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European DS Launch and Titles Announced
GamesIndustry.biz has the news that the Nintendo DS has been slated for a March 11th launch in Europe. The launch will carry 15 different titles, and the handheld will be bundled with the Metroid Prime: Hunters demo, as it was in the states. Australian gamers have something to be happy about as well. From the article: "The £99 price point is around the expected mark. Interestingly, Australian fans will pay the equivalent of around £90 for theirs, and although exchange rate fluctuations are believed to be behind that slightly more flattering figure, they can hardly be blamed for the unusual sight of Nintendo hardware making it onto store shelves down under before it does so here; Aussie gamers will be able to pick up a DS from 24th February onward."
Please suggest fixes. I dare you.
Europe is very fickle (not unimportant, just hard to sell stuff to). In order to launch properly in Europe, you have to prepare your product for multiple languages (at least five) and localize (sanitizing cultural references) against many, many cultures. For full-size consoles, you also have to consider and work around the different TV color standards starting all the way at the bottom (console design, tested power supply and outlet differences, and cable type for hardware - the rest of the world doesn't use European-format SCART, for example; and game screen formatting and framerate for software). And then, there's the packaging and advertising....
Spending that amount of time and money before launching a new product anywhere is stupid. You may feel slighted and marginalized as a European, but to tell the truth, it is easier for companies to release in Japan and North America first, and it makes monetary sense. The Japanese tend to make games that suit their own culture perfectly, so that's not even an issue when launching in their own country. For English-speaking North America, there are entire industires built around localizing for U.S. and Canadian tastes, and the American-produced games industry is also huge. Both the U.S. and Japan use the NTSC color standard @ 60 Hz, and both Japanese and American A/V equipment tends to use the same cable interfaces, with only the occasional difference. Power differences are minimal between the two regions (Japan uses 100 V, U.S. uses 110 V - equipment suited for one region is generally considered safe to use in the other), and the plugs are identical.
Really, these two regions are huge markets on their own. In order to serve Europe and Australia (considered to be one market), there is so much additional work to be done that you Europeans never really seem to consider before whining. And that's just to create one "market" that rivals either Japan or English-speaking North America. You're not being screwed. You're being as served as well as is possible, considering the varied cultural consistency of the population in your region. And to top it off, here's some news that you might not like: Whenever products are not released in Europe at all, it's because the branch offices that are operated in your own region do not think they would be profitable there. Think about that the next time you whine to the Japanese and the Americans. They get it first because it helps minimize shortages and other growing pains.
(Yes, I realize that the color standard differences have nothing to do with the DS, but surely you've become jaded at least partially because of that issue in the past. What the DS does have to be careful about in Europe is the power differences, the cultural appropriateness and localization of its launch titles, etc.)