Nintendo And Europe - Not Best Of Friends

Thanks to C+VG for their report revealing that Nintendo's e-Reader device for GBA will not be released in Europe. This official confirmation from Nintendo comes after "e-Reader was [originally] confirmed for Europe back in May", and adds to the pain of European gamers still waiting for the multi-language PAL version of Animal Crossing for the GameCube, despite the fact the PAL Australian release is now announced for October, and Aussies still get the e-Reader. Why does Nintendo continue to give consumers a raw deal in Europe?

Comments

Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure there's a "cheese-eating surrender monkey" joke in this somewhere, but I'm not making it.

So Obvious

[Mr.Dippy]

I blame the French.

Re:So Obvious

[Anonymous Coward]

not funny

why? a few guesses...

[MORTAR_COMBAT!]

1. more liberal laws concerning reverse engineering. this could have affected the e-reader decision specifically.
2. less perceived market. this could affect the animal crossing decision specifically.

both of these come down to "risk" for releasing a product. there are costs for releasing a product -- returns, bugs, shelf-ware, etc. it's the reason "Futurama" isn't coming to the Cube (and they can bite my shiny metal ass over that one) -- the perceived risk for releasing the product was too high for the perceived rewards.

Re:why? a few guesses...

[aweraw]

2. less perceived market. this could affect the animal crossing decision specifically.

I think you're wrong about that... The GameCube, to my woe, is selling quite badly here in Australia. So the fact that they are releasing it here suggests that it has nothing to do with Nintendo perceiving less of a market for it.

I think it has more to do with Europe being so culturally diverse... They'd have to make so many localization changes (holidays and such) for every country they released it in Europe, that it just isn't feasible...

IMO anyway...

Re:why? a few guesses...

[evilhayama]

You would think that if this was the case they would have released the game in England only, a market vastly bigger than Australia.

Re:why? a few guesses...

[aweraw]

truer words have never been spoken...

Blaim European Liberalism

[MMaestro]

I'm not saying liberalism or Europeans are bad (except the French of course), but Europeans tend to be very liberal and anti-convervative when it comes to make a decision. Which is usually the cause for so many arguments and disagreements between the US and Europe as well as the UN.

AC Based on Culture

[Zandia]

Okay, does anybody realize that Europe is one of the most multicultural areas of the world and the AC is highly based upon the culture of the users playing it? I mean do you think that everyone in the world celebrates Thanksgiving and the 4th of July? It takes time to taylor the culture in AC. This tayloring not only includes the holidays but the items too. Not only that, they would have to make it multilingual (not everyone in Europe speaks English). However, in Australia they do speak English and they only have to change/add a few holidays here and there. So, I don't think it's a personal beef with Europe. I just think Europe is a little bit more complicated place than other areas, which would take more time to produce a game for them.

Re:AC Based on Culture

[mausmalone]

Also remember that it's Nintendo's European offices that decide on whether to import a game, not NCL. I always thought it was weird that people would release a game for "Europe" and that's supposed to cover more than a dozen countries, with various languages. What a crock. Well... if you're European and you desperately want to play it, and you happen to speak English, pick up the American version (hopefully you have NTSC) as the localization is pretty limited, and the best holidays are the ones that are made specially for the game. :)

Re:AC Based on Culture

[moyet]

If you buy the american version remember also to but Freeloader.

Or wait for the australien version. And since Australia is a PAL country, you can play the game on all TV's.

Re:AC Based on Culture

[Zandia]

I'm American. I already have the game. Just trying to put an alternative reason for the lack of release in Europe.

Re:AC Based on Culture

[SmallFurryCreature]

You seem to have a very odd perception of how products are released here. You mention holidays. In holland we have "Sinterklaas" on the 5th of december, a saint who rides a white horse over the rooftops and delivers presents. Do you think a single movie, book or game has ever been redesigned to use sinterklaas instead of santa claus? Of course not. Same with many other slight variances found all over the world.

