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Topic: IGN Middle East's Open Letter to Nintendo

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HopeNForever

This bit is a few weeks too late, but better late than never.

Whilst it is true Nintendo is not currently being favoured by many gaming communities around the world, the company still managed to get a firm market foothold in many territories regardless, and for the past few years Nintendo have been slowly expanding their business into new ones. Whilst Nintendo's globalisation efforts does not always seem to work out, (for example, pulling out of Brazil earlier this year, not actively pursuing the mainland Chinese market at the time..., and even losing a licensed distributor in Poland) there are still many territories Nintendo still has to touch, or aggressively breach at least, such as the Middle East region, a positively thriving market (more notably among the GCC countries) for gaming that many other major publishers are already pursuing, and which Sony and Microsoft had already established themselves with a lot of marketing, localisation, and promotions. Heck, the PlayStation 4 now includes the option to translate the menu into Arabic, a first for a major non-PC gaming platform, and Microsoft are already working to do the same with Xbox One.

Mind you, Nintendo does already have a somewhat recognisable presence in the Middle East in a form of a licensed distributor of North American NTSC products, plus Nintendo of Europe are still supplying various major retailers and extended distributors with a range of PAL-based products for those who still prefer it. Regardless, in the eyes of Lebanese gaming journalist Lynn Jisr, one of the more notable people at the Middle Eastern edition of IGN, Nintendo's market share is ridiculously underwhelming compared to their competitors, and nobody can really tell how well they are doing due to lack of a local office with proper PR support. In fact, she recently wrote an open letter to Nintendo in attempt to garner attention in some form, and was posted on IGN Middle East as a feature article. The letter is available in both English and Arabic languages, although most of you would likely prefer the former. Jisr even took to Twitter and other social media attempting to contact anyone at Nintendo in any region in order to understand more about their business practises and how involved are they in the region. As far as I know, neither she or anyone at IGN Middle East had any luck.

If you guys got any further inquires in mind outside IGN Middle East's open letter, don't be afraid to ask me about it, as I myself am a big Nintendo fan who lived in the Middle East his entire life.

Edited on by HopeNForever

Wishing this world would pay any sort of attention to the smaller details.

3DS Friend Code: 4554-0763-8590 | My Nintendo: hopenforever | Nintendo Network ID: HopeNForever | Twitter:

Dezzy

The Middle East is a thriving market?

It's dangerous to go alone! Stay at home.

CaviarMeths

Dezzy wrote:

The Middle East is a thriving market?

Well, it's emerging. Turkey, Iran, and Egypt are all identified by Goldman Sachs among the "Next Eleven," a group of developing countries that are rapidly growing. Pakistan and Bangladesh too, if you want to include South Asia.

And have you seen pictures of Dubai lately?

Edited on by CaviarMeths

So Anakin kneels before Monster Mash and pledges his loyalty to the graveyard smash.

Sleepingmudkip

I dont mean to sound dumb or anything but for some of those countries doesn't Nintendo need to censor like a lot for the games to be sold there?

Playing: Wargroove on Switch and Fire Emblem on GBA

3DS Friend Code: 3136-7674-9891 | Nintendo Network ID: lionel1 | Twitter:

HopeNForever

Sleepingmudkip wrote:

I dont mean to sound dumb or anything but for some of those countries doesn't Nintendo need to censor like a lot for the games to be sold there?

Whilst censorship is a common issue and is often practised, most video games tend to released as is. Frankly, a lot of the media censorship stems for various executives "feeling" things to be cut or edited out to avoid cultural sensitivity issues with their demographic audiences, but the audiences are actually more open than some people give them credit for. In fact, there has been great, widespread demand for companies to halt or at least reduce censorship mentalities. Besides, in most cases regarding video games, there aren't any legal obligations for censorship.

More often than naught, however, video games that "need" to be censored would usually only get banned from sale in the white market, and since only developers can edit content (There aren't any locally licensed developers for most publishers stationed), very rarely do publishers ever bother ask their developers to modify content simply for the sake of selling their games in one region. The industry in itself is still relatively young within the region after all, as they're still trying to get a firm foothold as a trade market at first before going into manufacturing itself.

As far as I know, at least in the United Arab Emirates where Nintendo's licensed distributor is based, there hasn't been any case of a Nintendo-published title being banned ever. Even Pokémon, which stirred a religious/political controversy in Saudi Arabia waaaaay back in 2001, has never been officially banned, albeit was temporarily pulled off the shelves but retailers had since been selling the games normally again without anymore backlash. As you know, Nintendo's games (at least outside Japan) rarely ever feature objectionable content. Nintendo's games are just weird, not offensive.

Edited on by HopeNForever

Wishing this world would pay any sort of attention to the smaller details.

3DS Friend Code: 4554-0763-8590 | My Nintendo: hopenforever | Nintendo Network ID: HopeNForever | Twitter:

HopeNForever

Dezzy wrote:

The Middle East is a thriving market?

You have no idea, don't you? If you don't believe me, read this reliable article about it.

Wishing this world would pay any sort of attention to the smaller details.

3DS Friend Code: 4554-0763-8590 | My Nintendo: hopenforever | Nintendo Network ID: HopeNForever | Twitter:

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