At the DICE recently many videogame companies both big and small have talked about recent economic times and how they relate to the recent troubles of both publishers and and developers. Most people like EA CEO John Riccitiello have viewed the layoffs and disappointing sales of some big-budget titles as a temporary setback to the era of blockbusters and enormous games. And once these tough economic times are over normalcy will return to players and consumers and the trends of gaming will continue on as usual.
However, Nintendo despite the enormous success it has found with both its DS and Wii gave a more pessimistic view of the industry. Games, they argue, are not a recession-proof industry as so many others have claimed. And their answer for developers and publishers is simple: make smaller games.
It’s a claim that I’ve been championing for quite some time as some of the best recent game experiences have been through shorter games that knew exactly what they wanted to do and accomplished that in their shorter length. Games have naturally been gravitating towards shorter lengths just due to the practical realities of modern development. Few developers no matter how rich they are can make 50-hour epics nowadays. So rather than sell an epic game short, the better answer is to sell a small game big. Turn your small game into a Portal or a Gravity Bone and gamers will flock.
The final note from Nintendo’s talk is how they’re looking to bring indie developers onboard with DSiware. DSiware is the new downloadable service that will launch with the DSi and has a number of good games already come out for the service in Japan. Yet this is the first time I’ve heard of Nintendo actively pushing for indie developers to develop for the fledging platform. While it remains to be seen how many DS owners will feel compelled to upgrade to the DSi, it seems like another avenue worth exploring for the indie developer.
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