The world today is far more global then you give people credit for. Don't forget that they also had to this work for the american version, there are a hell of a lot more differences between america and japan then between american and europe. If nintendo had a clue they would have could have done it at the same time.

As for multilingual, this is a valid point to a certain extent. Very few games are fully translated over here. Don't forget that most of us learn english as a second language early in school and that most of popular culture comes from the US.

Oh well great way to get people to buy your stuff. I guess they are okay with coming in third.

Re:AC Based on Culture

[Zandia]

That is the point of the game to be taylored to the region it is being produced for. I believe I read somewhere that it took an extra six months to release AC in America to make the changes.


I fully realize that not everything is taylored like that but this game is. Part of the fun of the game is celebrating the holidays and seeing what happens during them. (For the American Thanksgiving, you try to find a Turkey to get presents.) It's those little things that make the game special and enjoyable.


With all the different regional holidays that Europe has to offer, it would be hard to decide which ones to integrate into the game and even harder to figure out how to do so (i.e. deciding how to celebrate the holiday).

Re:AC Based on Culture

[Daetrin]

That may be one of the reasons, but i still think it's a shit reason. I want to get the Japanese version of the game with all the cool Japanese cultural references, but i wouldn't be able to understand what the hell i was doing. People who look at a game with a different cultural bacground as a problem instead of an interesting learning experience are fools.

Re:AC Based on Culture

[evilhayama]

This culture reason baffles me, as the game is getting a release in Australia. We share very few holidays with anywhere, and to make matters worse our seasons are reversed! It would be hilarious for AC to have a white christmas in the Australian version.

What I suspect is that we'll get the US version with maybe a few changes, there's a lot of people here who want to be american anyway...

Re:AC Based on Culture

[funkmastermike]

and the 4th of July?.
some of us americans are forced to celebrate our independence,
I think that people in europe would have to get up in a really good mood to celebrate the 4th of july over there.
"good morning bed. good morning sun. good morning toothbrush"

either that or some damned dirty hippies

Re:AC Based on Culture

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry...I don't normally do this, but I really can't take it anymore, especially with the number of times you've said it.

TAILORED, NOT TAYLORED.

PAL: The anti-game

[Alaric42]

I'd say the reason is really quite simple. It takes more effort to localize a game for Europe than it does for North America simply because of the video standard (although I'm presuming that it might be difficult to get shelf space in some countries without the game being in their native languages, I've never bothered to actually check that). So, since releases started out sparse and late, just about any European who really had an appetite for video games got accustomed to importing, which ended up cutting the sales on titles once they did get released, and now hardly anyone bothers with Europe at all.

While this is a rather short post, and therefore probably oversimplified and leaving out factors, I'd say that's the root of the problem. Especially given how little support some Japanese companies give to their American branches (*cough* Enix, who basically bankrupted their own subsidiary twice *cough*), it doesn't seem that far of a stretch that the additional hassle of video conversion was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Re:PAL: The anti-game

[Anonymous Coward]

PC game makers have managed to produce resolution- and frame-rate independent games for *years*. Why would console game makers be unable to do this?

Re:PAL: The anti-game

[Alaric42]

They're not unable at all. I, for one, just don't see sufficient rationale behind it. You might as well ask TV manufacturers why most TVs aren't manufactured to be able to display both NTSC and PAL, as computer monitors have been able to handle multiple resolutions and refresh rates for *years*. While branching out is nice and all, why bother taking a risk and expanding when you already have an incredibly profitable industry which has fixed hardware other than the display device and the majority of your sales come from NTSC markets even when games end up being released earlier in PAL territories? The companies are more than willing to hardwire support for HD-TV display modes into their consoles for developers to take advantage of as they choose, so I'd say Europe's just started out as not worth their effort and continued to be not worth their effort, as much as quite a few people would like to have special releases of games despite the fact that they already own all the hardware necessary to play the currently existing ones.

And that's not even getting into the population difference or anything like that.

