06-16-2007, 02:25 PM
Nintendo Neglecting Small Developers?
In this text a Wii dev claims that Nintendo are making so much money from Wii sales that they dont care about small developers no more. Very interesting read to say the least.
In this text a Wii dev claims that Nintendo are making so much money from Wii sales that they dont care about small developers no more. Very interesting read to say the least.
Quote:
Well I had a chance to attend a Microsoft Convention earlier this morning in Toronto and a “Gamecamp” seminar was available throughout the second part of the convention, which went through XNA (for PC and 360). When I entered the Gamecamp I got a chance to check out a racing title being played that I seriously thought was Forza 2. It looked so good, that it was made with XNA by a single developer who worked on the game for just three weeks.
A few small XNA game developers were at the seminar showing off a few projects. They spoke about how the XNA technology can be used for easy porting to 360 from the PC. Microsoft is definitely opening up to smaller developers big time. The developers spoke about how Sony was finally opening up to smaller developers, but they joked around at how Nintendo was ignoring this market of devs.
One dev stated that Nintendo was making so much money off of Wii sales that they simply don’t care anymore about small/independent developers any more. I recall Mr. Iwata speaking last year about how the Wii would give a chance for smaller developers to create simple games on the Wii. We already know that small titles are in development for Wii’s download service, but for an independent developer, it seems that Nintendo is neglecting them. I believe at this point you would really need an SDK, something that costs over $2,000 to start off developing for Wii, regardless if your EA or a lone developer. XNA however…with Visual Studio C# Express…is free.
Nintendo may not go the Microsoft way on this one, but it might be nice in the future for Nintendo to make the application process of becoming a licensed developer an easy one.
A few small XNA game developers were at the seminar showing off a few projects. They spoke about how the XNA technology can be used for easy porting to 360 from the PC. Microsoft is definitely opening up to smaller developers big time. The developers spoke about how Sony was finally opening up to smaller developers, but they joked around at how Nintendo was ignoring this market of devs.
One dev stated that Nintendo was making so much money off of Wii sales that they simply don’t care anymore about small/independent developers any more. I recall Mr. Iwata speaking last year about how the Wii would give a chance for smaller developers to create simple games on the Wii. We already know that small titles are in development for Wii’s download service, but for an independent developer, it seems that Nintendo is neglecting them. I believe at this point you would really need an SDK, something that costs over $2,000 to start off developing for Wii, regardless if your EA or a lone developer. XNA however…with Visual Studio C# Express…is free.
Nintendo may not go the Microsoft way on this one, but it might be nice in the future for Nintendo to make the application process of becoming a licensed developer an easy one.
