Topic: European Software Drought

Not a Nintendo game. Capcom and Konami have pretty much been supporting the American VC on their own because NoA adamantly refuses to. Pretty ironic, considering Capcom and Konami's recent reputation.

NoE is a far more competent division than NoA. Probably because they have their own CEO and actually make decisions. Reggie is pretty much just a figurehead that shows up at events to talk about Zelda and kiss some babies.

Good for you if you have that much time to spend on video games, I don't have that luck and my backlog includes games even from 2013. Heck, I have to get Zombi U at some point At this rate, when it is selling for $5...

So far they've announced for 2015 more games that I can actually play, and I'm counting only those I'm interested in. Splatoon alone can distract me from anything else for months, and that's if I stop playing Smash and Mario Kart, which I doubt. From now to May I still have plenty to play and considering I'll be getting Majora's Mask and Code Name STEAM on 3DS and Metroid Trilogy plus some eShop/VC titles on Wii U I will provably be still busy by the time Splatoon comes out.

But yes, from your point of view, it must feel like a drought. I wish I could be in your position though.

Sorry to disappoint but Codename STEAM is also a May release in Europe.

Oh well... I'll get Ace Combat or MH4U (just got the demo code now).

Maybe I don't know much about Europe, but don't they have delays, because of the number of languages?

That is a big part of it. It is the reason why a lot of indies are either delayed or never appear in EU. People don't think it should effect Nintendo since Nintendo could just delay the other region versions too to match the EU date which doesn't make much sense to me. They wouldn't be getting it any sooner if they wanted the other regions to be delayed.

Partially. A much bigger roadblock is that the european market is covered by three rating boards, all of which are extremely slow (4-6 weeks rating process), demanding (submit a full game presentation), and pricey (goes to the 4 digits prices).
This treatment of entertainment media is seriously annoying, and for many developers simply not worth it, so they either limit themselves to PEGI (the most widely-accepted rating system in EU), or just skip the region altogether.

I doubt the translation causes delays. It's not like they've only started translating games as of yesterday. They've always had to translate games into certain languages, and I'm sure they're prepared for that. Besides, a game like Captain Toad or Kirby isn't really text-heavy either, so I don't think that's the reason for their delay. The European rating system is pretty difficult to work with, and I'm sure that has caused some delays in the past. However we've seen a lot more games match the North American release date in the last years.

If I had to give my best guess, I'd say it was the relocation of their European headquarters that caused Captain Toad and Kirby to delay. I expect little to no problems with the upcoming games.

The Captain Toad delay was a "strategic decision" to make sure it could sell better or not alot of retail games were out in the first few months so they dropped it in the dead zone and then changed their mind and got a weird early release.

I doubt that! Nintendo games are translated into a couple of languages only. Playstation and xbox games have more languages that they care about... and there is seemingly no delay between releases.

I guess its an internal policy - like captain toad which was released later than the US version. I read that there were better games out there and nintendo didnt want captain toad to fall under the radar.

All companies have policies and the people who make them follow certain ideas and assumption, which are not always right - and will not satisfy all customers - but then, thats life...

No wonder the Wii u doesn't sell with such a drought. I mean in Europe:

Januari: Only Toad treasure tracker, and that should have been in December
Februari: Nothing
March: Nothing
April: Nothing
May: Kirby rainbow curse

So that's 3 months of nothing, that's even worse then 2014. Okay, there are downloads and dlc. And I understand Nintendo want to focus at the moment on the New 3DS and Amiibo (yuck). But still, this looks bad. Especially if you think of all the titles that are still supposed to release this year. Either they come all at once, or some of them get shoved to 2016 (I look at you, Zelda).

Me, I have still lots to do. Many downloads, dlc, Bayonetta 1, etc. I won't be bored soon, but its no good advertising for Wii u (3 months of nothing)!

@Henmii

January: Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Frebruary: -
March: Mario Party 10, Mario vs Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars
April: -
May: Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush, Splatoon, Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack 2

Yoshi's Woolly World, Smash DLC and Project Giant Robot are set for the first half of 2015 as well, so who knows what other game we will get.

This year:
Jan -> Captain Toad
Feb -> Nothing, but here's some Amiibo and if you own a 3DS Monster Hunter and Majora's Mask
Mar -> Mario Party 10
Apr -> Nothing
May -> Splatoon, Kirby
Rest of the year -> Zelda, Starfox, Xenoblade, Yoshi

Last year:
Jan -> Nothing
Feb -> DKC: TF
Mar -> Nothing
Apr -> Nothing
May -> Mario Kart 8
Rest of the year -> Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2, Smash Bros

"it's so much worse than last year"

@Kaze_Memaryu

A much bigger roadblock is that the european market is covered by three rating boards, all of which are extremely slow (4-6 weeks rating process), demanding (submit a full game presentation), and pricey (goes to the 4 digits prices).

Sony and Microsoft release their games in US and EU the very same day, maybe because they know how to work with the european rating board...

There's currently no releases we know of in April, but I personally don't think April will be empty. There are just too many peculiar things going on right now. I will stand corrected if there isn't a Nintendo Direct soon.

Or perhaps Nintendo just decides on a release date much later in the development cycle, since they want to make sure the games are free from bugs?

If we're to consider only retail games then so far (Captain Toad was December for most of Europe):
January - Nothing
February - Nothing
March - Mario Party 10
April - Nothing
May - Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush, Splatoon

Considering all Wii U Nintendo games adds Mario vs DK Tipping Stars to March which would still make it look like the first half of 2015 is concerning. Except there is two big things that's missing, namely DLC (which is MK8 DLC pack 2 and Mewtwo) and indie eshop games. From the "Let's buy eShop games 2015 thread!" thread with the main question being "So, what eShop games have you bought so far this year?"

Just try to find more games you would like, plenty available to consider. Also, we're starting to see more aspiring game creators who are actual members here. Check out @Inkling and @BLPs threads below:

https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/general_discussion/inkling...
https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/general_discussion/blps_vi...

@Grumblevolcano Quickly! Pay for advertising!

But yes the lack of games is concerning, but I have a huge backlog anyway. 2014 man.

My feeling towards "software droughts" has always been about the same. Early on in a console's life? It hit's pretty hard when there are a few months in a row without content. Purely because you don't have much content at all yet and the indie stuff hasn't gained that much steam. When you get a few years in? Doesn't matter that much at all anymore.

With my 3DS it was kinda brutal early on. But once Mario Kart came out I played mostly that for the next year or so between other titles. Then when Animal Crossing came out I played nothing but Animal Crossing for a good year. It's the same with my Wii U. At launch I got a few single player games that I beat in a couple of months or so. Then nothing for a long while. I brought stuff I otherwise wouldn't have because I wanted to play games on the thing. Then last year? Mario Kart 8. I played that and little else until Smash Bros... at which point I played Smash Bros AND Kart in the gaps. A month without anything new other than some indie games that keep me interested for a few days? That's not an issue.

That combined with the fact that even with the whine here we're still actually getting more content this year than we did in 2014 and a LOT more than 2013? What more do you want? You don't have to get a new game every, single month.

> Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Wind Waker HD, Wii Fit U, Wii Party U, Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Country, Mario Kart 8, Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2, Smash Bros., Mario Party 10 all arrive around or close to the same time as their respective U.S release, some even weeks earlier.

> Captain Toad and Kirby get delayed and suddenly NoE doesn't know how to work with the European ratings boards.

It has nothing to do with troubles with the ratings board (otherwise this would have happened more often) or bugs needed to be ironed out (see above). The restructuring and shift in locations is the most likely culprit here and thus larger titles needed to be prioritized to prevent them from getting delayed.