Indie Game Studios Battle For Piece Of Switch 2 Success
The three games on display are all made by smaller-scale, independent developers seeking to impress users of the device that became the world's fastest-selling console after its launch last month.
But with Nintendo game sales long dominated by in-house franchises -- from "Super Mario" to "Donkey Kong" to "Animal Crossing" -- it can be hard for outsiders to break through.
"The Switch 2 has certainly gotten off to a strong start," said Krysta Yang of the Nintendo-focused Kit & Krysta Podcast.
But so far, "for third-party game creators, the success of Switch 2 didn't necessarily translate into strong sales".
Many Switch 2 owners bought the gadget to play Nintendo exclusives, such as "Mario Kart World", and the high price of the console and its games mean consumers have been less keen to splash out on a range of titles, Yang told AFP.
Also, many non-Nintendo games currently sold on the Switch 2, such as "Cyberpunk 2077", were already available on rival platforms such as Sony's PlayStation 5.
"Nintendo is incentivised to keep their third-party developer relationships strong as they understand to sustain a console lifecycle," but "there certainly are challenges" ahead for the developers, Yang warned.
That did not put off scores of hopefuls from travelling to Kyoto, Nintendo's home city, to tout their games -- many still works-in-progress -- at three-day indie game expo BitSummit, which kicked off Friday.
At booths showing off new software from retro-style puzzles to immersive horror epics, several gamemakers said they were in talks with Nintendo about launching their work on the new console.
The Switch 2 is more powerful than its hugely popular predecessor, and that "opens up the space for what can be made", said Ryan Juckett of the US studio Hypersect.
Nintendo's own games "can be quite expensive, so there's a gap for cheaper, easier-access games that people can play on the fly", said Kent Burgess from New Zealand, part of the team behind the game "Bashful Adoration".
Other concepts were more eclectic -- from sword-fighting with barbecued sausages to a game where the main character is a shy giraffe whose head explodes if he talks to a stranger.
In the United States, "some people, when they try the game, are like, 'oh we don't quite get it because we are so extrovert'," said Lin Huang, the artist behind "A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe".
Gaming industry consultant Serkan Toto said Nintendo once had "an almost legendary reputation of being hard to negotiate with" for outside gamemakers.
"But that changed with the Switch 1", which launched in 2017 after the company's previous console the Wii U was "a total flop" -- opening the way for more third-party games, including indie titles, Toto said.
And the landscape could change further as new technologies gain pace.
No indie gamemakers AFP spoke to at BitSummit said they used artificial intelligence heavily at work, although some said generative AI helped speed up coding tasks.
Few were worried about the potential for job losses in the industry, for now.
"There is not going to be a world in which an AI game will be better than a hand-built game, because there is going to be that love and soul that developers put into it," said Lauren Kenner, senior brand manager for Noodle Cat Games. The Switch 2 is more powerful than its hugely popular predecessor AFP Nintendo once had a a reputation of being hard to negotiate with for outside gamemakers AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Int'l Business Times
16 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Godzilla Fans Fete The Monster As It Turns 70
Godzilla has morphed over the years, but one constant is the devotion of its fans, who celebrated the Japanese monster's 70th anniversary at the pop culture convention Comic-Con. The Japanese studio Toho, which created Godzilla, maintains a calendar of events to celebrate the beast often called the king of monsters, and Comic-Con is on the agenda. Godzilla was born on November 3, 1954 with the launch of the first movie about it, directed by Ishiro Honda. "I am a very big fan of Godzilla," said Angela Hill, a teacher who traveled from Arizona to take part in Comic-Con, which this year featured events and displays celebrating Godzilla. One of the world's largest celebrations of pop culture, Comic-Con brings together 130,000 people, many of whom come dressed as wizards, princesses or characters from movies, games or TV series. As the story of Godzilla goes, a prehistoric amphibious beast is awakened and mutated by nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific. It emerges from the sea and attacks Japan in a rage, symbolizing the deadly power of nukes. "I think because he came from such a historic event -- like, a lot of other monsters are just interesting creatures, but they don't hold the grief of a nation," Hill said, referring to the US nuclear bomb attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. At the pop culture watering hole in San Diego, people lined up to shoot pictures and video with an image of Godzilla, which was also the theme of a panel discussion on Friday that featured Shinji Higuchi, who co-directed a reboot in 2016 called "Shin Godzilla." The movie franchise includes nearly 40 films and has spawned hundreds of animated productions about the monster as well as TV series and graphic work. On Saturday the writers Ed Godziszewski and Steve Ryfle signed autographs