Indie developer protests Nintendo

Independant developer Bob Pelloni has announced that he is staging a long-term protest against Nintendo and its poor treatment of developers recently, claiming that he has barricaded himself in his room and will not be coming out until he gets a Nintendo DS Software Development Kit from the company.

Pelloni has apparently spent more than 15,000 hours creating his latest game for the Nintendo DS, a 2D shooter tentatively titled Bob's Game, but is unable to launch the game to retail because of lack of support from Nintendo.

Bob claims that he fits all the requirements Nintendo specifies for companies seeking an SDK, namely that he is the owner of a financially stable and registered game development company, with a FEIN and working from a commercial address. He has filled in applications to Nintendo to get an SDK, part of the agreement for which is that he will be notified of his status within six weeks. 17 weeks on, Bob still hasn't heard anything.

Now Bob, who originally met with Nintendo in February and who has been bounced around different departments ever since, has decided to stage a protest by locking himself in his room and filming himself on a webcam. Bob has no 'net access, TV or games consoles - just a small shower, an Android G1 to check his email with (so he can spot the reply from Nintendo) and a weekly delivery of food.

Bob is allowing up to 100 days before he leaves the room and is currently part way through his second week.

Bob says that he's worked on the game for the last five years and isn't going to give up "just because some stubborn intern or mid-level marketing exec at NOA is deleting my emails! I want an answer, and I want to hear it from the top. [...] I'll see you there on day 100, Reggie!"

All we'll say is that he has our full support, but you can share your thoughts in the forums and check the protest-log at Bob's site.