I believe that Capcom realizes that for MH3 to be successful in the west they need to appeal to more than the core gamer. They need to really sell the social aspect of the game that makes it so popular in Japan. Nintendo is better positioned and more experienced at selling to and reaching an expanded audience than Capcom.

I would think they'll sell this as a game the family (or at least Dad and the boys) can play together (with Uncle & cousins too over online).

If Nintendo is smart, they'll advertise MH3 like World of Warcraft, but without the monthly fees.

I think that this is about muscling retailers into stocking the game.

Retailers in Europe flat out refuse to stock core games from small publishers, like Muramasa. Even large publishers seem to have a hard time getting retailers to order substantial stock of their core games. How many times have we heard that the latest core game for the Wii isn't widely available at retail?

Nintendo never has this problem. Retailers will stock their games because they know that they will sell and rarely need discounting. So Nintendo is going to make sure that retailers stock enough of Monster Hunter 3 so that the game's sales aren't hindered by lack of supply.

lol

Great! I want to see a good marketing for this game.

Nintendo published RE4 on the GameCube, and maybe Zack and Wiki on the Wii. Don't recall seeing a single TV advert for either in the UK.

That's awesome that NOE is going to push this game.

HOWEVER....it's NOA that I'm concerned about. We need this game heavily pushed here in the U.S. as well.

theirs an odd turn of events I guess Capcom wasent happy with the games potential in EU/NA/WW

@famousringo: Disaster was never actually stocked, like in diminute quantities. Punch-Out and Excitebots were not wanted by retailers in Australia and I think some parts of Europe.

Well, that torpedoes my theory. I guess it's only NA retailers that seem happy to take whatever Nintendo feeds them.

It's too bad. For a while now I've been of the opinion that retailer preconceptions are more of an impediment to 3rd party success on the Wii than the attitude of 3rd party publishers. Nintendo might still have more pull with retailers in PAL regions than Capcom, but... damn.