Comments 558

Re: Tomonobu Itagaki on Why Devil's Third Underperformed

mike_intv

A few thoughts.

1. There were review times for on-line, at least in Europe (according to NintenDaan).

2. If you know something is not good, do you promote it? That was Nintendo's decision. It is a lose-lose situation. My guess it decided that letting the game go away quickly was far less damaging that promoting something of limited appeal and questionable quality.

3. I cannot believe that the physical version this game is still $60 is US.

Re: UK Nintendo Zones Are Now Only To Be Found In Branches Of GAME

mike_intv

The situation is similar here in the US.
Fewer and fewer places offer Street Pass functionality.
For example, Best Buy stores (a leading electronic big box retailer) are still listed as zones — but an increasing number (including my local store) appear to have permanently turned off their server.
The only bright spot on this side of the pond is that the 3DS automatically connects to AT&T WiFi and those are still working zones. This includes one major hotel chain — which means if you stay at a Hilton property in the US you may get a lot of hits (or the same hits a lot of times). It also means most McDonalds still are places to StreetPass.

Re: The Xbox One Might Be Getting A NES Emulator

mike_intv

@ClockworkMario

That legal loophole varies by country and by interpretations within a country. I especially wonder how it is covered for games (ROMs) which continue to be available for sale.

Also, more generally, it should be noted that Nintendo does not hold copyright to all games on Nintendo systems. So others may have differing opinions (and legal options) as well.

Re: Editorial: The Rights and Wrongs of Shutting Down Pokemon GO Fan-Made Tools Like Pokévision

mike_intv

Some thoughts:

1. Nintendo seems to get blamed, even though it is a minor partner in this (remember its announcement regarding the limited impact the game has in its financials and the ensuing drop in stock price). We have the Pokevision developer saying "Niantic and Nintendo" — it may have said "Niantic and partners" or listed all the companies.

2. Could it be the third-party data mining led to the radar glitch?

3. Could it be Niantic is going to sell its own version of Poke-radar? (This is what happened with third-party Pokedexes).

4. I never could get the Pokevision to work properly for me — so I am not even sure how reliable it was in all places.

Re: NSPCC Believes Pokémon GO is "Susceptible To Being Hijacked" By Those That Could Harm Young Players

mike_intv

The story in the US making the news rounds is about the armed robbery attempt outside of St. Louis, MO, where a beacon was used to attract people. Fortunately, those individuals were arrested.

Any time there is something that bursts onto the scene, people use it to (1) get their important message out (i.e., be careful) or (2) inject themselves into the conversation as the one true bastion of proper thought. I wonder which one the Daily News sees itself as?

Re: Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Co-Director Was Initially "Disappointed" With Western Localisation

mike_intv

There are different standards in different places.

Game changes in localization often reflect those standards. As do games never coming out in some markets.

Many of these relate to the sexualization or stereotypical portrayal of the characters.

Other times, changes are made because something common in one place is completely foreign to another country or culture.

Both types of changes are seen in this game. But without those changes, it is doubtful those outside of Japan would have ever seen this game.

Many other mediums have to be changed to be shown in or work in another place. For example, most other countries allow far more skin — and far less violence — to be shown on TV than in the United States. So you have blurred patches when shows are brought to the US and violence cuts when shows are sold from the US.

People may not like it — but it is the way of the world.

Re: Developers Don't Seem To Know Any More About Nintendo NX Than You Do

mike_intv

This story made the rounds on various sites.

But it is interesting that it is two developers. One makes one game series which may be slowing down (a competitor is already cancelled). And since it develops games for one publisher, that publisher may be controlling access to the dev kit.

The other is releasing its second game - though it does look like it could be of interest to those who play games on Nintendo consoles. The last set of vague quotes comes from the Gamestop publishing arm, which is handling the physical copies of this developers second game. And GS has made other comments about the NX, so it might know than it is letting on.

Re: Review: Pinball Arcade (Wii U eShop)

mike_intv

I love this game — just as I loved its predecessors.
I do have one problem, I get a communications error when it tries to do the user authorization. It does not seem to cause any issues. And my connection works on all other games/functions. So I am thinking it is something else. I mention it because it is a bad way to start a good experience.

Re: Western Localisation Of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Features Costume And Age Changes

mike_intv

The biggest problem Nintendo faces is that there is a double-standard for it.

Sony or Microsoft could release a game like this and (almost) no one cares.

Nintendo releases it without changes — it is featured on Fox News and various groups get up in arms about how Nintendo. (If you don't believe me, this story references a local Fox TV station's story about Pictochat being a tool to lure children: http://www.slashgear.com/cnn-fox-other-news-networks-still-think-were-all-technology-idiots-19393545/).

