When Nintendo announced their Virtual Console service for the Wii, they dangled the possibility of not only downloadable retro/classic games but also new games developed by independent studios with smaller budgets. Well, if this latest rumor proves true, then Nintendo may be aggressively pursuing this idea. According to gaming site Kotaku,

Just got word of an interesting (and totally unconfirmed) rumor from one of our insiders. It seems that Nintendo is giving Wii development kits to smaller studios. A developer in a big coastal American city apparently received a mysterious package from Nintendo. Office staff, programmers, and even the president weren’t aware what was inside. The box was opened, and viola, Wii dev kit. This could be a ploy on Nintendo’s part to get as many companies working on Wii games as possible.

Now, one would have to guess that Nintendo didn’t send the development kit unannounced—giving a kit to a studio without asking them to sign some sort of non-disclosure agreement would mean that this studio could in effect legally post all of the technical details about the Wii. However, if the studio had already been in talks with Nintendo and received the dev kit free of charge, then this would be great news for potential indie developers on a tight budget.

Since we’re speculating, here’s an even more interesting thought—why wouldn’t Nintendo take this to the next level?? Given the similarity between the Wii control system and a mouse / keyboard combination, it seems like the Wii could be a very easy console to program for, even for doing simple homebrew projects. If I got my wish, Nintendo would provide free, downloadable programming toolkits to anyone with a PC. Combine that with a system whereby Nintendo takes a percentage of profits out of homebrew projects sold through the Virtual Console and you’ve got the ultimate game development platform! (and one that could make Nintendo a pretty penny in the process) Of course, given Nintendo’s somewhat confrontational history with 3rd-party developers, the rumor from Kotaku and the above daydreaming may not come to pass anytime soon.