Nintendo expected to end restrictions on bedroom coders

[wraggster]

An executive at Nintendo America has signalled the company's intention to ease restrictions on indie games developers who want to work with the platform holder.
Presently, Nintendo's digital publishing guidelines dictate that a games developer must have a registered company and studio space to be given the chance to develop games for the Wii U or 3DS.
This restriction placed on start-up and obscure developers has triggered criticisms from various self-employed developers hat are not eligible to work with Nintendo. In 2011 the company sparked controversy by claiming that it wasn't keen on working with 'garage' developers until they had a reasonable track record for making games.
But there are new signs that Nintendo is ready to bring an end to this rule. In a discussion on Twitter, quality assurance analyst Hany Gohary asked Nintendo of America's business development executive Dan Adelman whether the "bedroom coder ban" still applies today, to which he replied: "Ask me again in a couple weeks."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...edroom-coders/

[LDAsh]

I found Nintendo to be fair about conditions regarding an official devkit. They want a secure premises housing an established and registered business, listed and able to be contacted in a professional way. It's a giant, risky investment and a big leap from the bedroom/garage, but if one is confident to make a profit from a game project, that profit should easily pay for such a transition and then a developer can go about getting more games out the door, so it's not like it's totally impossible and unfair. Condescending, scorning, and throwing tantrums (*cough*bob*cough*) won't do much good for professional reputation and doesn't say much about your confidence regarding a return on your investments.

Basically, if a developer doesn't want to collect together enough cash to lease office space and register an official business, they can't be all that confident that their game will be picked off the shelf. It's logical.

I was also told that it's possible to co-develop projects with established commercial developers, and even some publishers, if they are interested and if it truly is impossible for some reason to start up a legitimate business of your own, there is help out there, somewhere. So, there are and have been options available to travel from hobby to commerce.