In most cases the games are released in Japan first because that is where they were developed. However their are many cases of Nintendo showing favouritism to North America!
Nintendo DS - Released in NA first
Nintendo Wii - Released in NA First
MetroidPrime3 - Released in NA First
To be honest Nintendo does what is smart. Now I am very upset that SmashBros:Brawl was delayed a month for North America and only a week for Japan. There is no excuse for such a drastic delay. However with games like Pokemon, AnimalCrossing , Zelda and all of the other hits that involve alot of text need to be translated first.
There are reasons games get released in Japan first, though your right. I'd rather Nintendo wait untill the game has been translated and can be released globally before they announce its release dates!
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