Meanwhile, if it makes changes so as to avoid that kind of bad PR, it gets this kind of treatment instead.

Now to be honest, this game is not my cup of tea. However, I can see that some changes make sense (age), some are as not important as being made out to be (slight costume changes), and some are unfortunate (not releasing a DLC — if for that reason if the rumor is true).

Finally, for those who talk about the original vision of the game — very little "art" is the artist's vision. Music has producers. Books have editors. Films and plays have directors and re-writers. It is part of the process from idea to item that can be sold.

Re: International Game Developers Association Issues Critical Statement Over Nintendo and Alison Rapp

mike_intv

This is an unfortunate situation all around. So here is my take on it.

First of all, the timing of the Alison Rapp's dismissal makes it appear that Nintendo did this in response to the social media firestorm which had worked to get her fired.

Certainly, you can say from an almost five-year old Tweet cited above (Comment #13) that her positions are nothing new — just newly discovered. A sentiment expressed in a college thesis that Japanese cultural norms should not have to conform to Western cultural norms (vis-a-vis underage erotic depictions) turned it to/was made into support for child pornography. (I have neither done research on this or have first-hand knowledge, though the Tweet in Comment #13 makes it appear to be the former).

Still, if she had been doing that for five years and Nintendo monitors social media (which is not as easy as it seems), they may have seen posts like that. (I also don't know whether such post occurred before or after her employment at Nintendo).

But there is some reason to believe that Nintendo probably knew at least something about Alison Rapp's non-traditional/controversial views on this before the recent social media storm. But it was not enough to make her a liability to the company.

However, the photo shoots appear to have been the tipping point. At least that is what Nintendo says. And looking at the shoots, how they were promoted, and what props were used, it is understandable.

What is unknown is how much discipline — if any — Alison Rapp received for her actions before being dismissed. This is a personnel matter and will most likely never become public.

The end statement is that an employee became too much of a liability for a company to remain employed. The company claims it was because of her actions in secondary employment; others think it is because of her controversial views and the firestorm they caused. Certainly, most people here would be subject for discipline up to dismissal from their positions if they did took any of these types of actions while in their current employment.

My end point is that this is a complicated matter for which we don't know all of the facts. It is not the first time someone will be fired — nor will it be the last. Unfortunately, some people and groups are using this situation for free publicity or to move forward their own agendas — without knowing the full story. And none of us know the full story.

(PS — I wonder what the reaction would have been if this occurred at another gaming company. We only know who the is in the Treehouse because Nintendo made them "public." But this could have occurred at Sony or Microsoft or any developer and we would not know it. And if it did and we knew about it, I imagine at least some people would not be as concerned because they like going against Nintendo).

Re: Nintendo Seeks a Trademark for Mario Coin Sound

mike_intv

I wonder if this is like shutting the barn door after the animals have left. I hear too many cash registers and other machines using that sound right now for the trademark to not be challenged. I agree with the concept of this — to prevent people (companies) from profiting from the coin sound, I just wonder if it is too late.

Alternative explanation — With so many people using it, Nintendo wanted to claim the trademark before someone else did and it lost the right to its iconic sound.

Re: Minecraft Finally Digs Its Way Onto the Wii U eShop on 17th December

mike_intv

Each texture pack costs 99 cents on the other consoles.
So that is $5.94 — or almost 60% of the price difference.

I imagine technical matters — and the smaller install base (meaning there are less possible sales, so you can't do a volume discount) — are other reasons for the price differential.

I now know what to buy myself for my birthday.

Re: Donkey Kong Champ Billy Mitchell Loses Legal Battle Against Regular Show Parody

mike_intv

I had no idea that GBF was a Bobby Mitchell parody — until this article.
It makes sense. It is allowed. And it is commonly done — as are the lawsuits. Much of this is discussed above — shout out to @inverse and @dagamedoc for their analysis.

Personally, I loved this line from the decision: And when GBF loses his title, the character literally explodes, unlike Plaintiff.

Re: Rejoice, The Wii U Has Finally Outsold Sega's Ill-Fated Dreamcast

mike_intv

To echo previous posts — the on-line for the Dreamcast was basically ahead of its time. Remember the DC came and went before Xbox Live launched in 2002 — which did a large part to spur on-line gaming. The biggest issue was when Sega pulled the plug on the system, it shortly thereafter shut down the on-line servers. Only the few games with independent servers could be played on-line after that.