Sony President praises Nintendo’s new indie-friendly policy

Famitsu recently spoke with the President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. Shuhei Yoshida ahead of this year’s A 5th of BitSummit who thinks “it’s very good” that Nintendo are proactively taking in indie games, that it’s “a great thing for the indie game industry” and that Nintendo Switch is also easy to port games to…

This year PlayStation is also having a booth [at BitSummit], but how is the response?

“Of course there is! If I speak further, even Nintendo and Nippon Ichi Software also manage to exhibit themselves, so in such a meaning, perhaps we could convey an atmosphere that goes through the whole industry to put power into indie games. I think the feel of hype is there.”

Indeed, Nintendo also has the impression of proactively taking in indie games. The indie game developers also seem to be more proactively [going] towards Nintendo Switch.

“I think it’s very good. We have been doing our utmost to support indie game creators until now, and a lot of very good indie games have been released. But recently Nintendo also has been approached by very good indie game developers, and they’re going to support middleware in the fastest time possible, so it does seem like they are putting in the effort. And I think that’s also a great thing for the indie game industry.”

If it can also make indie games more active?

“There are quite some parts where Nintendo users do not pile up with PlayStation users, so it should be possible to deliver games to that many users, shouldn’t it? I think from the eyes of indie game developers, Nintendo Switch may also have a side look of being easy to port games into.”

Many thanks to Kite again for the translation. Please credit Japanese Nintendo if posting any of the above elsewhere.

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