A Nintendo representative said he cares about the quality of content, not the office space of the developer.
On March 18th, Fils-Aime said he wasn’t interested in selling a game for $1. Clarifying some of the comments made in his boss Satoru Iwata’s keynote speech at GDC, Fils-Aime said he was worried that the flood of low-priced and low-value games that he sees on competitor’s marketplaces like Xbox Live Arcade and Apple’s App Store might undermine the gaming industry. Fils-Aime wants to work with true independent studios and not “hobbyists.” Nintendo’s director of PR, Marc Franklin, attempted to distance the company from Fils-Aime’s statements by underlining that Nintendo cares about quality of games, not just how big the developer’s offices are.
“Nintendo always appreciates good quality content regardless of whether that’s coming from an indie developer or a more established publisher,” Franklin said.
“For example, we’ve worked with 2D Boy, the people behind World of Goo for WiiWare,” said Franklin. “This is a group of guys who don’t even have an office. So we embrace that kind of independent spirit and it’s ultimately the most innovative content that will rise to the top.”
Nintendo has been the king of the traditional handheld market with the DS line, but it is seeing competition from the extremely low prices of cellphone and tablet games. All Nintendo has been saying is that it doesn’t want to get into a price war with small and mostly crappy games. For every $1 Angry Birds, there are 100 piles of dreck that aren’t worth 1 cent.
“The value of video game software does not matter to [small game-makers]. The fact is, what we produce has value, and we should protect that value,” Iwata said during his keynote speech. From Nintendo’s point of view, it’s not worth it to compete directly with small games. The Japanese company has been known for quality games, and that’s what they want to deliver going forward.
I’m just waiting for someone to ask Iwata or Fils-Aime about the shovelware that’s available on the Wii. Where’s the value there?
Source: Gamasutra
