Nintendo gambles on HTML5 and indies

Console giant looks to browser game and Unity developers to expand Wii U software range

Nintendo is betting on its HTML5 development framework to help greatly expand the roster of games for the Wii U.
Speaking in a financial briefing Q&A, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said the number of developers who can use web technologies such as HTML5 and Javascript was 100 times larger than the range of developers for dedicated consoles.

Iwata claimed that since its GDC reveal of the web framework, the company had already received hundreds of inquiries from developers interested in using the web framework. He added that a small development team would update the tech constantly, and that it had enabled the console giant to “significantly reduce development challenges”.
It is hoped that widely available tools for relatively easy game development will help improve the number of titles released on the Wii U as Nintendo continues its hunt for third-party support and also tries to allocate sufficient resources to its own projects, which Iwata admitted it has struggled to do.
“The number of developers who can use versatile web technologies such as HTML5 and JavaScript is probably more than 100 times larger than that of the current software developers for dedicated gaming machines,” he said.


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