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Nintendo Is Apparently Refusing Japanese Indie Developers

nintendo_japanese_developers

A questionnaire from the Games Developer Conference that is currently making the rounds on Twitter in Japan states that Nintendo is not accepting applications from indie developers located in Japan. This has rightfully outraged a number of Japanese indie developers who are asking for an explanation as to why Nintendo is excluding them. “Why, Nintendo, is ‘only Japan’ excluded from individual registration?” asked Japanese indie dev Toshirou Takahashi. “Seeing ‘No Japs’ written on an international-looking website is such a terrible sight that it makes me weep,” tweeted a Japanese developer from Studio Rice Cake.

Thanks, Pikachu4

150 thoughts on “Nintendo Is Apparently Refusing Japanese Indie Developers”

      1. Why don’t you go fuck yourself with a cactus you fucking shit head. Nobody fucking wants your shitty fucking pussy face on this fucking website.

                1. Yep, it’s not Nintendo of America’s fault but rather Nintendo of Japan.

                  This questionnaire was distributed at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. It isn’t an online form that indie developers around the world is supposed to fill out but rather just the attendees of the conference.

                  Basically, it’s meant for Nintendo telling Japanese guests at the conference, “Hey, Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Japan currently have different policies at the moment, so please don’t fill out the form here. We’ll have something for you later.”

                  The major difference between policies is this: as of now, Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe permits self-publishing. They have been with the DS, 3DS and Wii, and are recently starting self-publishing for those who don’t own a studio (“individuals”, as seen on that form). However, Nintendo of Japan has yet to jump onto that self-publishing bandwagon.

                  Many indie titles released in the Americas and PAL regions are currently unavailable in Japan because they need a publisher. For example, Nano Assault Neo, an indie game developed by Shinen Multimedia, was finally published by Arc System Works in Japan after a long, long wait. Indie developers aren’t able to publish themselves in Japan, even if they translate everything (Most of the text in Nano Assault Neo is still in English in the Japanese version though).

                  Until Nintendo of Japan permits self-publishing, this form will not be meant for Japanese developers, hence why they mentioned this form is not for Japanese developers even though it was distributed in San Francisco!

            1. Uhh hello! It is ur brother william speaking here. we do aculy hav a long lost brudda namd billy. he is a brother of owers. u shud be niser 2 ur long lost brother my litel brother ben.

        1. thank you, this person has been getting on my nerves the last few posts and the last comment just about did it.

        1. You’re more than likely already being spyed on through your WIi U you do realize?

          Heck, just going on the internet means you’re being spyed on. Everyone needs to realize, it’s been going on for years!

          1. Good my porn should be spread across the world like one of those good STDs that turn you into a superhero.

              1. Uhh hello! Orgies are great and I love them. Just call me when you decide to stop being attached to your mother by the umbilical chord.

            1. Uhh hello! I dont imitate any1 because im originaly myself me and I. butt it is true that if i wach a video on utube from a stranger i tend to let that inflence my opinin . at first liked xbox 1 butt than i wached shokio’s video bashing xbox 1 and than i hated it.

                1. Uhh howdy! Please watch what you say around my Benny. He’s special in his own way and because of that I love him. Benny I’ll be home around 5 tonight with dinner from Wendy’s. Getting you the usual because I love you and William is working overtime so your brother won’t be joining us tonight. Be careful on the internet, I’ll be doing a history search on both the Wii U, and Nexus 7 tonight. Remember no phone since you couldn’t get that D up to a C with your english Tutor. If anyone calls don’t touch the phone. Love you!

                  1. Ohhh Right… Its still you -.- , your really retard, making a 2nd accont just to troll? Sad really sad…

      2. Actually japanese devs are quite good at making games, far more better than that of the americans or europeans.

    1. They’ll have reasons. Perhaps a huge influx of applications from these developers. Perhaps there’s just no market for it.
      It’s not as though they’re just racist against their own people.

  1. Can someone name the title of a popular Japanese Indie game? As far as I know I think I have only played indie games from the West

        1. Doesn’t matter. Indie just means they don’t have a publisher. While Level-5 has had partnerships with Nintendo and Sony, they still publish their own games except when an outside company localizes them to other regions. As such, they are considered an indie developer. Similarly to companies like Wayforward and Renegade Kid – they develop their own games and self-publish when possible, but they occasionally resort to publishers for retail distribution.

          The other definition of “indie” (outside the video game industry) also applies to them. Level-5 is an independent company, meaning they’re privately owned like any local non-franchise business, and they’re not registered in the stock market as a company.

  2. They are right. That is stupid of NIntendo. In a time when Nintendo needs to instill confidence in its home console platform, it’s refusing developers to make games for it? Indies are going to have to make up nowadays for crappy western devs who don’t want to make or port their games on Nintendo.

