-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Why is Nintendo hiding their head of indie relations? (Gamasutra)
- Thread starter Tom Nook Sawyer
- Start date
Eh...no. How about that guy didn't do his homework before writing the article? Why are you siding with the author? I still don't see what I wrote was wrong. It isn't "negative commentary", it's false information. He didn't "miss" one interview, he missed GDC 2014. Good job Mr. Author!
It was discussed during GDC 2014 in March by Dan Adelman. Even before the Adelman interview hit Gamasutra. It was even known BEFORE the GDC presentation. As early as 3 March 2014., possibly even earlier, just google. Any indie dev with a slight interest in developing for the Wii U would attend this presentation. And if he didn't, still a lot of sites reported on it, the author just didn't pay attention. Him being ingnorant doesn't give him a free pass to spread false information.
12 March 2014 said:
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/03/nintendo_confirms_presentations_and_games_for_gdc_2014
http://www.siliconera.com/2014/03/21/50-games-using-unity-pipeline-wii-u-says-nintendo/
http://gaminrealm.com/2014/03/21/gdc-2014-50-games-using-unity-pipeline-wii-u-according-nintendo/
Mihael Mello Keehl
Banned
They should ask Nintendo directly why
Zeyphersan
Banned
sörine;109525645 said:
There's a site called NintenoLife that updates their eShop lists for Wii U and 3DS daily. Right now there are 53 (one got added on the 24th, NES Remix 2 on the 25th). The list does not include apps, VC games, or anything of the sort. There's always the possibility that they're wrong since I don't have a Wii U yet, but it seems they're in the ballpark with the number you've pulled from the eShop itself. Either way, it's not a good region to be in.
Thank you for looking up what they each launched with, I was curious as well.
charlequin
Banned
GDC 2014 is literally a full year after the period we're discussing. This deal was in place since at least early 2013, and it's that period where Nintendo wasn't effectively communicating about it. The GDC 2014 session is unquestionably a good thing, and it's exactly the sort of thing Sheffield is suggesting Nintendo needs to do more of, but it doesn't actually contradict the idea that Nintendo did a bad job promoting this perk upfront, or the claim that people "found out about it" from a third-party tweet in 2013. The fact that it's so easy to dig up articles talking about the 2014 session establishes the benefit of actively promoting these things.
Calling "gotcha!" on details of this sort distracts from the bigger picture question of whether Nintendo's outreach efforts towards indies are sufficient and effective. The answer to that question certainly isn't completely one-sided, but actually arguing in favor of their efforts means grappling seriously with the criticisms instead of waving them off as the products of secret, conspiratorial malice.
Doesn't Nintendo make all of their staff with twitters specifically write "my views are mine alone and don't reflect Nintendo" or something along those lines? It always seems like Nintendo's priority is to keep a certain public image even at the cost of consumer/developer interaction. From what I've seen lately, their only acknowledgement of their fans/community is based on Miiverse. If they want to keep this kind of iron grip then why shouldn't the general public do the same with their interests and wallets.
Wow...Talking about region locked will get you locked out from Twitter.
Who would have thought?
So, does that mean every products from Nintendo will always be region locked in the future then?
It looks like they believe region locking is the best feature invented for "gamers".
Who would have thought?
So, does that mean every products from Nintendo will always be region locked in the future then?
It looks like they believe region locking is the best feature invented for "gamers".
Freezie KO
Banned
Well, the author of this article did write back to them and their response was a not-very-subtle "Fuck off."
As long as they never realise it's actually online multiplayer I'm good. Paying for that is for chumps.
No he did not, that was the response for the interview, which Adelman declined. He didn't ask why he isn't using twitter anymore.
Freezie KO
Banned
I'm saying he wrote back to them, which he did, and got told to "have a good weekend." Meaning that the chance he's going to get a straight answer to why Nintendo bans their employees from having a public presence is very small.
Kobun Heat
Member
I don't think some of you guys know who Brandon is. He's been developing games and writing at Game Developer Magazine from that vantage point for a long time. He is strongly tied in to the developer community. This is an insider perspective that takes into account all of his considerable knowledge about the situation.
Yep. Nintendo should do some explaining.
First of all, no, there are plenty without "my views alone", and secondly, its pretty widespread.
He's one of my favorite games writers/podcasters, I used to read insertcredit daily, but there's no denying parts of this article are problematic and even incorrect. And sadly those bits are overshadowing the very legitimate points made.
