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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Nintendo/Iwata's Bias Against The West

mii-gamer on 25 August 2014
Purple said:

1. Fine, but he's had 12 years to invest in a replacement. He hasn't created or heavily invested in one Western studio. It is an absolute joke.

2. I can't see anything to suggest that isn't just usual staff turnover. This is the studio that had four years between DKCR and their next 2D platfomer. Tropical Freeze was great, but if it takes a studio 4 years to create a linear 2D platformer, it's fair to assume the studio isn't exactly bursting at the seems with staff.

3. I don't really get what your point is for number 3. Metroid Prime was released in 2002 only months after Iwata became CEO. If you think it was Iwata who gave Metroid to Retro you're incorrect.

4. Jumpins point is Yamauchi lost Rockstar support. Which is true. But in no way argues against Iwata's poor record with Western support.

I think we are moving away from what my point originally was. We are not arguing that iwata is a good ceo or any of that. We are merely pointing out the lies and misinformation that the OP has been spouting in the thread. 

Does that makes sense?

If your goal was to convince me that Iwata has flaws in the way he manages nintendo. Then yes, i agree. You don't need to convinve me of that. I don't like BS and imaginary accounts of how an individual thinks an event went down



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Soundwave on 25 August 2014

I stand by my initial post.

Selling Rare was one of Iwata's intial big moves as president. Iwata was being groomed to be president of Nintendo long before May 2002 as well, it's not like Yamauchi showed up at his doorstep and said "here, run the company starting today, oh by the way you have to sell Rare starting tomorrow bye".

From 2002-to the end of 2004, most of Nintendo's relationships with the likes of Factor 5, Silicon Knights, Left Field are basically ended one by one. Rare is gone with no replacement given.

Now the difference is to me, it's on the president ... the buck stops with him IMO. If Iwata wanted to keep these studios or replace them with comparable studios he could have. He didn't. It's his company, one with ample resources at that. This is the direction they took and it was no accident. 

Iwata's Nintendo is more closed off and Japanese centric than Nintendo was in the 90s. Anyone seriously want to debate that? All I see is some people wanting to attribute that basically to a series of poor coincidences that left Iwata with no choice. I don't buy it. 



Soundwave on 25 August 2014

Also the Body Harvest situation ... that sounds like it was more of Miyamoto's call, he did not want the game to be action/violence centric, while DMA Design (Rockstar) wanted to go in that direction:

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2008/03/28/ign-presents-the-history-of-grand-theft-auto

Miyamoto basically did not approve and wanted the game to be more of a puzzle title. Take a wild guess who Nintendo sided with. I believe Buggie Boogie (supposed to be gritty car combat title) also went through a similar issue when Miyamoto wanted it to be more cartoony (ala Stunt Race FX). That game was cancelled outright. 



outlawauron on 25 August 2014
Vena said:
outlawauron said:

But this is on some of their games.


Where? I'm genuinely curious of this as I have no run into any.

The only thing I can think of is the Mario Golf? Is that what you're referring to? But that was by design in that the game was sold for less (10$ below the standard 3DS price) and the DLC was 15$, all of it together was more content than the previous two Mario Golf games. Its pretty much the same design as the Wii U Sports Club approach where they sold it either in increments or as the feature full disc release. You bought Mario Golf then could buy the expansion's worth of content if you wanted.

I can see where you'd be coming from but this isn't what I'd define as "nefarious" as per what I was referring to before.

Fire Emblem Awakening is another.



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Vena on 25 August 2014
outlawauron said:

Fire Emblem Awakening is another.


Awakening didn't have Day 1 DLC when it actually launched in Japan. (Unless you mean the free thing they gave out?)



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outlawauron on 25 August 2014
Vena said:
outlawauron said:

Fire Emblem Awakening is another.


Awakening didn't have Day 1 DLC when it actually launched in Japan. (Unless you mean the free thing they gave out?)

I have no idea what it had when it launched in Japan. I didn't play that version.



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

Check out MyAnimeList and my Game Collection. Owner of the 5 millionth post.

Vena on 25 August 2014
outlawauron said:

I have no idea what it had when it launched in Japan. I didn't play that version.


It launched as the full game but localization was a year out. By the time it launched in the states, IS had made the several DLC content expansions.

That's no Day 1 DLC by intention, that's a localization timing issue. :P



cusman on 25 August 2014

I notice Nintendo sucks for Western gamers as well, but I always put blame on NoA not producing anything and happy to just port crap over from NoJ over here.



outlawauron on 25 August 2014
Vena said:
outlawauron said:

I have no idea what it had when it launched in Japan. I didn't play that version.


It launched as the full game but localization was a year out. By the time it launched in the states, IS had made the several DLC content expansions.

That's no Day 1 DLC by intention, that's a localization timing issue. :P

You could make that excuse for other Japanese publishers that have day 1 DLC, kinda of a poor argument.



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

Check out MyAnimeList and my Game Collection. Owner of the 5 millionth post.

Scoobes on 25 August 2014
Hedra42 said:
Zod95 said:
Soundwave said:

It is kind of odd that Nintendo has pretty much disengaged from the West, whereas in the 90s they were much more of an East + West company. Why the change and is it warranted? Especially when the West now is basically the entire console market? It seems to basically all trace back to Iwata and even Miyamoto moving up the ranks on Nintendo's Board of Directors.

Congrats for your outstanding article. It has well researched info I was not aware of and found it very interesting and clarifying. I had already the impression that japanese companies, as a rule, are very closed and only focused on themselves but the situation with Nintendo seems to be fatally dangerous.

The japanese market is much less significant nowadays and Nintedo has been disinvesting from the West?! That's suicide! Besides, Iwata and Miyamoto not understanding the western market is no excuse at all. If they understand money, they should realize that Nintendo in America and Europe should have more power and resources, not less. And, if they don't understand the West, they should give those regions more independence, not less. This is common sense.

Regarding the Minecraft thing (and eventually many other cases that may follow the same paradigm), that's not understanding the West, that's being xenophobic. Minecraft is an arcade game that has nothing to do with any culture. They ignore it because they find it to be developed by people from the West. How sad...

You weren't aware of it, because much of it doesn't exist and is conjecture - I'm still waiting for Soundwave to come up with the sources info.

I found it a fascinating, well set out and convincing OP also, until I actually tried to do the research myself.

Whilst some of the details in the OP is conjecture and assumption based on past events, I still think the conclusions he draws are sound.

Nintendo have reduced the amount of Western development studios they own and this has reduced the overall output from the West. Even second party Western output is low (in both new and established IP) even though the majority of the industry is based in the West. Even if Iwata wasn't responsible for the reduction in Western developers, he is responsible for not bringing more in.




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