Topic: Hard Questions for Nintendo

[Bass X0]

2.    This issue plagued the Wii in North America and Europe: toward the end of the system’s life, we just aren’t seeing Virtual Console games anymore. Europe went through months without a VC release, and North America was even worse. And there was never any explanation as to what titles were chosen and why, or reasons given for such a severe dry-up in the service. For example, there’s always been a high demand for EarthBound (SNES), but it was never released. Instead, Nintendo of America gave us Ice Climbers, which nobody wanted, or Pokemon Puzzle League (instead of, say, Tetris Attack). Could you explain the process for getting VC games onto the Wii Virtual Console, and why things tapered off so harshly?

 
We weren't seeing VC games anymore on the Wii most likely because they just weren't selling well. Publishers lost interest in releasing games that weren't selling. Sega's current support seems more like a gamble based on the feedback towards the lack of games.  If the current games don't sell well either then Sega will probably not release many more releases.  Its been six years since the Wii was released, releases were expected to dry up.
 
Earthbound wasn't released due to the legal issues and Nintendo's unwillingness to alter the game so that they could release it. High demand is irrelevant in this case. Ice Climbers would have been released simply because it was an early NES game. There are several of those on the VC - quality and demand didn't much matter much in the early days, they just released as much as they could.
 
Tetris Attack was not released because it had the Tetris name in the title. The Tetris Company is now quite protective of the Tetris name and have gone on record to saying that they deeply regret ever allowing Nintendo to use the Tetris name for a game that clearly wasn't Tetris. And since Nintendo didn't do alterations to the games, a title change would have been out of the question (although yes, I am aware of a few minor alterations to other games).  They probably figured why bother going through the process of getting the name changed when they could just release PokĂ©mon Puzzle League as a substitute.

3.    It took four or five years for the Wii’s Virtual Console to grind to a halt, but the process seems to be happening much faster for the North American eShop Virtual Console, which is terrifying. The Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Game Gear, combined, must have hundreds of perfectly good games to release on the service, so it’s unclear and worrying how weeks will go by—weeks—without any Virtual Console releases at all, and when the smoke eventually does clear, it’s something like Qix or Lock & Chase. Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo of Japan have had no problems in this area—both localities have Wario Land and Kid Icarus: Myths & Monsters. I guess the biggest Virtual Console question I have is this: why has Nintendo of America been so reluctant to support the Virtual Console, both of the Wii and the 3DS?

 
There is no hard rule but Nintendo generally supports the 3DS Virtual Console when there are no 3DSWare games to release that week. The weeks when both or neither VC and 3DSWare have had new games are quite rare although they do exist.
 
Japan gets favorable treatment because its Nintendo's home country while Europe seems to get favorable treatment just because there are fewer 3DSWare games released there.

[ROiDS]

Nintendo, why do you guys screw up routine stuff that everyone else gets right years before you even make your first effort?  That's what annoys me about Nintendo.  Sony or MS does something and Nintendo then does it like years late and they screw it up!  Hello, the competition already sorted the kinks out of this!  Just do what they did!  So Nintendo either pays no attention whatsoever to what the rest of the industry does, which is fuckin' stupid, OR they intentionally refuse to do something the way someone else already did it because that would be "admitting" that someone else besides themselves has good ideas, which is even stupider.

I can see where you're at, but I think the only situation where Nintendo messed up so much was their online infrastructure. As they mentioned before: they suck at online stuff, and lack the experience on this area. The other two are already experienced  and have the knowledge when it comes to online, so they have the advantage when it comes to this.

[ROiDS]

I still think this is unlikely as it would put early 3DS owners at too large a disadvantage.

True, but the DSi, with added online shop and a camera, didn't stop Nintendo from releasing it. The same thing happened to the Gameboy to Gameboy Color (added colors) and original GBA to GBA SP (with added backlight). What I'm trying to say is that if Nintendo should ever release an upgrade of the 3DS, it should at least have a second slide pad.

[Ceric]

I be very surprised that when the Social aspect of the Wii U is announced that the 3DS does not get a companion update to integrate most of those features.  Probably about a month before the Wii U is launched to help work out some of the bugs for the Wii U implementation.

I still think this is unlikely as it would put early 3DS owners at too large a disadvantage.

True, but the DSi, with added online shop and a camera, didn't stop Nintendo from releasing it. The same thing happened to the Gameboy to Gameboy Color (added colors) and original GBA to GBA SP (with added backlight). What I'm trying to say is that if Nintendo should ever release an upgrade of the 3DS, it should at least have a second slide pad.

