Nintendo Praises Independents, Devalues "Garage Developers"

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
14,499
0
0
Nintendo Praises Independents, Devalues "Garage Developers"



Nintendo thinks that "hobbyists" and "garage developers" are hurting the videogame industry.

In Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata's keynote [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108155-Nintendo-Presidents-GDC-Keynote-Liveblog] at GDC 2011, he talked about the flood of smaller games hitting the market that he believes are leading the industry astray. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime recently clarified that Nintendo has a lot of respect for the true independent developer, but has no desire to work with those making "garage" games.

"I would separate out the true independent developer vs. the hobbyist," Fils-Aime told Gamasutra. "We are absolutely reaching out to the independent developer. 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."

Fils-Aime worries that the flood of low-priced, low-quality software on various services today will disparage the value of games in general. "When we talk about the value of software, it could be a great $1 piece of content or a $50 piece of content," he added. "The point is: Does it maintain its value over time or is it such disposable content that the value quickly goes to zero?"

One could argue that the metric ton of shovelware on the Wii that tends to come in at around $20-$40 on average devalues gaming more than a crappy $1 iPhone game. I'd much rather play Chicken Shoot [http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Try-Not-To-Fart/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550541]. Still, in a fair business environment, it might be impossible to prevent these kinds of games from being released.

Microsoft and Apple have embraced the "garage developer" to some degree with Xbox Live Indie Games and the iOS App Store. While these services have a ton of games that nobody should spend even $1 on, they've also given so-called "hobbyists" the opportunity to become real developers and put out products [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106527-3-Cthulhu-RPG-Makes-It-Out-Before-2011]. Fils-Aime says that he loves when there's a "game that's found that captures people's imagination" from a totally unknown studio, but evidently doesn't believe it's worthwhile to focus on this type of happening from a business point of view.

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33595/Interview_Reggie_FilsAime_On_Garage_Devs_And_The_Value_Of_Software.php]

Permalink
 

Kevlar Eater

New member
Sep 27, 2009
1,933
0
0
Nintendo is just as badly hurting the industry by allowing so much shovelware to come to the Wii as well as slinging rehashed titles.
 

Bad Neighbour

New member
Jan 14, 2009
132
0
0
craddoke said:
Independent developers are garage developers who have sold a game.
Pretty much this.

What's he saying there?... 'we're only interested in supporting developers who are already making a tonne of money, and we're too scared to take a chance with anyone else?' Jesus Christ...
 

RedEyesBlackGamer

The Killjoy Detective returns!
Jan 23, 2011
4,701
0
0
All that shovelware Nintendo puts out and they think someone else is devaluing gaming and leading the industry astray? Hypocrisy much?
 

moretimethansense

New member
Apr 10, 2008
1,617
0
0
Fuck you nintendo!
Hobbyist have made some truely great things and you have released some utter shite lately, besides as craddoke said:
craddoke said:
Independent developers are garage developers who have sold a game.
 

Daemascus

WAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!!!
Mar 6, 2010
792
0
0
James Raynor said:
Wasn't minecraft originally just a hobby project?
Yes it was, and i would much rather play that than anything Nintendo had made lately
 

enistoja

New member
Oct 12, 2010
19
0
0
Bad Neighbour said:
What's he saying there?... 'we're only interested in supporting developers who are already making a tonne of money, and we're too scared to take a chance with anyone else?' Jesus Christ...
Are you surprised? That's the industry nowadays.

Just something I want to say: Cave Story, by Pixel, was a garage project. And it's MUCH better than many of the new games I've seen lately. Then Nintendo decided to start selling it. They should make up their minds.
 

Xanthious

New member
Dec 25, 2008
1,273
0
0
Fils-Aime worries that the flood of low-priced, low-quality software on various services today will disparage the value of games in general.
Oh the sweet sweet irony of that sentence. . . . .Well Reg, if that's what your worried about you need to take a good long hard look at your own consoles and maybe take note that the VAST majority of titles released on your systems are just that, a "flood of low-priced, low-quality software".
 

Tuqui

New member
Mar 2, 2011
126
0
0
Sir Broccoli said:
They're just grumpy because Mojang kicked their asses in the march mayhem.
And I though only Nintendo fans would get grumpy about it.
 

pyroghast

New member
Feb 21, 2011
26
0
0
Kevlar Eater said:
Nintendo is just as badly hurting the industry by allowing so much shovelware to come to the Wii as well as slinging rehashed titles.
this

Nintendo has not released game that i can remember a good setpice in, in a a long time they have stopped taking chances and they will eventually regret just rehashing mario,zelda and metroid games over and over again.
 

VincentX3

New member
Jun 30, 2009
1,299
0
0
Tuqui said:
Sir Broccoli said:
They're just grumpy because Mojang kicked their asses in the march mayhem.
And I though only Nintendo fans would talk about this kind of things.
I lol'd
but yea basically this, there just upset and BWAAAAA'ING over losing to a "Garage Developer"
 

Dr_Horrible

New member
Oct 24, 2010
421
0
0
This is exactly what I would expect from a decades-old developer whose only real innovations in the past 5 years have been 2 console gimmicks.

Not that I dislike Nintendo, but the innovation from all these 'garage' programmers has, even hidden by all the worthless stuff, been far more beneficial to the gaming industry than the shovelware by Nintendo in the past few years.
 

Baresark

New member
Dec 19, 2010
3,908
0
0
I wonder what the attitude is elsewhere. In America, hobbyist/indie developers are looked down on by big business. Pretty much every major company has taken hits at this subject.

I feel sorry for them, they lack any kind of insight into the industry anymore, at least that is very much what it seems like.

Edit: I put hobbyist and indie together because there is really no difference between them.
 

Zom-B

New member
Feb 8, 2011
379
0
0
Year after year, I lose more and more respect for Nintendo as both a corporation and as a company that puts out video games. Sure, I like Mario too, but I could easily go the rest of my life never playing another Mario game and I wouldn't bat an eye. Time for some new IPs, Ninty! Maybe one developed by a hobbyist or garage developer with a, y'know, original idea?
 

The Artificially Prolonged

Random Semi-Frequent Poster
Jul 15, 2008
2,755
0
0
Oh Nintendo massive irony blinkers. Why not take a leaf from these garage developers and make some original games that don't have Mario, selfsame, or metroid in the title
 

Mr. Omega

ANTI-LIFE JUSTIFIES MY HATE!
Jul 1, 2010
3,902
0
0
So he likes mainstream indie developers, basically.
*Insert obligitory Wii shovelware statement*
I may be a Nintendo fan, but there's no defense for this, really...