Nintendo's letter to UK importers

[DjSatansfury]

It mentions on the letter paying back costs lost due to importing...

SO i wonder if any indie has challenged them, in losing "their costs" due to Nintendo price fixing all these years

[james]

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.

Amen.

NoE are still a bunch of useless w*nkers though.

Do you remember Sony's dispute with Dixons when they launched PS1? Dixons refused to stock it because the margins Sony allowed were too low. A few months later - PS1 sales went through the roof and Dixons changed their minds....

Nintendo just need to figure out how to start selling consoles again. That would fix their problems...

[NiceButDim]

Either way PAL users are still getting done over though, right?

If you think Nintendo deciding to release F-Zero GX and Mario Kart this year while saving Mario Golf for next, then maybe but you're being overly harsh and idealistic. I think it's very easy for people to forget that Nintendo are a business at the end of the day, and kulling the sales of one of your products by directly matching it against another is a pretty stupid thing to do.

Given that they've managed a perfectly good schedule for F-Zero GX, Mario Golf, Viewtiful Joe and Mario Kart in the US, I think its perfectly reasonable to ask just why they're being so incompetent with their PAL release schedule.

Of course, none of this would really be an issue if one were allowed to import.

[rgraves]

Given that they've managed a perfectly good schedule for F-Zero GX, Mario Golf, Viewtiful Joe and Mario Kart in the US, I think its perfectly reasonable to ask just why they're being so incompetent with their PAL release schedule.

Let's take them one by one:

F-Zero GX will be here within two months of appearing in the US - not too shabby, and hardly an 'incompetent' delay seeing that they have issues such as timing to consider with 50/60Hz as well as language concerns.

Mario Golf is not even out in Japan yet so they are preparing that one for release there first - it fitted nicely into the US schedule but doesn't into the PAL one. I've covered the reasons for this already.

Viewtiful Joe was a Capcom title the last time I looked so it's not up to Nintendo to decide when it does/does not get a European release.

Mario Kart will be released in the UK before the US - again, hardly smacks of an imcompetent NoE that one does it.

[NiceButDim]

The US schedule works fine, and yet a two months delay in F-Zero leads to a seven month delay in Mario Golf? How can that be described as anything other than incompetent?

[NeilMcRae]

the quality of the ports to the PAL system.

Exactly what is wrong with the quality of their ports to PAL these days - Nothing. Every single title since SSB:M has had a 60hz option. Quite frankly, this is just not something that can be used as a stick to beat NoE with anymore.

Do you work for Nintendo Europe?

actually fair point. I don't own any Nintendo PAL games so I shouldn't really comment on the quality of them.

Regards,
Neil.

[bangaio]

This whole episode can be sumerised like this:

NOE stink, and treat the pal region pretty badly.

NOE are absolutly right in what they are doing. They are doing nothing and protecting their business.

Import shops will loose out but hey...they charge too much anyway. If you want to import buy from the US or Japan. NOA and NCL dont mind you doing this as they get the revenue from your purchase, and it's cheaper than paying uk import prices.

[Xexex]

SO i wonder if any indie has challenged them, in losing "their costs" due to Nintendo price fixing all these years

Since the price fixing case affected Nintendo products in Germany, Greece, and a few other continental European countries, it's unlikely.

Tim (tm)

[FelixofMars]

I just import from Canada direct now, sod Nintendo UK or whoever and there silly laywer games!

[Max M]

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?

Well Nintendo's machines are certainly a hell of a lot easier to play import games on. Only the Dreamcast was more simple than the GameCube (Cause you could create your own boot disk).

[mid]

Precisely - I can't be faffed with owning muliple versions of a console, like being able to grab shop bargains, and haven't dared chip anything other than a DVD player. Consequently, I've only got Cube, DC and GB import games.

[mid]

Oh, and as much as I agree with many complaints about NoE (largely due to the AC mess), is life really so much worse than on the rival consoles? If so, its purely because they are written here in the first place. You usually have to wait just as long for Japanese titles elsewhere (eventually I may get the opportunity to purchase Psyvariar and Shikigami No Shiro, for instance, but I'm not holding my breath), its merely that on the Nintendo so few of the big name games are Western ones.

[bowser123]

the quality of the ports to the PAL system.

Exactly what is wrong with the quality of their ports to PAL these days - Nothing. Every single title since SSB:M has had a 60hz option. Quite frankly, this is just not something that can be used as a stick to beat NoE with anymore.

Do you work for Nintendo Europe?

Well rgraves, when you go back to NOE on Monday for work can you get me a definite reason to why Animal Crossing was never released please.
Seeing as its their best game for years and one of the few genuinely innovative titles around.
Also why they felt the need to release an import, 60hz only version of Ocarina Of Time with Wind Waker. You may also want to point out that the cube is dead in this country and no number of late titles (even if they are sublime) will save the machine in this country. Pop into a games shop and notice the rapidly declining shelf space and numerous stores refusing to even stock it.
People are only interested in buying PS2 and Xbrick in this country from my experience because NOE don't advertise, when they do advertise the advert is dire and convinces nobody and quite frankly Nintendo pay about ?1.50 to shops to advertise their products.
You talk about PAL products being the equal of NTSC releases because they can play in 60hz, well you may be interested to know that the branch of game I work in has seen 2 official RGB cables come in this week after a wait of about 6 months since the last one. This situation was the same for the company as a whole. There has also been similar shortages on memory cards.

The other reason we all import (other than wanting to wait months for the conversion) is it is actually cheaper than buying PAL. Please explain to me how this can be.

[Ish]

I think we should be allow to do free trade. Big companies love to have free trade when it suit them but things like region coding and grey markets are pathetic.

Oh don't get me started on that one. I won't stop...

Big companies do love free trade when it suits as you say - because free trade, on the one side, the side they like, means cheap labour. Often, in everything but law, slave labour - which they also like to dress up in the name of developing third world countries.

But when it means a customer can save 5p on the price of something. Oh no. Thats not free trade. And our so called civilised world democracies allow them to get away with this.

To my mind many of the executives of a lot of big companies are no better than the despots, warmongers, and dictators of the world. The only thing that seperates them is that they've managed to work out a cunning masquerade. Scum of the earth.

[chipsgravy]

The other reason we all import (other than wanting to wait months for the conversion) is it is actually cheaper than buying PAL. Please explain to me how this can be.

I think you may find our crazy VAT laws have something to do with that!

Not that I'm defending Nintendo. I import as much as any of you, I just think that sometimes they get unfairly treated.

Chippo[/quote]