None of those things fundamentally affected the Retail games like a second analog would.

[NWR_DrewMG]

True, but the DSi, with added online shop and a camera, didn't stop Nintendo from releasing it. The same thing happened to the Gameboy to Gameboy Color (added colors) and original GBA to GBA SP (with added backlight). What I'm trying to say is that if Nintendo should ever release an upgrade of the 3DS, it should at least have a second slide pad.

DSi Camera was a function that was used by a HANDFUL of games, most of which were download only. 
Gameboy Color came out many years after the original Gameboy.
The backlight didn't make any new games incompatible with the original GBA.

A right analog stick is another deal entirely - it's an industry standard feature on console controllers, and would fundamentally change the way developers view the system.  If we think it's unfair of Konami to make a MGS game that essentially requires the user to have the CPP, that kind of them would completely explode after a revision which included a right stick.  Basically, you would absolutely HAVE to get the CPP or a new 3DS for a large chunk of software which was developed after the new model. 

I'm not saying it *won't* happen absolutely, but I am saying that I think it's unlikely, and that's my reason why.

[NWR_Neal]

Monster Hunter 4 says you're full of ****, Andy. :

But seriously, for financial reasons (as in, Nintendo needs to sell some current 3DSes at their current price or else they will have another awful year), we won't see a revision in the next year. My original Japan prediction of new 3DS alongside Monster Hunter 4 will likely not happen. However, I still think that will happen sooner rather than later because Monster Hunter will make the new version totally worth it.

NA and Europe would likely not receive that update for a while after Japan. It would likely be a similar disparity to the difference between the DSi launch in Japan and the rest of the world.

[UncleBob]

uh, yea, but I've done that repeatedly and its been taken as aggressive and offensive.  I thought this new approach would be acceptable.

Try doing it in a way that isn't aggressive and offensive.  Like posting "Oh, when are you going to do this - quarter past nevar?!?"...

[ResettisCousin]

Most of these are just vituperative, rhetorical ranting. They aren't actually questions.
"Did you know the 3DS scratched its screens and it shoulder buttons fell apart?"
How do you expect they'd answer that?
"the industry’s version of The Great Satan"
Basically this is a troll article, right?
Zach, your humor is invaluable on the podcasts, which can themselves be a bit dry. But between the "five hotest video game babes" article and this vituperative nerd rage fantasy, perhaps your pieces should be tagged 'humor'.
My hard question for Nintendo would be will we see them 'return to darker themes and release another 'M' rated title anytime soon?'
Also agree with sentiments above that 90% of "game journalisim" is no better than an extension of each game company's marketing.

[NWR_Neal]

vituperative

I learned a new word today. Thanks, guy!

[ShyGuy]

Hard Questions for Halbred #1: Why are you attracted to fictional cartoon figurines? Isn't real flesh and blood enough for you?

[NWR_insanolord]

Hard Question for Halbred #2: Just how much better is Paper Mario than Super Mario RPG?

[NWR_DrewMG]

My hard question for Nintendo would be will we see them 'return to darker themes and release another 'M' rated title anytime soon?'

"return"?

My hard question for Nintendo would be will we see them return to manufacturing playing cards.

[ShyGuy]

Hard Question for Nintendo: How many death warrants has Yamauchi signed?

[Ceric]

vituperative

I learned a new word today. Thanks, guy!

: uttering or given to censure : containing or characterized by verbal abuse
— vi·tu·per·a·tive·ly adverb  (Merriam Webster)

You need to Share Man...

Hard Questions for Halbred #1: Why are you attracted to fictional cartoon figurines? Isn't real flesh and blood enough for you?

I'll answer that one.  When you get married you form a bond with your wife and you make a promise not to cheat on them.  At that point in time some people come to the realization that the only Flesh and Blood girl they can ever actually do anything with is there wife.  That can cause you to move beautiful women into the unattainable and more like pieces of art.  Now viewing women beauty in a more artistic light women who are actual art being attractive isn't really that strange.  Though seriously have you seen some of those women?

My hard question for Nintendo would be will we see them 'return to darker themes and release another 'M' rated title anytime soon?'

"return"?

My hard question for Nintendo would be will we see them return to manufacturing playing cards.

They have.  I'm not going to find the thread, but I was properly corrected that Nintendo in the USA does indeed do the Manufacturing of the Pokemon Trading Card Game now.

