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I just started to use Wii Shop, but I'm shocked that there are only 12 Wii demos. What is the reason for this? I know that there are not many Wii games, but 12 demos looks like nothing when you compare it to how many demos are available for the Xbox 360 or PS3.

Maybe it's because of the country I live in? Do other countries have more demos? For example, Sony is known for not allowing you to view some music videos on YouTube based on your region.

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I believe the reason is technical in nature. The Wii has a very limited amount of disk space. I don't think there is enough room for storing demos, especially for downloadable games.

In recent system updates, Nintendo has created the ability to play games from an external SD card. Maybe there will be more demos as a result.

Limited disk space was also an issue with the Xbox, yet there appear to have been many demos available on that platform. Maybe, then, it is also just a cultural issue: the Wii ecosystem just isn't a place where demos are common. This can be frustrating. I once downloaded a Metroid: Prime Corruption "demo" only to find out it was a game trailer.

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  • There is the same problem on xbox and they have a lot of demos. I think I can install all 12 demos and still have space for savegames. P.S. I do need to delete demos on xbox, because i need free space for new ones.
    – IAdapter
    Commented Jan 30, 2011 at 16:15
  • Thanks for the feedback. I never owned an Xbox. I've updated my answer to suggest a new reason.
    – splattered bits
    Commented Jan 30, 2011 at 16:40
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    @0101: The original Xbox had much more memory to store things on: 8GB on the Xbox vs. 512MB on the Wii (some of which is used for system files). While space concerns might not be the only reason for the lack of demos, it's very likely that it plays a large role.
    – Michael Madsen
    Commented Jan 30, 2011 at 19:40
  • @Michael Madsen I disagree, standart Xbox demo takes 800MB, I don't know how much standart wii demo takes, but i can download all 12 demos and have space for savegames. plus on xbox you can install your games on hard-drive(I can only install one game at the time - i think it takes 6GB, because I need other space for demos)
    – IAdapter
    Commented Jan 31, 2011 at 8:29
  • @0101: There's more to this than percentages. IIRC, WiiWare games are only allowed to use 40MB each, so even though a Wii demo would (relatively) use much less space than an Xbox demo (assuming your figure is correct; I have no idea if it is), the fact that there's so much less space to begin with makes the space used more severe, and it gets worse once you subtract space for save games, the System Menu, and other channels (especially the Internet Channel, which is quite large).
    – Michael Madsen
    Commented Jan 31, 2011 at 16:01
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Nintendo has only recently started providing demos for WiiWare games. And even then, they only provide demos for a few games, not all of them. Basically, Nintendo doesn't seem to emphasize WiiWare as much as Microsoft does for XBLA, or as Sony does for PSN.

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I think the Wii demos are only available for a limited time, for some reason.

I've found five demos in total. The first one I downloaded is no longer available.

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  • good to know, thx for sharing.
    – IAdapter
    Commented Jan 31, 2011 at 8:30

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