I think this research done by Ron Carmel, co-creator of World of Goo, shows that Wii/DS/3DS/Wii-U owners are kind of screwed when it comes to future indie developer games on Nintendo platforms, especially if you look at this graph.
Sure, his post is about developers migrating away from XBLA, but it goes on to show data that getting your game to market with Nintendo is extremely difficult (but still not as bad as with XBLA).
At least this might at least answer the question as to why there is still only one 3rd party eShop game available for the 3DS six months after the system launched.
bananaoomarang
That’s kinda sad, but so true. Nintendo makes it… Very hard, to say the least. It’s something they really need to improve on to stay relevant.
And kwoar, Linux is fourth! My Desktop of choice is getting there…. Come on old boy.
Hitokiri_Ace
On a completely unrelated note: I finished Metroid Prime 2 Echoes yesterday. It was pretty fun, not necessarily my cup-o-tea though. I found myself getting turned around all the time, those maps were kind-of a headache. All in all, I’d say it’s worth it though! I’d say 3/5 stars in my book.
monkat
@bananaoomarang
Even at fourth, though, there aren’t all that many good indie games to choose from. Though, beggars can’t be choosers, I guess.
We’re lucky enough to see an update on indiedb every day, I suppose!
InvisibleMan
Very interesting article & research by Ron Carmel! He doesn’t address the Nintendo indie development arena directly, but his figures show it has one the worst indie support…
Scissors
Wait a minute though if you look at the table 21% say Nintendo is very easy to develop for versus the 10% who say PSN is very easy, and the 0% that say XBLA is very easy. Not that it makes a huge difference, but we’re not as doomed.
Also notice that for Nintendo 21% say Very easy, 21% say So-SO, and 21% say Excruciating. What this leads me to believe is that these numbers are identical because not many people have developed for Nintendo. So it looks like the things are going to be better for Nintendo, they’re definitely going to be far behind Sony and PC, but I think things will get slightly better because the WiiU could be a better alternative to XBLA if Nintendo plays their cards right, and the 3DS eShop does have stereoscopic 3D which might entice some indie developers.
RisnDevil
I have said before that this is the greatest area where Nintendo is failing. Not just with 3rd parties though, but with themselves. The content released on Nintendo’s eShop(s) is an abysmal trickle: the way they force(d) games to reach a specific sales thresh-hold before releasing payments to developers: the almost scatterbrained organization of categories and etc: these things do not add up to a good online service/community. I remember Nintendo all but touting the fact that by the end of the Wii’s life that most games would be released digitally alongside brick and mortar stores (This was before its release and unacceptable storage amounts).
Here’s hoping the WiiU gets it right, but here’s the first thing I really think Nintendo will fail on, again.
srkelley
@bananaoomarang
Yes, linux gaming has been gaining steam (but not Steam:(T_T)) more recently. The Desura linux client should be a great way for it to expand, I can’t help but think that Humble Indie Bundle helped out with spreading awareness for paying linux gamers.