14th January 2005, 3:13 AM
Did you read the article at all, DJ? NOA cannot make ANY decisions, only NCL can. They tell NOA what to do and NOA simply handels their foriegn relations. NCL watches over every translation, even if the game is to be released in the states only. NCL is why we dont have Earthbound yet, NOA has all the power of the queen of england or in other words, about as much say-so as the pointy end of nothing sharpened.
NCL designs the American and European commercials. NCL decides what game is to be released in what region and which region gets which version and which version will be the one people will want most. NOA has no control over anything. And that's what makes the most sense in this circus; the Japanese market is failing because Japanese people are getting bored with video games (across all home consoles) but are going nuts over GBA, DS and even PSP.
Nintendo has made countless claims stating: "It's time we move away from the TV and in to NEW AND INCREDIBLE WAYS OF PLAYING YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF!" which had nothing to do with gameplay, but actual new methods of how you play a video game in general, such as an E-Reader for your GBA or connectivity to your Gamecube or dual touch screens and WI FI! Shit, NCL isn't even pushing the GC anymore.
Those choices are not meant to entice American gamers (and it shows), it's for the Japanese gamers because Nintendo is a Japanese company that caters to the Japanese FIRST. The DS is the first anything to be released outside of Japan from Nintendo before the Japanese get it, and that decision was pushed by NOA to combat the PSP, otherwise NCL would have released it after the PSP launch so they can take their "wait and see" approach as they've done countless times.
Which works in Japan since Japanese have no problem with spending gobs of cash on something and then taking it back to the store after owning it a few weeks. It happened with the N64 in Japan and to a lesser extent it happened with the Dreamcast and Gamecube. But that kinda shit never happens here, if we dont like it we sell it for half the price and get some used game for an older system because American stores wont take it back after a few days (some wont take it back if you opened it). But Nintendo cant understand that type of business because it's a Japanese company. They dont understand what America wants from Nintendo. Which is what weltall said in a previous thread: "I dont want new amazing krap, I just want good games."
The sooner NOA has their own say-so, the sooner we can have kick ass ads and a better marketing strategy. One that can compete with Sony and Microsoft. If NOA was in charge, we would have had a sequel to Super Metroid alot frikin sooner than a damn decade later. NOA got countless letters asking for a new Metroid since the release of Super Metroid and couldn't do anything about it because NCL has reports showing that Super Metroid sold poorly in Japan. So since Japan didn't like Metroid, no one gets Metroid.
It wasn't until NOA begged to have Samus in SSB for N64 and let NCL see the reaction to it, then they said we'll think about it. Then NCL partnered itself with Retro Studios and told them to make it, an American company, a game for Americans. But every second of cut-scenes, every model and every character of text had to meet NCL's approval, and half the time (or more) NCL was designing the cut-scenes, models and dialogue because it's supposed to be a Nintendo game, but their weird japanese business practices say that because they failed in grabbing a Japanese audience with previous efforts, they shouldn't put any more effort in to it.
Metroid Prime was the first game from Nintendo that was made with Americans in mind.
The only input that NOA got to put in to Metroid Prime was the ad campaign that was directed by the guy that did The Crow and make sure the ad campaign really spoke to Metroid fans. It was mostly NOA who headed that marketing campaign with NCL's money and guess what? It's the best marketing campaign Nintendo ever did.
NCL designs the American and European commercials. NCL decides what game is to be released in what region and which region gets which version and which version will be the one people will want most. NOA has no control over anything. And that's what makes the most sense in this circus; the Japanese market is failing because Japanese people are getting bored with video games (across all home consoles) but are going nuts over GBA, DS and even PSP.
Nintendo has made countless claims stating: "It's time we move away from the TV and in to NEW AND INCREDIBLE WAYS OF PLAYING YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF!" which had nothing to do with gameplay, but actual new methods of how you play a video game in general, such as an E-Reader for your GBA or connectivity to your Gamecube or dual touch screens and WI FI! Shit, NCL isn't even pushing the GC anymore.
Those choices are not meant to entice American gamers (and it shows), it's for the Japanese gamers because Nintendo is a Japanese company that caters to the Japanese FIRST. The DS is the first anything to be released outside of Japan from Nintendo before the Japanese get it, and that decision was pushed by NOA to combat the PSP, otherwise NCL would have released it after the PSP launch so they can take their "wait and see" approach as they've done countless times.
Which works in Japan since Japanese have no problem with spending gobs of cash on something and then taking it back to the store after owning it a few weeks. It happened with the N64 in Japan and to a lesser extent it happened with the Dreamcast and Gamecube. But that kinda shit never happens here, if we dont like it we sell it for half the price and get some used game for an older system because American stores wont take it back after a few days (some wont take it back if you opened it). But Nintendo cant understand that type of business because it's a Japanese company. They dont understand what America wants from Nintendo. Which is what weltall said in a previous thread: "I dont want new amazing krap, I just want good games."
The sooner NOA has their own say-so, the sooner we can have kick ass ads and a better marketing strategy. One that can compete with Sony and Microsoft. If NOA was in charge, we would have had a sequel to Super Metroid alot frikin sooner than a damn decade later. NOA got countless letters asking for a new Metroid since the release of Super Metroid and couldn't do anything about it because NCL has reports showing that Super Metroid sold poorly in Japan. So since Japan didn't like Metroid, no one gets Metroid.
It wasn't until NOA begged to have Samus in SSB for N64 and let NCL see the reaction to it, then they said we'll think about it. Then NCL partnered itself with Retro Studios and told them to make it, an American company, a game for Americans. But every second of cut-scenes, every model and every character of text had to meet NCL's approval, and half the time (or more) NCL was designing the cut-scenes, models and dialogue because it's supposed to be a Nintendo game, but their weird japanese business practices say that because they failed in grabbing a Japanese audience with previous efforts, they shouldn't put any more effort in to it.
Metroid Prime was the first game from Nintendo that was made with Americans in mind.
The only input that NOA got to put in to Metroid Prime was the ad campaign that was directed by the guy that did The Crow and make sure the ad campaign really spoke to Metroid fans. It was mostly NOA who headed that marketing campaign with NCL's money and guess what? It's the best marketing campaign Nintendo ever did.