Nintendo's letter to UK importers

[Vaipon]

NOE disgust me.

[MartyG]

"Nope, the games and the business are completely different things"

Maybe - but if Nintendo stopped importing, I wouldn't be buying their PAL products.

Nintendo are now the masters of bad PR.

Regards
Marty

[Max M]

Is this actually NOE's doing, or is it the new "Nintendo UK" who launched a couple of years ago? I was reading an interview with NOE on CVG from ECTS and they were saying how they don't really care if people import, because it's only a small group of hardcore gamers and not enough to affect them.

[Adam Stone]

I was reading an interview with NOE on CVG from ECTS and they were saying how they don't really care if people import, because it's only a small group of hardcore gamers and not enough to affect them.

I read that too... but i suppose companies are always saying a lot of things that twist the truth a little. I don?t really have much of an opinion on this matter, but feel i kinda see where Nintendo are coming from. I only import Nintendo products and never buy PAL, and if the worst came to the worst I would do whatever was in my power to continue to purchase imported items, however, surely Nintendo Europe have a right to try to prevent people like myself importing? Why shouldn't they? It is their profit being slightly distorted by importers such as us isn?t it...?

On the back of all US Gamecube boxarts there is a little piece of text saying

"For sale, rental and use only in USA, Canada, Mexico and Latin America"

?we are obviously ignoring this so isn't it us slightly in the wrong? Of course the PAL release dates need to be sorted, but it appears to me the gaps between dates is gradually being decreased across nations...

Anyhoo... not really angry about what Nintendo are doing, nor am I totally for it. I just feel they must have witnessed some sort of profit lose or significance to perform such actions as this letter?

Kind regards
Adam

[bowser123]

Anyhoo... not really angry about what Nintendo are doing, nor am I totally for it. I just feel they must have witnessed some sort of profit lose or significance to perform such actions as this letter.

Profit loss? Well what if they released games either
a: on time or
b: at all?

You been into a games shop recently? Frankly the line up for the PAL cube is disgusting, games are spread months apart and by that time most people don't care. I work part time in game and people who come in have absolutely no intention of buying Nintendo, its only which to choose from either a Xbrick or PS2 for them. The company are still only seen as kiddie and when I tell them about all the excellent games I have like AC, F-Zero, V Joe, WE6 they become interested. They then learn that these titles are months away and instead of buying for the future they buy into games they can play now. This is the real reason why NOE may be losing profits, its nothing to do with importers.

Anyhow, do Nintendo really think they can stop importers? Even if they did stop it, do they really think people would go back to PAL?
I'd guess a big fat resounding no to both of those questions.
The companys attitude stinks, I really thought that the kicking they have taken of Sony would maybe make them open their eyes and do something about it, but no, they attack the loyal fan base. I mean, who is more loyal and dedicated to Nintendo games than those who will go the extra mile to import them?

Slightly OT, why didn't Nintendo build region codes into Gameboy software? An oversight or couldn't they be arsed?

[Commander Marklar]

Says it's because of the Pok?mon franchise in the letter. You ****wits are making a mountain out of a mole hill

[PeteJ]

Says it's because of the Pok?mon franchise in the letter. You ****wits are making a mountain out of a mole hill

Not really. It is because of Pokemon, but it leads onto every single Nintendo game, ever. In the world.

Ever.

It takes away the retailers powers to sell games they wish to supply, and what a slice of the market demands.

[JammyD]

They're fully within their rights, I guess, but if they think they can stop importing, then they're wasting their time.

Even if it's because of the Pokemon games Nintendo UK seem hell-bent on removing all their import games from importers.

[Henning]

Nintendo should change there business and not try to change the market. Today we have imported grocerys to cars, what?s wrong with Nintendo?

[tankplanker]

Isn't the entire case built around the fact that importers do not say:

"This is an import product and is not endorsed or licensed by Nintendo in anyway"

Simply adding that to all item descriptions get round their entire claim that it hurts nintendos "valuable" trademarks by selling cheap(er) grey imported goods?

Tesco got into trouble as they didn't make it 110% clear that these where import jeans (and possible last seasons models/rejects), so if the importers make this totally clear then they lose that arguement?

Nintendo want to stop the import market preiscley because of the large gaps between release dates in each region - the hardcore are a viral marketing force, and are very important in the long term sales of games (halo being the obvious example), so if we've played a game to death (F-zero for example) we aren't going to recommend it to our more casual friends by the time it comes round to the PAL release.

NOE aren't interested in fixing the time delay/missing games problem, its far far cheaper to scare/sue importers, particularly when they have to pay Nintendos costs, even at this early stage.

[Commander Marklar]

Says it's because of the Pok?mon franchise in the letter. You ****wits are making a mountain out of a mole hill

Not really. It is because of Pokemon, but it leads onto every single Nintendo game, ever. In the world.

Ever.

It takes away the retailers powers to sell games they wish to supply, and what a slice of the market demands.

So? The market doesn't demand imports, they demand the franchise titles Nintendo Europe are protecting.

Of course it leads into every other Nintendo game but like I say - So? edit: Nintendo aren't stopping the import market at all.

[Commander Marklar]

And another thing - I don't see why anyone here has the right to complain about the legal practice of the PAL market when you don't even buy the Euro-licensed games. You don't have any consumer rights buying import titles, even if they're from the local shop that's just been shut down for infringing some companies trademark!

[rgraves]

Folks, I've covered this before but it obviously didn't sink in. NoE are not doing this out of choice - they have been more or less forced to do it by the major high-street retail chains who have threatened to drop support for Nintendo products if they do not control the flow of imports into the country. Many of you are perfectly right that a sale of a Nintendo title of any region does benefit Nintendo, but it doesn't benefit somebody like Game, and that is the problem.

Let me put it this way, if you were in charge of NoE would you send out this letter to a few importers, or tell Game et al that they could shove their support where the sun don't shine on almost every town high-street in the UK?

NoE aren't trying to shaft us, they are trying to maintain relations with the most important players in this territory. And don't start with all the "if they released on time crap" - NoE are genuinely trying to change this (see Wario World, Mario Kart etc) but certain European laws have to be adhered to, and it makes the release of a game in Europe a whole lot more long-winded than they'd like. For what it's worth, NoE always used to translate a game for Europe based on the US release - they have changed this now and translate directly from the, usually earlier, JPN release so things really should start to get better.

[mid]

surely it must be only a small percentage of hardcore gamers that do it

Right now, yes, in the main. The whole reason for Nintendo going crazy with the lawyer letters is explicitly revealed in the letter, Pok?mon. Most of the time, this is just you or I wanting obscure things that the majority of Nintendo's UK audience couldn't be bothered with the hassle about. Sticking import copies of Ruby and Sapphire on the shelf months before the official product was available, on a platform where there are no pesky region locks to stop it working on little Timmy's machine, was a serious leak in the floodgates. Nintendo clearly felt they needed to stamp on this in a hurry, as doing so was the only hope NoE had of turning a profit this year.

[tankplanker]

Many of you are perfectly right that a sale of a Nintendo title of any region does benefit Nintendo, but it doesn't benefit somebody like Game, and that is the problem.

snip...

it makes perfect sense, so why aren't game pushing Sony and Microsoft into doing the same thing?

It can't all be freeloader and the lack of a regional lock out on the GBA? Can it?