Indie gaming is an important part of the gaming space. After all, there are numerous indie teams right now trying to make their titles real and showcase to the world what they can do. Plus, some of the best titles in recent times have come from these indie studios and not the big-name publishers and developers as one would expect. Nintendo has had an interesting relationship with indie teams over the years, one that has truly evolved with the times. For example, they used to not work with them, but during the Wii era, they started to change their minds.
By the time the Wii U came out, more indie devs were coming to the company’s systems, and when you get to the Switch era, they became the place for indie games to go for console. The success of indie games on Switch has been so notable that multiple developers strive to put their games on the Switch because they know they have a chance of really resonating with people and getting more sales there than the other consoles and even Steam combined!
So, with the Switch 2 coming, many people are wondering if the “partnership” between these two will continue. Thankfully, via the recent shareholders’ meeting that revealed quite a bit, Nintendo was confirmed on Twitter, via Google Translate, to say that they’re planning on not just working with indie teams in the future, but continue to promote them at various shows, including via the Indie World Showcases.
That’s good to hear because, if we’re being honest, they don’t need it. The Switch era provided numerous “big hits” in the AAA space with both first and third-party titles, so they don’t need to rely on indie games in any major way. Yet, they’re doing so because they know that it’s important to cultivate relationships with these indie teams, not to mention that they all deserve to have a space to publish their titles after working so hard on them.
One could very easily argue that The Big N is the best of the three main console publishers to promote indie games as a whole. Sure, Microsoft and Sony do their own thing with indies, but they don’t do it to the level of Nintendo. Again, The Big N has an entire showcase dedicated to indie titles, while the others sometimes show one or two indie games during their own showcases. That’s a big difference.
Either way, indie teams are likely working on the Switch 2 right now, and that means the possibilities for new games are endless.