Nintendo Hates Europe

[Lewisham]

Nintendo has no reason to hate Europe:

Multi-language?
Five main languages isn't that hard, really. You'd need five translators on the payroll. The appliances company I worked for simply used their marketing departments overseas to do the translation of their web sites and sent the translations back to the UK for input. I don't see how hard/expensive Nintendo thinks translation must be.

Different display format?
Aussies are quite happy with PAL as well.

Different regional legislation?
Slap on a blood patch for Germany. Hang on, Nintendo haven't had any blood in their games in the UK since they begun. They haven't been censoring us have they?!

Different cultures
This argument I simply couldn't buy. Tastes are different everywhere. UK tastes are different to US, US is different to Japan. I can't name one country that has radically different games they enjoy than the rest of Europe.

There are only two answers. Nintendo is incompentant in Europe and arrogant towards Europe. It has always given Europe the shaft; it's not a new idea for them. Seeing as all the excuses they could come up with are as thin as Japanese paper walls, I have to say that the split must be 50:50 between the two issues. They don't need Europe, they're only the third biggest games market. They're a company trying to save cash, when in fact they're pushing themselves further over the edge by cutting out a major territory. Their business plan consists of: "If it ain't no work to convert, then ship it 6 months later and clamp down on importers in the mean time!" No joke, they sent cease and desist letters to all importers last month trying to get them all to stop selling the games that Euro Nintendo users want but can't get.

Total. Bloody. Genius.

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[Firehawke]

There's only one problem with that overview. It's not just Nintendo.. Konami, Capcom, Microsoft, and Sony are little better about getting stuff over to Europe in a reasonable time. I seem to recall a number of PS1 games having really shoddy European ports with bad bordering and framerate issues.

It's an attitude from the entire industry that Europe doesn't really matter. Japan is the most important market and everyone else can suffer for all they care. Hell, the US gets shafted more often than not with the truly innovative or good games. It's all mindset-- the Japanese don't know or care what the rest of the world wants. They'll just release what they THINK will sell, because finding out what really WOULD sell is too much effort.

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[PainKilleR-CE]

Multi-language?
Five main languages isn't that hard, really. You'd need five translators on the payroll. The appliances company I worked for simply used their marketing departments overseas to do the translation of their web sites and sent the translations back to the UK for input. I don't see how hard/expensive Nintendo thinks translation must be.

Given how long it takes for translations of most Japanese games, it sometimes seems like they have only 1 translator working on each game, but the reality is that it takes more than that. These aren't appliance manuals (or game manuals for that matter) we're talking about here, it's all of the text in the game and the voices, at the minimum. Animal Crossing doesn't need voice translations, but definitely a lot of text, and then you'd be stuck with Japanese or American holidays and items if they didn't do any localization beyond language translation.

Different display format?
Aussies are quite happy with PAL as well.

Japan and US both use NTSC, Aussies are in the same boat as Europe most of the time.

Different regional legislation?
Slap on a blood patch for Germany. Hang on, Nintendo haven't had any blood in their games in the UK since they begun. They haven't been censoring us have they?!

Check the 'M' rated games on the GC. The rest usually don't have problems, though, and I doubt it's much of a discussion for most of them. That being said, it's still something that has to be dealt with by some developers, regardless of what console they're using.

Different cultures
This argument I simply couldn't buy. Tastes are different everywhere. UK tastes are different to US, US is different to Japan. I can't name one country that has radically different games they enjoy than the rest of Europe.

Animal Crossing specifically is highly culture-oriented, and requires a great deal of changes in the port. Japan doesn't even port a large number of their games to the US (which still has NTSC so just needs the english translation for the lowest port) because of perceived (and sometimes very real) cultural differences. Anyone that's really interested in those titles either gripes about it forever or imports it.

