An interesting thread was started over at NeoGAF that opened my eyes to just how crappy NoA has become recently. While I knew things are bad (who in the Americas doesn't?), I didn't realize just how bad they've become. What's going through Reggie et. al.'s heads?

Anyhow, see for yourself what I mean.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=337482

It used to be that when people complained about Nintendo's abominable localization practices, I sort of didn't care. We have it better that Europe, a lot of stuff is still making it over, a lot of the stuff that's being passed on is junk, and most of the decisions tended to be at least sort of justified by sales potential.

Until recently when I realized that none of these are true and Nintendo of America just really sucks at properly bringing over software. Europe now has exclusives; Tingle on DS, Disaster: Day of Crisis, and possibly Captain Rainbow will all be making the journey to Europe while North America isn't getting anything... and guess what, Nintendo in Japan just announced 13 Wii games and a half-dozen DS games; Nintendo of America turned around and announced the localization of two Wii games and a DS game. Gee, thanks guys! A real record of faith in your parent company's products. I'm sure people will be happy to hear you've got a grand total of two titles announced for the 1st half of 2009 and one of them should have been released this Christmas anyway.

Is it localization costs? No, it isn't. Games are being localized by Treehouse, tested by NoA's testing team, and then thrown into a void. Case in point: ASH-Archaic Sealed Heat. This game was localized. This game was tested. It's been done and ready for release for six months. It's ESRB rated. No planned release at this time. None of this is in dispute.

Is it a busy release schedule? Hell, no. It's not even a case of giving other titles excessive room to breathe. Nintendo is going full calendar months without releasing titles.

Is it prestige? Thanks for Donkey Kong Barrel Blast. I'm glad you passed on a half-dozen DS titles during the same meeting you approval that stinker for import.

Is it release costs and promotion or sales potential? No. Nintendo's localization decisions on their face have nothing to do with this. We got Chibi Robo DS exclusively at Wal-Mart (enjoy your low-5 digit sales, guys!). We got Magical Starsign (hope the massive GameFAQs ad campaign helped when the game was ten bucks four months after release). We got Endless Ocean; a solid title to be sure but hardly a breadwinner. If we were allowed to share the leaked NPD data that's popped up over the years there'd be pages and pages of examples of Nintendo passing on obviously profitable titles and localizing swill that bombs. In the mean time, enough people imported Ouendan from Play-Asia (last available number was solidly into the five digits) at twenty dollars over the would-be domestic price to make a domestic localization and release profitable.

It's certainly not creative potential; why else would we get Custom Robo DS, the fifth time the exact same game was released, but skip out on theta, Mag Kid, and other more experimental DS titles.

After this weeks conference various game writers asked about some 2008 Nintendo products that aren't coming over. Disaster (the game has English VA, plays to western audiences, and is being localized for Europe so will have English text)? Well, they're waiting to see how it does in Europe. Fatal Frame IV? NoA passed; some other publisher has it. Soma Bringer? What's that? Seriously.

But the proof is in the pudding:


(Two notes: I excluded Virtual Boy, N64 Disk Drive, SNES Nintendo Power mail-order games, the recent Club Nintendo DS games, and I did not include the Famicom/Disk System in the early years of the graph because I understand that having to cross-engineer FDS titles to NES was a bit of a pain and I'm willing to give them credit for that).

This chart is designed to be biased in favour of Nintendo of America. I specifically gave Nintendo credit for any game that would not be well suited for America (Mahjong, DS novels, etc). I specifically gave them credit for any licenced games. When Nintendo released a game in Japan and then later released an upgraded version but we only got one or the other (Animal Crossing Cube, Clubhouse Games), I gave them credit for both. I counted bitGenerations as one title. Edit: I also gave them credit for Cubivore / Polarium Advance / anything else they punted off to another publisher. I'm bending over backwards here to make Nintendo of America's record look good.

Well, it doesn't look good. It's pathetic. Hey game journalists, stop asking questions about individual titles not being localized and ask Nintendo why they're localizing a substantially lower preportion of their titles regardless of genre, quality, or profile. I'm sure your readers want to know about Mother 3, but the more troubling thing is that more titles have gone unlocalized in the last three years than in the previous ten.

Need some game suggestions for 2009 to fill the holes? How about Fatal Frame IV, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Captain Rainbow, Soma Bringer, Glory of Heracles, Band Bros DX, We are Fossil Diggers, Card Hero DS, Make 10 (already released in English-speaking territories), theta, Kurikin Nano Island Story, Tingle, Project Hacker, Chou Soujuu Mecha MG, either of the DS Starfy titles, or ASH?

I've done Nintendo the favour of writing their canned reply so they don't need to bother: "Nintendo is always evaluating new titles for domestic release. A variety of factors are included in each and every decision. We regret that we are unable to domestically release all titles our fans ask for, but we are committed to delivering a broad slate of titles in 2009 and beyond. Keep checking back for news about great new games."

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The chart in particular is eye-opening, especially when you realize that in the past three years they've failed to localize roughly as many games as they did in the ten years before Reggie took the helm.

So, what can we as gamers do about this? I mean that honestly: I want to play many of the games that NoA is passing over, but it doesn't look like I ever will, and that makes me mad.

But hey, at least we get Wario: Master of Disguise!

Euro is a more valuable currency. European market is larger than the American market which gives niche tiles a better chance. Get used to it.

I never realized a blockbuster, Western-style game that involves an American city getting destroyed by a series of natural disasters was "niche," or that the same term applies to the Mother series. I also didn't realize that the yen has a higher currency value than the Euro, and that Japan alone is a larger market than all of Europe (which must be the only reason so many games remain Japan-only). Thanks for the education!

Now, does anyone have anything intelligent to add to the conversation?

To be fair, the Euro isn't doing so well either. As for the European market, at least as Vgchartz has shown, the Americas move more software on a weekly basis. And if by "niche" you mean games like Deal or no Deal, than I would agree that the games fare better in Europe than America.

Hey, stop making me look bad!

Yay Europe! You might get things late....reallly late, but atleast you get things! :P
If they don't make these games, just buy a wiiloader and import it from Europe!

Well, in fairness, the Mother series is a niche JRPG title, which practically redefines what it is to be niche without being completely unloved like, say, a Clover Studios game that isn't Viewtiful Joe.

Anyway...

Wait, ASH was fully translated? Are you serious?

Why do you assume none of these titles will come out next year? It's not like Nintendo tells us early about this kind of stuff. I am pretty sure disaster is coming out in NA, maybe next year.

Firstly, i have never heard of most of the games that you argue have not been "localized". And as far as i know, none of them are currently sold in Europe. That includes Fatal Frame and DDOC.

Secondly, in Europe people have to pay a lot of money for games. Shovelware here goes for 70 dollars. In the US you probably cannot even imagine paying that much for a PS3 title. But worst of all, Europe doesn't know the concept of budget titles. Zack and Wiki = 44 Euros, Resident Evil = 44 Euros, Samba de Amigo = 49 Euros, No More Heroes = 55 Euros.

Thirdly, a lot of games that are available in the US have not yet been "localized" in Europe. Try Professor Layton for the DS or Trauma Centre 2 for both the DS and the Wii.

And last of all, most good games come out either at the same time or a lot later than in the US (SSBB anyone!!!)

So as far as i am concerned, in the US, people are getting the best games first often at a budget price. Damn Nintendo of America.

don't blame nintendo for the high prices, blame your country's taxes.