Nintendo Says No To Japanese Independent Developers

[Karadalis]

Nintendo has allways been a control freak when it came to what gets onto their systems.. maybe they are for some weird reason afraid of letting indies onto their consoles because its a very dynamic market?

As far as i know there is little to no patch support for nintendo games... but indie games are notorious for being patched all the time.. take minecraft for example.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Maybe Nintendo don't want their consoles flooded with poorly made interactive eroge novels?

 

[Tinybear]

The corporate structure in Japan is very different from the rest of the world. Things such as healthcare, pension, and so on, are usually provided by the corporations. That they dislike japanese indies might be rooted in a fear that the indies will undermine Japanese society. (not that this is wrong, as it really could use an overhaul.

 

[MichaelMaverick]

That's not very rice of them.

So I'm really curious about this, was he suspended jokingly or did someone honestly think this racist or whatever?

 

[flying_whimsy]

The corporate structure in Japan is very different from the rest of the world. Things such as healthcare, pension, and so on, are usually provided by the corporations. That they dislike japanese indies might be rooted in a fear that the indies will undermine Japanese society. (not that this is wrong, as it really could use an overhaul.

That was exactly what I was thinking, too. Nintendo's exclusion of indie devs may be an internal effort (they'd probably rather hire on some of these developers or bury the threat they perceive) or it might be due to pressure from other corporations that work with nintendo (publishers or material providers that have a tangible fear). It wouldn't surprise me if there was a bit of disdain for indie devs seeing as they aren't doing things 'properly' by getting employed at one of the larger companies. Either way, I suspect this is probably one of the first things that's made international headlines about Japan's corporate culture and their fear of an upcoming social upheaval (with a population in decline like that and a growing number of youth that refuse to participate in the old salaryman employment system, it's pretty much inevitable that something is going to happen and it'll probably involve riots and flipped over cars).

Or it could be because of some old bit of fine print in nintendo's corporate charter. Who knows?

 

[Slash2x]

to many tentacles spoil the game...

thats pretty dumb since some might make the wii u more interesting or at least spice the game pool up a little.
on the other hand they dont port games to the west that people in the west would die for to be able to play on their region locked consoles.

or they fear they have to make a bigger investment in the long run on hiring people to keep the wii u store free from offensive content.

That's not very rice of them.

So I'm really curious about this, was he suspended jokingly or did someone honestly think this racist or whatever?

probably the low content rule at work.

Awww come on I have seen him/her post shorter than that and not get blocked. It may have been "racist" but that is shenanigans IMHO.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Could it not just be that rather than putting Japanese developers through a system designed to cater towards western English-speaking developers, Nintendo are working on a system that is a better fit for native Japanese developers?

This is a stretch, but it's the least insane reasoning I've seen.
The Japanese gaming market has been increasingly exclusionary since the recession, to the point where they're practically separate from the global market. A separate, more-favorable system for domestics would make sense, I guess.

Apart from that, the next semi-sane explanation would be some domestic law, but I can't imagine why it would require something different from what regular publishers use, legally speaking. They may be independent, but they're still a business.

 

[Darmani]

It may not be law law but regulation and again perception. If some guy off the street gets the regional manager position for opening a competing business while you worked your way up and stuck it out through the lean years... you'd be PISSED.

 

[Darmani]

Nice to know its been lifted.

 

[spartandude]

Seriously? Its not as if Nintendo is in a position to turn down people wanting to make games for them.