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IGN -How Nintendo Switch Is Becoming the Best Place for New [Indie] Games

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Deleted member 1413

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,617
This is an article about Switch becoming a welcoming and healthy market for developers/new games, not necessarily that "it's the best place to play new games"

Please watch or read before getting angry. Thank you.



New IGN article speaking to indies and Nintendo's new indie chief: Kirk Scott
There's been a massive wave of indie love and support for the Nintendo Switch. Everyone wants every game to come to Switch, and that desire is shared by many of the game developers out there making them as well. But the Switch didn't just stumble into being one of the best places for new games – we spoke to a number of the indie devs showcased in this week's Nindie Direct, and all of them gave credit to Nintendo itself for putting in the effort to make it that way.

If you ask Kirk Scott, Nintendo of America's Manager of Publisher-Developer Relations (and all-around Nindie guy), you wouldn't think what they are doing is such a big deal. "I think what Nintendo is doing specifically to support the indie devs is just making ourselves more available," Scott told me. When you put it that way, it sounds simple, but Scott explained that they have a whole team dedicated to finding, elevating, and supporting great indie games – and the active support they provide is, in reality, a very big deal.
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But it's not just hardware and Nintendo's dev support that is making the Switch one of the best places for new games, it's also the nostalgia of Nintendo at work. Every single dev I spoke to mentioned this sort of intangible excitement around having their game on a Nintendo system. Scott said that doing things like putting Hollow Knight in their E3 Direct last year "gives the two-man teams hope," and that hope clearly touches on the deeper idea of those two-man teams having Nintendo vouch for them.
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Scott told me that the Switch simply "creates an avenue for indie developers to launch their games," and that "it's up to the indie developer to decide how that changes the industry." To his point, little of what Nintendo is doing here is fundamentally new or revelatory within the industry. But the developers we spoke to made it clear that even if it's up to them to make great new games, the veracity and passion Nintendo has for elevating indie games on Switch is making waves just the same.
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Acevil

Acevil

Member
Oct 30, 2017
315
I think I appreciate the switch for the simple notion of plug and play concept of consoles that sadly is slowly becoming less and less.

Edit: By plug and play, I do just mean, the amount of time from me coming home with a game, putting it in, and being ready to go. I know certain third party on the switch ruin this, but for the large part of games I have been buying it reflects the simple put it in and go.
 
janusff

janusff

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
18,133
Austin, TX
yeah it's certainly the vita successor in regards to where the best place to play indie games is without a doubt. Happy that indie devs are finding success there.
 

giapel

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,598
People want portable games with good controls. Mobile gaming is lacking a lot in that respect
 

Deleted member 8791

User requested account closure
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Oct 26, 2017
6,383
Nintendo indeed does a great job in promoting indies and I can understand they're expressing happiness. I'll also agree that there is a degree of only promoting the best of the best frm various different genres: you're all free to publish your game on Switch but if you want the Nintendo marketing machine behind you it better be something special.

This is another great thread to find out who just read the topic name and who bothered watching the vid. Already a few hilarious posts here.
 
Evil Lucario

Evil Lucario

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Feb 16, 2019
448
I've had more fun with a lot more indie games than most Western AAA games personally. Discrimination against indie games for being indie games is fucking stupid. And on the other side of the coin, even though I don't like Western AAA games as a whole, they're just as legit as my favorite Japanese AAA and indie games.
 
the7samurai

the7samurai

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Oct 30, 2017
443
I'm loving this combination of Nintendo first party and Indie games. I'm a Nintendo only console owner and I'm amazed at how much great content I have available. Also enjoying picking up big third party ports that I assumed I probably would never play. Great time to be a gamer
 

TitanicFall

Member
Nov 12, 2017
8,274
If I only wanted to own one console, I don't think I could last long with just a Switch. I need that AAA third party support. Just in the last 3 months we got RE2, DMCV, Metro Exodus, Division 2, and KH3.
 
Bony Manifesto

Bony Manifesto

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Oct 27, 2017
3,587
It's nice that Nintendo have found what seems to be a happy balance between letting any old shit on their platform (which was their approach for the Wii U), and outright hostility to independent developers (which was their approach prior to the Wii U). They're definitely curating stuff, but you don't hear of any promising games falling through the cracks which was always a problem when Valve was hand-picking what went on Steam.
 
Jerm411

Jerm411

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Oct 27, 2017
8,024
Clinton, MO
the7samurai said:
I'm loving this combination of Nintendo first party and Indie games. I'm a Nintendo only console owner and I'm amazed at how much great content I have available. Also enjoying picking up big third party ports that I assumed I probably would never play. Great time to be a gamer
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Bingo....it's such a perfect combination.

Right now it's a perfect compliment to my Pro....trust me though, if Nintendo were able to release a Switch version that was somewhat up to par with the other consoles I would own solely it.
 
Rodjer

Rodjer

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Jan 28, 2018
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I can't play RE2, Sekiro and DMC 5 on NSW so no it's not the best place for new games.
 
BriGuy

BriGuy

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Oct 27, 2017
4,275
Strat said:
A game is a game. It's about time to fuck off with this segregation nonsense.
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Fair enough, but a lot of us are probably scratching our heads at how the Switch is the "best place" for new games when it hasn't gotten stuff like the RE2 remake, DMC5 or Sekiro. And that's just 2019. I love my Switch, but that claim is just asking to be challenged.
 
