So I have recently been reading article after article about how hard it is for a independent developer to sell their games. I read a huge article about how on X-Box Live developers games don't even pass the 1,000 copy mark. Apparently selling a thousand copies is a huge feat and not many games in the article made that goal. Then I read other articles about how hard it is for a developer to successfully launch an iOS game. This article was backed up quickly here on VGChartz as a developer desperately plugged his iOS game trying to get every little sale he could.

Other articles I have read recently talk about how independent developers are living day by day barely making ends meat from their games. The games don't sell that well on Android devices either. According to all the articles I read the reason for developers having such a hard time is the amount of competition and lack of ability to advertise and compete on iOS, Android and Live.

Infact while I heard PSN was slightly easier to be successful on, all of the major online platforms seem to be extremely difficult to master and sell on.

So I booted up my 3DS and went on the eShop to check out what was new and I realized something I've noticed for months. Their are so few 3D games in the eShop that I can count them on two hands. I also know that all of my friends that have 3DS own Let's Golf 3D, I do not but I thought about it a second.

I wonder how many copies of Lets Golf 3D have been sold, infact what about the few other 3D games. Of course you can't count Excite Bike as it was free. But I am positive that these games have all broken 1,000 copies a long long time ago. Also unlike iOS games 3D games on the eShop go for around 7-8$.

So independent developers would be able to launch a game with little to no competition. No worries about space in the store if they launched products soon they would be at the very front. They also would be guaranteed higher sales then if they launch a game for any other device. Not to mention if the game was good they would receive a lot more publicity and attention then if they break that 1,000 mark on Live.

The only thing I can see holding independents back is the cost of dev kits, I don't know how much they cost but I am pretty sure they run more then a X-Box kit and definitely cost more to develop on then iOS or Android. However while it might cost a tad more and might require a little more work. Launching a 3D game within the next year would be a guaranteed success by iOS/X-Box standards.

So where are all the indy games on 3DS, also I know someone is going to come on and say the market is too small. Well there are millions of 3DS's currently in gamers hands. Since the Ambassador program requires these gamers to go onto the eShop and have connectivity that means of those millions the majority of them will visit the eShop. Also with so few retail games on the market gamers are far more inclined to purchase 3DSware games from the eShop.

In the end their is a huge niche market that an independent would kill for, a guarantee that your title will sell more then a 1,000 copies. Unless it was complete utter crap. But even complete utter crap is going to sell better on 3DS with less competition then it would on Live with thousands of other superior titles!

Could 3DSware and the eShop be the answer to these struggling independents. Could this potentially have the ability to make their titles succeed?

If indies supported 3DSware then there would be compitition and your argument would be self defeating...

Well that depends, A- Nintendo has way stricter quality control and releases far fewer titles for their download stores, so independants would never have to worry about facing competition like they do on Live and other platforms. B- In the short term there is no competition so using the market right now would give the developer an edge.

Look at eShop it has way fewer titles then any of the other consoles services, even if you include DSiWare. Then look at Wii's store and that too has far fewer competition. Then PSN is following it and I'm guessing there will be a market on Vita and PlayStation Suit.

So the question for the Independants is why the heck aren't they exploiting 3DS or even Wii or PSN? Why are so many thousands going to Live and iOS and Android? The markets on those platforms are flooded and they admit they can't compete so why continue trying to compete when their is a perfectly good market for your games?

Nintendo would have to make a number of changes first. While the eShop has made a number of strides beyond the limitations of the Shop Channel, it is still hardly an ideal environment in which to sell a no-name title

How is it worse then Live or iOS or Android? To be honest I don't know of any enviroment ideal for selling a no-name title better then on Nintendo's 3DS. With no "Name titles" to compete with on eShop how can it be a worse enviroment to sell on compared to Live with over 1,600 games. Selling a thousand copies should not be an impossible task.

Of course I understand that the X-Box is the cheapest of the three platforms to make games for. But if your wanting to make a successful product investing slightly more money and time may be worth the pay out. If you want your title to do well you'd try to find a niche market where you face little competition. Right now 3DS is the market with the least competition.

It's rather pointless speculation considering we don't know how hard those platforms are to develop game on them, what kind of agreements do you sign and how much dev kits cost.

Maybe, but not right now.
3DS haz no gamez, therefore introduction of indie stuff so early could probably reduce interest in retail titles (at least from developers' point of view), especially if these games were sold for cheap (like 10 bucks or less).


But semi-trolling aside, there has to be a reason why nobody bothers with Nintendo channels.
One thing would be Nintendo's hate towards homebrew in general I guess (or you could just say that the publisher is really bitchy about quality and they simply don't want to have cheap titles on their eShop). Other would be demand.
DSiWare was supposed to be indie friendly. Sure, there are indie games there but you see more of them on xbox live indie, and a lot more of them on services like Steam. And even those indie games that are on xbox live simply sell like crap.
For some reason, indie gaming on consoles is simply not working out. Don't ask me why, it doesn't make sense in my eyes. This is probably why nobody wants to develop for any other platform. "It doesn't sell anyway, so why even bother?". Nobody is willing to take the risk.

Also, for all we know, developing for 3DS could be so bloody difficult that it's just not worth it.

It`s hard for any developer to succeed if the market is flooded with games - especially if they offer the same kind of entertainment.
3DS might be attractive because there aren`t that many games to buy as compared to other consoles or other portable services. Still, it might not be the best option if they get less revenue per game sold and if the few million of 3DS owners are not the type of gamers who tend to use that service regularly or are willing to buy something that isn`t made by unfamilliar companies.

Although i think eSHOP on 3DS puts more effort in promoting games (demos could help) sometimes it seems a bit confusing. For example, when compared to Virtual Console, i can`t choose publisher nor system and i can`t change the presentation, like the starting menu, to make it easier and faster to navigate.

The golden ticket for indies always has been and always will be the PC.

On a related note, here's a very interesting and informative postmortem article about my favourite indie game of the year (Gemini Rue), written by its creator: http://gamecareerguide.com/features/946/postmortem_joshua_nuernbergers_.php?page=1

As okr said, the PC is the best platform for indie developers. There's no dev kits to buy, no royalties to pay, the audience is there, it's easy to develop games on, it's pleasant to work with Steam from what we've heard and you can even sell your game directly if you want.