The Wii U is expected to gather a whole new array of indie games on its eShop. According to Nintendo of America Indie Outreach Specialist Dan Adelman the online distribution platform will showcase from 20 to 30 additional games before the year is out.
Apparently Sony and Microsoft are not the only ones betting on indie games; in an interview with Joystiq Adelman stated that Nintendo is taking the necessary steps to be more accessible and enable indie developers to release games on the Wii U eShop.
“Historically, Nintendo has seemed kind of hard to approach, kind of like there’s a closed system where if a developer already knows somebody at Nintendo or has some kind of ‘in’ they’re in, but otherwise there’s no way to interface with the company,” he said.
“I think we’re putting a lot of effort into changing that and making ourselves more accessible, so I really want to make sure that people realize that it’s actually pretty easy now – and we’re trying to make it easier – to work with us and release games on our systems.”
Nintendo has been scolded recently due to its vexing approach to community management; some of its latest PR mistakes include embroiling itself in a quarrel with EVO 2013 after trying to shut down the Super Smash Bros event and picking up a fight with the Youtube Let’s Play community (Sega Style) which generated a huge backlash.
The Japanese company has also been criticized by the Indie community due to its policies, specifically the 40MBs restriction on WiiWare games, Format that was described as “horrible” By Super Meat Boy Studio.
Adelman stated that Nintendo has revised its policies in order to entice Indie developers to port their games to the system.
“Our guiding philosophy is that if you’re able to make games on Nintendo platforms, we want to help make sure that you can do that on our systems.
“Our primary consideration is an ability to make a game. You don’t have to have a record of published titles, or have to have worked at a large company in the past. If you’re actively working on a game, that should be sufficient.”
The new format seems to be working properly. Frozenbyte said the Wii U was “More indie friendly” than Sony’s Ps3 and Microsoft’s 360 due to its flexibility in terms of pricing and patches.
