Nintendo boss has made digital games awareness his "personal mission"

Nintendo of America business development head Dan Adelman is committed to ensuring general consumers - and not just core gamers - are aware of the games available on the 3DS and Wii U eShops.

Speaking to Destructoid, Adelman said he's dedicated to improving awareness of digital games - especially indies - among Nintendo's millions of casual consumers.

"That's kind of my personal mission in life these days. If you talk to someone outside of the gaming industry, someone who doesn't necessarily follow [or] read all the blogs and keep up with the latest news, a lot of them are really unaware of a lot of these games," he said.

"They've never heard of them, don't know that they even exist. So right now, it's a little bit of a niche audience of people who follow all of these games. But I'm personally convinced that if you get these games into people's hands and they try them, they'll be shocked. They'll be surprised at how good these games are and say, 'I had no idea you could get these amazing games for $15, $20, $10 sometimes.'

"So I spend all of my time playing indie games; frankly, it's been a while since I played a full retail game just because there's so much great stuff out there. That probably says more about me than it does about anything else."

Elsewhere in the interview, Adelman said that, unfortunately, there's no update on a unified account system for 3DS and Wii U - but Nintendo is "very aware" of the desire for it.

Adelman has become something of a champion for western indies on Nintendo platforms, saying he wants to change the company's "locked gate" image. His offsider at Sony is Shahid Amad, who is especially active on the Vita's behalf; Microsoft is yet to produce a similar figure, although some developers enjoy strong relationships with the platform holder.

Thanks, Joystiq.