Retronauts on the 20th Anniversary of Gunpei Yokoi’s Death

Gunpei Yokoi’s legacy is one of sensible choices and thoughtful compromise. I admire him greatly as a professional. Jeremy Parish has a retrospective on Retronauts.com:

Yokoi liked to create gadgets. More than that, he liked to come up with clever hacks. He had a keen eye for simple but unexpected ideas that would translate into fun toys, along with an unerring sense of how to make those products affordable for the widest audience possible. Rather than saving costs by using cheap materials, Yokoi preferred to match low prices to premium quality production by making cuts at the conceptual level.

Same, Gunpei. Same.

Nintendo To Hobbyist Developers: No Thanks

Reggie Fils-Aime:

“I would separate out the true independent developer vs. the hobbyist,” says Fils Aime. “We are absolutely reaching out to the independent developer.”

“Where we’ve drawn the line is we are not looking to do business today with the garage developer. In our view, that’s not a business we want to pursue.”

Small developer shops are only ever going to be able to do more and better things. Tiny Wings would make a lovely 3DS game, but we’ll probably never see it. Nintendo’s dogged insistence on sticking with their old ways of dealing with developer licenses is only helping iOS.

The way Nintendo interacts with licensees hasn’t changed in 20 years. It’s going to have to, and sooner than they think.

Closing Tabs 5/27/09