Nintendo Relaxes Its Office Space Rules For Indie Developers

Those two cute kids are all smiles as they played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity last week at PAX East, but that isn't the only form of happiness Nintendo is dishing out. As reported by Gamasutra, the company is giving a huge break to indie developers, as having a physical office space is no longer a prerequisite to get their game into the Nintendo universe.

"More and more people are working from home, and we recognize that developers are forming virtual teams around the world," said Nintendo eShop business development manager Dan Adelman. "We really have only a few requirements to sign up as a licensed developer with Nintendo. The most notable ones are that you have to have some experience making games, you have to be able to keep any confidential materials like dev kits secure and you have to form a company."

Another huge change is indie developers will start receiving revenue from the first unit sold. Previously they would not earn any money until their titles sold over 6,000 units. The rule was created so developers could closely monitor their game quality sans the influence of publishers. "The threshold was thought to be a convenient way to go about it," added Adelman. "Unfortunately, some great games that just didn't find an audience would up being penalized. So for all systems after WiiWare -- DSiWare, Nintendo 3DS eShop and Wii U eShop, we decided to get rid of the thresholds altogether."