La-Mulana Not Coming to WiiWare due to Pitiful Platform Sales Numbers

According to Nicalis, Indie Game publisher of upcoming side-scroller La-Mulana, WiiWare sales statistics are now “almost non-existent.” Because of this, La-Mulana will in fact not see a release on the Wii’s digital marketplace, as they claim that it is now “near impossible to sell sufficient units on WiiWare”.

Japan-based developer of the game Nigoro first launched the title on PC in 2008, and only graced the Japanese version of WiiWare in June 2011 after several years of additional development.

“The WiiWare market has a fraction of the players from 2008,” Nicalis founder Tyrone Rodriguez told GoNintendo.

“The window for release and success of software on the platform ended in 2009 and took a very steep decline. Players have moved onto other digital download platforms.”

Nigoro [the developer] got a bit ahead of themselves and spent two years agonizing on getting the DLC sort of working for Japan. Unfortunately, it never passed Nintendo’s submission process in the US or EU with DLC in place.

With the Wii U in the not too distant future and WiiWare sales almost non-existent, I had to make a call today. I wish them the best. They’re good game developers and good guys.”

Honestly, I don’t blame them. With as pitiful of a software lineup as the WiiWare marketplace has, why should any developer or publisher have any desire to publish on that platform?

As someone who loves Nintendo, I say these words not out of spite or disrespect – but out of love. I want to see more high-quality titles on the network, but it’s like throwing a ham sandwhich into a pig pen.

It’s messy, and there’s nothing good in there. Sure, there’s a delicious sandwhich to be had, but who wants to go through all that for a sandwhich, regardless of its deliciousness?

Hopefully this changes with the Wii U. People have voted with their wallets Nintendo – they’ll buy your hardware and motion controllers, but if you want to sell software, it’d better be good and it better be accessible.

*Drops Mic*

[via EuroGamer]