AcademicSaucer
Member
They shouldnt be mutually exclusive , but it seems that for nintendo , they are ...
They also waste too much resources on the wii u , for example digital gba and ds games should be on 3ds
I applied to be a developer back when they were looking for indie developers. I received a phone call and even after expressing how I no longer was in development of the title they let me in on their site for indie devs.
I've never been on because it requires a password and they keep emailing it to me when I leave town after I request it (it goes bad after a few days). But I get an email every so often and they were pretty quick to respond with a new password.
I've looked into how the others do indie (Steam, Sony, Microsoft) and it's been a few years, but this seemed the easiest to sign up for and gain access. I wasn't even working on something and they let me get access!
I've never been on because it requires a password and they keep emailing it to me when I leave town after I request it (it goes bad after a few days). But I get an email every so often and they were pretty quick to respond with a new password.
I've looked into how the others do indie (Steam, Sony, Microsoft) and it's been a few years, but this seemed the easiest to sign up for and gain access. I wasn't even working on something and they let me get access!
I don't believe you and think he is a random writer who asked some guy or two on the street questions for research on this article.
Joking aside, his claim that he wants Nintendo to succeed is a little funny after hearing him voice his dislike on a weekly basis for basically every game they have ever made. I get it, though, conceptually he likes a company that is game focused, even if their mascot will always live in Bonk's shadow.
StreetsAhead
Member
Why are people surprised that not towing the company line might get your social media prescence restricted? I've had friends have their accounts restricted and/or monitored for apologizing for corporate policy on Twitter while working in much smaller companies.
ElectricKaibutsu
Member
Dan Adelman felt so modern and unNintendo-like (in a good way). I'm not surprised Nintendo made him stop.
Although Nintendo isn't behind on classic releases.
Virtual Console: 625
Wii: 402
3DS: 139
Wii U: 84
PSN Classics: 621
PSP: 192
PS3: 274
Vita: 155
PS4: 0
AcademicSaucer
Member
sörine;109541230 said:
yeah , but the 3ds vc should be bigger
gba , snes
Nintendo is severely understaffed , i think ubisoft has way more manpower.
I'd be happy if we just caught up with Japan. They have 241 3DS VC games already.
Together we've gone the extra inch on Nintendo's behalf! SEE WHO NEEDS DAN ADELMAN AM I RIGHT
charlequin
Banned
Well, I would say that first, the particular interaction we're discussing here is extremely mild and at most places would provoke a stern word from your boss but not much more; but secondly, when being able to communicate on social media is a vital part of your job, locking you out of it is a nonsensical response to a mistake, and the company should either discipline you behind closed doors or replace you with someone else who will handle Twitter better.
Neuromancer
Member
It's a good thing they put a muzzle on him; the last thing a company like Nintendo needs is a loose cannon like this guy firing shots across their own bow. Set him up in a windowless basement offlice with a fax machine, a rotary phone, and a pad of paper; that'll teach him to speak out of school.
StreetsAhead
Member
While I agree the punishment certainly seems harsh in this, if he has indeed been forbidden from accessing his Twitter, I can't think of other examples of this sort of situation to compare it to in the video games industry. Sure, Adam Orth was fired, but he was towing the company line, just doing it in an insulting way. And Kamiya got rebuked for using the word "gaijin", but that was perceived as being insulting by people and wasn't about apologizing for corporate policy. I'm not a social media expert, but I can't think of any comparable scenarios from other companies.
All I can say, from my anecdotal experience, that restriction of social media is not uncommon after an employee has said something corporate doesn't like, even if it is vital to the job, as you say.
Oh where are they?
Some of the stuff is off the wall. Nintendo has been hyping Free Unity and license since before the Wii U even came out. September 2012 they started hyping it.
There are near daily Indie games announced for Wii U and other platforms. Big problem is indie games aren't so indie in scope anymore so they don't get turned around in 3 months time.
There are near daily Indie games announced for Wii U and other platforms. Big problem is indie games aren't so indie in scope anymore so they don't get turned around in 3 months time.
Unique classic titles would be 274 on PSN to 489 on eShop then.
Let's not get into that. GBA game and DS game emulation is not viable on the 3DS and games can only be played in DS mode. If it was possible for them to be sold like that on the 3DS at an acceptable level of quality, they would be
I never get this. They're fine enough to be free (and by free, I mean about $80 for buying a rushed system), but not fine enough to be sold? Wat?
