Nintendo Clarifies Stance on Independent Developers, Wants Experience from Them

Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime clarified his earlier statements about independent developers, saying that he and his company want proper studios not just garage devs with no experience in the business.

Fils-Aime revealed last week that Nintendo, when it comes to allowing developers to work on its new 3DS handheld, will try to get independent studios onboard, but this doesn't mean the gates will be open to any sort of developer.

In the end, according to the Nintendo executive, it all comes down to experience.

"We've been clear that we want to work with independent developers who understand this business, who have experience in this business," Fils-Aime told Joystiq. "These are people who spent time working with larger publishers and larger developers, but had that idea in the back of their head that they needed to bring to life ... and so that's the type of entity that we want to work with."

Fils-Aime highlighted studios like 2D Boy, who developed World of Goo, or Bit.Trip developer Gaijin Games.

No matter the passion or ideas behind a game project, Nintendo will turn down developers with no sort of experience in the field, at least according to Fils-Aime.

"These are talented developers. That's different from the person who envisions themselves as a developer, but actually hasn't necessarily created anything, who doesn't necessarily understand what it takes in this business to create compelling content. That's where we draw the line. I'll tell you, if someone calls us tomorrow who has no experience in the gaming industry, but has a passion and has a great idea, our perspective would be, 'Great, but get some experience. Understand your craft, and then come back to us."

Nintendo, with the 3DS, has managed to attract quite a lot of third-party developers, including the likes of Capcom, Ubisoft or EA, but we should expect independent studios to try their hand at making titles for the 3DS later this year.