The Star Wars deal was due to NOA negotiating a deal with Lucasarts, one in which they actually beat out Sony:

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/110498/LF0065.shtml

I consider them basically 2nd party games, yes you could play them on PC.

Factor 5 also had direct help from Nintendo, for example Rogue Squadron was the first game on the N64 to use the Expansion Pak, even before any of Nintendo's Japanese games were using it. Every Factor 5 game made under the LucasArts/Nintendo was console exclusive to Nintendo with Nintendo having distribution rights and even assisting with development. Factor 5 even helped develop some of the dev tools for the GameCube. 

Even Indiana Jones & The Infernal Machine was N64 exclusive on consoles (Factor 5 developed). 

If we're including the full generation of Wii + GCN titles, then you need to include the N64 for 2000 and 2001 too, which adds

Perfect Dark
Excitebike 64
Starcraft 64
Banjo-Tooie
Ridge Racer 64
Mickey's Speedway
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Star Wars: Battle for Naboo

To the N64 side. That gives the N64 more than 30 Western developed games, which absolutely dwarfs their output on any of the GameCube (which still had projects in development from the Lincoln/Arakawa era) and certainly the Wii and Wii U where 90%+ of Nintendo's production is from Japan.

It's kinda crazy to remember that at one time Nintendo was working and financing games like Starcraft 64 and Command & Conquer 64 on their own ... today could you imagine them bringing say Diablo to the Wii U? No way, lol. 

I can buy one or two relationships fizzling out, but all of them? And most of them really not replaced in a comparable way? That I don't buy. To me that's a concious decision on Nintendo's part. 

I wonder what their future in the market really is if they continue on the way they are structured now because I don't think a console made up majority Japanese games will have big success in the West again (which is basically entire console business). 

GameCube still had OK Western support until about 2004 but it definitely felt the pinch of not having Rare + a GoldenEye type hit to drive hardware sales. Then it drops off a cliff. Wii U has the least Western developed Nintendo games of any recent Nintendo console. Shockingly it's also by far the lowest selling Nintendo console in North America out of the gate (whoda thunkit). 

As I said, the lists of games are just a symptom of the breakups listed in the OP, and continuing to post lists of games and what Nintendo used to fund and no longer funds does nothing more than say what we already know, which is that there are far fewer western developers than there were.

And as I said, the issue here is that you claimed in the OP that the reason for that is down to Iwata/Nintendo bias against western developers.

You even named the topic "Nintendo/Iwata's Bias Against the West". 

In the light of all the evidence showing to the contrary, it might be more productive now to consider what the real reasons are for this disconnect between Nintendo and western developers, which may lead to some insights as to what could possibly be done about it.

I think you really missed TLS's point. Re-read his post, he seems to be arguing that Iwata took over NOA due to incompetence on the part of Reggie to solidify the american strategy.

One of his arguments is that Retro actually expanded post-Iwata from only Metroid to Metroid + DK + more.

The other argument seems to be that Reggie didn't do a good job at growing the American strategy and should have looked into the purchasing of American devs at the Wii's peak. In other words what you're arguing is Iwata's fault, TLS is arguing is actually Reggie's fault.

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.

Most studios are going to say "we mutually decided to part ways" anyway after ending a relationship. It's standard PR. You're not going to say "well Nintendo didn't want us anymore", that doesn't make your studio look good.

Nintendo is a billion dollar company, if they wanted to continue to work with those smaller publisher houses like Factor 5 or Silicon Knights, they could, if they wanted to replace them they easily could too. Rare could have been replaced too. 

They don't want to.

If it's so hard to work with Western developers, why is it that Sony has no such problem?

I don't buy the counter-narrative that Nintendo lost most of their Western support basically by a "series of unfortunate unconnected events". The shift away from Western developers is corporate policy. I don't see any evidence in any of those links that there was any accident about it. 

I think you may have misunderstood the point of my post and the discussion it pertains to. It was not intended to show or prove that Nintendo is investing in the west. It was challenging the quote "In basically two years, Iwata dismantles...."

NOBODY is disputing the fact that there are fewer western developers now than there were before. But that was never the focus of the OP or the discussion of this thread.

Look at the topic title. Yes, the OP points out the very obvious decline in the number of western developers over the past decade, but it uses this information to support the proposal that Iwata/Nintendo are biased against the west. This thread has been a discussion on whether or not the decline is indeed the result of a trend of bias or whether it is attributable to a combination of other factors.

Hedra42 said:

You have repeatedly said in this thread that you are not interested in this discussion or its details, and by your own admission, have done zero investigation on it yourself.

Hedra42 said:

I'm afraid that any conclusions and opinions based on zero investigation and local sayings don't really carry any weight.

Then you've made the wrong quote.

I (and surely anybody else) think that arguments to a quoted post are challenging that post. This is common sense. I understood what was there to understand.

I've just gone back and looked where I posted that, and I agree, I've hit the quote button on your post and it looks as though I am challenging something you said, when I was actually challenging points in the OP. I apologise for the confusion there.

I'm not saying just that, and you know it. I have been saying over and over again that Nintendo, along the years, has been deliberately disinvesting from the West, which is basically what the OP presented too. So, I'm on that very discussion. I just don't care about details such as which japanese worker did what or how were the legal contracts or the business options of each partner. That is only smoke to move our focus away from the essential.

We all know you have been saying over and over again that Nintendo has been disinvesting from the west. We all know the OP says that too. And we've all agreed with it, at least as far as game development is concerned. So the discussion you are in on is finished.

But the OP has argued that the reduction of western game developers is indicative of bias against the west. Whether or not this argument is valid is the main discussion point in the thread, and it is this which you are dismissing as details and smoke.

No no no, I'm clearly interested in the discussion (otherwise I wouldn't be here), I'm just not interested in those worthless details that pull the wool over our eyes and prevent us from actually be in the real discussion.

What you are interested in is a single fact which neither I nor anyone else in this thread are disputing. What you are calling worthless details is in fact the discussion that everyone else is having. You are not interested in that discussion.

Sometimes, a local saying carries universal truth.

As for the investigation, sometimes a microscope is not the best tool to see an elephant. Nintendo deliberately moving away from the West is so obvious that if you're doing investigation and you can't see it, maybe the problem is precisely that. Stop digging and narrowing your vision and look at the big picture.

Like I said, the point you were interested in, nobody is disputing. Let the rest of us continue to post in peace.