Topic: Good news for the Wii U? Iwata says Nintendo needs to pay better attention to foreign trends / stop being so Japan centric.

Iwata just needs to listen to Reggie more. I'm sure Reggie knows a lot more about what the west wants.

@Rin-go Thats what i also dont get. I you really dont like the WiiU, why hate on it when there are way better options available ? Behaviour like that tells me, that people either hate for the sake of hating or that they love the product, but want it to be as successful as its competitors, therefore comparing the two / listing what the others do better (in the eyes of the mainstream press and such)

@mamp Pretty much that. Leave existing IPs as they are, create new ones / let western studios create new ones. Maybe the western flavour with added nintendo quality sprinkles could really help. But like you said, doing a capcom could pretty much ruin the entire company. Its just a thing of time till capcom bites the dust. It would take a miracle to save them now.

I'm ok with this as long as it doesn't get in the way of Nintendo supporting guys like Platinum and Atlus.

Speaking of Atlus: Has anybody heard ANYTHING about an european release of SMT4 ?

This could be a game changer if done correctly.
I don't really want them to westernize their IPs. I didn't have a problem with them before, and neither did anyone else. They don't need to pull a Capcom, that's for sure. They can just revive some of the old IPs that might interest westerners (ie. Wave Race, 1080, F-Zero, Star Fox) and make new ones as well. They could give Star Fox online capabilities and maybe make it a bit like Warhawk from the PS3.

If they want to take the western market more seriously, they should consider maybe getting more western world dev teams like Retro, under their belts. Retro does a beautiful job, and I'm sure there are more like them in the western world. Games like Metroid have often sold better in the west, so having a western developer (not necessarily Retro) doing those games would make sense since they would probably know how to appeal more to the audience that purchases the most copies of said game.
They should also work on communication and relationships with the western third parties.

@Gamecubed The western world LOVES online games:
Make the metroid attraction of Nintendo Land into a real Metroid online game. Add in different Hunters, vehicles etc and top it off with gigantic co-op boss batles.
And / Or: Take StarFox Assault online. Giant Maps, different weaponary, vehicel combat (land, air or even under water) and you pretty much nailed it.
I would LOVE to see both these things done, even though im not a real fan of online games.
And yeah, franchises like WaveRace, 1080 and F-Zero are really needed. Thats one of the biggest mistakes, even i, as a total nintendo nerd, must realize...

Who said anything about Westernizing their Franchises?
Nintendo's Franchises are somewhat more Westernized already. But what they're probably going to be doing now is putting a bit more into their Online Infrastructure and Put a little bit more into their Hardware. Because clearly having what many consider to be "Last Gen Hardware" is not going to cut it. It worked for Wii only because the Motion Control Gimmick was so unique and many wanted in that action. The Tablet Controller was doing them no favors.

Reading around got me that Because Europe had a Busy Launch Schedule for the Holiday Season (Layton, Bravely Default, Inazuma Eleven, Zelda, Pokemon) They probably decided to delay release till sometime later this year for Europeans.
Strange I know, since Japan and US got it in the Summer, but still.

Yeah cause he did a great job getting Disaster Day of Crisis over and let's not forget the fantastic effort he made with Xwnoblade.

As a European gamer my problems are these, be warned TL:DR:

1) They said they learnt their lesson with the 3DS with regards to software gaps... They didn't
2) They said it was about the core, and release another 2D Mario game and Nintendo Land*
3) They still haven't sorted out TVii over here while the others have media functions. I used the Iplayer on my Wii, why can't I have it on my more advanced system when my previous system had it and the other companies have it on their new ones?
4) The E-Shop on the Wii U is laggy to watch videos, which is odd cause it works a treat on the 3DS
5) Most of their advertising has consisted with people holding a Wii mote which has compounded the confusion that the pad is nothing more then an extension to the original Wii

*Although they are great games they are not what would be considered CORE games. DK: TF is more core, when I mean core I'm referring to challenge and narrative not violence and gore.

I think the Wii U is fantastic and HAD huge potential but that ship has sailed now. I'm sticking with the Wii U but I know that I'm in the minority when it comes to people playing it, and I want it to be successful. More success means more companies will want to develop for it but there's only so many times I can hear Iwata say "I'm sorry" and "Please understand", it's almost becoming like that episode in South Park with BP and the great cthulhu:

Those were not Reggie's decisions. Those were Iwata's.

Disaster: http://gonintendo.com/?p=61290
Xenoblade: http://www.crunchyroll.co.uk/anime-news/2013/12/05/nintendo-p...

In a nut shell, he makes the decisions in America or at least he did before Iwata became CEO over there

I don't mind these features as long as the west gets a good alternative. The Streetpass shuffle at Nintendo Zones was an amazing idea.

In a nut shell, no he doesn't

Can they start with removing their ridiculous YouTube copyright claim system? It's doing everyone, Nintendo included, more harm than good.

The Japanese apparently understand the Youtube copyright system the same way I understand Quantum Physics.

Iwata became CEO in 2002. Reggie became president of NoA in 2006. So... -4 years?

Nothing against Reggie, but he comes off as your typical corporate mouthpiece, perhaps with more charm, but I don't really hold much value to what he's saying during interviews.

Howard Lincoln was better, he seemed to be much more pro-active during the 1990's in establishing relations with western developers and giving his seal of approval for games that were outside of the typical Nintendo schtick (IE, variety, something Nintendo could use).

CEO of NOA as per link: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/24/satoru-iwata-appointed...
Although reading the article further Reggie isn't the CEO but the President of NOA, still I think that position contains some weight on who makes decisions about what comes to America

Oh, I misunderstood. I apologize. ...Please understand.

But, yeah, no. Iwata was still in charge of what comes to America. I'm sure Reggie can state his case to Iwata, but it's still ultimately Iwata's decision.

I'm still going with my theory that trying really hard and utterly failing to make another niche Japanese game in Sin and Punishment 2 successful was proof to Nintendo that niche Japanese titles don't sell and I don't believe Xenoblade would've done well if it wasn't for all the controversy beforehand. That doesn't fully justify their decisions but at least I get the logic behind it since both great JRPGs and great interesting new titles on Nintendo consoles are my main examples of games that usually sell way way way worse than they deserved too, which makes me sad.

If they were paying attention, they would be trying to link miiverse to twitter,facebook etc, rather than creating miiverse. Imagine if people had an easy way to take 30 seconds of awesome plays and share that over a video on facebook or twitter. You can't buy that kinda of free advertising.

And if Nintendo wants to win in the US they need the best multiplayer online system. Imagine if you could video chat over the wii remote while playing on the large TV. That combined with unique multiplayer online titles you make the wii u killer. Imagine if you could google hangout share a video feed of a mario kart 8 race. That's the sort of social media online experiences that would set Nintedo apart. I don't care about sharing my score with random people on miiverse. I want to share my best runs on platforming games, or stream an entire race on google hangout. People would be talking about that for a long time it would create real buzz if you could live stream multiplayer games or have software put together well chosen highlights of races to share on facebook or youtube or twitter.