There are only two answers. Nintendo is incompentant in Europe and arrogant towards Europe. It has always given Europe the shaft; it's not a new idea for them. Seeing as all the excuses they could come up with are as thin as Japanese paper walls, I have to say that the split must be 50:50 between the two issues. They don't need Europe, they're only the third biggest games market. They're a company trying to save cash, when in fact they're pushing themselves further over the edge by cutting out a major territory. Their business plan consists of: "If it ain't no work to convert, then ship it 6 months later and clamp down on importers in the mean time!" No joke, they sent cease and desist letters to all importers last month trying to get them all to stop selling the games that Euro Nintendo users want but can't get.

Total. Bloody. Genius.

Talk to Nintendo Europe, then, just like we in the US bitch at Nintendo of America for not bringing in more games (thankfully they made the decision to bring back Metroid, which doesn't do well in Japan). Nintendo's business plan when it comes to ports is primarily 'let the locals (meaning NoA, NoE, etc) do it'.

As for Europe being the third biggest game market: while it may be that, it's also a fragmented market, because you have to translate to multiple languages and deal with cultural diversity for the sales. If you simply took the US version and made some minor adjustments (and the PAL conversion) for the UK market you could probably get most of the money you're going to get from Europe without the extra cost of translating to French, Spanish, Dutch, German, etc. but then people would still bitch about it.

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe it's because you guys pay so much in taxes, you don't have any disposable income for luxury items such as games.

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

Multi-language?
Five main languages isn't that hard, really. You'd need five translators on the payroll. The appliances company I worked for simply used their marketing departments overseas to do the translation of their web sites and sent the translations back to the UK for input. I don't see how hard/expensive Nintendo thinks translation must be.

I think Nintendo knows a little better than you seeing as they have been doing it for almost two decades. Localization of video game software is a few orders of magnitude harder than translating a website. Localization can take up to two years for a single game and often costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Multiply by 5 or 6 different languages and you see your margin disappear.

The localization for Animal Crossing would be particularly hard because Animal Crossing is very much a culture driven game. For example, it is full of US holidays (much to the annoyance of my fiance since we are Canadian) that would have to be changed.

If there really is a big dollar to be made in Europe and Nintendo isn't jumping on it, someone else will. Course, from what I have seen, nobody else is so maybe everyone in the industry has done their homework and decided Europe ain't worth it.

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[Lewisham]

Having purchased AC on import, the argument that the localisation is significantly more difficult holidays-wise appears to be very much tosh.

There really aren't that many unique days in it, let alone country-specific. (Meteor Shower? Town day?) The special things that happen on the remaining days could easily be switched around; the 4th July fireworks on Coronation Day for example or some other equally irrelevant holiday ;)

Switch a bit of code, rewrite some lines of text (which would have been occuring during translation anyway).

As for them knowing more than me, I quite agree. I'd just like to know what this process actually involves, and simply how they can manage to draw it out for so long. I understand translating gameplay tweaks and the massive language barrier between the US and Japan, but once you're out of the East I can't see that much else needs doing...

BTW: You know what we got instead of Animal Crossing? Doshin the Giant. Ahem.

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[Lewisham]

Fair point, well made. I certainly think this is true of Konami: Where exactly is the GC version of Winning Eleven? The GC is crying out for a decent football game.

Do you not think that Microsoft, for all the Xboxes failings, have done a pretty decent job in getting games here in an almost reasonable time? I don't recall the last time I heard someone complain that such and such was out in the US, but the game's release in Europe was any greater than about three months. Xbox Live has gotton off to a decent start as well, something I thought was certain to be implemented half-arsed over here.

I'd hazard that about 60% of wanted games from Nintendo clock in at a longer lead time than that. I think three months is pretty much the magic barrier on how long the lower-hardcore (educated gamers, but not desparately clawing for every game straight away) are prepared to wait before they end up in importing instead.

What are your thoughts on this?

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[Zandia]

It's not just a matter of translating (which does take a long time for colloquialisms). It's also a matter of changing the code in the game, which if you ask any programmer can take a very long time.


