Michael,

Nintendo keep putting out these press releases, saying they "care about indies" and "want to help indies", but when it comes down to it, it's really not true.

The main problem for indie developers trying to get a Nintendo dev license is that they work from home. Nintendo policy dictates that developers work from an office, a separate premises entirely. Home offices aren't allowed.

A number of established and respected developers have tried lobbying Nintendo about this policy on many occasions (even today, as a result of this article), with no success.

So it seems while the PR machine is trying to make Nintendo fluffy and cuddly, the reality is somewhat different.

Mark,
I think it's perfectly fair for Nintendo to want indie developers to work in offices- it's not unheard of, and remember- they have to think of their Seal of Quality.
Offices are easily available and not too expensive, and will offer the developers a chance to work in a real environment, giving them more credit.
Yes, Nintendo want to help 'indie' developers, but they still want to maintain the same quality that they themselves offer.

Jio,
In this economy I think it's smart to think that a couple hundred a month to a grand or so for a proper office could go towards better development hardware rather then rent, if the house basement works as a office. The seal of quality should remain a seal of quality for the game and not a reflection that "This game was made in a proper office".

So a game isn't good enough unless it's made in an office?

What utter nonsense!

Remember we're not newbies here, we're talking experienced developers who've spent the best part of 30 years developing games - including Nintendo. Like a lot of indie devs, since moving on from major developers/publishers we prefer to work from home. In many cases working in an office isn't feasible, as the team is spread throughout the world.

Nintendo's stance would be fine, if it didn't continually spout this "we're indie friendly", when they're clearly not.

World of Goo, the most succesful WiiWare title so far, by far was created by Indie developer 2D Boy (2 people), working out of Cafes in the San Francisco area. No office required.

It's hard to tell how they got that licence. Probably just the fact that it was already a massive success helped it. Or perhaps they have a small office they don't use for anything other than mail?

But then there is zee-3, the Pickford Brothers, who made Naked War who can't get a licence despite having a fairly successful game because they work from a bedroom. That Bob bloke flipped out too.

Nintendo (as in WiiWare) could learn a lot from Apple's App Store model, cut some of the red tape and let more indies in like us - but they won't.

The Apple model is a bit of a mess with prices jumping around and little quality control meaning that few apps are used much once they are bought.

Nothing wrong with that really is there? The better stuff usually filters to the top anyway and money is made while the chaff gets pushed to the bottom and makes not a lot. If Nintendo took their cut then who is worried and it would offer far more choice to the consumer base than we currently have.

Because most people would just think that the few rubbish things they have bought is the average quality of everything on there ...and they will stop buying anything

To be honest I can see both points of view.

Nintendo want to know they are dealing with professional developers and the home office rule is an easy way of eliminating hobbyist developers.

Unfortunately the rule discriminates against legitimate developers who choose to work at home as an increasing percentage of the workforce in all industries now choose to do.

So I just see it as Nintendo working to an old fashioned and outdated model of peoples working life.

Not that I am in any way an apologist for their policy, I very much disagree with it.

But I think it comes down to educating them and making them realise that modern work practices mean they're policy is having a negative impact on what they publicly claim they want to achieve with indie developers.

Not that I want to sound like an old fart, but I remember the 8 bit computer days when many great and innovative games were created in bedrooms. I know some may say theses days have long gone and production values and development time-scales make that impossible now.

But as someone else has already pointed out, these days developers, artists, designers, musicians etc. can now develop over the internet together and create the kind of unique and innovative games that Nintendo should want to get on Wiiware and DSIware.

Well if they used the same type of rating system Apple do then consumers could choose from the good and bad and not just buy rubbish blind.

The key word here is choice and besides not all indies are going to produce rubbish quality software, some of it would be very good if allowed on to the platform (home office or not).

To be honest it'll be too late in a minute as Wii2 will be out LOL

Adrian, I don't think Wii2 will be out in a while, Nintendo has some time to redeem itself still.

Speaking about the article, it's true that they want to eliminate the hobbyists, but it's also true that very often the so called "office developers" don't always output games of greater quality compared to bedroom ones. There's a lot of rubbish on the Wii and Nintendo should control more those things and less where you developed them.