Nintendo Europe Dropped London Life to "Avoid Delays"

Why do always seem to get the short end of everything here?

I would rather wait until next year then not get London life but I'm still not importing because of what Luke's voice is like in the US version.

They should've included the US edition of London Life. Better than nothing.

Make it a free DSiWare download at a later date, if not for everybody then for those who register the game at Club Nintendo. Better than nothing, right?

And you guys though NOA was bad.

@4 This would be a good idea, but if you got a normal DS/lite you have no way of saving to your handheld. Maybe send out a seperate cartridge, it has been done for demos in the past.

A true gentleman never leaves a puzzle unsolved

@3 My thoughts exactly!

You people have Xenoblade Chronicles, a far superior RPG. Don't complain. And you're getting the Last Story. Who cares about a mini game left out in comparison?

Thanks for sharing @SoulSilverIV and nlife. I already thought this would be the reason but it's nice to hear an official word on it.
Another question would be if they wanted to translate London Life in the 5 main European languages or just in English.
I would have been fine with getting it in American English since it’s “only” a bonus. That would by far be better than many people not getting this part of the game at all.
_{Though sales-wise it is smart to release this DS game before the holiday season imo.}

I would gladly have waited longer for the complete game. Now i’m going to import the US version instead.
If this would be on the Wii, WiiU, DSi or 3DS _{(as in: on one of the region locked platforms)} i would only be willing to pay half of its initial price.

While it certainly makes sense for Nintendo to release this game before Christmas hits, I still couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that Nintendo chose to cut content, as I would have been more than happy to have waited for translation of the London Life minigame. Still, that American Luke isn't particularly appealing to me at the moment...

I think I'm more surprised that I received a reply though, considering I emailed them a couple of weeks ago when the stories first broke. Thanks for the response Nintendo! And cheers for sharing this James.

Poor Europe. Actually, I don't really feel sad for them, because they get Xenoblade and Last Story.

Lame! Why can't Nintendo include the American version of London Life? This would be enough for many European gamers. Personally, I don't use German translations anyway. Import is now the only option for me although I would prefer Luke's British voice. But I will definitely not support Nintendo of Europe by buying both versions.

I think the Japanese release date deserves a mention too _{(26th Nov 2009).} At least since then NoE could have known there's more to translate than for the previous Layton games.

@nix(6.): I think manufacturing and sending out a cartridge to everyone that wants it could potentially cost NoE an arm and a leg.

@battLeToaD: That's a good point! Nintendo of Europe had almost two years time to prepare the release. Nintendo's explanation is just ridiculous.

I would happily wait, but then I have no shortage of games to play. It is a bit disappointing to miss out on such a large chunk of content, but importing is easy enough these days so I'll grab a US copy instead.

@XCWarrior - The Professor Layton series is VERY Popular in europe, to the point, some people would choose to receive London Life than Xenoblade.

Who cares about Wii games? We're discussing a DS game :/

They could have at least put London Life in the UK version, or just put the English London Life in all European versions. I'm going to import this one, I don't mind if it's Dutch or English.

Will the American version work on a European DSLite? If so, that's what I'll be getting.

@XCWarrior

Personally I would have much rather had London Life over Xenoblade. Xenoblade, whilst looking like a good game, doesn't interest me since I'm not a particularly big fan of the genre, and London Life is part of a series I am a massive fan of. I would have much rather had the additional content in a game I will play than the game I will avoid.

@WhiteLayer

Yes, this is just a regular DS game, so there will be no region locking (thank goodness).

I am not buying this.

Depends if its any good I s'pose (the rpg content I mean). I'm importing the NA version anyway

Adam and Eve it? What are you saying?

@ Victoria
Are you serious? Europe gets the short end of the stick? All you don't get is a MINI RPG North America isn't getting Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Tower of Pandora

Why are you English complaining? SERIOUSLY?! You guys have FAR better stuff than we do, get better treatment from gaming companies AND you get games that will NEVER show up here like Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, Pandora's Tower, Sonic Generations Collector's Edition, Sega Game Music Vinyl, among others. I could go on and on but it would be too many to list. So, quit your complaining and save it for people who SHOULD complain.

I swear, you people are like a rich kid whining and crying because his parents won't buy him his 12th car! ENOUGH!

@Wolfpacleader1986: This is an article about London Life not being released in Europe. It has nothing to do with Xenoblade Chronicles. It's not our fault North America doesn't get those games you mentioned. You should complain about Nintendo not the European Nintendo fans.

I mean it's not a competetion between the regions who gets which game. It's just Nintendo's fault that we still have to complain about lousy EU/NA releases these days. The release politics of Nintendo haven't changed since the nineties:

• region code for Wii and 3DS
• games not being released in every region
• games being released with censorship in some regions
• PAL Virtual Console disaster

I was about to say that Europeans will probably get some London Life kind of thing in the next May's Mysteries or something, since it's as close as a carbon copy of Layton as it gets, and it's not released in North America as far as I know... But that would be mean, since May's Mystery appears to lack the charm and wit of Layton, and since it IS a blatant rip off...

