3rd February 2003, 6:44 PM
Of course, I'm not making decisions that mean dollars in the millions range, but going simply on history, I'd say that releasing Fire Emblem in North America has a favorable risk-reward model. I mean, if we're simply going by traditional views of culture, Pokemon wouldn't work in the United States. That decision would have cost Nintendo billions in revenue. But someone had faith that a quality product with the right word of mouth (Advance Wars, GTA:VC comes to mind) can sell anywhere. Something tells me that America is ready for a product like Fire Emblem. Sure, it's not like Advance Wars (going solely by what N_A says), but we know some key things:
1-the graphical style does not repel North American gamers
2-War themes do not repel North American gamers
3-RPGs (Golden Sun-1 million sold in NA) do not repel North American gamers
4-Japanese complex card-type games do not repel North American gamers (dare I say "Yugioh")
These are the roots of a probable success. Of course, no success is guarenteed. Most of the weight falls on the formation of word of mouth and Nintendo's encouragement of that underground force.
1-the graphical style does not repel North American gamers
2-War themes do not repel North American gamers
3-RPGs (Golden Sun-1 million sold in NA) do not repel North American gamers
4-Japanese complex card-type games do not repel North American gamers (dare I say "Yugioh")
These are the roots of a probable success. Of course, no success is guarenteed. Most of the weight falls on the formation of word of mouth and Nintendo's encouragement of that underground force.