Nintendo refusing Japanese indie dev submissions

Nintendo is not accepting game submissions from Japanese indie developers to release their titles on the Wii U.

As spotted by Kotaku, the small print in a recent GDC survey revealed that the console giant was “not accepting applications from developers located in Japan at this time”.

This is despite the fact that developers around the rest of the world can self-publish on the Wii U, and Nintendo has even been chasing indies through its HTML5-based Web Development Framework and Unity, even waiving licence fees for developers using the latter engine.

A statement from Nintendo to Eurogamer said the particular policy relating to game submissions was down to the licensing department in each region, but did not explain why officials in Japan had made this decision.

"The policy in question is the decision of Nintendo’s department responsible for licensing activities in each region," said a company spokesperson.

"The licensing department of Nintendo Co., Ltd is currently not accepting subject applications from individuals in Japan."

The initial statement from the GDC Survey states that it is not accepting submissions “at this time”, suggesting that plans may be afoot to allow self-publishing in the near future. It seems unlikely, given the company’s stance on support indie developers, that Nintendo will not make a U-turn in the near future.