This is a pretty uncharitable claim. With the Unity license you're looking at a development perk -- i.e. something Nintendo theoretically offers in order to bring developers onto their platform -- which they never announced formally. In order to find out about it you'd have to either read one random interview, or else already have signed up as a developer (in which case, it failed entirely in serving as an incentive to bring you on board.) The fact that the author missed that one interview kind of speaks to the point that this information was not promoted effectively.
In general these kinds of discussions tend to bring out a lot of people who claim that all negative commentary is driven by some kind of secret animus, which to me is a claim far less supported by reality than anything in the original article under discussion.
12 March 2014 said:That presentation will be at the Unity booth (number 1402) on Thursday, 20th March from 10:45 to 11:15 Pacific time, and will provide a step-by-step guide on the processes for bringing games to the eShop. Aside from a focus on the free Unity Pro license that's available on Wii U, the Nintendo Web Framework will also be shown off — that support is now contributing games such as BLOK DROP U, and a demo at the Nintendo booth will use elements from the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series to highlight the ease with which the framework can be used.
sörine;109525645 said:I did look it up, Xbox One has 12 DD only games currently going by their website. Nintendo also has videos or pages up for 17 (presumably soon) coming Wii U DD games on the eShop.
I'm also unsure where that 51 games number originates? Searching on the eShop brings up 64 released DD only titles although that includes non gaming apps like Hulu or Wii Street U. Are there really 13 apps on Wii U?
I also looked up launch dates for DD only games. PS4 launched with 9 (3 being "free" downloads, 4 being from Sony), Wii U with 5 (all 3rd party) and One with 4 (1 being "free", all from Microsoft).
It was ANNOUNCED and discussed during GDC 2014 in March by Dan Adelman.
Apparently he wrote something along the lines of "I travel a lot, so I feel your pain," in response to someone saying they didn't like the region locking of the 3DS. This was viewed as unacceptable in Nintendo's eyes...
They should ask Nintendo directly why
As long as they never realise it's actually online multiplayer I'm good. Paying for that is for chumps.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".
Well, the author of this article did write back to them and their response was a not-very-subtle "Fuck off."
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.
I was wondering why it seemed like Adelman disappeared off the face of the planet a while back.
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.
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.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.
PSN is ahead of Nintendo in terms of both indie and classic game releases quantity-wise, so I'm not sure this really has to be an either/or choice.
sörine;109528990 said:
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.
Although Nintendo isn't behind on classic releases.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
sörine;109541230 said: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
I'd be happy if we just caught up with Japan. They have 241 3DS VC games already.yeah , but the 3ds vc should be bigger, more 3d Classics , digital ds games , etc.gba , snes
Nintendo is severely understaffed , i think ubisoft has way more manpower.
Why are people surprised that not towing the company line might get your social media prescence restricted?
sörine;109541230 said: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
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.I've received word from a reliable source that Adelman is no longer allowed access to Twitter. You'll notice his last post was in October of last year. Apparently he wrote something along the lines of "I travel a lot, so I feel your pain," in response to someone saying they didn't like the region locking of the 3DS
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.
First of all, no, there are plenty without "my views alone", and secondly, its pretty widespread.
Unique classic titles would be 274 on PSN to 489 on eShop then.A lot of the games on Nintendo platforms though overlap, and most of Sony's PS1 classics are cross-buy. You'd have to count the total number of unique games available on eShop and PSN.
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
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
I thought Nintendo's indie openness has been massively improving? This sounds like Gamasutra being pissy because they don't have access, nothing more.
I thought Nintendo's indie openness has been massively improving? This sounds like Gamasutra being pissy because they don't have access, nothing more.
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.
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.
Here's the tweet from Brian on Jun 27, 2013 that got picked up by several news sites who wrote stories about it (the "soft-announcement").
Here's a Gamasutra interview with Dan Adelman from Mar 25, 2013 where he mentions the free Unity licenses announced at GDC2013.
Games journalism everyone.
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."
Except the reality is that games are coming to the eShop. Just one look at the eShop shows that new games from independent developers are coming regularly.
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.
For every JoeM there's a SmokeyDave/Logz4Girls/Freezie KO/BundysFeet/etc. Absurdity comes from both ends.