At the end of the day, is Reggie actually chickenshit?

on: 04/13/10, 19:08:10

Don't get me started on the Nintendo/Mother series situation.

The biggest gripe I have with Nintendo at the moment is definitely the inconsistency in their localization plans, and I'm pretty sure NOA (and probably NOE to a certain extent) has their say in what gets localized and what doesn't. Either way, I think it's shit that Nintendo refuses to localize and release titles in general, even if they might not have an established fanbase, but especially if they do.

Given Nintendo's huge amount of money that they're sitting on it wouldn't be too much of a gamble for them to make sure their fans stay happy at all times, it would probably even be benefitiary in the long run. Just imagine the amount of happiness and respect a worldwide Mother series release would generate for instance, even if we're only talking about the Virtual Console.

And this is just one example, a franchise that has actually had a chance to build a fanbase in the west over the years, but a lot of games don't even get that chance. It's a real shame.

Posted by

on: 04/13/10, 19:12:17

@Zero
You know, it might not be a worthwhile business transaction, when all the beans are counted. But still, what the fuck.

@Simbabbad
Yeah, that is the exception, huh? I can't think of too many others. On a recent NWR, they were saying that even Reggie has to publish games that were developed in America. It would be kind of morbidly amusing, though, if the game was completed, but refused for publishing in all regions.

I'd love to know what goes on behind the scenes regarding the planning and marketing of a game like Excitebots. Why green-light it if they didn't want to support it? But the Wheel bundle does indicate some level of support. A very interesting case.

Posted by

on: 04/13/10, 19:13:56

- Edited by

on: 04/13/10, 19:19:10

Even if some of the releases wouldn't generate a profit, some of them still might, and I think that a lot of the time we can never know for sure until they actually take a chance and give it a shot.

Posted by

on: 04/13/10, 19:17:59

Yes, it's annoying, but my position is it's much more annoying for the common man than gamers like us. You know about these games, you know ways to get them, you know how to get them to play on your Wii. If you really want them, nothing is staying in your way from getting them. Sure, it'll cost you more and the games will never get as cheap as they would if they released here, but the fact that you can get so many games for cheap here means you probably can afford to splurge a little now and again.

The people I feel bad for are the people who don't even know these games exist.

Posted by

Jargon

on: 04/13/10, 19:19:53

Well, I don't know if it's annoying for them. Not to start the 'ignorance is bliss' argument again, but...

@r_hjort
Some of those titles could very well become surprise successes. I guess we'll never know. Atlus will happily publish games that they forecast sales of 50,000 for, but Nintendo... I dunno. Their machinations are just beyond me, honestly.

Posted by

on: 04/13/10, 19:22:10

Yeah, it sure is a mystery. I'm very happy that Europe's got Rising Star Games. I gave them a lot of shit back when they published the censored version of No More Heroes, but hell, they did publish it. And they're giving us the sequel, they've brought us Little King's Story, Muramasa, Rune Factory, lots of other titles that practically have no chance of selling millions, but they make it work, and as a gamer I think they're fantastic for the European market.

I bet that if Nintendo weren't sitting on the publishing rights for games like Captain Rainbow or Fatal Frame they'd be all over them too.

Posted by

on: 04/13/10, 19:31:30

I wish NOA was as good as NOJ. There's just so much stuff we missed out on. Some of that stuff would have flopped here in the States, I'm sure... but others would be bona-fide hits. Then again, you never know what's going to catch on and what isn't. I remember reading an article years ago that actually said NOA almost *didn't* localize Pokémon. ( ! ) I think taking a risk or two here and there could do the company a world of good.

I think Band Brothers/Jam With The Band's chances of getting localized were officially killed when Elite Beat Agents put up less-than-impressive sales numbers. Despite the fact that Band Brothers actually came out first, and the localized Jam With The Band would have preceded EBA. Ah well.

On the other hand... I have to admit. I've got my hands full as-is as far as games go. There are TONS of games in my backlog thanks to the DS alone, and many more that I'm planning on picking up. While I'll always lament not being able to sample all of Nintendo's output, it's not like I'm left high and dry.

Honestly, as far as having enough games to play, I've never been lower or wetter.

Posted by

GameDadGrant

on: 04/13/10, 19:37:44

I'm just reminded of what that former NOA producer said on RFN during that Geist Retroactive game club: "At Nintendo, if it doesn't hit a million it's considered a failure".

I kind of wish the big Japanese publishers out there (Sega and Nintendo especially) had two pipelines to bring games over here. The main branch would bring the big games over, while a secondary branch would focus on bringing over and marketing efficiently the smaller stuff. An Atlus-inside-NOA, if you will. I mean, NOA might be so big it doesn't see the point in bringing the small games over, but a profit is a profit. I don't understand why they'd pass up on it.

Posted by

Pandareus

on: 04/13/10, 19:49:41

@anandxxx But can you ever count all of the beans? I mean a worthwhile business transaction as in, loss potential = minimal (unlike say, your average HD title from some unknown developer), fan happiness potential = maximal (is that a word?) Sure it's difficult to put fan happiness on a spreadsheet at the end of the fiscal year and say SEE IT MAKES US MONEY, but it does play into your overall sales potential. Happy fans buy more products, in general.