  3. Nintendo. What in the fuck? This is exactly why the Wii U is failing right now. Get the stick out of your asses!

    1. PLEASE UNDERSTAND PLEASE UNDERSTAND
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      PLEASE UNDERSTAND PLEASE UNDERSTAND
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  4. No one even defend Nintendo anymore. They’re being real idiots these days. I have a WiiU that has NOTHING on it but the 30 cents titles, which was one thing that they’ve done right. I have no WiiU games at all. Nintendo just isn’t the same anymore. They haven’t been as good as they use to be. It’s a fact.

    1. excuse me but, every company has their bad times. we should be supportive still. nintendo did mention that they had trouble with hd shading, which is why they couldn’t release their games at launch. they’re trying really hard, i’m sure. running a business is difficult you know

      1. Why didn’t they release that console when the games were ready then ?
        Because of the install base? Hell no, those ~5 million that will be sold at the end of the year will be surpassed very quickly by the massively hyped and by ~140 developers supported PlayStation 4.

        They could have gained the momentum with their games at the launch of the Wii U. Releasing it a year before the others did ACTUALLY HARM THE CONSOLE AND NINTTENDO THEMSELVES because a huge amount of people gave up on it because there is no 3rd party because there are is no install base because there are no Nintendo exclusives.

        Releasing it in 2013 with the games that come out this year would have made the console competitive to the others.

        Fun fact: Spybox one has less game wise user restrictions than Wii U.

        1. That may be very well true sir but your fogetting another fun fact that all should remember.

          Nintendo will always have tricks up their sleeves. Even in their dumbest mistakes, they always find a way to make it work out well in the end. Fools will always say “Nintendo is doomed” or some other shit but you can’t ignore the facts that they always, and I mean every dam time, proving those fools wrong, that they always came through. This is a very dumb thing they’re doing but I’m curious on what they have planned…

          FACT!

  5. Issue where?

    “At this time.”

    So they want Western input first before they open the floodgates to their Japanese developers. I don’t see an issue here.

  6. WWWHHHAAATTT TTTHHHEEE FFFUUUCCCKKK IS WRONG WITH THEM !?!?!?!?!?! I bet that this is Iwata’s fault!

    Are they doing this to minimize japanese (Publisher dependent) competion and make own games look better because they got striked by sheer greed?

        1. F***. That should have been a standalone comment instead of a personal reply.

          All non damage controllers shall not feel offended.

        1. Seriously right? I mean, what kind of stupid fucking gamer wants more Indie games for the console that they bought, Its just so fucking stupid.

  7. Or maybe it’s because they’ve already received a ton of applications from japanese indie developers…wow people are quick to assume the negative.

    1. They lose their minds very quick with small things like this. Probably most of this people never took a job in their entire life, It clearly says “at this time” so, they have their reasons to do that, but yeah, long life to the internet…

      1. I don’t think they read the full article, but only the headline therefore they misjudged. It’s pretty much similar to that EVO nonsense. I misjudge Nintendo once and I won’t do it again.

        1. Pretty much the case with everything on gaming sites these days. The writers put misleading or sensational headlines and the site visitors (on the whole) don’t read.

          C’est la vie.

    2. Uhh hello! I have patence! I cant wate for japense devs 2 make wii u2 games because i love them because mario and pokemon r good and other japenese games r gona b good because im gona love them!

  8. Jesus christ they are working on it. They cant make everything happen just like that. They have some paper works to do probably. I dont know what it is to work in big company like Nintendo and im sure that not many here knows it either so shut up and wait to see what happens.

  9. Nintendo has a reason…they always do. May not always be a good reason, but they always have a reason. Maybe certain Jap devs have shown Nintendo their stuff and Nintendo just didnt think it was good enough. Seriously though, Nintendo cant say YES to everyone. Then quality suffers.

  10. It is being worked on. Read the entire article. Drones picking at everything cause your precious PS4 and xboxdone are about to be served by the WiiU 3DS style :).

  11. *sigh* I respect nintendo I really do but they do alot of stupid shit I mean all the companies do but atleast I can figure out they’re reasons for doing stupid shit,
    seriously how does stopping japanese devs help them in any way shape or form, just giving themselves more bad publicity and less games without any benefits.

  12. Grow up people. It’s not like Nintendo is permanently banning all Japanese Indie developers, they probably just want to gather the non-Japanese developers so that they can count their resources. People are overreacting way too much here.

  13. From what I’ve read on Nintendolife, it’s got something to do with a Japanese policy not allowing indie devs put their games on Ninten eshop unless a company has major ownership of the game in question

      1. This questionnaire was distributed at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. It isn’t an online form that indie developers around the world is supposed to fill out but rather just the attendees of the conference.

        Basically, it’s meant for Nintendo telling Japanese guests at the conference, “Hey, Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Japan currently have different policies at the moment, so please don’t fill out the form here. We’ll have something for you later.”

        The major difference between policies is this: as of now, Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe permits self-publishing. They have been with the DS, 3DS and Wii, and are recently starting self-publishing for those who don’t own a studio (“individuals”, as seen on that form). However, Nintendo of Japan has yet to jump onto that self-publishing bandwagon.

