare threshold. To think that, would be to take the quote out of context. What I'm saying is, every unit counts when it comes to WiiWare sales. Every unit helps make the difference between the developer getting paid at all, versus not.

2. I mentioned people who download .WADs specifically because they are potential fans. A pocket of gamers who are the demographic, and more likely to be active Wii gamers.

3. I'm well aware that most pirated copies of a game are not in fact lost sales. However, in the case of Europe, for example, where only ~1,100 copies have been sold on WiiWare, it's quite clear that more WADs have been downloaded than purchased. Again, I know most of these downloads wouldn't equate to purchases, but if anyone who downloaded it became and fan and enjoyed it, I'm kindly asking that they consider purchasing it.

4. The Wii was a good fit. The 3DS version's done incredibly well and outsold the Xbox version in a fraction of the time (even after launching 13 months later). The Nintendo audience was the right audience. WiiWare simply wasn't strong for third party purchases.

5. The reason one user was unable to find a WAD was likely because they were searching before the game was released. By the time it was released, not only had the WAD spread, the NES ROM was even ripped from it and distributed as well (which indeed hurt the incentive of picking up the game on WiiWare to play this bonus feature).

6. I have no idea what % of people have modded Wiis vs. not, but that's not the number one would look at. It's the % of Wiis of the game's demographic (ie. core gamers in their teens to mid 30s). The % of this demographic is much higher than the % of Wii systems sold as a whole, most of which were sold to people who only had one or two games, one of which being Wii Sports.

7. While it's true that the game's done well on other platforms and that can cover the losses on Wii, it's still a notable amount of loss. Especially when after the 2 year threshold time period ends, the difference between getting paid and not will likely be only a few hundred units.

TL;DR: The number of units that need to be sold to hit the threshold is low enough that every unit DOES count. So, what I was saying was, if anyone did happen to download the .WAD, and did enjoy it, it would be a kind gesture to purchase the game.

Thanks!

In regards to the later-than-expected porting of the Wii version, he has these words to add:

http://www.reddit.com/r/wiiu/comments/29ynuo/retro_city_rampage_sadly_flopped_on_wiiware/cipydji

RCR took so long because I wanted it to be the best possible game. I tried to get it out on Wii in 2012, but certification kept bouncing it for things like the Wii nunchuck manual page and terminology. Since it didn't make it through certification in time for Christmas, I decided to improve the game further, add the prototype ROM and release it in February.

This thread is being made to provide the developer with a means to post his thoughts to our community. It will remain closed, please direct all comments to the original news thread linked below.

On-going Discussion
Retro City Rampage Homepage

 

[Foxi4]

Oh wow, this is actually cool - I would've never expected you to reach out to us like this. If you're reading this, cheers man! I'm glad that you've addressed my (and everybody else's) concerns regarding your original intent - matters are far clearer now. We all hope that the game reaches the sales threshold - it's unfair that such a thing even exists, you definitely deserve your hard-earned cash. We hope that a bit of front page coverage will raise awareness to your situation and we'll keep our fingers crossed!

 

[Another World]

Thanks for using your powers to post in a closed thread! I feel defeated. =P

-Another World

 

[Foxi4]

Thanks for using your powers to post in a closed thread! I feel defeated. =P

-Another World

Me? Abusing my powers? Why I'd never.