This year’s Game Developers Conference will see Nintendo continue its trend of both courting and supporting independent development across its platforms. In addition to housing several playable indie games at its GDC booth, the company will be showcasing its Nintendo Web Framework and the free Unity Pro license available for developers interested in bringing their properties to Wii U.
In a recent statement, Steve Singer, NOA’s vice president of licensing, reiterated the company’s pro indie stance:
“We want to demonstrate to developers how easy it is for them to bring their creative ideas to Nintendo systems. Nintendo offers wide-ranging support for indie developers, whether they want to use NWF, Unity or their own proprietary code.”
It’s heartening to see the Big N continuing to acknowledge the ever increasing importance of the independent development community. With a dearth of traditional third party support, and AAA first party games coming few and far between, a strong independent line up on the company’s eShop could be just what the doctor ordered.
Source: Nintendo Life
“It’s heartening to see the Big N continuing to acknowledge the ever increasing importance of the independent development community. With a dearth of traditional third party support, and AAA first party games coming few and far between, a strong independent line up on the company’s eShop could be just what the doctor ordered.”
It’s unfortunate that Nintendo doesn’t really have many other options, at this point. Small/indie publishers represent the last, best hope for third party content on the Wii U platform… hopefully it gains some traction.