I would say the same for any game that had a year of time between releases Japanese or otherwise... what did you expect IS to do during that time? What I'm talking about when I say Day 1 DLC are things like ME3 and the Day 1 From Ashes DLC.

FE was not released with any content-locked DLC, that didn't come for months after the fact and was initially free (both in Japan and State side). By the time it came State side, IS had developed new content for the game and, initially, was partly offered for free for early adopters (as this would have been the last FE if had not turned into the runaway success that it did).

ME3 was released with content-locked DLC on day 1. This is bad DLC.

The difference between me and you (and also mii-gamer, Jumpin and other guys in this thread) is that you are too much concerned about the details whereas I only care about the main idea behind all of this: Nintendo has been disinvesting from the West.

I don't care if it's Iwata, Miyamoto, Yamuachi or any other guy... I know it's Nintendo. I also don't care about the business nuances of who owns what and with how much share and with how much power or with what business options or anything of that... I know Nintendo has means to compete and to overcome any unfavorable business/legal situations (if that was to be the case, which I doubt) but didn't even care to try. I also don't care about which western devs were not willing to continue partnering with Nintendo (if that was to be the case, which again I doubt), I know Nintendo didn't go seek for others to replace them so that the western market would continue to be strongly supported.

How do I know that? Because I have sources? No, because it's obvious. The only source I have is the billions of dollars Nintendo has collecting dust instead of being invested on western devs like it is on japanese devs, and the common sense to realize that cash is a universal language that every company speaks (everyone has a price). If Nintendo wanted western devs, they would have gotten them. No source will tell you which enterprises Nintendo doesn't own, so it must be you to tell me how they are supporting the West.

So I think the main point Soundwave made is correct and no one was able to deny it. Some people probably became upset and tried to shift the focus to the details so that the main message was forgotten or Soundwave got less credit (I don't know if you are one of them but you have to agree that others did that) but some others agreed with what he said, which is actually easy to follow.

I must congratulate him because it was a good OP with interesting insights and we need more like that in the forums.

Now those are great interesting points. I completely agree.

The main points really aren't conjecture. 

Iwata was president when Rare was sold, it was one of the first big moves under his watch. I don't blame him solely for this. 

When Iwata took over Nintendo they have Rare, Factor 5, Left Field, Silicon Knights, etc. as Western partners. By the end of 2004 (2 years into his presidency) all these relationships were basically defunct. That is fact. I can buy maybe 1 studio partnership going sour ... but virtually all of them? After 2004 Nintendo also basically downsized the once promising NST into a nothing studio too (just Mario Vs. DK games for like the last 10 years). 

Nintendo did pass on a Skylanders exclusivity deal. 

Nintendo has not allowed either Retro or Next Level Games to develop an original IP even after years of proving their worth, whereas Nintendo has no problem funding original projects from Japanese developers. 

Some people just don't like that I lay the vast majority of the blame at Iwata's feet, but to me he's the president with power and control over these situations, not some hapless passenger who's just a victim of poor coincidences. 

I blindly agree with you.

For the most part I agree with you. People are picking up on a few minor details and using it to argue your main point.

Overall though, I don't think people can argue against your conclusions.

Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but who knows if any of those games would have been any good? An NFL game that would have fought (at the time) with Madden and 2K both. Car Combat that could have just been seen as a poor man's Twisted Metal or worse. Raven Blade's the only one with any real promise, and who knows how that could have gone?

What we got instead was the Best Game of All Time (and one that did some good things for the GameCube, if only at 3 million units)

There is no debate about whether Nintendo has been distancing itself from Western developers. The evidence of that is very clear for all to see. The issue some people have taken here, is with the misinformation and spin that has been included in what would have been an outstanding OP, made worse by some very generalised assumptions posted later on in the thread.

Yes, we do need more posts like Soundwave's OP in the forums, but only if they're based on, and backed up with fact.

That there has been a general disengagement from western developers, there is no doubt. You can find evidence of that anywhere you go on the net. But how those relationships were disengaged as set out in the OP was incorrect and paints the wrong picture of what really happened, and of those involved with those deals. That is why people have been calling BS in this thread.

I will say again, I thought it was a well written and insightful OP until I actually did the research, and discovered that it was the posts countering your claims which had more truth behind them.

Whether it was intended or not, the OP and your subsequent generalisations come across as trying to spin everything to blame Iwata for it all, and evidence has since been posted on a number of points to prove otherwise.

Even though you've been asked twice, you have chosen not to provide any info to substantiate your wilder and more generalised claims earlier in the thread.  Without that substantiation, they can really only be passed off as conjecture. You are entitled to your opinion of Iwata and Nintendo, of course, and if you choose to close your eyes to evidence against your claims, nobody's going to stop you.

I'm not defending Iwata or Nintendo - there are plenty of cock-ups that have been made that I can point to as well, but if I were to make a thread about it, I'd make sure my information was accurate and my claims were watertight.

I agree with the OP, mostly. But what I find most interesting will be exactly how Iwata/Nintendo as a whole will operate going forward, especially as it's blatantly clear that the West is a far -far- bigger market for (home) consoles than Japan nowadays, and that seems like it will only become moreso. Nintendo (and Iwata obviously) are definitely aware of this; the only question is how they will respond and adapt their business. Next gen's definitely going to be extremely interesting.