Nintendo: no plans to ramp up U.S. video game development

The Nintendo Wii and DS both have a solid fanbase in the U.S. In spite of this success, it doesn’t seem that Nintendo has any plans of increasing video game development in the country.

Nintendo senior vice president George Harrison said that, “I’m not aware of any plans to push for more software development here in the U.S.” Want to find out more? Head on over to the full article.

The Nintendo Wii and DS both have a solid fanbase in the U.S. In spite of this success, it doesn’t seem that Nintendo has any plans of increasing video game development in the country.

Nintendo senior vice president George Harrison said that, “I’m not aware of any plans to push for more software development here in the U.S.” He added that,  “the actual decision about producing more software and who should do it is driven by Satoru Iwata and the management team, including Mr. Miyamoto, in Japan.”

While some would argue that the Wii had a hit game developed in the U.S. with Metroid Prime: Corruption 3, it seems that most of the more prolific games on the console were developed in other countries. Harrison pointed out that Nintendo is looking for third-party software developers to create games suited for western audiences:

They’re doing a great job both on DS and on Wii. They tend to provide product in categories that we aren’t particularly good at doing, like sports or other genres. And since they’re Western publishers, they tend to be more in tune with Western tastes.

It looks like Nintendo is planning on placing the development of more Westernized games (and potentially the future success of the Wii in the West) in the hands of third-party developers. This isn’t really surprising considering the company has been doing this ever since the original NES. If this pays off, Nintendo might actually have a pretty strong stable of developers for their console with no investment on their part.

Via Wired