In an interview with GameInformer, Damon Barker said the following regarding paying for exclusive indie games:

“We’re not known for exclusive [indie games] in particular, and that’s because we’re not throwing around a lot of cash. We also don’t see a huge benefit to developers in driving exclusive deals with platforms and consoles”

Actually, he says they do the opposite:

“We very much encourage all of our development partners to release simultaneously across all platforms.”

On the other hand, Barker says Nintendo is "proactive", reaching for indie developers and pitching the second screen controller experience as a draw for indie developers.

http://wiiudaily.com/2015/08/wii-u-exclusive-indie-games/

What do you think, is paying for indies bad business desicions or not?

Sonic Lost World

EDIT: He said indies, dang. 

One question I'm curious about is just how many people think they'd buy a console based on exclusive indie games. For me it'd have to be a heck of a lot of exceedingly good indie games to justify buying a console.... I enjoy some of them but not enough to drop that kind of money.

I think having a vibrant indie scene is a decent selling point that might tip the scales when someone is picking one, but I don't see exclusives winning too many people over on their own.

So they are not even willing to pay for porting costs? I am sure several Indies would be more then satisfied with that, and who knows, one day they might catch the next Minecraft.

Lets be honest here, they dont throw around cash to indies because they think that the investment will be in vain.

First Spencer, now Nintendo. Man, Sony went from imminent bankrupcy to being filthy rich. Such a turn of events

As I saw somebody else point out on N4G, the exact problem is that Nintendo doesn't throw their money around. They're too focused on sitting on their extra money, and they're scared to actually spend it on ventures that are desperately needed to expand their userbase. On the rare occasion they do throw their money around, they end up making a bad decision like picking Devil's Third back up, which then simply scares them away from funding further deals in the future. Or when they decided to fund Bayonetta 2, which was smart in terms of critical reception, but poor in terms of the fact that the first game wasn't exactly a blockbuster even though it was multiplat.

Basically, Nintendo is not the example to follow in the gaming world. They're afraid to take risks, and suck at properly researching risks on the rare occasion that they choose to take them. Spending money on good indies is smart. They may not be system sellers, but they give many people far more games to play, which is a very good thing.

I'd say the biggest reason is the install base. Money-hatting isn't the only way games get on systems. But that would be a less comfortable answer, I guess.

Short-sighted, dismissive thinking on their part.

Nintendo is ... odd. I don't know what else to say.

In business, growth is often considered an important focus, which is why you see a lot of companies, large and small, reinvest most their profits back into their own endeavors. Nintendo, on the other hand, seems more inclined to leave their money in the bank while investing the bare minimum in their products and services. This is why they've fallen behind Sony and Microsoft in many aspects of internet and console technology, not to mention the formation of business partnerships.

Even then, this "throw around cash" line is disingenuous, as it implies Sony and Microsoft are simply paying straight cash for exclusives. More often, such as with Sony's Pub Fund, developers are given an advance on future royalties along with advertising support and other considerations in exchange for an exclusivity window. Mutually beneficial programs like that have always clashed with Nintendo's self-focused attitude and it's cost them.

They are not paying as much for Indie exclusives, but they are still paying indies for games to be released on their platforms.. don't see what's so bad about that :/

A more Nintendo sided article:
http://mynintendonews.com/2015/08/30/nintendo-indie-developers-benefit-more-from-simultaneous-releases-than-exclusivity/