Nintendo/Iwata's Bias Against The West

[NightDragon83]

baloofarsan said:
They tried Power and Graphics with the N64 and GC. They tried westernized games. Sales went from bad to worse. They still made money but the choosen direction was not going to make them win over Sony.
Rare wanted Conker to be "westernized" and Bad Fur Day features graphic violence, sexual themes, strong language and toilet humour. For a family orientated company this is a sign to withdraw.
A new president has to show initiative: so he cuts of the parts that were not essential, brought everything closer to home (Rare is sold). Then everything seems to go Iwatas way: 2004: release of DS - success, 2006: release of Wii - success. Naturally he draws some conclusion of theese events. I guess what he learns is something like: keep things close and under strict control.

You're making a false comparison here... sales didn't go from bad to worse with the N64 and GC because Nintendo went for "power and graphics" (if by power and graphics, you mean technically on par or slightly ahead of their competition's hardware)... sales went from bad to worse because Nintendo made some dumb decisions such as sticking with more expensive and restrictive storage mediums (which cost them the bulk of their 3rd party support during the N64 days), and then refusing to embrace the emergence of online gaming while designing their console to look as kiddy as possible during the GC days.

And you missed the point entirely with Conker... Conker was not "westernized" (and westernized does not automatically mean  tons of violence, sexual themes, strong language and toilet humor... as if Japanese games and anime NEVER feature any of those things, right?!?)   Rare created what eventually became Conker's BFD as a satire on the over-saturated bright and colorful 3D platformer genre (which includes many of their own games such as DK64 and BK1&2 and what was supposed to be Conker 64).  They were inspired by the likes of South Park and basically gave their own cute and cuddly platformer the South Park treatment.

On any other platform Conker would've been a huge hit, pushing the N64 to its limit and featuring great writing and gameplay... but because Nintendo protects their family-friendly "kiddie" image above all else, they refused to promote the game and wouldn't even publish it in NA or Europe.