We Could Use a Wii U eShop

We really need some kind of digital platform option for Wii U games, since most of them are getting digital releases as well as physical. I've been listing them under normal Wii U releases and marking them as eShop (which was an established precedent when I started editing Wii U releases), but that's unnecessarily messy when you consider that other platforms get their digital marketplace marked as a separate platform (See: Luigi's Mansion 2's release page, nice and clean).

Any plans for this? Rename 3DSWare to eShop, since that's what both go by anyway? Make a separate platform? It's up to you guys, but it seems like we need something here while there are still only a few Wii U games. Making this decision in two years might be a bigger hassle.

@rolyatkcinmai: I brought these to Jeff's attention last summer and then a few weeks ago after the relaunch. There apparently are ideas about merging download and "retail" platforms but decisions haven't (hadn't) been made and the other site stuff had priority. Weirdly enough adding the "Linux" platform based on a forum discussion was a quick and easy thing to do a few weeks ago.

Naturally, I'm still championing this since it's pretty crazy that the 3DS is now two years old and the download platform still uses a name that never officially existed as well as the Wii U being left in the dust with tons of eShop releases entered as regular Wii U games leading to more work once there finally (?) is a Wii U eShop page.

Yeah it seems a little crazy, but I suppose if they know about it I'll just keep going as I have been.

I suggested it a while back as well and they talked about merging physical and downloadable games as the reason why it wasn't being done. I personally don't like that idea. It especially makes the Virtual Console releases look weird.

@rolyatkcinmai: @reverendhunt: Personally, I think a system ob sub-categories would be the ideal way to solve this from a strictly presentational viewpoint but that would probably be a lot of futzing around for a big new feature like this. In my head it would be the main console as the main platform and then the download store as the sub-platform.

I also don't think merging physical and download platforms is a good idea since I believe this goes against most of what the redesign brought to the table in terms of search filters and stuff like that. Having less detail sort of is the exact opposite philosophy.

The easiest way would be to just finally throw a Wii U eShop in there which would ultimately be all we really need right now (and finally rename 3DSWare to 3DS eShop!).

eShop needs more improve i think.

I think someone should just go ask Jeff on Tumblr.

Apparently they had plans that went against the creation of a Wii eShop page, but if they're not longer in place then there's no reason why we shouldn't ask for one.

Though if they are, we should probably wait for them to come to fruition.

@snail: I literally just asked him during the seaserpent site beta. But I followed your advice and just hammered out a question on tumblr.

@jeff please hear our cries! :P

Also, we still need a submit button for the chat.

If you're merging digital and physical, to me, that kind of nullifies things like limited editions which are really just first run prints, etc. If we're not to go that granular, we have a lot of deleting to do.

It seems to me that it would be nice if there was a place to list the size of the downloadable Wii U games.

The rumor that Legocity stories is 20gb caused me to plan for a retail copy rather than digital copy, but the Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is only 6gb, so I'm willing to download it. That's just one way the information could be useful.

@theegravedigger: Well that stuff can just be put in the wiki. I've been doing it for some 3DS download games and PC games list that info in their system requirements anyway. Xbox Live and PSN downloads are also sometimes detailed in the wiki text itself, if someone decides to put that info in there.

There would be A LOT of useful things that could be added to the release forms but at some point it's probably overkill.

Lego City was 19GB. Took me eight hours to download, even though on Steam or Xbox 20GB would take less than an hour. After downloading that 19GB there was STILL a 45 minute install process.

Merging the platforms doesn't mean you have to delete releases. That makes no sense. They'd just become 3DS releases or whatever.

@rolyatkcinmai said: @theegravedigger said:It seems to me that it would be nice if there was a place to list the size of the downloadable Wii U games.The rumor that Legocity stories is 20gb caused me to plan for a retail copy rather than digital copy, but the Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is only 6gb, so I'm willing to download it. That's just one way the information could be useful.Lego City was 19GB. Took me eight hours to download, even though on Steam or Xbox 20GB would take less than an hour. After downloading that 19GB there was STILL a 45 minute install process.

That's pretty damned ridiculous! Sounds like I will be sticking to the retail copy for this one.

On a side note, could somebody explain how external hdd's work with the console? Is there a specific type of external hdd that I need?

Nah, any basic one will work fine. I had a few extra 3TB drives from work and plugged that in. It formats it and makes it usable.

Nintendo has a list of officially tested and approved USB HDDs on their website somewhere. But ultimately any old external drive will work. If it's one that doesn't have its own power supply you need to use a twin USB adapter and use both USB ports for it. USB drives with their own power cable are recommended (better reliability).

But seriously, now that PAX and GDC are over, how about adding that Wii U eShop and renaming 3DSWare?

@jeff Pretty please? :)