Dan Adelman leaves Nintendo.

Dan ran the indie program for NOA for nine years but has left the company. He is going Indie. Dan caught a lot of press for being told not to use twitter anymore due to this tweet sympathizing with a fan over region locking on Nintendo's consoles.

Kotaku's Jason Schreier has put up a lengthy interview with Dan. You can read the full interview here.

Here is an interesting snippet.

"I had been strongly encouraged to stay off of Twitter—or at least say only things that were clearly safe—so after the region-locking comment they just said I needed to stop completely," Adelman said. "When people started complaining that I wasn't active on Twitter anymore, it was suggested that a PR person could just post in my name. I thought that was about the worst idea I'd ever heard, so I left it as is and let the silence speak for itself.

Dan brought over games like World of Goo on Nintendo platforms. A game which i really enjoyed. I am looking forward to what he does next.

Oh, I thought you meant the Phantom Gourmet Dan Andelman. I got real confused there.

@mooseymcman: Huh , Is the Phantom Gourmet like a more sophisticated version of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives?

@jimmyfenix: It's a super regional thing, they mostly cover restaurants around Boston. I don't blame you for not knowing about it, I understand I am in the minority by knowing about it. That said, the hosts (particularly Dan) are really good personalities, which is why my thoughts went straight to him.

Edit: Also, I'm sorry I had to make the first comment super off topic! On topic, I hope Nintendo puts more focus into its indie scene, and that this Andelman fellow does well with his new career.

At the end of the day every company, is in fact a company.

Anybody else surprised to hear of the existence of an Indie program at Nintendo?

That's a pretty good way to announce you're leaving. He has my respect despite my knowing almost nothing about him.

Region Locking is the worst. Why would you not want my money Nintendo?

When people started complaining that I wasn't active on Twitter anymore, it was suggested that a PR person could just post in my name.

Blimey.

There were a ton of policies that have been updated and improved. I already mentioned about that office requirement. It was crazy. There were people whose job it was to look up addresses in Google maps to see if the business address was a home or an office building. And if it looked a little residential, they'd ask for photos. There would be e-mail threads with literally a few dozen back and forth exchanges about whether the couch in someone's office was really used for business purposes or did someone really live there? That policy, thankfully, is gone.

Credit: http://kotaku.com/nintendos-indie-champion-leaves-after-nine-years-1615413692

Oh, Nintendo, you're slowly making progress.

it just makes me wonder how many PR people i might already be following on twitter

@damodar: No, it's been known for a while that Nintendo has generally been more open to indies this generation with the eShop. There's a lot of great content on the eShop on both the Wii U and 3DS.

@humanity: yep.

They don't actually need to suck though. There are some nice companies in fact!

Not that all of Nintendo is garbage because of this but the people/policies responsible are shit.

@damodar said:

Isn't that how Shovel Knight got on WiiU?

Hah, that's a pretty good way to announce his departure.

Giant Bomb should hire him.

I like how he insists that this doesn't mean Nintendo's going to lose sight of indies. It seems like Nintendo never really understood them. Much like they've never understood anything else.

Nintendo of America is run by the most paranoid group of grandmothers on the planet. Nothing, at all, ever, must be said, done, or insinuated that may harm the purity they believe they hold in North America.

Even in the last year'ish we've had what? Fire Emblem censorship for America only. Bravely Default censorship for America only. Attempts to shut down a charity driven Smash tournament at Evo 2013. General Youtube dictatorship. Silencing of employees. Go back another year and you've got the Binding of Isaac stuff.

Stop being so fucking afraid of everything.

You just know something like Bayonetta 2 is killing these people inside.

@syz: apparently ya missed No More Heroes, MadWorld, and RE4 (to name a few).

Problem is (my guess) they're prolly trying to avoid being wrapped in more manufactured gaming scandals.

Are they perfect, no. But I'd argue they're getting less paranoid than the SNES days where massive changes were employed.

@madman356647: I was just going off the last year or two. They've got a history of censorship going back to SNES sprites.

It really makes you wonder what the culture at Nintendo is like? How can you not sit in you office at NoA and not think, "God, we really appear to have sticks up our asses."

This sort of thin skin, 'walk the line' culture is deadly in a world of instantaneous communication. The Internet means "it" will leak, whatever "it" is on that given day. Everyone has what amounts to a national newspaper, a national radio station broadcast, and a national clipping service of everyone else said.

THE THREE LAWS OF 21st CENTURY BUSINESS

1) It will leak.
2) There is likely an electronic trail of evidence.
3) When you burn a bridge, it is not private - everything you do is now public.

The Zeroth Law: It already did leak, and it is ALWAYS too late to hide it.