Hard Question for Nintendo: How many death warrants has Yamauchi signed?

Exactly 1 more than before.

[NWR_insanolord]

Hard Question for Nintendo: Why do the Mariners suck so much? You'd think with the record profits you had in recent years you might have brought some talent in there and made them more of a contender.

[Pixelated Pixies]

I've got a hard question for Nintendo.
Given that the New Super Mario Bros series sells so well, why is the meaning of life 42?

[ShyGuy]

Hard Question for Insanolord: A Cleveland Indians fan? Really?

[NWR_Neal]

Hard Question for Nintendo: Why do the Mariners suck so much? You'd think with the record profits you had in recent years you might have brought some talent in there and made them more of a contender.

They have Ichiro, so Japan is happy.
Also, why spend money when you can just get the royalty tax from big-market teams?

[Chocobo_Rider]

@UncleBob

Hardy har but that's not exactly representative of the responses I was referring to.

[ResettisCousin]

To Andy wrt. "return?"
N64: published Conker's Bad Fur Day and Perfect Dark
GC: published Eternal Darkness and Geist
All rated ESRB "M"
Granted, not first party. But we know that at least the GC games had regular, if not weekly, input from Miyamoto et al. (thanks for the great interview, RFN). So yes, "return"

[pololmejor]

Not so hard question for Zach... or anybody outhere: What exactly are the infamous vertical grease lines? Google doesn't seem to answer me this one.
Hard question for Nintendo: Why do you guys hate Latin America so much? *Remembering that horrible Mario Galaxy 2 event.* Even Sony has gaming events here at Mexico once in a while.
Another Not so hard question for everybody: Why do you guys hate GameStop so much? I went to a GameStop for the first time like 2 months ago and I loved it! Clean, not expensive, workers know what they're talking about.... At least in comparison to Mexican GAMERS shops that totally suck!

[Ceric]

Not so hard question for Zach... or anybody outhere: What exactly are the infamous vertical grease lines? Google doesn't seem to answer me this one.
Hard question for Nintendo: Why do you guys hate Latin America so much? *Remembering that horrible Mario Galaxy 2 event.* Even Sony has gaming events here at Mexico once in a while.
Another Not so hard question for everybody: Why do you guys hate GameStop so much? I went to a GameStop for the first time like 2 months ago and I loved it! Clean, not expensive, workers know what they're talking about.... At least in comparison to Mexican GAMERS shops that totally suck!

The Bezel around the bottom screen raise up and on a lot of unit touch the top screen.  With the nature wiggling that the 3DS goes through it will cause lines to form with eventually turn into permanent scratches if you don't have a screen protector.

On the second one there is a lot of threads on that topic.  It varies, but most of it boils down to Customer Service, used game policy, and the amount of non-pre-order units they stock.  Different people have had positive experience in general with them.  It can be hit or miss.  I have to say it was better when they had competition, but they seem to have started to mellow.

[Kairon]

Easy there, Edward R. Murrow.

This post is so much win. *applauds*

Actually, I consider myself a pretty solid Nintendo fanboy, but these questions don't really bother me. I think Nintendo could answer a lot of these questions very reasonably and rationally if they ever wanted to be frank... but of course, that would be PR suicide. A lot of people just aren't ready to handle the sort of truth us diehard fans already know. &P

[TJ Spyke]

"Xenoblade Chronicles was a GameStop exclusive, as was the Circle Pad Pro. The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower are also slated to be GS exclusives."


Is this accurate?  I am pretty sure that The Last Story isn't GameStop exclusive and that no formal announcement has been made for Pandora's Tower outside of unsubstantiated rumors (even though I do hope the rumors are true).


Edit: Doesn't invalidate the overall question, as I'd be interested to hear any news about how/why there have been some GameStop exclusivity deals recently. Strategic move on Nintendo's part? Part of the deal for GameStop taking on publishing risks for Xenoblade? Just seemed like a good idea at the time?

Someone should tell Amazon that they shouldn't be offering pre-orders  for The Last Story then...

This is not the first time Amazon has taken pre-orders for a game that is not confirmed for a US release. In the past they would just cancel the pre-order if the game didn't come out eventually.

[NWR_insanolord]

Hard Question for Insanolord: A Cleveland Indians fan? Really?

Yes, I am a fan of the American League Central leading Indians. Until they figure out they suck sometime next month, you're really in no position to say anything bad about them.