Nintendo on the company’s indie push, indie relationships, desire for exclusive features, low-quality titles
At Nintendo’s indie showcase at GDC 2015, Engadget spoke with Damon Baker, senior manager of licensing at Nintendo. Baker was asked about a bunch of questions with regard to the company’s approach to indies. Read on below for comments about Nintendo’s relationships with indies, the company’s desire for exclusive features when a game comes out later on Wii U/3DS, and more.
On how Nintendo’s indie support is more noticeable now…
We’ve been supporting Indie content and self-publishing for a really long time. I mean, [going] back to the WiiWare, DSiWare days. But I think that it’s just a more visible community because there’s so much talent that’s coming out of it; there’s so much coverage for it that it just makes it naturally higher profile. I think what has changed is the learning process over time on what features and functionality that consumers gravitate towards; what are the things that the developers need to be successful on Nintendo platforms? And I think that’s been a learning process because we certainly didn’t have all the answers from the very beginning.
On how Baker’s team is now proactive in reaching out to select indie developers so that Nintendo can work with them “hand in hand to create these effective marketing and messaging strategies so all of that quality rises to the top”…
One thing we do is we hold hands with the developers and a lot of this key content that is coming out to give them examples of best practices and simple things: how to create a fact sheet; how to create a trailer; how to create an optimum demo experience; how to write a press release.
On the misconception surrounding Nintendo’s handling of third-parties…
We actually have better relationships with our publishers and developers than we’ve ever had before. I mean, the people that work with us love working with us. … I think it’s more of an assumption that we don’t have the strongest relationships with our third-party partners.
On how Nintendo does not mandate exclusivity…
Honestly, we don’t hand out money. It’s very rare that anything like that happens. I think the angle that we take is, if we’re not able to get a game for an exclusive window, than at least we would love to see exclusive features and functionality that you can only see on Wii U or Nintendo 3DS.
On how indies help plug the holes in Nintendo’s first-party release schedule…
It is critical for Nintendo business to make sure that we are maintaining momentum in between all of those AAA releases and the indie developers have found ways of leveraging that either through people coming in, in anticipation of a huge AAA release or coming in afterwards, after they’ve purchased it and they’re seeing all of the other great content that’s available.
On how any indie developer that works with Nintendo automatically assumes a licensed status, but not all receive the same promotion…
Honestly, we have an open-door policy in terms of content, bt if it’s a lower-quality title, people are going to have to search for that. It’s not something we are going to promote front and center in our eShop or through our channels.
