In an interview with Gamasutra, Reggie Fils-Aime of Nintendo of America explained his company's preference to work with small, professional studios over "garage developers":
I would separate out the true independent developer vs. the hobbyist. We are absolutely reaching out to the independent developer. Where we've drawn the line is we are not looking to do business today with the garage developer. In our view, that's not a business we want to pursue.
Look at the music industry. There are certainly highly talented people who work other jobs and have a passion to be in the music industry. They work at it. There are reality TV shows that revolve around this concept. I love it when there's a game that's found that captures people's imagination, just like that…singer toiling in a factory.
The exception, of course, is that many famous musical artists started as simply "garage bands"… but we know what he means… right?
[Source]
