Nintendo's treatment of Europe has long been a bone of contention amongst us PAL users. The issue has reared its ugly head recently. Nintendo of Europe recently broke the news that many DS games, including Starfox Assault, Mario Basketball, Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk and more have mysteriously slipped into Q1 2007 for no particular reason, leaving Yoshi's Island 2 as the only major first-party release for the Xmas period (and even that wasn't developed by Nintendo). The Wii, meanwhile, has lost Wario Ware and Excite Truck, making the first-party line-up look a little more sparse. So this week, the N-Europe staff tackle the question:

Is Nintendo's treatment of Europe getting worse, not better?

Fierce_Link:

It's difficult to tell. Personally, i think the release of the Wii in December has played a certain part in all of this. Had the Wii not been intended for a Christmas launch window, would we still see some of these titles heading our way this year? It's really nigh on impossible to tell or know.

In my honest opinion, Nintendo needs to space out their releases, or they'll run the risk of 'showing all their aces too early.' I do believe that they have shifted their main focus from the DS to the Wii, and that titles such as Hotel Dusk have become 'casualties of war.' To answer the question, is their treatment of Europe getting worse? Well, it could be a lot better. In certain aspects, such as advertising, they are really improving in Europe. In other aspects, such as releases, they are pretty much the same, in my opinion.

RedShell:

Well, there's no doubt that NoE have improved in recent years, (the fact Wii is launching just over 2 weeks after the US is testament to that) however it's clear that they still have a long way to go to catch up to NoA.

When it comes to software release dates NoE have been, quite frankly, abysmal. The fact that both Animal Crossing titles took so long to be released in Europe is completely unacceptable in my book, I know most people (including NoE) will claim that localization is the cause of delays, but I don't buy that for a second. I probably would, were it not for the fact that even games with hardly any in-game text can still see sizeable delays, i.e. Kirby DS and Electroplankton. So the problem clearly lies elsewhere.

Imagine if NoE was just as efficient as NoA, do you think Nintendo would be in the same position in Europe as it currently is? No, the chances are they would be in a much stronger position, and that alone should be a real concern for Nintendo of Japan. The fact that NoE don't operate as they should is without doubt having an adverse effect on Nintendo's performance in Europe, and despite NoE's best attempts to reduce importing, it's clear that many people (myself included) now import a lot of their games from the US or Japan.

The thing that NoE don't seem to realize is that they can't get away with such a laidback attitude anymore. Back in the days of the NES and SNES, most people didn't have access to any kind of game related information from the US or Japan, so we were oblivious to what was happening overseas. Today it's a different story, almost everyone (and certainly people that play games) have access to the internet and we all know what's going on in the US and Japan, we know what games are being made, we know when they're getting released and how much they should cost, and most importantly of all, we have the ability to easily import those games if we feel we're being made to wait too long / pay too much for them.

But occasionally NoE do get it right, or even manage to surpass NoA. With games like Another Code and more recently 42 All-Time Classics coming out in Europe before the US, these however are in the minority. We can only hope that NoE continue to improve and eventually achieve the same level of service as NoA. I believe Wii is a great opportunity for NoE to try and make that a reality, but with the PAL version of Excitetruck slipping from the Euro launch list we're already seeing signs that perhaps not much has changed, I certainly hope that's not the case.

Iun:

Hmm. Well, it would be nice if we felt the equal of our American and Japanese counterparts, but the fact is, we are not their equals as there are far too many different countries and languages in Europe.

Tired as that may seem, translation is genuinely hard work. I am a qualified translator (simultaneous and business) and translating a single document can be time consuming and difficult -particularly if the document, like a game, is constantly changing shape, purpose and form. However, with a team of translators this is cut down significantly.

Also, with games such as Mario and Nintendo sports titles, there is a minimum amount of translation required -if any at all. Therefore this "localisation" argument falls down and just seems like bad or sloppy management. I wonder if Nintendo of Japan are even aware of the dissatisfaction of the European gamer? One would have to assume that they are. But do they honestly care?

Sense dictates that they should, as they are missing out on a market with potential to grow. Yet due to apathy, ignorance or general laziness little concern is shown.

At times like this, I always remember seeing the former head of Nintendo Europe striding arrogantly towards me in my former life as a retail employee at University. I acted as if I didn't recognise him when he asked me how the Gamecube was selling and told him that it was doing terribly thanks to the laziness of Nintendo. He was taken aback, and told me I was very bad at my job.

I told him exactly what I thought of his ability to do his job.

Conor:

There can be little arguing against the claim that Europe are getting treated better by Nintendo. The company are - albeit, slowly - awakening to the reality of the world around them, and Europe is - albeit, slowly - leaving behind the title of "forgotten stepchild" that I remember using in a really poor editorial I wrote many years ago. Don't forget that we're getting the Wii under three weeks after its Japanese launch, a timeline unheard of in the pre-Gamecube days.

When there are delays, we have to be smart and not just jump up and down while shouting like children. Sometimes there are reasons. Localisation is one... we do have all these languages here that require time and effort to deal with (look at the Contact delay for evidence of that).

There are still anamolies though: games mysteriously slipping off the release schedule without so much as a press release to let us know, and whatnot. They suck. Obviously. But things are getting better, people.

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