I´m not familiar with the inner workings of Nintendo, the communication between their HQ in Japan and Reggie in the NA branch, but from time to time I see people lamenting how every little step NoA takes must be under the watchful eyes of NoJ, and how NoJ dictates everything on how NoA should proceed concerning the U.S. market.

In theory, at least, Reggie/NoA should know the U.S. market better than the Japanese HQ, but the vibe I get is NoJ imposes their will over NoA all the time and might frustrate NoA...is there any truth to this?

Lol this is the question I asked in another Nintendo thread. It will be interesting to see what people think.

They're not "slaves" - they're a distribution arm. They have no real say about development, but they do all of the PR, the advertising, the localisation, the shipping, the local manufacturing deals, and the release date selections. Oh, and they probably also deal with American third parties.

Japan can overrule NoA, but I suspect that they mostly only overrule them in order to make sure a game does get released.

Thinking of NoA as a slave is like thinking of, say, California as a slave of the USA.

I believe that NoA and NoE are more a "Hey! How are going the game market in your country?" than "If you want it, do it" to NoJ. But not "slaves".

Then California is a slave of America.

If NoA is not a slave, then they are horrible.

Isnt NoJ like the main group? Not surprising...

spurgeonryan said: Then California is a slave of America. If NoA is not a slave, then they are horrible.

Don´t tell that to Texas :p

spurgeonryan said: Then California is a slave of America. If NoA is not a slave, then they are horrible.

We're all slaves to MEGATON corporations like Nintendo!

No they aren't. If they were games like Xenoblade and The Last Story would not have issues getting localized. Iwata was bullish on both titles. If it weren't for NoE, gamers in the North America would have never gotten those games.

they do what NOJ tells them otherwise if they where independent they could just do whatever they wanted