of their book "Godzilla: The First 70 Years," which sold out at Comic-Con. "It's a rich history," Ryfle told AFP. "This is the longest running feature film franchise in cinematic history that's focused on a single, continuous character. It's been around longer than James Bond." He said the key to its longevity is that Godzilla has evolved over time but stayed faithful to its origins. "Godzilla has been serious, it's been scary, it's been heroic, it's been funny. But at the same time this is a movie character that's rooted in something that's very real," Ryfle said. "And that's the trauma that Japan experienced, both during World War II, and also the trauma of the aftermath of World War II, the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," he added. He said Honda, who directed the first Godzilla movie, was a veteran who used the film to send a message against war and in particular against nuclear weapons. Michelle Pena, a Godzilla fan who waited in line to get the autograph of the two writers, said part of the monster's charm is how it has changed over the years. "Good, bad, hero, anti-hero, you know. And I like that," she said. "He's not, like, lovable," she added. "He's a big dinosaur-looking thing, you know. He's scary. But, like, you really, really find yourself rooting for him." Authors Steve Ryfle (L) and Ed Godziszewski pose with a copy of their book about the first 70 years of the "Godzilla" franchise AFP People throng a "Godzilla" display at Comic-Con AFP
Int'l Business Times
3 days ago
- Int'l Business Times
New Cryptocurrency May Be Aiding Russia To Dodge Sanctions
Russia could be turning to a new cryptocurrency called A7A5 to allow money to flow in and out of the country and avoid Western sanctions, experts have told AFP. Multiple rounds of international sanctions have been imposed on Moscow since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine seeking to ramp up economic pressure to halt the war. But the launch of A7A5 in February this year opened up an alternative payment method for Russian businesses and individuals to sidestep sanctions when trading with foreign partners, the UK-based non-profit Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) said in a report. A7A5 is a stablecoin -- a form of cryptocurrency backed by traditional assets -- in this case pegged to the ruble, making it harder for Western authorities to monitor than dollar-based alternatives. It was launched by a pro-Russian Moldovan oligarch and a Russian state-owned bank as "the first ever ruble-pegged stablecoin," George Voloshin from anti-money laundering group ACAMS told AFP. While it is not widely used yet, experts say its creation marks a significant step in Russia's efforts to reduce its dependence on major crypto companies -- many of which cooperate with Western governments. Since Russia was kicked out of the international banking system SWIFT and hit with asset freezes and investment bans, Moscow has already turned to crypto to sidestep financial restrictions imposed by the United States and its allies. Stablecoins are especially attractive because they are less volatile than other cryptocurrencies. People have also used cryptocurrency to donate directly to both the Ukrainian army and Russian militias, according to several analytics firms such as Elliptic. But Russia has faced a problem: USDT, the most popular stablecoin, is tied to the US dollar and controlled by a company called Tether, which cooperates with US and European authorities. Earlier this year, Tether blocked $28 million in USDT held in wallets on Garantex, Russia's largest crypto exchange, which was shut down following a global crackdown on illegal transactions. "That was a real wake-up call" for Russia, said Elise Thomas, senior investigator at CIR. "It made them think that they need their own stablecoin, they need something that they control," she added. Just before Garantex was shut down, tens of millions of dollars were moved from USDT into A7A5, according to data from crypto tracking firm Global Ledger. A7A5 is backed by deposits in Promsvyazbank, a Russian bank under sanctions for its ties to the government and the military. The coin is traded on Grinex, a crypto exchange based in Kyrgyzstan -- a country seen as friendlier to Russian interests and less vulnerable to Western pressure. A7A5 is also registered in Kyrgyzstan rather than Russia because the country offers a crypto-friendly legal environment and is less exposed to "sanctions and other economic pressures," project director Leonid Shumakov said in an interview posted online. Less than six months after its launch, around $150 million is now held in A7A5. These transactions are not necessarily illegal, but they could become problematic if used by sanctioned individuals or entities to reconnect with the global financial system, warned ACAMS's Voloshin. The man behind the A7 group, which developed A7A5, is Ilan Shor, a Moldovan businessman and politician now living in Russia. Investigators found links between A7A5 and Shor's political activities in Moldova, including websites related to both sharing the same IP address. These findings have suggested that the cryptocurrency could be used as a tool for political influence. Shor and his company have already been sanctioned by the UK, and more recently by the European Union, which accused them of trying to meddle in Moldova's 2024 presidential election and its referendum on joining the EU -- all while keeping close ties with Moscow.
