Nintendo just spoke about releasing roughly 20 to 30 indie games on the Switch per week in the future.
The conversation took place at the company’s 78th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, and managing officer Shinya Takahashi, senior executive officer Susumu Tanaka, and former Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima took part in it.
“For Nintendo Switch, we set up a development environment that supports Unity middleware, which is used on smartphones and other platforms,” Tanaka said.
The company is also actively engaging with indie game developers at shows and events in different regions. Back in May, Nintendo even had a booth at the BitSummit, which was an indie game event located in Kyoto, Japan.
While giving players first-party games is one of Nintendo’s strengths, the increasing number of developers who make games that can be played on Nintendo platforms had Kimishima acknowledge how integral developers are to the growing business.
“That is why we are working to create an environment that makes development easier, and simplifying the process of publishing games on Nintendo Switch. This has resulted in a large number of people playing an array of indie games on Nintendo Switch,” he said. “We are currently working towards reaching 1,500 software titles developed for Nintendo platforms using Unity. I think that will give you an idea of how much it has grown.”
To Takahashi, one of Nintendo’s top priorities during the development of the Nintendo Switch was creating such an environment. He even acknowledged how such an environment would enrich everyone as opposed to have indie game developers ‘compete’ with Nintendo itself. In North America and Europe, especially, a large number of indie games would invigorate the Nintendo Switch overall.
