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On Friday Animal Crossing was released in Europe. It might not seem like a huge event for the ordinary gamer on the street, but for us European Nintendo fans it has been a long, hard haul to get a release. It came out in the US not too long after the GC's release (it's basically an N64 port after all), and we patiently waited for our turn. We were told there'd be huge delays because of the translation, so we patiently waited. Eventually it got a PAL release...in Australia. And we waited. Finally, our patience has paid off. So then...is the situation improving for us?

Is Nintendo's attitude towards Europe improving?

Mike_D:

I think Nintendo's attitude towards Europe is improving, but it's still got a long way to go.

On the plus side, a few games have come out over here before being released in America, but Kirby and F-Zero GP Legend are hardly AAA titles. Metroid Prime 2 might be coming out here before its Japanese release date, but that's only because the series isn't that popular in Japan. Let's not forget The Minish Cap, Mario Kart: Double Dash or Wario Ware (GBA), though - all of these great games were (or will be) released in Europe before America, and this is the sort of thing it'd be nice to see more often, and not just at times when Nintendo is feeling a bit guilty about mistreating European gamers.

Even if we Europeans are almost always going to be third to get games, it'd be nice if the times between Japanese and European releases were shortened. Nintendo have been saying recently that European games are starting to be translated directly from Japanese, rather than from the American English versions, but the gaps between Japanese and European releases are still huge. Pikmin 2's been out for months and months in Japan, as has the new GBA Pokémon, and Four Swords on the GameCube, which still doesn't even have a European release date. And we all know how long it took for Toadstool Tour to be released here.

Release dates aren't the only problems we have to put up with. The UK stars catalogue is rubbish, games are more expensive here, we don't get all the different coloured control pads and GameCubes like the Japanese do, and we English players always have to put up with American English in Nintendo games, even though it would hardly take any time at all just to change a few spellings to British English. I know these might just sound like silly little quibbles, but just changing some of these things would show us that Nintendo does care about us, and that Europe is actually an important gaming market.

I don't want to be critical throughout this post, because, as I've said, the situation is improving here. Animal Crossing is finally getting released (although how much has been changed for the European version I still don't know), Donkey Konga has a different list of songs in Europe, and like I've said before, we do get the occasional game before the Americans do. Let's just hope that the Revolution does better in Europe than the GameCube has done, as it might encourage Nintendo to pull their finger out a bit more.

oldie:

I can't help thinking it's get worse actually.

Nintendo have practically no titles in development for their consoles in Europe at all, well certainly not in comparison to MS and Sony who have first and second parties in Europe, Nintendo has none, and practically no 3rd party support.

Games are always released late and with game containing more info that needs localising wait times only increase. This also leads to poor release times of games, so the holiday season can come and go with no decent releases, e.g. 2002 Xmas which severly dented the Cube's prospects in the UK and Europe when it was overtaken by the xbox.

No Eurocentric games either; footy in particular is massive over here and there's no decent footy games for us, other than the FIFA games.

Nintendo really do treat Europe badly and it's not surprising that many Nintendo fans have had to reconsider their position when it comes to buying games and consoles. Other companies are seeing Nintendo's weaknesses and using it to their advantage and succeeding.

 
A sight for sore European eyes

Cube Chris:

Everybody seems to have a very negative attitude towards Nintendo and there views on Europe, and although Nintendo do seem to leave us last, im sure they have there reasoning. For example Europe being the lowest area for sales out of the BIG 3. But should this attitude be in place regardless of sales, because in effect this may be affecting sales, which in turn results to importing.

But on a whole Nintendo's attitude to Europe is improving, for example MK: DD in Europe FIRST, and if you look at the gaps in every Nintendo console launch between regions, it gets smaller every time.

The latest news about DS in America also strenghtens the point, proving that Nintendo is changing the views and opinions.

L0rdpain:

In my opinion it's worse now than ever.

Not only are certain games simply not being sold Europe (I-Ninja, that new Mortal Kombat game,...), it hurts more having to wait for the games to get here. (For all US people out there: animal crossing just came out here and were still waiting for Tales of Symphonia and Pikmin 2).

When I started gaming, I didn't have any internet or such so I knew very little about the fact that certain games were already out for months in the states. Now these games get discussed, and Europeans just have to stand by and wait for the game to get old discussion material before we can even buy it here.