Have you played them? When not running in native mode, they're blurry and glitchy as hell. The sound quality is awful and all 3DS features are locked out, including features Nintendo has set as a standard for Virtual Console.
If they were to add them without it, there would be an uproar. Unfortunately, the 3DS is not capable of GBA emulation due to power. The GBA games are actually played through a trick in DS mode that uses all the processing power of the console and the game is loaded solely into the RAM. It's not an acceptable method and charging for it would be morally wrong.
Nintendo want accurate emulation as much as possible, and that's why SNES and GBA games aren't on it. The 3DS just isn't powerful enough.
But this is a discussion for another topic
Have you played them? When not running in native mode, they're blurry and glitchy as hell. The sound quality is awful and all 3DS features are locked out, including features Nintendo has set as a standard for Virtual Console.
If they were to add them without it, there would be an uproar. Unfortunately, the 3DS is not capable of GBA emulation due to power. The GBA games are actually played through a trick in DS mode that uses all the processing power of the console and the game is loaded solely into the RAM. It's not an acceptable method and charging for it would be morally wrong.
Nintendo want accurate emulation as much as possible, and that's why SNES and GBA games aren't on it. The 3DS just isn't powerful enough.
But this is a discussion for another topic
I have, and I personally didn't notice it to be very inferior to the GBA at all. But agreed, saving it for another topic.
It has. Reports from numerous other indie developers, including some in this thread, have been contrary. All it is is that Dan Adelman is no longer tweeting and rumour has it that it's because he made a tweet about region locking. Then, this writer put a feeler out to Nintendo for an interview with Adelman about it and got shot down.
They have a point in that he's not active on Twitter anymore for whatever reason. But the massive speculation that's going on in that article and in this thread is borderline hilarious.
There's literally zero evidence that he was pulled from Twitter, let alone because he commented on the region locking issue. However because of the torrent of speculation and general guffawing that goes on in these threads its created this massive Purple Monkey Dishwasher style of conspiracy that basically equates Iwata as some kind of James Bond villain. The cherry on top is when someone questions this absurd whirlwind of outrage its played off as "persecution complex."
Clearly Nintendo's fucking up in their communication, among many, many other facets. However, that doesn't mean they're actively destroying communications over the sake of petty retribution over region locking remarks.
Perhaps its a better idea to actually get some facts not drenched in speculation before going head first into more "Nintendo lulz" rhetoric that floods this forum daily.
I see! I guess I didn't realize that people were taking it this seriously. I confess, I just read the OP.
I guess my first instinct when any journalist speculates like this is to think first about how this story could further their own interests? Access seems like the most obvious route, but who knows. It just seems like journalists don't really write a whole story based on an open-ended question unless asking that question benefits them somehow.
The moral of the story is, talk to us, or we create a stink for you. That's pretty much how I read it.
It was announced in 2013.
The assertion that it was only announced by some guy on twitter is factually false.
More hilarious is that posts proving the factual inaccuracies of this article are going ignored just to bang this particular gong.
It's also happening with everyone quoting that WarioWorld website and asking "Is this for real" and cackling like hyenas when someone has already posted a link to the current Wii-U developer site.
https://wiiu-developers.nintendo.com/
It's not a persecution complex when people are actively going out of their way to force reality into their narrative.
Barkley's Justice
Member
Why Is Nintendo Old and Behind The Times?
How many indies are on the eShop right now? Now compare that to the number of indies on PS4s PSN right now and remember Wii U has a year headstart on the PS4. Nintendo can claim they're extremely indie friendly but none of that matters without results.
Also JoeM doing fine work in this thread as usual.
I haven't been on PSN lately but is it really fair to compare a company that's been really behind on this and has finally started getting into the swing of indie development to an established company that also happens to have the biggest selling console at the moment?
Nintendo could be exceptionally indie friendly but that still doesn't force indies to make products for their platform. Sometimes being friendly just isn't enough.
For every JoeM there's a SmokeyDave/Logz4Girls/Freezie KO/BundysFeet/etc. Absurdity comes from both ends.
I mean, I get companies not wanting their developers to say certain things, but couldn't Nintendo have just asked him to use PR-friendly responses in the future (i.e. "I understand your concern, we will consider it")? They need to start letting more of their people be more public.
How have I been absurd?