I was looking at the HTML source for the Wii Shop recently, using some of the guidance provided by various Wii hackers shortly after the console was first released. Perusing the code, it is clear there are many error messages to deal with various situations (wrong credit card number, bad Wii Points Card number, etc). Two that caught my eye were:

“The card number you entered can only be used to download specific titles. It is not a Wii Points Card.”

“You have downloaded this title before, and your trial period has expired. You cannot redownload it.”

Interesting …. looks like at some point Nintendo is intending to have Wii Points that can only be used to to download specific games (special promotions or pack-ins with Wii discs ? competition winners ? gift cards ?). Even more interesting is the suggestion that maybe there will be trial versions of some games on Virtual Console or WiiWare in the future. I know a lot of people would like this .. and while it would probably hurt the sales of some crappy games, overall I think “try before you buy” would increase sales of the better games.