Even from the beginning it was all about game. When Microsoft and Sony were pumping graphic and processor power into their gaming platforms, Nintendo was talking about games and how to reinvent the gameplay.

After eight months since Nintendo rocked the gaming market with its astonishing Wii, gamers have proven the Japanese company was right: it’s about games.

And now Nintendo is attracting independent and private game developers with WiiWare, a service announced a Nintendo Developer Conference held at Santa Monica in the US.

WiiWare is a a game-creation service that will allow developers large and small to create new downloadable video game content for sale by Nintendo through the Wii Shop Channel.

WiiWare is scheduled to launch in early 2008 and, according to Nintendo, it paves the way for smaller, more creative games to make their way to the public at lower prices, without any inventory risk to developers.

"Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit," says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "WiiWare brings new levels of creativity and value to the ever-growing population of Wii owners."

The users will be able to purchase the downloadable content in exchange for Wii Points, but Nintendo wasn’t very specific about the pricing scheme.

Last year, Microsoft launched a similar software development platform for its Xbox 360 console, called Microsoft XNA Game Studio  Express, based on Visual C# 2005 Express Edition and Microsoft .NET Compact Framework.