        Many indie titles released in the Americas and PAL regions are currently unavailable in Japan because they need a publisher. For example, Nano Assault Neo, an indie game developed by Shinen Multimedia, was finally published by Arc System Works in Japan after a long, long wait. Indie developers aren’t able to publish themselves in Japan, even if they translate everything (Most of the text in Nano Assault Neo is still in English in the Japanese version though).

        Until Nintendo of Japan permits self-publishing, this form will not be meant for Japanese developers, hence why they mentioned this form is not for Japanese developers even though it was distributed in San Francisco!

  14. Wow…now that’s funny right there. Not quite sure what to think of this. Btw, whoever owns this blog needs to drop the $30 to remove those pesky video ads from the bottom of your posts. I did and it was worth every penny.

  15. “At this time”, people. AT. THIS. TIME. Anyone making a big deal out of this shit is a retard, simple as that.

  16. As someone said above, maybe it has something to do about being flooded with requests to put visual novel hentai on the eShop.

  17. One day Nintendo is making all the right choices, and next people post very misleading articles about Nintendo, making people blow things WAYYY out of proportion. It said “at this time” so they probably might change it. And when have you ever heard of a famous Japanese indie game. They want to attract the western indies and I can totally understand that, considering there are ALOT of good indies in the west to be attracted.

  18. I’m not 100% on the full accuracy of this article because Nintendo has been making an effort to become more indie friendly. If Nintendo is yet again making another poor decision then they better make it up by buying Atlus. They NEED to do that.

  19. it’s pretty clear that the questionnaire is indicating “not… at this time”. they’re not saying they won’t, Nintendo is simply saying not at the moment. and this is during the GDC. i’m pretty sure there are other reasons behind these, like perhaps Nintendo wants to give the Japanese developers a different method of getting devkits, or possibly some policies they have to overcome before they can provide the same.

  20. I’m sorry but most cannot read it seems…

    Go to the original source first and read the article there, it clearly states that it is Japan’s fault not Nintendo’s…

    So once again everybody blaming our Empire for something they had nothing to do with in the first place…

    And Japanese Tribes should pay more attention to their own country’s policies first…

    And that goes to all countries by the way…

    1. Looked at the comment section, thinking people would understanding… and waddaya know… they’re all idiots…!

    1. It kinda is.

      This questionnaire was distributed at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. It isn’t an online form that indie developers around the world is supposed to fill out but rather just the attendees of the conference.

      Basically, it’s meant for Nintendo telling Japanese guests at the conference, “Hey, Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Japan currently have different policies at the moment, so please don’t fill out the form here. We’ll have something for you later.”

      The major difference between policies is this: as of now, Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe permits self-publishing. They have been with the DS, 3DS and Wii, and are recently starting self-publishing for those who don’t own a studio (“individuals”, as seen on that form). However, Nintendo of Japan has yet to jump onto that self-publishing bandwagon.

      Many indie titles released in the Americas and PAL regions are currently unavailable in Japan because they need a publisher. For example, Nano Assault Neo, an indie game developed by Shinen Multimedia, was finally published by Arc System Works in Japan after a long, long wait. Indie developers aren’t able to publish themselves in Japan, even if they translate everything (Most of the text in Nano Assault Neo is still in English in the Japanese version though).

      Until Nintendo of Japan permits self-publishing, this form will not be meant for Japanese developers, hence why they mentioned this form is not for Japanese developers even though it was distributed in San Francisco!

  21. This questionnaire was distributed at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. It isn’t an online form that indie developers around the world is supposed to fill out but rather just the attendees of the conference.

    Basically, it’s meant for Nintendo telling Japanese guests at the conference, “Hey, Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Japan currently have different policies at the moment, so please don’t fill out the form here. We’ll have something for you later.”

    The major difference between policies is this: as of now, Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe permits self-publishing. They have been with the DS, 3DS and Wii, and are recently starting self-publishing for those who don’t own a studio (“individuals”, as seen on that form). However, Nintendo of Japan has yet to jump onto that self-publishing bandwagon.

    Many indie titles released in the Americas and PAL regions are currently unavailable in Japan because they need a publisher. For example, Nano Assault Neo, an indie game developed by Shinen Multimedia, was finally published by Arc System Works in Japan after a long, long wait. Indie developers aren’t able to publish themselves in Japan, even if they translate everything (Most of the text in Nano Assault Neo is still in English in the Japanese version though).

    Until Nintendo of Japan permits self-publishing, this form will not be meant for Japanese developers, hence why they mentioned this form is not for Japanese developers even though it was distributed in San Francisco!

  22. As what others are saying in the comment section, if you read the source article or if my nintendo news reported the whole article- you will know why the form says they are not accepting japanese indies right now.

  23. Pingback: Developers Indie Japoneses enojados | TierraGamer

  24. Pingback: Project Phoenix Director Calls Nintendo “Interesting…Not Exciting” | My Nintendo News

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