Nintendo of America just keeps getting worse and worse

[Sullla]

noname2200 said:

But the proof is in the pudding:

Am I the only one who actually looked at this chart? It certainly doesn't show a trend of "fewer and fewer localizations" for North America. (Note: ignore the red median line and look at the actual data.) All that I see here is a lack of any consistent pattern in NoA's localizations. Consider this:

2000: 30% failed to localize
2001: 18% failed
2002: 35% failed

Wow, Nintendo really hated America in these years! Let's keep going:

2003: 18% failed
2004: 8% failed
2005: 13% failed

Wow, Nintendo really loved America in these years! 2003-05 must have been the *BEST* time to be the owner of a Nintendo console. After all, we all know that this is when the Gamecube was tearing it up and seeing new releases left and right. [/sarcasm] Have you ever considered that Nintendo was localizing more games because the third-party offerings were so atrocious that they felt they had no choice? That's what happens when first-party games have to carry a struggling console.

2006: 23% failed
2007: 20% failed

This is pretty much right around the average number (which is 20.5% over the last 18 years). Where is the pattern of less and less localization? I don't see it at all. Please tell me how numbers right at the 18-year average indicate a disturbing rising trend.

2008: 44% failed

All I see from this chart is that a lot of 2008 games released in Japan haven't been localized yet. Well - duh! They just came out! Come on guys, this isn't rocket science. Do you really think Disaster isn't going to be released in America?! A year from now, many of these games will have been localized and released overseas, and this percentage will be lower.

So, to sum up, I have two real responses to this thread:

1) Localization isn't decreasing in any meaningful way.
2) Even if it were decreasing, it would be a pointless statistic. Maybe Nintendo is simply making more Japan-centric software. Maybe third parties are taking up some of the slack, and Nintendo doesn't feel the need to fill gaping holes on their software library. Whatever.

This whole chart is an exercise is ridiculous cherry-picking. I can't believe so many people at VGChartz got sucked into such a stupid argument.