Nintendo denies official DS developer status to 'Bob's Game' creator

I'd make the bastard do it for free.

9/11 much?

What has the 9th of November got to do with anything?

Yuu just don't understand Bob. He is a visionary genius.

@Temiden: how? What did he do? Make a game for the DS by himself? big woop, it's not the first time, but he's too shut in to know that. I think the only reason he got the attention he did is he acted like a total drama queen. He's no visionary.

*woosh*

@sam

As a fellow Sam, I must say you've embarressed us all. Temedian was using a thing called 'sarcasm'.

Another one bites the dust. Seriously guys, it's a comment board. Sarcasm and flaming are the only languages we speak.

This is completely irrelevant, but your avatar is made of win.
On-topic: My pet theory is that the whole protest - the sit-in, the Nintendo World incident, everything - is a viral ad to get the word out about Bob's Game.

From Bob's blog, on January 15th:
"This is the end of my pitch to Nintendo of America- which Mr. Tom Prata, Senior Director of Project Development, authorized on Feb 22, 2008.
Thanks to all Nintendo staff and to Nintendo's PR department for allowing this to
continue as long as it has.
If Nintendo decides not to proceed, "bob's game" will be released for iPhone, Android, and possibly OpenPandora, XBLA, Steam, and PSP.
I am a Nintendo fan, and I would like to see "bob's game" released on the Nintendo DS more than any of these systems.
Please let Nintendo know if you would like to show your support for "bob's game" being released on the DS.
In this age of nearly infinite information flow and instant turnover, getting a message out there is nearly impossible, even with millions of dollars for advertising.
Yet I have succeeded at this and caught the attention of nearly the entire online gaming world- from a locked room with a cell phone and no budget whatsoever.
If this does not demonstrate to Nintendo the determination, passion, creativity, and ingenuity that I am capable of, then I don't know what will.
Unorthodox, of course. I had to do something completely new, something that hadn't been tried before- and it worked.
bobsgame.com has now had over 1 million unique visitors. My mission has been a success.
In other words,
Thank Yuu for playing.

THANKS, REGGIE!"

Judging by this and some other entries, I'm guessing that most of the weirder stuff on Bob's blog (the whole "insanity" thing, for example) was planned out. I don't know if Nintendo turning him down was for reals, but even if it was, we'll be seeing this in one form or another, probably before 2009 is done.
Even if the video game development thing doesn't work out for Bob, I think he could get a well-paying job at an advertising agency. Most of Joystiq has swallowed this story hook, line, and sinker, after all...

Aaaaaaaaand long post is long. Sorry about that.

True...the game is probably only 500 kilobytes anyways.

No, they are not. Hell, they should stop being as polite as they are. If I was in charge of Nintendo, this is the letter I would have sent him.

"Dear Bob,

Go piss up a rope.

Signed,
Nintendo"

@Rocketboy: Ignoring him was the harsh part. If Nintendo knew they were going to reject him, they should've done so instead of leaving him hanging.

You should check out the music industry...
Huh? What? People that are passionate about what they do, meeting with Sony, Universal 1000's of dollars and hours put toward they're craft, friends made and lost. Only for the band to break up, or to just quit on said dream altogether.

Hey Stix.

Welcome to real life. And if Bob really wants to become a game developer(which isn't really likely after all that has happened) he has to grow up and accept the fact that no game company owes him anything regardless of how many hours he put into his precious game.

@Vegeta: I've had my fair share of lack of replies for various things, so I understand that it happens. That doesn't make it right. If a company says they will reply in 6-8 weeks, then they should do so (if anything for the simple fact that the company said they would).

Really, how hard would it have been for Nintendo to send him that letter within the 6-8 weeks timeframe? Obviously, the letter itself has nothing original in it, since we have evidence of another rejection letter.

Despite anyone's optimistic, pessimistic, or "realistic" viewpoints of the world, Nintendo doesn't have an excuse for not responding within the given timeframe. Since many people (myself included) already assumed Nintendo was likely to reject his request, it's pretty mean-spirited for Nintendo to make Bob wait 25 weeks just to find out what they could've told him months before.

Do you really WANT the video game industry to become like the music industry, Negatron? I WORK for the music industry, and I can't stand us. If video games become any more like music, it's liable to become unpalatable to me as a pasttime.

I suppose it does have the advantage of growing up in the internet age, so it already has that "long tail indie" angle that the music industry (or rather, the music non-industry) is just starting to benefit from. But still - I would prefer to see my hobby not decline to the music labels' level.

Become?