You may think that there aren't that many American specific holidays in there but if you look at the Japanese version there are many. You are also failing to notice that there are many countries that do have many specific holidays that they feel aren't irrelevant. So, not only would they have to research these holidays but they would also have to come up with a theme (i.e. Finding the Turkey on Thanksgiving or the candy on Halloween, both American specific holidays), and rewrite the code for these days. This whole process could take months just to cover the holidays of one country.

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[Lewisham]

Thank you for taking in my points at such length. It's nice to see people actually reading what I have to say.

I can't say I agree with all your points, either through my own miseducation to not be able to comment further or simply don't agree as a matter of opinion, but your last comments about Nintendo Europe are interesting.

I think it might be a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. I find it difficult to believe that the same Nintendo that has someone as inspired as Shiguru Miyamoto swaying major influence within the company would allow Nintendo Europe to continue disillusioning customers as it has done. People have made comments. I remember an excellent interview by well-respected (ie not plastered with EXCLUSIVE on the cover) games magazine Edge with the head of Nintendo Europe. He doggedly insisted that Pokemon Turquoise or whatever colours they're using now, should have taken precedence over AC. He truly believed they knew what the consumer wants, but only be telling them what they want. Doshin the Giant was meant to fill the gap in the GC line-up!

So talking doesn't appear to work with Nintendo Europe either. For some time I've dreamed the same idea you have come up with; Nintendo UK and Australia, whacking on a PAL conversion on most games (not AC of course) then churning them out in a much quicker turnaround. I doubt it'll happen before Nintendo goes the way of Sega.

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[PainKilleR-CE]

I remember an excellent interview by well-respected (ie not plastered with EXCLUSIVE on the cover) games magazine Edge with the head of Nintendo Europe. He doggedly insisted that Pokemon Turquoise or whatever colours they're using now, should have taken precedence over AC. He truly believed they knew what the consumer wants, but only be telling them what they want. Doshin the Giant was meant to fill the gap in the GC line-up!

Yet the 2 Pokemon games ARE still #2 and 3 on the UK charts, even if they have fallen behind the EyeToy (who knows, maybe it'll happen in the US and Japan as well, but I know it's not available in the US and I haven't seen it on the Japanese charts at all). Whether or not Nintendo Europe's head knows what the European market wants, it's his job (or someone on his staff's job) to find out what the market wants and get it there. Nintendo Japan isn't likely to step in because they expect him to do his job (although I'd imagine that at this point they should be getting a clue and at least looking into what's going on, with European retailers not selling GCs and the EyeToy out-selling the Pokemon games, though I don't have numbers telling me by how much).

So talking doesn't appear to work with Nintendo Europe either. For some time I've dreamed the same idea you have come up with; Nintendo UK and Australia, whacking on a PAL conversion on most games (not AC of course) then churning them out in a much quicker turnaround. I doubt it'll happen before Nintendo goes the way of Sega.

I really don't know how people would react to that kind of system, though it's arguably better than MS' decision to put out US games as is in the Japanese market (no translation, no need for conversion since Japan is NTSC as well). I'm sure initial reaction would be favourable because it would mean shorter turn-around on the games, but in the long term opinion is likely to turn back around with most people feeling like Europe is being treated like an after-thought (which, in reality, they are).

As for Nintendo going the way of Sega, I doubt it, at least until they start losing money. If Nintendo keeps having problems in Europe, I'd expect a shakeup and then maybe 3-5 years to turn things around before dissolving the division or turning to the simple method (PAL conversion with no localization, or maybe not even PAL conversion, just low-end HDTV support, depending on the capabilities of their next console) with a skeleton crew at Nintendo Europe to handle the legal end of it and the cheap conversions. Either way, unless Nintendo's sales turn around in Europe, I'd expect them to pull out before they 'go the way of Sega', because the market is still good in Japan (which wasn't the case for Sega, though the DC did fairly well in the US).

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[easychord]

No, they really are arrogant and clueless.

