Nintendo has a lot of work ahead if it wants to stay alive in both the gaming industry and the market. For starters, it has to have more solid ties with third party developers and publishers, something its lacked since introducing the Wii U. While things are not really rolling as planned, it seems like Nintendo hasn’t lost all hope and has plans for the future – especially ones that involve more involvement with third-party devs.
Nintendo’s Manager of Business Development, Dan Adelman, and Senior Marketing Manager for Licensing, Damon Baker, recently spoke with Gamespot, and revealed that the company is aware of the problem and is trying to change things around. It was also stated that the company is trying to change the tag of “Willy Wonka candy factory of the gaming world.”
“I think that's something we're guilty of rather than something we want to boast about. And that's something that we're actually trying to change. We kind of historically have presented ourselves as very--what's the right word--monolithic is probably not the vibe I'm going for. But it's a very uniform company. Like 'this is the company's stance.' We have Mr. Iwata [and] Mr. Miyamoto explaining the company's philosophy on issues,” Adelman stated.
“And I think more and more we're realizing we need to make sure that everyone understands that there are actual people who work at Nintendo and we're accessible and we can be reached and contacted. So I think we're trying to do a better job at that outreach and breaking down this idea that there's something behind those locked gates and no one can see what it is.”
Whether these new plans will create challenges for discussions with other developers or not, Baker stated: “One thing that we're addressing right now is expectations. Similar to what Dan was saying before, it's a matter of doing a bit more education on our part of what those guidelines are and how it's easier than ever before to be making games for Nintendo platforms. And just giving as much visibility to those initiatives as possible.”
“So that, to me, is a barrier because I think some developers look at Nintendo and there is this iron gate in order to get content through and we just want people to know…that it's really, we're trying to make it as easy as possible and it's easier than ever before to bring that content over.”
How all this planning comes into effect will be seen in the coming months.