Nintendo was asked at their 78th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders as to how they will integrate indie games into the company’s future business strategy.
That saw director and managing executive officer Shinya Takahashi explain that Nintendo does not see indie games as direct competition to the “large-scale games” that they develop, adding his belief that indie games “are what really invigorate” the portable home console.
Nintendo has readily admitted that they needed to improve “discoverability and visibility” on the Nintendo eShop, the most recent changes having been made last month.
That concern has arisen thanks to an ever-increasing volume of digital games releasing on Nintendo Switch every week, meaning that new arrivals are soon pushed away from the New Releases page. But, according to Nintendo, that isn’t likely to change as the company wants to “release around 20 to 30 indie games on Nintendo Switch per week.”
“We started working with indie developers during the Wii U generation. For Nintendo Switch, we set up a development environment that supports Unity middleware, which is used on smartphones and other platforms. We are also actively engaging with indie developers at video game-focused shows and other events in different regions,” senior executive officer Susumu Tanaka added.
“We also had a Nintendo booth at the BitSummit indie game event held in Kyoto, where we showcased some games. Some of the indie games already released have gone on to become million sellers worldwide. In the future, we are looking to release around 20 to 30 indie games on Nintendo Switch per week, and we definitely expect to see some great games among them.”