I remember people begging them to release Pokemon games in the UK. Nintendo Europe told them that they probably never would, because "there is no market outside of Japan for Pokemon".

Then a television company picked up the rights to the cartoon as a schedule filler.

To be honest, I'm not so sure of the sequence of events, but thats how I remember it.

Any enquiry or suggestion about a game to Nintendo Europe gets stonewalled. "Check our website for updates", or somesuch BS.

As for Sega, they have a history of being much better with the european market.

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[dammitallgoodnamesgo]

(i.e. Finding the Turkey on Thanksgiving or the candy on Halloween, both American specific holidays)

Halloween, an American holiday? Here's a clue: It's "All Hallow's eve" and goes back to the middle ages, at least. History did not begin 200 years ago, no matter what you learned in school. And yes, Nintendo of Europe are fuckwits, as is Square. And Sony. Actually, if you're European, and you want to play console games you're basically fucked. I'm just glad I live in Japan.

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[Zandia]

Yes, but not everyone celebrates it the same and some don't observe the holiday at all. I have several European friends who found the American tradition odd even though they were aware of it.

Here's another clue: I'm not as stupid nor as ethnocentric as you think I am. If you took the time to actually read and digest my post, you would know that I was trying to say that other cultures and holidays are special and they should be recognized in the game as well. I'm sorry you are just too prejudice to realize that.

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[Firehawke]

Three months.. that's exactly how long Capcom took on their translation for Rockman X5 two years ago. Three months from Japanese to English, and it suffered horribly for it. It's funny.. they feel an urge to speed the Japanese->US adjustments, then take it very slowly for the US->Europe ones. You'd expect it to be closer to the opposite, really.

For me, it really depends on the game. I'd be willing to wait up to about six months in some cases, but anything more than that means you're just getting screwed again. It doesn't help that they often change their minds mid-stream on whether or not a title is going to be released.

Re:Nintendo Hates Europe

[Anonymous Coward]

Arguments with whiney eurotrash never end productively.

The best strategy is to ignore them, just like the rest of the world, and most of Europe does.

Maybe...

[Anonymous Coward]

It has something to do with most the fact that over there retaliers are dumping their GameCube inventorys and are no longer restocking or selling them.

If they are not selling to well it might not be worth their time and money to bother making and releasing it.

Too many cultures?

[Cyhwuhx]

.::: Localisation is hardly the problem. EA, Sony, Microsoft they can all handle multiple languages and the like. The problem is that Nintendo wants to do all of that internally. Whereas their competition hires other companies to do that for them. I also don't know why on Earth some people here wnat to take politcal reasons into consideration. The usual route for a game to be released here (Europe) is to be accepted by Japan as well as America. After those releases, the game is usually evaluated, in which they make judgement how it will sell in Europe and release it accordingly. (we've had two exceptions to that; Doshin the Giant and Shining Soul (GBA)). WHY ON EARTH they want to release both products in Australia and not Europe is beyond me however. Not only does Australia practically hate the GC (it's simply not selling at all there), it's ALSO a PAL territory. We get parallel imported Australian titles in the shops here, which simply work, so we'll get AC eventually anyway. However all of this has caused some strong comments concerning Nintendo. Just about everybody on forums and such that I know of and like Nintendo have condemned Nintendo of Europe for this. Not about AC being released in Oz so they can eventually get their hands on it, more that Europe was just skipped altogether. Whatever the reason might be I hope Nintendo really thought it over. Because when even your most dedicated fans turn against you it might become very difficult. In related news; EyeToy sales have risen above both Pokemon sales for the GBA.

Re:Too many cultures?

[PainKilleR-CE]

.::: Localisation is hardly the problem. EA, Sony, Microsoft they can all handle multiple languages and the like. The problem is that Nintendo wants to do all of that internally. Whereas their competition hires other companies to do that for them.

