XNA development was featured at a recent Microsoft Convention, where some of the small developers planning to use it praised its ability to let them make small games for the PC and Xbox 360 for very little cost (potentially just their time and no money). However, it seems the Wii’s runaway success has led to Nintendo taking on the attitude that they no longer need independent game developers and what they could bring to the table.

One dev stated that Nintendo was making so much money off of Wii sales that they simply don’t care anymore about small/independent developers any more…. We already know that small titles are in development for Wii’s download service, but for an independent developer, it seems that Nintendo is neglecting them. I believe at this point you would really need an SDK, something that costs over $2,000 to start off developing for Wii, regardless if your EA or a lone developer.

That’s unfortunate, and Nintendo could be forfeiting a huge underdog market here.

Codename Revolution