I can't wait for October 17th to play that new Layton Game!!! I'll let you guys know if you're missing something out of London Life!

That's too bad, at least you can import it from America.

@ 4: Yeah, except there isn't a Club Nintendo in every European country.
@ 29: Well, I would, except I think Luke's American voice sounds horrible.

And to everyone who says that Europeans should be glad we get Xenoblade and whatever: I agree that it really, really sucks that you didn't get those. And I truly mean it, I hate when a game, film, etc isn't available in all regions. I could go on and complain about how Europe didn't get Super Mario RPG until its VC release, but how does that have anything to do with Layton's London Life?

@23 It's cockney rhyming slang for "can you believe it?" The irony being cockneys are from London.

Isn't this thing meant to last 100 hours? That doesn't sound like a "mini-game" to me. I'd gladly swap Pandora's Tower for L-Life. Anyway, I still haven't decided whether I should import or not.

@battleToad....there's no guarantee they knew back in 2009 that it was going to be released outside of Europe so why don't you think about that.
And yes it sucks that the Professor Layton isn't going to include that for you guys. But there's nothing you can do about it really other than import the american version or buy the European version.

Lol, that´s ridiculous.

Sounds like it's more of a matter of cartridge space as well.

I love all of the North American users who are whining about us Europeans getting Xenoblade without keeping in mind the DECADES of "getting the short end of the stick" that we've had, including many more game non-releases.

I also emailed Nintendo Europe and got the same (very prompt) reply. I emailed them back to ask if they would consider releasing it as bonus content, and am yet to receive any feedback.

@mumof2kids82 Professor Layton and the Curious Village came out at the end of 2008, where it was pretty much sold out everywhere and impossible to get a copy, as they underestimated how well the game would do in the European market. The following two years, Pandora's Box and Unwound Future have added to the sales success, before that, NOE knew that they had established a successful franchise from the first games sales and would continue to release each entry in the series on a yearly basis, even though the games had come a good year or two before in Japan.

I don't buy their excuse. They clearly had plenty of time to prepare a European localisation, considering Layton has become one of their biggest sellers over here for a good few years now, and they chose to leave it to the point where the latest version would've been delayed into the following year, thus missing their biggest sales - the Xmas period.

It may just be an added mini-game, but it easily could've been translated into all those languages in that time period.

I really don't see why Nintendo can't just include the North American version of London Life on the European cartridge - that would be better than not having it at all. If it is 100 hours of gameplay it's quite a significant loss.

Sorry to hear that for the fans of the series .

If NOE didn't have to translate everything 5 times over you wouldn't have this problem. Whose fault is it that Europe speaks like 80% of the worlds languages?

@40. It's noone's fault, there wasn't someone who decided that "in this region people should speak this language I just made up, which I am going to call Dutch" - the languages kind of grew naturally.

Personally, I think they could've included the American version of London Life in the European copies of the game, or at least the European English ones.

In that case,why they won't cut the price since more than half the game is missing? There is no excuse,they had 2 whole years time to translate it and even if the couldn't, they had to include the english version for all 5 main european countries.It's better to have it in english to not have it at all.
We are the only ones who we won't get it and pay it full price
What is he talking about? The 170 new puzzles and the storyline as it's something special and not the stantard game?
Excuse me but there was a case to get the same old puzzles and story in a new entry to the serious? All othe regions didn't take all those 170 new puzzles and 2 years/1 month before us?
Are we stupid and idiots?
DON"T BUY THE GAME SO THEY CAN DO THE SAME WITH OTHER GAMES LATER

Its just a mini game. Its not like being denied a WHOLE ENTIRE GAME. There is a difference between them that can't be compared. And count them we got three already not coming to the NA among others I've yet to know about.

If the Professor Layton series is so popular over there; we of NA would gladly trade you Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Tower of Pandora for Last Specter in its entirety regardless of the voice acting.

I LOVE PROF LAYTOn. .

NA got Excitebots, EU got Xenoblade. Fair trade off, no?

Load of crap! They should just put the U.S. version of the game on the cart with some notice of it on the cover or something.. ahhh well.. guess you can't have everything..

"waaawaah Xenoblade, Last Story and Pandora's Tower!!"

The chance of those games hitting American shores is more likely than you think, Nintendo are just being coy about it. After all, they may be seeking to re-localise it for America (NOA may not want to release it with English accents).

The topic at hand is missing content from a game, which cannot be compared to a game that has yet to be released in N.America.

Here's a hint Nintendo: Do the entire game just in English! English is the world language! There's really no need to do it in 5 different languages for Europe!!!

it makes mii glad m a canadian

@27 Its coming out IN SIX DAYS?!?!?!?!?HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!