Revolsin

Revolsin

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Oct 27, 2017
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The passion from these people is great

Rostal specifically said that "a lot of us grew up playing these games on Nintendo, and it's always been a dream of us to be a part of that." She continued by saying that "there is that feeling like 'I want to have my game there because my childhood was there and they're continuing to build this for new childhoods.'" Getting the Nindie stamp isn't just marketing power and dev support from Nintendo, its further proof that, as Scott said, there's hope for even the smallest teams.
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Lovely stuff
 
nicolasacmf

nicolasacmf

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
1,515
It's infuriating to see people discriminate against indie titles in this thread, so I probably won't stick around much longer because, but regarding the video itself: it's good to know Nintendo is doing their best to create a healthy space for indies, and it's even better to see them thrive.
 
SMD

SMD

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Oct 28, 2017
6,341
People who come into Switch threads to point out that triple eeeeeeeh games aren't on the platform are the same people who reply to women on Twitter to explain their jokes back to them.
 
Toumari

Toumari

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Oct 27, 2017
8,304
England
Strat said:
A game is a game. It's about time to fuck off with this segregation nonsense.
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Absolutely, a game is a game. I'm not taking that away. However based purely on the headline of whether the Switch is best place to play new games, when I cannot play my yearly Ubisoft franchise game on it I just tend to disagree.
 

Deleted member 8791

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Oct 26, 2017
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This also makes me remember early days of Switch where many predicted the indie hype was unsustainable and eventually sales would go down. I'm happy to see this proven wrong and Nintendo still treating indies as an important part of their games library.
 
pswii60

pswii60

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Oct 27, 2017
26,673
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Aprikurt said:
Games are games are games man. We live in a world where Stardew Valley and Minecraft consistently top charts where "AAA" games do not.
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Minecraft is an indie game now? I mean, it was, but it isn't.

Indie games only top the charts on Switch btw, not on PS4 or Xbox. Switch players have good taste obvs.

But even indie games are better played on PS4/XBO/PC unless portability is something you want. Eg ToeJam and Earl port is janky on Switch. I preferred playing Celeste on PS4/XBO due to the D-Pad. I only buy games for my Switch that I want to play when I'm away with work.

But a big advantage Switch does have right now is a ton of console-exclusive indies. Like Baba Is You, which I've been addicted to all week.
 

Allforce

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,136
BriGuy said:
Fair enough, but a lot of us are probably scratching our heads at how the Switch is the "best place" for new games when it hasn't gotten stuff like the RE2 remake, DMC5 or Sekiro. And that's just 2019. I love my Switch, but that claim is just asking to be challenged.
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Yeah, blame IGN for the clickbait-ass headline if anything. This is an article about indie game development on the Switch, full-stop.

Saying "THE BEST PLACE FOR NEW GAMES IS NINTENDO SWITCH!" is disingenuous and basically causes threads like this haha. When I think "best place for new games" I'm thinking of indie games as well as retail games that are newly released like Metro, Crackdown, Sekiro, etc. Switch aint getting that stuff.
 
Rodjer

Rodjer

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Jan 28, 2018
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OrbitalBeard said:
I can't play Astral Chain on anything but my Switch. Checkmate, atheists.

(I own all platforms and get a nice chuckle when y'all get rattled by opinion pieces)
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I own all the platforms and i'm not rattled lmao
Opinion piece? Sure and i don't agree with him.
(fuck Astral Chain and give me Bayonetta 3)
 
Bomblord

Bomblord

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Jan 11, 2018
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Nintendo reaching out to, giving special support to, and directly marketing indie games is probably one of the most interesting approaches to curation I've seen out of the digital storefronts we have right now.

They're not excluding games from their marketplace (as evidenced by some of the lower quality games seeping through) or relying on algorithms to push the popular games out front they are just making a strong and unified effort to promote the heck out of any game that catches their eye and have an entire department dedicated to finding, courting, and marketing talented indie devs.
 
Braaier

Braaier

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Oct 29, 2017
13,237
Nintendo Switch is killing it, and even more so with the indies. I love it!! Why did Microsoft and Sony stop focusing on indies? Shame!
 
Joegrine_25

Joegrine_25

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Oct 31, 2017
219
Trinidad and Tobago
BriGuy said:
Fair enough, but a lot of us are probably scratching our heads at how the Switch is the "best place" for new games when it hasn't gotten stuff like the RE2 remake, DMC5 or Sekiro. And that's just 2019. I love my Switch, but that claim is just asking to be challenged.
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Well your claim can also be challenged as most of these game were in the development before the switch was announced.
 
gofreak

gofreak

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,736
The article quote is a little less definitive than the thread title. 'One of the best places'.

Braaier said:
Nintendo Switch is killing it, and even more so with the indies. I love it!! Why did Microsoft and Sony stop focusing on indies? Shame!
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I dunno about that... Sony's GDC booth is heavily showcasing indies, and didn't MS just announce a new promo for indie games on GamePass? That said, Sony and MS are at different stages of the lifecycle to Nintendo, where arguably there's less scope for indies to break out. It's just the nature of the lifecycle.
 
Revolsin

Revolsin

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Oct 27, 2017
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Toumari said:
Absolutely, a game is a game. I'm not taking that away. However based purely on the headline of whether the Switch is best place to play new games, when I cannot play my yearly Ubisoft franchise game on it I just tend to disagree.
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It would help to read a single word beyond the title so you're not just making a crappy hot take.
 

Deleted member 8791

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Oct 26, 2017
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Rodjer said:
I own all the platforms and i'm not rattled lmao
Opinion piece? Sure and i don't agree with him.
(fuck Astral Chain and give me Bayonetta 3)
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You disagree with the headline I presume? That's not the same as disagreeing with the opinion. It just shows you're one of many who ignore everything but the headline.
 
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