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Story by Brenna Hillier

Mon, Mar 28, 2011 | 23:44 BST

Fils-Aime: No problem with indies, but “get some experience”

As Nintendo continues to battle the PR disaster of Reggie Fils-Aime’s ‘no garage developers’ comments, the NoA president himself has clarified the distinction between an indie and an amateur.

“We’ve been clear that we want to work with independent developers who understand this business, who have experience in this business,” Fils-Aime told Joystiq.

“These are people who spent time working with larger publishers and larger developers, but had that idea in the back of their head that they needed to bring to life … and so that’s the type of entity that we want to work with. These are talented developers.”

And how does that differ from the “garage developers” Nintendo isn’t so keen on?

“That’s different from the person who envisions themselves as a developer, but actually hasn’t necessarily created anything, who doesn’t necessarily understand what it takes in this business to create compelling content. That’s where we draw the line,” explained.

“I’ll tell you, if someone calls us tomorrow who has no experience in the gaming industry, but has a passion and has a great idea, our perspective would be, ‘Great, but get some experience. Understand your craft, and then come back to us’”.

US PR Director Mark Franklin has also clarified the company’s position.

Following Nintendo head Satoru Iwata’s GDC keynote on the dangers of the smartphone market, Fils-Aime was quoted speaking against small developers.

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