CaviarMeths

When it comes to eShop and VC, Europe wins almost every round. Capcom does a better job at supporting the American eShop than Nintendo of America.

@SethNintendo Oh definitely. If it comes on TV and I'm bored, I'd probably give it a watch just for the campy goodness. Terrible movie, but in a good way.

@Mega719 Japanese gamers don't care about AAA titles. Considering the sales of the Vita in the west, western gamers don't care about handheld AAA titles either. Assassin's Creed, Killzone, Uncharted, etc, did nothing for the system. Everybody's favorite game on it is Persona 4: The Golden, a port of a PS2 game. That's the kind of audience that exists for the Vita.

@Gerbwmu The XB1 launch line up is awful for Japan. There is not a single game that would appeal to Japanese gamers.

And after one week, the PS3 is back on top of the PS4. Everything else is about par for the course.

Keep in mind that an "Oscar-winning script writer" also wrote Batman & Robin. You know, the one with Arnie Freeze and Batnips.

@Peach64 Difference is that Dragon Quest has historically had respectable sales in the west. VII, VIII, and IX all did well. Even the IV, V, and VI remakes on DS did alright (for being virtually unmarketed remakes). The last time a Dragon Quest game sold worse in the west than Wonderful 101 was 1990. Dragon Quest VII 3D would outsell Wonderful 101's LTD in its first month.

Atlus and NIS find it absolutely hilarious that Square-Enix "isn't sure" if their 2nd biggest IP would sell well in the west.

So Capcom doesn't want my money. Alright, I'll just save it for something else.

Square-Enix not being sure of things is pretty par for the course. Worst market analysis team in the industry, bar none.

@joey302 Bang on, man. NoE is merging two offices because the Japanese company isn't make a game per month. Hit the nail on the head.

@joey302 And you'll select first in Double Jeopardy.

Samus in shorts -> "Talking Point: History of the Sexualization of Samus (Volume 1 of 493)"
Shulk in shorts -> "Random Skimpy Outfit"

@Ufaowl The opposite, most likely. Before, Nintendo of Europe relied on contracts with temporary workers to localize games. Now they are instead outsourcing it to 3rd parties, which means more resources will be available and more projects will be able to be taken on at once.

It's a move to increase efficiency, not scale back production.

@Ryno Why not? It was almost ready to show at E3 2013 and has been in development for about 3 years now. The game will be ready for Holiday 2014. Circle your calendar.

@unrandomsam because it had a very limited release in US. Only 500k copies were printed and all of them controlled by Gamestop. The game sold out within months, so the demand greatly exceeds the supply.

@Legromancer Square-Enix hasn't made the best JRPG of the gen since before they merged, lol.

It sold much better Stateside than it did in Japan, so it will probably be localized. It would be shame on NoA if they made that same mistake twice.

Great news for people who missed it the first time around though!

It concerns me that all this information about new 3DS models and system updates were revealed in a Japan-only Direct.

Er... what the heck am I supposed to do with that tiny "circle pad?" It looks like the little mouse nubs on old laptops, and those were terrible. Also, going from SD to microSD would be great if I wanted to cut my storage capacity in half.

Alternate title: More cool stuff that western gamers will never get to have.

I was skeptical of this game at first, but the gameplay video actually looked pretty fun.

I have to say 3D World. It may not have the best level design or features, but to me, platformers are boring has heck when you play alone. Local multiplayer is where 3D World really shines, elevating it from good entry to best entry in the series.

Not on PS2 = no buy.

Natsume + RPG + Wii U = Day 1 buy.

Lol hey guys remember the movie? Yikes...

He was an alright Bond. He didn't really do anything unique with the character and spent his entire tenure aping Connery or Moore, but he pulled it off decently.

Shame about Die Another Day though. He deserved a better send off than that pile of hot garbage.

Rayman probably would have been a better example, but yeah, this guy seems to be the first major exec with one of the Big 3 Western devs that understands that the Nintendo audience is fundamentally different from the Sony/MS audience.

The 3DS, the Wii U, and the Vita all have an audience that doesn't really care about "mature" games (which is a dumb way to describe them, but whatever), but all three have a type of game that sells well to its audience.

Man, do I ever hope it's NOT Metroid. Prime series was phenomenal, but what a colossal waste of one of the most talented studios on the planet to have them make the same game over and over again. I want a new Metroid, but not from Retro.

Let this company tackle a different IP, or make a new one altogether. They've proven themselves capable.

I didn't even know it was possible to suffer from 20-year old butthurt. I think they're getting a little ahead of themselves to declare that a remaster of a crappy old game most famous for its controversy is the 3rd party support that the Wii U sorely needs.

I think @smikey is right. The change of heart came about because there wasn't enough interest for them to reach their crowdfunding goal without Nintendo.

