Nintendo/Iwata's Bias Against The West

[Zod95]

Hedra42 said:

Having dug around some more behind some of these claims, it gets worse.

From OP "In basically two years, Iwata dismantles pretty much all of Nintendo's Western relationships."

The following disproves that statement.

From OP "His first major move as president? Selling Rare to Microsoft in September 2002."

Who made the first move that culminated in Microsoft taking over Rare? Rare themselves.

It wasn't Nintendo's move. That relationship with Nintendo was undermined the moment the Stamper brothers decided to sell their share of the business. They started the ball rolling in 2000, and given the time it takes for all the legal paperwork to be sorted on buyouts, it's likely Iwata took on the role too late to have any influence over it, even if he wanted to. In an exclusive interview, Tim Stamper revealed that even before the Microsoft takeover, people were already leaving Rare, and they themselves wanted out, too.   http://www.p4rgaming.com/exclusive-interview-with-tim-and-chris-stamper/

From OP "Silicon Knights is out."

No official reason was given why Silicon Knights and Nintendo parted company, but it appears from the quotes from both parties in the following link is that the decision was mutual and amicable, i.e., not a decision forced on Silicon Knight by Nintendo. http://uk.ign.com/articles/2004/04/13/silicon-knights-and-nintendo-part

From OP "Despite spin at the time that Nintendo would use the money from the sale to invest in a similar Western studio (Zoonami was thrown around a lot), this never materializes."

Despite a lot of searching, I couldn't find any of this 'spin', (if anyone can find a link please feel free to point me to it) but from what I could find, Zoonami was a small outfit of about 10 guys headed up by Martin Hollis, formerly of Rare. According to an IGN article in 2003, a Nintendo spokesperson confirmed a new partnership with Zoonami. Martin Hollis of Zoonami confirmed in an interview with Gamasutra in 2009 (which took place at Nintendo’s offices) that they had been working on a retail product for the Gamecube in 2003, but they had too much trouble with it to complete. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132396/a_convoluted_conversation_with_.php?print=1   Zoonami only made 3 games, one of which was Bonsai Barber in 2009, which was published by Nintendo as downloadable Wiiware.

From OP "Factor 5 is out".

Factor 5 never had a 2^nd party deal with Nintendo, although they were mistakenly thought to have. Their head is quoted as saying “We’ve never been a Nintendo shop.” http://www.gamespot.com/articles/factor-5-to-forgo-gamecube-development/1100-6093544/ Another employee cited the weak Gamecube sales as being one reason for Factor 5 turning away from Nintendo. http://www.gonintendo.com/s/183256-former-factor-5-employee-talks-nintendo-relationship-virtual-console-and-3ds-interest

From OP "NST is downsized to a Mario Vs. DK studio."

NST has not been downsized. There is no downward trend in output. Three out of the last four games have been Mario vs. DK, but they have non-game software projects too, the most recent being Wii Street U and Wii U Chat, the development of the latter involving Nintendo European Research and Development, and Vidyo, a New Jersey based company. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Software_Technology

From OP "Left Field is out."

Left Field bought out Nintendo’s minority share in their company and became a 3^rd party again. It was a mutual decision after they had struggled with the development of a sequel to 1080 Snowboarding for the Gamecube, (they were warned it would be tough) as well as the effects of several employees leaving Left Field to form a new company. http://www.gamestm.co.uk/interviews/veteran-game-designer-mike-lamb-talks-life-after-ocean-software/

 

 From OP "- Now you may say 'b ... bu ... but Retro!', but Retro opened in 1999 was supposed to supply Nintendo with *multiple* games in genres like action/sports/shooters at once. That was Howard Lincoln's brainchild. Under Iwata, Retro is stripped down to one team and kept under an extremely tight leash where they only work on Nintendo IP."

Retro opened in 1998, and had 4 games in development. In 2000, Nintendo granted Retro the licence to work on Metroid. The original 4 games were cancelled in order to focus on Metroid. This happened before Iwata. In 2002, Nintendo purchased a majority share in Retro, and turned it into a first party developer and division of Nintendo. It continued to develop games in the Metroid series and then moved on to the Donkey Kong Country series, as well as co-developing Mario Kart 7 with EAD.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retro_Studios

 

So, as you can see, rather than there being a bias against the west on the part of Nintendo/Iwata, and rather than Iwata deliberately distancing  Nintendo from Western developers, it seems to be the other way around. In fact, the only bias I'm seeing, is that of the OP against Nintendo/Iwata.

The distance between Nintendo and western developers is, I realise, a fact, not a message, but it has been used to put forward the argument that Iwata is behind the chasm between Nintendo and western developers, and that it is entirely Nintendo's fault. There is plenty of evidence in this thread now to show that is not the case.

None of your several inputs shows Nintendo is investing on the West, trying to maintain or even raise the support there. So, your comments (whether they are right or wrong) do not challenge what you've quoted. My comments to DevilRising remain valid.

However, to be honest, I think there's a low probability of those points and sources to be right (at least the conclusion, which is "it's not Nintendo's/Iwata's fault"). I can't tell for sure once I've done zero investigation (I really don't care about those details) but I would say that, most probably, it is indeed Nintendo's/Iwata's fault. Why? There's an old saying in my country that is more or less like this: "if one of your partners fails there's something wrong with him, if all of your partners fail there's something wrong with you". So, regardless whether it is Nintendo or their western partners to take the initiative of moving away, if it's a massive trend, it's Nintendo's fault (even if the media tries to shake off the guilt from the big corporation to the small and innocuous firms).

Moreover, if Nintendo doesn't get new western partners to replace the old ones, it's obviously Nintendo's fault too.