Let's see: Microsoft decided to release untranslated (ie English-language) non-localized versions of X-Box games in Japan. Many people complain about bad PAL conversion of titles from any number of US and Japanese developers. Many companies other than Nintendo do translation internal, and the choice is often made on a title-by-title basis, rather than as a company-wide policy (and Nintendo leaves those things up to the regional arms of the company, so Nintendo Japan is not making that choice for NoA or Nintendo Europe). I know that Namco's US division hires native-English-speaking Americans (with education in the Japanese language) to do translations of their titles for US release, rather than farming the translation out to other companies.

I also don't know why on Earth some people here wnat to take politcal reasons into consideration. The usual route for a game to be released here (Europe) is to be accepted by Japan as well as America. After those releases, the game is usually evaluated, in which they make judgement how it will sell in Europe and release it accordingly. (we've had two exceptions to that; Doshin the Giant and Shining Soul (GBA)). WHY ON EARTH they want to release both products in Australia and not Europe is beyond me however. Not only does Australia practically hate the GC (it's simply not selling at all there), it's ALSO a PAL territory. We get parallel imported Australian titles in the shops here, which simply work, so we'll get AC eventually anyway. However all of this has caused some strong comments concerning Nintendo. Just about everybody on forums and such that I know of and like Nintendo have condemned Nintendo of Europe for this. Not about AC being released in Oz so they can eventually get their hands on it, more that Europe was just skipped altogether. Whatever the reason might be I hope Nintendo really thought it over. Because when even your most dedicated fans turn against you it might become very difficult.

Personally, I don't understand why Nintendo of Europe wouldn't do at least a UK port of AC if it's already being ported for Australia, unless they have some issues regarding porting a title for just the largest market in Europe, rather than Europe as a whole. That being said, it is still Nintendo of Europe's choice, not Nintendo as a whole (though perhaps if Nintendo really was worried about backlash in the European market they could push it through).

In related news; EyeToy sales have risen above both Pokemon sales for the GBA.

Considering that the EyeToy price in Europe is significantly lower than what they've announced for the US price (it hasn't come out yet here), I'm not too surprised about that, especially since it's been on the UK charts longer, too. Of course, I can't find a lot of information on the UK charts (like amount of sales or units sold), either.

Re:Too many cultures?

[dammitallgoodnamesgo]

Microsoft decided to release untranslated (ie English-language) non-localized versions of X-Box games in Japan.

You have no idea - no idea - just how badly Microsoft has fucked up in the Japanese market. X-Boxes are cheaper than Dreamcasts, and more shops sell DC games than X-Box games. Outside of Sega they have - basically - no developer support. Frankly they can't do anything to make the situation worse - I'd gamble that most people in Japan still buying X-Box games are from America originally.

Yes

[pommaq]

Well, this is just the most recent installment in Nintendo's campaign to shaft us Euros! They've happily been doing it for 10+ years, so it shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone. Why they do it, I'm not sure. It's probably just the good ol' German censorship laws, localization (and most of us could do without localization, thank you very much), stuff like that.

Knowing this, as soon as the cube was released in the US (more than half a year before it hit our shores, how's that for a warning sign?) I imported myself a JAP/US cube. Yeah, it's sort of a hassle having to import all my games, but there's a thriving industry that's realized you can make a buck off this region bullshit. So now I'm a proud owner of Soul Calibur 2, F-Zero GX, Winning Eleven 6 and Mario Golf, neither of which are even CLOSE to releasing in Europe yet. Hell, WE6 probably won't even go outside Japan, seeing as footie games aren't very big in the US.
...but anyway, my point was - Nintendo have always been doing this, they will continue to do it, and the best you can do is try to work around it. It sucks, really; they make the best consoles, the best games, but their business decisions sometimes seem to be made by monkeys.

Re:Yes

[Anonymous Coward]

Explain to me how it is Nintendo's fault for WE6 or SC2 not being out yet? Not having the choice of buying the game is a lot better than blowing 50 euros on a crappy PAL conversion like some of those put out by other certain publishers. Don't hate the playa, hate the game.

