Topic: Nintendo of America Employee is Unable to "speculate on the reasons Cave Story has not been added to WiiWare yet."

So, like many people, I started to wonder why Cave Story, a supposedly done WiiWare game, has yet to appear on the Wii Shop Channel. Deciding that my curiosity had to be shot out of the sky, I decided to do the stupid thing and Email Nintendo about my curiosity. I didn't expect much other than a "There are many reasons why (game name here) is not out yet, and we aren't able to state any reasons." answer, and that's what I got. However, it appears that Nintendo's Automatic Email Responder broke down in the middle of forging my response Email, so they had to make a employee write the end of the letter. Here's what the end of the letter said;

"By the way, I"m afraid I'm unable to speculate on the reasons Cave Story has not been added to WiiWare yet. If we hear any new information, we will post it on our website.

Sincerely,
Kurt Wagner"

So, what do you think? A honest truth or a clever way to avoid the question?

If anybody has ever worked anywhere, would you be completely honest about every aspect of the running of the company to each customer that wanted to know?

They'll know exactly why Cave Story isn't on yet but its not necessary something they'll reveal to someone who sends an e-mail. They would make a press announcement instead when they feel the time is right.

To Nintendo, Cave Story is just another WiiWare game - one of many that are probably in queue to be released. There's no reason for it to take precedence over any other WiiWare release, and people honestly shouldn't expect it to.

As for the customer service response, you shouldn't expect them to have any real information on release dates as they probably have no clue. If every customer service rep had that type of information, you can be certain we would know the upcoming releases far more in advance than the morning of.

(Also - props to Kurt Wagner for his name choosing)

cave story wont be coming out it was a joke on nintendo wii players
nintendo been trying to get the game out since june of last year

Y'know, it could be that the delay is on the developer's end. And so maybe, just maybe, that customer service rep was telling the truth, that he didn't know what was going on over there.

I'm not sure why so many people think there's a crazy conspiracy here, that Nintendo is deliberately holding the finished game back. In reality, Nintendo has gone out of their way to promote the game a few times (in e-mails, Wii notices, and press events), and it's been pretty well documented that the developer was delaying the game to meet standards.

It's painfully obvious that the game is being held back for a special occasion (exactly the same thing that happened with SSB). Just be patient.

I wasn't aware that Nightcrawler from the X-Men works at Nintendo.

The customer service reps rarely know anything beyond what's been officially announced

i'm not exactly sure what's going on with the game. the christmas announcement seemed to suggest the game was done and had been accepted by nintendo, but the last interview with nicalis suggested that even that final build had a few problems to be worked on.

"In November, you reported that it had been submitted to Nintendo. Were there specific bugs or issues that came up with that build? Or is that still the final build as of now?

The short answer is that, yes, we did have some issues that required to be addressed prior to shipping the game."
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/19/interview-nicaliss-tyrone-r...

it's entirely possible that they corrected those issues quickly and got the game resubmitted before the christmas announcement, so i wouldn't be too bummed out about that answer. a while back nintendolife guy reported on the forum that they talked with nicalis and confirmed, off the record, that the game was in nintendo's hands.

as far as nintendo holding the game back for a milestone number, i think mega man 10 is a more suitable candidate for that. if i heard right, the service was going to reach 300 this march which is when mega man will be coming out.

I spoke to Tyrone at Nicalis the other night and they are addressing a few minor issues with the game before it's going to get final approval. Just hang on folks, it shouldn't be too much longer now.

Thanks, Corbs. Nice to know that it hasn't ripped the space awesome continuum, eventually being so awesome that it disappears from existence.

You meant 200?

if cave story doesn`t hold the #1 spot for an eternity (just like world of goo), i`ll be very dissapointed.

This, for all we know, he may be waiting not-so-patiently for the game too, but that doesn't meant he knows anything more than we do. In fact unlikely. Customer Service rarely get much of an insight to what is actually going on in the company, if you want anything done, you gotta complain and ask to speak to the rep's manager and just keep going to get an answer. Unfortunately, in this case, you have absolutely no grounds to complain as it is not something that they have to tell us, nor is it something that they plan to tell us.

Just remember this before you all rant about Cave Story: just because it's been submitted for a final approval does NOT mean that it has been approved and finalized.

People really need to chill out about this game. I'm excited too and looking forward to playing Cave Story on Wii... but the silly comments and threads created by Nintendo fans about release dates and conspiracies and who to blame for delays are getting ridiculous. The game was announced when it was being developed, but that doesn't mean it was ready for release last year. It'll come out when it's ready, and not a moment before. Have some patience, and play any of the other amazing WiiWare games that are getting released in the meantime.

Oh yeah, and it will be SPECTACULAR.

(Also, it should be no surprise that someone working tech support and answering emails doesn't know exactly when a third party WiiWare title would be slated for release - especially if there are still issues being addressed in the code. Don't read too much into an email response saying as much.)

looks like i just let it slip... nintendo is going to release 100 games next week, in the biggest shop channel update ever. it'll be total chaos, and many wii's will catch fire. people will die.

actually, yeah, i meant 200

thanks. i understand that they're busy working on the game, but just an update as simple as that could stop all of us from wildly speculating about what's going on. it makes me feel dumb to know that all these weeks i've been checking the shop channel for cave story when it wasn't even finished yet...

@corbie thanks that is good to know =) I kinda figured they were addressing the game in some way, but didnt know exactly what. On the brighter side i have a feeling this game is going to be very successful, i know alot of people including myself will be buying this. I have the Freeware version and I'm still going to buy this day one on Wiiware, it's just that damn good and worth my money.

...Oh shoot, you're right!

Since Nintendo Power just reviewed it, I think it's safe to assume that it's coming out fairly soon. I do recall, though, that when the game was first announced Nicalis specifically said that they wanted to aim it for a holiday release. Valentines day, maybe?