NOA's Reggie Fild-Aime defends Nintendo's relationship with independent developers, but rules out pursuing "garage developers"...

Coming off the back of Satoru Iwata's comments regarding the 'App-culture' of cheap, downloadable games, Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime has reiterated that Nintendo is not in the business of this style of development.

"I would separate out the true independent developer vs. the hobbyist. 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. Look at the music industry. There are certainly highly talented people who work other jobs and have a passion to be in the music industry. They work at it. There are reality TV shows that revolve around this concept. I love it when there's a game that's found that captures people's imagination, just like that � singer toiling in a factory. When we talk about the value of software, it could be a great $1 piece of content or a $50 piece of content. The point is: Does it maintain its value over time or is it such disposable content that the value quickly goes to zero? We want consumers to see value in the software, whatever that appropriate value is. And we want to see that value maintained over time."

While perhaps not particularly noted for their collaborations with independent developers, critically-successful collaborations between Nintendo and independent developers have been in fair abundance in recent years. The revived Excite series, 2009's Punch-Out!! and WiiWare hits Bonsai Barber and Hydroventure were all developed by independent developers.