Some indies are more equal than others, says Reggie Fils-Aime
3DS and Wii platform holder Nintendo has said it will embrace the independent developer, but “draws the line” with less-established garage outfits.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said he would “separate out the true independent developer versus the hobbyist".
“We are absolutely reaching out to the independent developer,” he said in an interview with Gamasutra.
“Where we've drawn the line is we are not looking to do business today with the garage developer. In our view, that’s not a business we want to pursue.”
The term ‘garage developer’ is ambiguous, but Fils-Aime appeared to characterize one as a games creator who holds down other jobs.
Advertisement
The issue, he said, is value of content.
Echoing Nintendo President Satoru Iwata at a recent speech to the industry, Fils-Aime said developers are heightening risk by delivering low-priced and free software.
Gamasutra paraphrased him as saying this tactic is subverting the $50 value of games in the consumer conscience.
“When we talk about the value of software, it could be a great $1 piece of content or a $50 piece of content," he said.
“The point is, does it maintain its value over time or is it such disposable content that the value quickly goes to zero?
“We want consumers to see value in the software, whatever that appropriate value is. And we want to see that value maintained over time."
Earlier in March, Mr Iwata delivered an extraordinary speech that carried a warning to the growing mobile game developer fellowship.
He said that “game development is downing”, with a mass off content being pushed to mobile formats at low prices. It was an unequivocal attack on Apple and Google’s booming smartphone platforms, though Fils-Aime disagreed.
Iwata's standout GDC speech has conjured a number of interpretations. Industry veteran Phil Harrison said he disagreed with Iwata’s view that the social games model will go away – despite Iwata not making such a claim.
So these companies that make crap games for Wii are any better?
RT "So these companies that make crap games for Wii are any better?"
Not to imply that all games released will make money. But still I think the differentcloth article on here the other day http://www.develop-online.net/news/37288/Lilt-Line-needs-double-sales-for-Nintendo-pay is a perfect companion piece to this article. His comments sound blissfully ignorant of where small indie studios and games actually come from.
How exactly are you reaching out to indie devs nintendo, and where is the line between hobbiest and studio?
Saw him in the front row at GDC, listening to Nintendo's 3DS lecture, bored out of his face, browsing his blackberry.
It's not his job to care about developers, and that's fine.
I just find it strange that a man so creatively bankrupt would even pass comment on game creators.
tigershungry - [[[ How exactly are you reaching out to indie devs nintendo, and where is the line between hobbiest and studio? ]]]
The article says a hobbiest as "a games creator who holds down other jobs"
The great irony here is that 'garage developers' are the only ones who could justify doing business with Nintendo! For any indie outfits (like us) that operate as a functioning company with overheads & fixed costs the risk of WiiWare etc is simply not worth the reward.
We considered putting our game on WiiWare but with all the known issues with dashboard visibility/UX and Nintendos payment terms we dropped the idea pretty quickly.
I think he is right to identify that their services may benefit from some discrimination between the quality of content like Microsoft have with XBLA & XBLIG but they need to make some serious pragmatic changes before they can get there. Going and talking to indie developers might be a good start!
Seems to me that Nintendo are at a watershed of sorts: No doubt cash rich from the success of their hardware but seemingly blinkered about some of the disruption going on in the marketplace.
Wolfos - [[[ So these companies that make crap games for Wii are any better? ]]]
And do you think there will be less crap games if the barriers of entry were lowered?
No, just crap games that don't cost $20, like all the Ubisoft Wii/DS shit.
yeah, I read that. But don't believe you can draw that line in the sand. By that reckonning Notch was a hobbiest dev until he made several millions through minecraft and was able to become a studio.
I'm not saying they need to offer chairty to all devs, cause sifting through the titles and quality on the app store is an issue. But I don't believe them when they say they are supporting indie devs, I don't believe they can draw the line they are trying to. And that's all their choice, I just think its a fantastically bad one
Martin Darby - [[[ Going and talking to indie developers might be a good start! ]]]
Right on. What do you think they could do to help indies most?
@MR_K:
No, in fact I think they should be made higher but it's hypocrite to exclude indie developers when such crap companies are given licenses.
@MR_K
I struggle to think of a new-school indie who doesn't see online as the future in either one way or another, either via download or browser streaming.
Nintendo currently seem to take online the least seriously out of the major first parties. The Wii doesnt have a hard drive, the Wiiware dashboard is terrible, consumers arent't getting their consoles online etc. If they talked to dev's they could find out more about the up's and downs of other digital ecosystems and evolve their services into something superior than their competitors: superior for the customer & the developer.
Instead it feels like Nintendo vs the world. A corporation trying to stamp down their way of doing things onto the market place in an attempt to protect an established business model.
Who ever cares ? :) Nintendo games are so odd that it doesn't matter anyways :) Nintendo is already full of odd titles for retarded people. I will never publish my game under Nintendo - its just sounds like Matell or Matchbox for me.
Repost from Lilt Line article:
I make a game, effectively paying to publish, then get nothing unless I sell enough to cover the publisher's costs. Isn't this the worst kind of vanity publishing? Compare to minimal costs of Android, iPhone and WP7 and a guarantied 70% return. Hmmm
Is Nintendo out of their minds? They are willing to snub the future developers because they are not full time developers?
I believe small developers already have to jump through some tricky hoops to be granted even a Nintendo DS development kit, so this effectively changes nothing. There has always been a line drawn there - "Not meeting certain requirements? Then no devkit for you." I suppose nothing's changed but it just underlines that Nintendo aren't going to.
Knocking the quality of third party titles, whatever the cost, is hypocritical, tho'. But I've worked on one of those titles considered "low-budget Wii games" and am pleased to have done so! ;)