@Simbabbad Yes, we did get ExciteBots. And that is one title that it will never, ever be difficult to find for cheap, I see it everywhere for a bargain. I think they overproduced it like woah. No one was expecting it to only sell 1/6 of what ExciteTruck did.

Posted by

on: 04/13/10, 19:54:31

- Edited by

on: 04/13/10, 19:57:24

@Pandareus
If that's really how NOA feels about things, there has to be a bigger gap than I thought between their and NCL's attitudes towards what is a success and what isn't given certain releases that only get to see Japanese store shelves.

And I'd like to see something similar to what you're suggesting, but I would be fine with Nintendo allowing third parties to publish Nintendo games in regions for which Nintendo has no intentions of doing so themselves. The Fatal Frame IV situation is a good example; Nintendo doesn't want to see it released in Europe 'cause they don't think it'll do well, Tecmo on the other hand wouldn't mind, but since Nintendo's sitting on the publishing rights noone gets nothing. It's insane.

Posted by

on: 04/13/10, 19:59:42

Excite Truck didn't sell a million copies... does that mean the NOA considered it a failure? If that's the case, then why green-light Excitebots? Just to sell more Wii Wheels? Hmm.

@Pandareus

I like your Atlus-within-Nintendo idea. *thumbs up*

Posted by

GameDadGrant

on: 04/13/10, 20:05:35

Reggie is a fuckhole and he can go fuck himself. I'm sick of waiting for Nintendo of America to get off their asses and bring these games over. Next generation I'm actually considering importing a Japanese version of whatever system Nintendo releases next, and then maybe modding it so I can play whatever games actually do get released in English.

@Jargon That's true, but then people get discouraged because there are hurdles to overcome in order to play these games (Wii games in particular, because of the regional lockout), so people don't want to deal with the higher prices or the risk of putting Homebrew on their system. Which is fair, but it still disappoints me that a lot of people outside of Japan (or everywhere except America when it comes to Disaster) will never get the chance to play Disaster or Fatal Frame or whatnot.

Posted by

X-pert74

on: 04/13/10, 20:19:08

@GameDadGrant

Just because they think they've got a failure on their hand doesn't prevent them from thinking they can do better next time, I guess.

Who knows. Maybe they thought on paper Excitebots had the potential to outsell Excitetrucks, then the marketing people saw how the product was shaping up and lost confidence in it. And they didn't cancel it outright, but did shit it out on the market without any fanfare.

Posted by

Pandareus

on: 04/13/10, 20:20:57

- Edited by

Pandareus

on: 04/13/10, 20:22:19

Reggie is a brainless robot like those things at Chuck E. Cheese's. Anything he has to say is simply for entertainment purposes.

Posted by

CRISIS hearts

on: 04/13/10, 20:27:24

I had similar thoughts about them cooling off on Excitebots during development. Which is weird, because it's a good game, by most accounts. AND they bundled it with a Wii Wheel, which seemed like a pretty strong promotional move, after Mario Kart's success.

Also, they hired the same team a third time for Excitebike World Rally. Nintendo really is just utterly unfathomable. It seems almost impossible to ascribe a logical, reliable pattern of behavior to their movements.

@Pandareus
I should've paid more attention during that episode. But they were talking about Geist...

That's an interesting idea about a low-key subsidiary (not sure Sega needs it, though). As for why they would pass up profits, there's something called 'opportunity cost'. If Nintendo could use the exact same resources to develop either a new 2D Mario game or... I dunno, a new Mach Rider, making Mach Rider would be a loss of opportunity cost, even if it made money. That's why I'm not sure if your plan is feasible. Would Nintendo ever really use their resources in that way? Would they really keep the branches separate? Or would they repurpose Nintendo Marketing Division 2 to push Wii Fit to smaller outlets?

My cousin worked on the Nintendo account at a Marketing firm. She said that they're notoriously cheap and slave-driver-y.

@Zero
That is a beautiful world you dream of. If you ever find it, send me the directions on Google Maps.

Posted by

on: 04/13/10, 21:58:29

But I think Nintendo realizes this, at least to some degree, right?

For instance, they work hard to maintain a "family friendly" image because they feel that this that leads to more $$$ in the end. But you can't really throw a decision like say... friend codes onto a spreadsheet and show that it maintained the family friendly image and therefore brought in X amount of dollars from families, can you? Yet Nintendo still makes these kinds of decisions.

Posted by

on: 04/13/10, 22:19:43

I dunno, is it 'family friendliness' or lack of liability? Nintendo has been sued a lot of times (hence, all those fucking warning screens). Is Nintendo a consumer-friendly corporation? Well, other than the Wii and DS Lite, they build their products to last, which is definitely a consumer-friendly move. And they DID make Animal Crossing: City Folk for the hardcore... but there are all sorts of things you could point to to counter that.

Certainly, they don't seem to feel that they 'owe' it to anybody to localize games. Nintendo views localization as more of a privilege than a right. And I think they prefer spreadsheets to unquantifiable 'goodwill'. But who knows?

Posted by