A portion of a Next-Gen interview with Frontier founder David Braben, Telltale Games design director Dave Grossman, and Mastiff head Bill Swartz…
NG: Was the size cap on WiiWare games or the Wii’s memory limitation a development issue?
Braben: No, not really. I mean to be honest, every single game we’ve ever done has had size limits and the issue is not specifically the size limits. If you think back to Elite and 22k or whatever it was, you know on one of those 2k machines, the constraints now are way, way less. And the other point is the game has still got to run within the memory of a machine. What you’re actually talking about is the medium size limit and since everything can be stored and compressed, that’s much less of an issue. I think that what it has done is very much focus us. In a sense, any limitations, and there are always limitations, do help. It’s just part of the creative process.
Grossman: I’m not sure precisely but [the size limit] is something like 40 megabytes and yeah, it’s a constraint working within that, but our technical people are pretty good about getting stuff compressed in the right ways to get the quality.
NG: Some commentators have criticized the Wii’s software library, saying it’s full of shovelware from companies trying to make a quick buck from the system’s success, while others have suggested that Xbox Live Arcade has become overloaded with content to the detriment of the service. Are you worried about this becoming an issue with WiiWare?
Swartz: Let’s put it this way, I’ve certainly heard the criticism that there’s too much crap on the Wii and that all these awful titles are dragging the system down but there’s another way to look at that which is to say that Nintendo basically believes in a free market. I don’t think I’m giving away any state secrets when I say that Nintendo, by having a huge selection of software on their system, puts the consumers in control. Having a lot of software on the system means yes, a higher percentage of it is going to be bad, but it also means that you’re going to get some gems and the consumer will be able to make up their own mind. So every time I hear that there’s too much crap on the Wii my reflexive response is, ‘wait a second, have you walked down a grocery isle recently?’ Consumers get to make choices - do you really want someone else to do your thinking for you?