Disgaea 4 this week and Tales of Xillia 2 next, looks like Sony gets my money this month. ;P

This artbook is going to be available in the West? I only know about the bonus section in the collector's edition of the Prima guide that has artwork.

It took so long that I almost forgot about it.

I honestly have no problem at all with Atlus updating most of its DS catalog to 3DS. Having SMT IV, Devil Survivor 1 & 2, EO 1-4, and Persona Q all on one SD card would be fantastic.

Don't know why the first one isn't on the eShop, but yeah, kinda hard to support a series that I enjoy when the publisher isn't interested in my money. DoA: Dimensions too.

Anyone saying that Warriors is a 'press X to win' series has clearly never played the game on a difficulty above normal. Which is a shame, because it extends 3 difficulties beyond that and the game is nuts in Chaos mode.

As a Canadian, I actually got all giddy and excited when Raquna in the first game said she was from Ontario and started talking about maple cuisine. Never seen Canada represented in a Japanese game before! That was fun.

Anyway, I enjoyed Untold a lot and I'm hoping to see this game hit Western shores too.

I'm glad I've learned by now to always turn the sound WAY down before watching any Smash videos. Anytime something somewhat interesting happens, the commentators start screeching and hollering like they're 13 years old and The Beatles just came to America.

So again, in other words "one of our coders found an exploit, so we fixed it." Glad to see the software engineers at Nintendo are put to good work.

Do people still pretend to like Monopoly?

As Zelda merch, this is tempting, but nah.

Alien: Isolation looks incredible, but alas, this monstrosity keeps my wallet sewn tightly shut. Definitely waiting for a lot of reviews and user feedback before plunging on any SEGA games.

What the heck? Why is everyone blaming Nintendo for this? Nintendo isn't even developing the game. They have a few producers on the project from the SPD division, but this is a Koei Tecmo game.

Nintendo had no problem at all implementing online play for Mario Kart 8, and online will be a very central focus of Smash too. They also didn't tell Activision to skip the online play for Ghosts or Black Ops 2, so really, there's no excuse at all for dragging your knuckles on the ground and saying something ridiculous like this is Nintendo's fault.

And yeah, this seems to specifically refer to story mode. At any rate, it's worth waiting until Monday to find out for sure.

Sony has plenty of development studios, but they're pretty much all making Western games that Japanese gamers don't care about.

Top 5 is pretty much exactly as expected. Only surprise is that Koei Tecmo is lower than Capcom (only by 1 vote, but still).

The second poll there, were readers were asked more generally which were their favorite developers without having a 1 vote limit, was probably a little more indicative. Nintendo, SE, and Capcom still make up the top 3, but you see much more people voting for brands from companies like Sony and Namco. People love those companies, they just don't love them more than they love Nintendo.

@AJWolfTill Not really. Nolan hasn't done a "small" film since The Prestige, but I would argue that all of his projects are passion projects. He owns his own production company, so he has the freedom of picking exactly which projects he wants. He IS Ubisoft in this case (well, sort of, he still relies on another company like WB for distribution, so maybe he's more like Platinum or BioWare).

I was trying to give an example of actors that attach themselves to a huge franchise because it pays very well, but also take interest in a number of smaller, artsier projects. Johnny Depp and Ewan McGreggor would be other good examples.

"Ambitious" and "pushing the boundaries" kinda just tells me "We spent like a kajillion dollars on this and have unrealistic expectations for it, but we'll blame that on the consumer, so it's OK." Also means that a Wii U version is unlikely.

Good for Ancel though. He has a very creative mind, so it's a good move for him to stick with Ubisoft to pay the bills and work on passion/vanity projects through his indie studio. Like the Christian Bale of developers. You do Batman so that you can afford to do whatever the heck you want in between.

If you swapped out ALBW or SS for MM, that's pretty much identical to what my Top 5 would look like. I think OoT and WW are a cut above the rest, easily #1 and #2, and then the next 4 games (ALttP, TP, ALBW, SS) can be arranged in pretty well any order depending on my mood.

Activision doesn't bother to market their own game, laments poor sales.

Headlines of the future!

Yaaaay.

I think I would have preferred some original artwork instead of what looks like an in-game screenshot lol.

In order, I saw skills corresponding to Nocturne of Shadow, Song of Storms, Serenade of Water (this one looks like a shield/aura), Bolero of Fire, and Prelude of Light. Awesome thing to base a skill set around!

Considering I don't give 2 hoots about apps and wish I could get rid of the ones that come pre-installed on the thing, I don't think this will be a problem for me at all. I'll never have 290-odd games on my 3DS.

Still better than the Vita's 100 app limit though.

@Pokefanmum82 My comment was a reply to a comment of his that he has since deleted. It was an @ to Xiao_Pai saying that this design is the one used in Smash.

@Th3PlaidHatter It's not. The design in Smash is based on Pac-Man's appearance in Pac-Man World.