For a while, Nintendo’s indie game branding had a very specific identity. During the late 2010s (especially in the earlier years of the Nintendo Switch era) the company regularly used the term “Nindies” and hosted Nindie Showcase presentations that highlighted independent games heading to Nintendo platforms.
It was a memorable nickname that felt playful and community-friendly, and it quickly became associated with the Switch’s reputation as one of the best places to play indie games.
Titles such as My Friend Pedro and Yooka-Laylee gained more attention through these showcases, which helped turn “Nindies” into a recognizable part of Nintendo’s brand in that era.
Why Did Nintendo Stop Using the “Nindies” Name?
However, even though the name had positive energy and strong recognition, Nintendo quietly stepped away from it and eventually replaced the branding with the more neutral and official-sounding Indie World.
The change might appear to be a simple branding update, but Kit and Krysta revealed there was a clear reason for it, tied to Nintendo’s strict approach to protecting its brand and intellectual property.
According to Kit and Krysta, the issue wasn’t that “Nindies” was unpopular or that Nintendo wanted to distance itself from indie games.
Instead, the problem was that the name itself altered the Nintendo brand into a new word, which made Nintendo’s legal team uncomfortable.
“Nindies” is essentially a mashup that takes part of the word “Nintendo” and fuses it with “indies,” and Nintendo has historically been extremely cautious about anything that reshapes or “remixes” its official branding.
In their discussion, Krysta explained that Nintendo’s legal department viewed the term as a risk because splitting the Nintendo name and attaching it to another word can weaken the company’s ability to defend the brand later—especially in the event of legal disputes involving trademarks or intellectual property.
What Does “Brand Dilution” Mean, and Why Does Nintendo Care So Much?
They explained that this legal concern relates to “brand dilution,” meaning the more a brand name gets altered, turned into slang, or blended into other words, the harder it becomes to protect and enforce legally.
Nintendo doesn’t want its core identity to evolve into something that feels like a flexible prefix anyone can attach to anything, because in the long run that could reduce how strongly the company can defend its name in official disputes.
Even if the “Nindies” term was created internally and enjoyed by the team that came up with it, the legal department’s stance made the decision essentially unavoidable.
In fact, Kit and Krysta said the term was originally coined by Nintendo of America’s Publisher and Developer Relations team, which was proud of the branding and wanted it to stay.
Someone in the group reportedly tried to contest the mandate, but it didn’t lead anywhere, since legal’s brand-protection judgment tends to override everything else at Nintendo.
That’s exactly what happened in this case. Even though the name was creative and widely loved, Nintendo replaced it with something safer and easier to defend.
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