Yes, I know we there's Freeloader and certain good import sites, but the problem is that it simply makes the problem even bigger. Ever since the nes days, Europe always seemed to prefer another console than nintendo's (Master System above NES, SNES vs Megadrive somewhat even (I think) and of course Playstation above N64).

Take Animal Crossing for instance; a lot of people who wanted the game have already imported this. The chances of them buying this game again just to have European holidays and such are slim, which will again kill the European sales numbers, and make Nintendo think Europe doesn't want these type of games.

And there's really no sign of improvement. Again we have to wait almost 5 months or so before the DS will be out in Europe. I know time is wasted because some French, German and Spanish bastards want the games to be in there own language, but that simply is no excuse. Nintendo simply screws their European influence themselves. I mean, the US will be able to buy the DS as a Christmas gift and we European get it ... when was it? March? May? That's already loosing like 30% potential buyers who would have simply bought it because it makes a very nice present.

Is there no positive side to the waiting? Well, sometimes, yes. They might find a bug or so which they take out for the PAL version, the Gamecube was able to launch with a bigger range of titles already available ( about 20 I think as oppossed to 3 in Japan).

Oh well, hopefully someday, they really will invent that beam transporter from Star Trek, so everyone can order a game and have it within a couple of seconds. Or better yet, Godzilla returns and destroys all of Japan with nuclear breath, causing Nintendo to move and build it's HQ in Europe......... Damn, pot does really damage your brain.

Can't wait to get this for Xmas...wait, when's it out?

Hero-of-Time:

I think the answer is yes. I know a lot of people are bitter about the whole Animal Crossing issue but it did eventually get released. For once a company listened to its fans and give them what they want. Granted it took a while and alot of people got it on import but for those who didn't it is an exciting time for them. c

Regarding the release dates situation, it isn't that bad. It has always been like this even on the rivals systems where the Japanese and Americans usually get their games first and we have to wait. The fact is we are part of Europe which incoparates many different languages so clearly it will take longer for games to get translated into these. The only really bad incident lately for release dates was Mario Golf on the Gamecube which still puzzles me why it took so long to get over here.

The DS System which will be out 5 months earlier everywhere else seems like a good move. We have quality games coming out for the end of the year on the GBA- Zelda, Mario Pinball, Mario Vs Donkey Kong and Mario Party to name but a few. These titles should be more than enough to keep us gamers going till the DS. Releasing it so soon over here would perhaps put these GBA titles in the shadows as the DS would be getting all the hype. The only disadvantage for Nintendo to not gives us the DS this year would be they would miss the Christmas period sales. But even if they decided to gives us it it could be seen as a rush job where no big advertisements were made and the DS just landed in the shops. Personally I would rather wait a while to get some quality lauch titles and good marketing scheme going.

Overall, like I said at the beginning, Nintendo are heading the right way. We get games much quicker (bar Mario Golf) than what we used to and even get games first (Zelda Minish Cap) and Special GBAs (Zelda and Mario edition). I'm quite pleased with what Nintendo are doing. Now if only they could sort out their 3rd Party support.......

oldie:

3rd party support though is a bit different. MS, for instance, reached out to European developers (even UK ones such a Big Blue who did Fable) and have been consistenty doing do, as have Sony who set up 1st and 2nd parties over in Europe. Ninty haven't and it shows, to their cost, compared to the US for instance where N are working with N-Space, sorted out Retro and have NST, and did have SK (albeit in Canada). Nintendo did have Rare, but let them go to pot, which was a major blow and has negatively affected the GC, a situation that N will have to work hard at to recover from.

If you don't believe me download the post-E3 interview with Iwata when asked about Europe and dev teams! This only reveals their general attitude towards Europe which is why N have consistently been in 2nd place, well 3rd now. It's making the GC a non-viable platform for developers meaning we don't get the games anymore. Similar goes for marketing, compared to the US and Japan for instance where you see N ads on the TV quite regularly, never on over here, never. This makes it easy picking for the likes of Sega, and now Sony and MS who don't have to do too much work to gain ground.

That's all for this week's edition. The consensus seems to be, simply, try harder Nintendo! Be sure to check out the Gamecube Forum for the next topic, and your name could be here next time. Didn't contribute? You can still post your thoughts below about Nintendo's treatment of Europe below.