One of the biggest hurdles for game developers is a policy that states anyone wanting to develop for a Nintendo platform, and receive a development kit, must have a dedicated business place. For many of you not familiar with the rental of office space. It is not cheap. I personally know a few developers that this policy is tying their hands in developing for the eShop.
Now first let us start with this cryptic tweet coming from Dan Adelman, who is part of business development at Nintendo."
According to sources, and rumblings that I have heard, Nintendo is indeed seriously thinking about going away from this policy. With this tweet from Adelman it seems we may be hearing news about it sooner than later. What does that mean for us as Nintendo fans? With this policy gone it will open the door for more indie developers to create games for the eShop and more."
I think Nintendo is going to make a big push for indies on its platform as a way to safeguard from possible snubbing of other major third party developers. Now with all of this indie love I wish Nintendo would start an Incubation based developer.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: TJ Spyke on January 20, 2013, 12:34:44 PM
Office space expensive? LOL. No it's not, it's very easy to get office space for less than $300 a month. I can even find some for less than $200 a month in my city. If you can't afford $200 a month, then you are a joke of a company.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: MegaByte on January 20, 2013, 12:43:56 PM
That's the point -- they aren't really a company yet and are trying to become one, but that's tricky unless you already have a bunch of money from previous work to sustain yourself.
Also, it seemed like the office requirement was related to having a secure place to lock down development hardware as much as it was to limit access to "real" developers.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: MrPhishfood on January 20, 2013, 07:11:53 PM
Without the restriction is means there's a lower entry point. Anyone can just buy the dev kit and tinker with it to see if they and their friends have what it takes to make a competent game, to experiment with gameplay ideas.
If you're buying office space then it means you have to commit to making a game and turning a profit. The time you spend experimenting with the dev kit is time you've spent paying for that office.
I once considered buying a 3DS dev kit to play around with but once I saw the restriction I quickly dismissed the idea.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: TJ Spyke on January 20, 2013, 09:09:07 PM
You can't blame Nintendo for not wanting to give development kits to people just to play around with, only to make games with.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: broodwars on January 21, 2013, 01:23:40 AM
You can't blame Nintendo for not wanting to give development kits to people just to play around with, only to make games with.
Why, though, should Nintendo care what you do with one of their Dev Kits so long as you don't destroy it (as you only ever lease a dev kit. They have to be returned at some point)? It's not like you can just release whatever crap you just throw together (unless you're an officially licensed shovelware provider :P: : ), as anything you make has to go through Nintendo Certification to go up on the eShop or be released as a retail game. Sure, the "Nintendo Seal of Quality" doesn't mean jack ****, but Nintendo will at least ensure the game is functional before it can be released. I'm sure those 3DS cards are proprietary as well, so you can only get those from Nintendo as well.
Given all that, I'm legitimately curious why they're so protective of the Dev Kits. Piracy concerns that you could reverse-engineer the 3DS and craft unofficial games that didn't require Nintendo's proprietary storage media?
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: TJ Spyke on January 21, 2013, 08:33:33 AM
Why waste money giving a dev kit to someone who may never make a game? It's wasteful. The whole point of a dev kit is to let a developer make games for the system, not some hobbyist to just pay around with.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: NWR_insanolord on January 21, 2013, 08:41:34 AM
It's not like devkits are of limited quantity. They can make as many of them as they want, and having more of them out there increases their potential library and builds good will among developers. It's a win-win.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: rlse9 on January 21, 2013, 08:42:19 AM
Requiring an office space to be a developer seems like an antiquated idea to me. How many games, general software, websites, etc. that have gone on to be very successful have started as a couple guys working out of an apartment or a couple teens working in their parents' basement?
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: Adrock on January 21, 2013, 08:45:20 AM
Is Nintendo wasting money though? Anyone who wants a development kit still has to pay for one and those dealies are not cheap. If hobbyists want to spend thousands just to fiddle around with it (I doubt there are many of these people) and they go through the official channels to obtain one, I don't know how this seriously affects Nintendo. Nintendo still gets paid even if they stand to benefit more if someone/a team actually makes and releases a game.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: nickmitch on January 21, 2013, 07:26:56 PM
It's gotta be expensive for Nintendo to just send out dev kits, otherwise they'd just do it. There'd be no need to keep the riff raff out, if it wasn't wasting money.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: TJ Spyke on January 21, 2013, 07:35:57 PM
What I find insulting is when I heard of some developers who have never made games for Nintendo systems sending back Wii U dev kits Nintendo had sent them (without asking, Nintendo just sent them the dev kits and asked to play around with them) without even opening them up and seeing what they could do with them.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: broodwars on January 21, 2013, 08:38:02 PM
What I find insulting is when I heard of some developers who have never made games for Nintendo systems sending back Wii U dev kits Nintendo had sent them (without asking, Nintendo just sent them the dev kits and asked to play around with them) without even opening them up and seeing what they could do with them.
Yes, heaven forbid developers refuse an unsolicited bribe for a console they probably didn't want to work on in the first place.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: TJ Spyke on January 21, 2013, 08:44:50 PM
It wasn't a bribe. Nintendo sent them the dev kits free, and just said play around with them. The developers didn't even open them up before sending them back. Maybe they should have done what Sony and Microsoft do and give these insignificant developers millions of dollars.
If Nintendo sent you a free dev kit, would u not even test it out?
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: broodwars on January 21, 2013, 08:51:36 PM
If Nintendo sent you a free dev kit, would u not even test it out?
No, because I'm not a game developer and wouldn't know the first thing about what to do with it. :P: : :
Seriously, though, if I'm a 3rd party developer that saw how badly the Wii worked out for especially those small developers on WiiWare (a service Nintendo pretty much ignored after it launched), no I wouldn't accept Nintendo's little gift. I didn't ask for it, I don't want it, and eventually I'd have to return the damn thing anyway because it was only freely leased to me.
Now, if the Wii U interests me as a development platform and Nintendo asks me if I'd like a free dev kit, hell yeah I'd accept it (especially as a smaller studio). But if I didn't ask for it and I don't want it, I'm not going to keep it since it makes me indebted to Nintendo as well as becomes just one more piece of junk I have to catalog and keep an eye on in my office.
btw, do you have a link to back up this little story of yours?
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: TJ Spyke on January 21, 2013, 09:09:47 PM
I will try to find it, I can't remember at the moment where I saw it.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: nickmitch on January 21, 2013, 09:55:01 PM
Someone in this thread obviously never read Green Eggs & Ham.
Title: Re: PureNintendo rumor: Nintendo to remove office space restriction for Indie develo
Post by: ShyGuy on January 22, 2013, 03:56:45 PM
Who was that crazy guy who wanted to make a DS game then had a mental meltdown? Bob's Game?
