Happy weekend BaddaBing BaddaBlog readers! Today’s Saturday, so prepare for your weekly fix of Game Grind. The weekly article dedicated to reporting or analyzing the video game industry.

You know who I love? Nintendo.

I love them even more recently because they have made news by doing something incredibly awesome. They have come together with the makers of the super amazing video game Shovel Knight,

Yacht Club Games, to make a Shovel Knight amiibo.

I know it may not seem like it, but this is actually a pretty big deal.

Nintendo is extremely protective of their characters and properties, perhaps more so than any other company in the video game industry. Due to this, Nintendo has very rarely let outside companies handle their IPs and has sparsely published third party works exclusively on their consoles. The notable exceptions to this being the first six Final Fantasy and the Bayonetta franchise. Shovel Knight is an Indy game that was first released on Wii U and 3DS and later on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. However, it was recently announced that Nintendo is going to be working with Yacht Club Games to produced a Shovel Knight amiibo, which is Nintendo’s money making, toy/DLC hybrid.

This is great news not only for fans of Shovel Knight, but also for fans of Indy games. Nintendo adopting Shovel Knight as an amiibo is symbolic of their desire to be more involved in the independent video game scene. Which would be great for the video game industry. Right now, Indy video game makers are able to publish their games almost solely on mobile platforms and PC. Not being able to publish their works on consoles and partner with larger companies makes it difficult for new Indy developers to make money and grow. Nintendo offering to work more closely with Indy developers and give them a place to sell their quality games will be great opportunity for new companies to grow and also make Nintendo a boat load of money.

Alright, that about does it for this weeks Game Grind. I’m picking up a copy of MGS5 on Tuesday, so the next installment will most likely be a review of that game. Thank you so much for reading and if you enjoyed the article, go ahead and give it a like and maybe leave a comment down below. You can also subscribe to BaddaBing BaddaBlog via the drop down menu on the right side or follow/like the Facebook Page. If you enjoy humor in increments of 140 characters or less, you can follow me on Twitter; I’m @LucasDeRuyter. Once again thanks for reading and tomorrows post will tackle or report some political issue or another. See you then.

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