| TheLastStarFighter said: But none of this indicates a bias on Iwata's part, only lack of leadership. Nintendo is no more - or less - anti-west than they have always been.
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The N64 list versus the Wii + Wii U list would say otherwise, Nintendo's Western production has crawled to a practical stand still.
Whether you want to call that bias or lack of leadership ... IMO, it's just semantics.
Also looking at Nintendo's Wiiware, DSiware, eShop output ... it's basically the same story. Nintendo has like 60+ games in this category and maybe all but 5 or 6 are developed in the West. All the rest are Japanese funded studio titles (about 90%+).
Nintendo would never invest in a studio like Vigil or give NOA more autonomy or setup a new Rare-like studio in the UK. You guys need to understand this is not accidental oversight, Nintendo does business in a very set way. Maybe with the Wii U failing so horribly and the 3DS losing market/mindshare to tablets/phones like crazy Nintendo may finally have to realize they need to wake up, but right now ... I doubt it.
Retro not being expanded years ago is also not an accident, which how some people try to frame it.
The company Nintendo is today is not by accident, it's the company that Iwata and the higher ups on the board of directors wanted to have. They want Nintendo to be largely one of basically 90%+ of their development being done in Japan and very tightly controlled minority Western development under a fairly set section of rules -- no Western developer is allowed to make an original IP, they work on Japanese character properties (IMO the ones Japan is too busy to work on themselves), etc. All I'm asking is if this setup makes any logical sense in an industry where 80%+ of all games sales are now in Western markets.
Not coincidentally the only Western developed game that Nintendo has had under Iwata's reign that's been a huge break out hit is Donkey Kong Country Returns ... which is obviously a direct throwback to the SNES days of Rare. Every other 2nd party project has had fairly mediocre to modest sales success whereas in the 90s Howard Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa were able to deliver several solid performers for Nintendo from Western developer relationships.