Int'l Business Times
4 days ago
- Int'l Business Times
Atletico Cash In On Real Madrid's Bernabeu Concert Woes
Mired in legal setbacks, Real Madrid are losing the lucrative star-studded concerts for which their costly Bernabeu stadium revamp was designed -- and cross-town rivals Atletico are cashing in. The megaproject involved three loans totalling more than one billion euros ($1.174 billion) with the goal of transforming the historic ground into a year-round entertainment hub. But the Spanish giants had not reckoned with the determination of angry locals, whose complaints about excessive noise succeeded in stopping the concerts in 2024. With the complaints bogged down in the courts, Atletico Madrid's Metropolitano stadium snapped up the shows of three Spanish stars who were due to perform at the Bernabeu this summer. A bigger coup followed: the announcement of the hosting of 10 gigs next year by reggaeton superstar Bad Bunny, a multiple Grammy Awards winner who sold a Spanish record 600,000 tickets for 12 dates in Madrid and Barcelona. The Puerto Rican's arrival appears to contradict the belief of Madrid's Atletico-supporting mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, who insisted only the Bernabeu could attract the most prestigious performers like US icon Taylor Swift. For Placido Rodriguez Guerrero, emeritus professor at the University of Oviedo's economics department, "the reputational damage has been big" for Real. "It is a way of showing that not everything Real Madrid do is done well, and more so if the concerts go to the Metropolitano", he told AFP. Lola Indigo, one of the singers whose cancelled Bernabeu show went to the Metropolitano, told El Mundo daily she felt "disappointment, a little betrayed". Club president Florentino Perez has reassured supporters that concerts only represent one percent of Real's budget, with revenues topping 1.1 billion euros in the 2024/25 season. But David Dunn, managing director of the Edinburgh-based consultancy 442 Design, which has worked on commercial projects with clubs including Arsenal and AC Milan, described the situation as "a major blow" for Real. Although the matchday, tour and retail business revenue is "excellent", the club "will have banked on being able to hold multiple large-scale events and concerts", he told AFP. Business Insider Spain has reported Real's plan was to generate around 100 million euros per year from musical events -- enough to sign a couple of stars. Professor Rodriguez Guerrero said Real were losing "tens of millions of euros" this summer to their less storied local rivals, who have previously hosted stars including Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and Bruno Mars. If Real wish to pursue their concert ambitions, the investment "will cost quite a lot", he said. For Francesc Daumal, an architecture expert at Barcelona's Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the Bernabeu's main weakness is its new retractable roof and the acoustic issues it engenders. The stadium "is like a tent, because it's shut with a light closure. There are openings, exterior sheets that let air in", he explained. "Solving the insulation for those deep frequencies and with those very high acoustic pressures isn't simple," warned Daumal. Atletico's stadium "was born from the start with the intention of soundproofing it", whereas adapting the older Bernabeu is more difficult, he added. Daumal also identified the Bernabeu's proximity to residential buildings as a challenge to contain noise, compared with the esplanade that separates the Metropolitano from its closest neighbours. Atletico are meanwhile cashing in on a packed summer concert schedule with the Bernabeu out of action. Fans flocked to the Metropolitano in May for two sold-out nights by British star Ed Sheeran, with 140,000 tickets going at an average price of 100 euros ($115). Sara, who attended last year's Taylor Swift concert at the Bernabeu, told AFP the Metropolitano was "better as a place... it's a club with more ties to music". "Acoustically, the Bernabeu is the worst place we've seen," added the 34-year-old communications sector employee, who declined to give her surname. Ariel Jackson, a 30-year-old lawyer from the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, said the Metropolitano had "extra space" and was "more comfortable" than the Bernabeu thanks to its distance from the crowded city centre. "We love to say concerts are held" at the Metropolitano amid the Bernabeu's troubles, enthused Atletico fan David Guerrero, 27, sporting a club shirt with Sheeran's name on the back. The Santiago Bernabeu's operable roof has led to acoustic issues at the stadium during concerts AFP
