In an agreement with Capcom, Nintendo is now to be ""responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution" for Monster Hunter 3 in Europe and Australia.

http://kotaku.com/5440336/in-europe-monster-hunter-is-now-nintendos-baby

This should mean a lot more marketing for this game compared to the usual for third-party titles on the Wii.

Still, do you think this is a sign of Nintendo getting more involved in the success of its third-party titles? Or do you think it's simply a matter that Capcom couldn't handle distribution in all territories by itself?

Is this unusual practice for Nintendo?

I thought this was part of the exclusivity agreement? Or am I confusing that with Dragon Quest?

I think Capcom want Monster Hunter to become a big hit in the West. Nintendo have made Japanese success stories such as Animal Crossing, Brain Training and of course Pokemon into massive hits in PAL territories. They might do it again with Monster Hunter.

Nintendo published Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games in Japan, so no this isn't a "new practice" for Nintendo. They probably did that game in Japan due to owning Mario as an IP.

As for Capcom and Monster Hunter, maybe Capcom originally said they were going to release it and then backed out, and Nintendo stepped in and said they would take the publishing risks. Who knows. Capcom has released plenty of games in Europe, so it shouldn't be a problem for them either.

Sounds good to me.

I've never seen anything either way for the exclusivity agreement for either MH3, or DQX. Either way, it wouldn't make sense unless Capcom doesn't expect to make a lot of money in western markets, as Nintendo now gets a bigger cut of the revenue.

It's about mutual benefit.

I'm afraid this means Monster Hunter 3 will flop in the west. Just take a look at any non-mainstream game from Nintendo: Disaster, Metroid, ExciteBots, barely any advertizing at all.

Great news!

@Chrizum

Exactly.I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad... :/

I've known Nintendo would do something like this for a while. Capcom made it clear quite some time ago that Nintendo was going to help push this game in the west, as well as S-E stating the same about Dragon Quest.