Jump down off that high horse, son ...

[SuperRob]

Nintendo doesn't hate Europe. They aren't releasing it STRICTLY for financial reasons. If the installed base for GameCube or Game Boy Advance doesn't warrant releasing the peripheral in Europe, then they won't release it.

So please, save the drama for your mama ... it has nothing to do with how Nintendo "feels" about Europe. It was a business decision, just like everything else they do. They focus on Europe last because they ARE the smallest of Nintendo's markets, and requires a great deal more work. Work that's REQUIRED by the EU. Want to blame someone, blame the EU, because they're the ones that cause all your delays.

Re:Jump down off that high horse, son ...

[Lewisham]

My cannon wasn't aiming at the e-Reader. It looks like another crude Nintendo method of trying to extract funds out of the stagnant GBA market due to the high pricing of their carts, but that's another story.

I agree that hate was too strong a word, but they must certainly dislike the territory, which I think is mostly their own doing. MS and Sony have never shown such contempt. They don't complain and fob off, they get it done, with or without EU legislation.

I think Nintendo is running a risky financial course by running with these strictly monetary decisions. The bottom line looks better now, but it's continued erosion of it's fanbase is going to lead to even larger numbers of gamers telling Nintendo where to stick their next Not-As-Good-As-They-Used-To-Be franchise game.

Maybe this is where Microsoft's megabucks will eventually win the day. They're wooing gamers now whilst making a loss, in an attempt to buy their way into gamer's brand loyalties. And they would have done it with Xbox 1, had they had the third-party hit games there. It can't be long before MS cracks it and buries Nintendo's hardware division.

Re:Jump down off that high horse, son ...

[Anonymous Coward]

MS and Sony have never shown such contempt. Really? What happened to all of those Square games that SCEE was supposed to publish?

Nintendo are still bitter at the EU

[kyz]

for being caught and fined for operating an illegal price-fixing cartel.

Perhaps this is why they give Europe the cold shoulder. Because they don't have the freedom to shaft consumers financially, they're trying to convince consumers to pay higher prices anyway by starving the kiddies of their latest family-friendly fix until the pester-power meter builds up to MAX.

Re:Nintendo are still bitter at the EU

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that why M$ is in hot water with the EU too?

Profits

[M3wThr33]

Europe has heavy taxes.
Really it's not worth it to translate 5 different languages and all this extra crap just for a couple thousand in sales. Europe doesn't buy enough games to make it worth while.

Australia, too.

Re:Profits

[dammitallgoodnamesgo]

Really it's not worth it to translate 5 different languages and all this extra crap just for a couple thousand in sales. Europe doesn't buy enough games to make it worth while.

Congratulations for talking out of your arse. "Couple thousand" indeed. Damn but I'm feeling angry today. No idea why.

I know where to start.

[Inoshiro]

"Multi-language?
Five main languages isn't that hard, really. You'd need five translators on the payroll. "

No, you'd need 5 translators plus 5 vetters (to check the translations) plus you'd need to localize all the various holidays, etc, and make sure no implied situations are missed which would offend certain cultures.

Look at European Telivision. It's a lot more than a language tranlation and some video format that makes or breaks a game in a market as diverse as Europe.

Finaly

[The Head Sage]

This has happened before, Nintendo released the game "Terranenigma" in Australia and Europe, yet it was never released in America. Although this is good for us Australians, I'm sick of getting games last in line. If i ran a Console Dev company, i'd release in Australia first, Japan second and america last... See how you like it.

E-Reader IS coming to Europe

[KaiEl]

C&VG has just done some backpedaling The Video Game Ombudsman

Europe and Australia

[randomlogik]

Wow what a change, we are actually getting games before Europe. Not just that, I was lucky enough to play F-Zero AX which is now in Sydney in the main arcade 'Galaxy' in the city. (and yes its fantastic). Has anyone in europe managed to get their hands on one?