Nintendo aiming for 20 to 30 Switch indie releases per week

The Q&A portion of Nintendo's 78th annual general meeting of shareholders has been published, and with it, an idea of Nintendo's continued Switch indie ambitions. During the session, senior executive officer Susumu Tanaka stated that Nintendo wants to release "20 to 30 indie games on Nintendo Switch per week" in the future.

This came as part of an answer delivered mid-Q&A, when the Nintendo representatives were asked how indie games would be integrated into future business strategy. Multiple Nintendo executives chimed in, beginning with representative director and president Tatsumi Kimishima (the meeting took place in June, with Kimishima stepping down as president at the end of the month). Kimishima stated that one of the company's goals was to make development and publishing on the platform easier--an ongoing process that has already resulted in many indie releases on the Switch.

Tanaka also spoke up, noting Nintendo's recent history of indie developer outreach, and concluding with a goal for such releases. "Some of the indie games already released have gone on to become million sellers worldwide," Tanaka said. "In the future, we are looking to release around 20 to 30 indie games on Nintendo Switch per week, and we definitely expect to see some great games among them."

Kimishima added that Nintendo is aiming for "1,500 software titles developed for Nintendo platforms using Unity."

Another topic of note came up when the Nintendo representatives were asked about crossplay with other platforms. Though Nintendo has been lauded the last several weeks for both Minecraft and Fortnite crossplay (including tongue-in-cheek marketing with Microsoft), Tanaka reaffirmed that while Nintendo wouldn't go out of its way to initiate crossplay opportunities, it was open to future partnerships that came its way.

"Crossplay basically comes about from conversations between publishers and platform holders," Tanaka said. "We are inclined to do what we can to help publishers incorporate crossplay when that is what they want. The other parties involved also have a say in whether we are able to reach this outcome or not, so we will continue to discuss it with them."