Jimquisition: Nintendo of America

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Firstly Jim looks better and is more approachable when he wears his own clothes.

Secondly this is totally justified loads of Japanese games are better than the shovelware that is actually released on the WII. It's been this way right back to the Nes and Snes, yes I know I'm old.

Although I they tend to be kinder with Europe (probably becuase France is very into it's anime) I really don't see why they wouldn't risk releases over in America just the size of the consumer base means that a game would still bring alot of money in with a small percentage of the market.

"Clit giraffes", eh?

lolled.

 

[Fensfield]

What part of that video I didn't spend wondering what was wrong with 'Jim', and thinking Nintendo of America were indeed being pretty jerkish, I spent trying to keep at bay the thought that this may be what happens when Western gaming media communities put as much effort as they do into ragging on Japanese RPG titles and their associated genre staples, and the feeling that Nintendo may have simply, finally, said 'screw this, if they don't like the genre, we won't bother anymore'.

I'm sure there's a lot more to it than that, but still, it's a feeling that just isn't going away, and I really wouldn't be surprised if it isn't at the back of these people's minds every time they contemplate a localisation effort.

 

[Weasker]

I agree with him. And still find him obnoxious and annoying.

 

[NKnight]

Not a bad episode.

But I just realized that this character is not a persona, like Jim likes to put it. It's an extrapolation of his own personality. A simple look into his personal twitter and some of the messages he exchanges with people he doesn't like, and it's obvious that it's not entirelly acting what we see in this show. In reality, almost nothing of it is acting.

I believe this show would be a lot better if he didn't take himself very seriously, like a real game journalist. He can adopt Yatzees's approach. Simple enterteinment. It would be perfect.

 

[TheDooD]

I have a reason why Nintendo America doesn't want to publish these damn good games. They really don't want any titles to compete with their own. look at the Wii most of my favorite games aren't from Nintendo. Muramasa, Madworld, No More Heroes 1 and 2. Yes its a pretty basic list but people love those games and I feel sorry and those companies trusted Nintendo. All 3 games could have tripled or more in the sell if they were on all the consoles.

I knew Reggie was a fuck up. When during those past E3's when he only pushed hardware and didn't give a rats ass about a board range of software. He really thought motion control was gonna to keep Wii players gaming and he's a fucking lie saying he's a hardcore gamer. Nintendo has money to piss, shit and burn and they'll till have money left over. What's so hard for them to get off their ass and translate some games do they really fear the fact that the appeal of Mario, Link, Zelda, Samus, DK, etc isn't gonna last forever. They need to get out of their fantasy land and get in with reality. With the fact they're killing their own appeal by making subpar consoles, trying NOT to compete hardware and software wise with Sony and MS. Then forcing bad controls unto games that really don't need it.

 

[xcgillx2]

I've seen it happen lots of times when people localize games and refuse to bring them out else where. for example monster hunter for the Xbox 360 was only released in Japan only for capcom to cry about it when people decide " well I cant get I here lets see where I can download it from" but with this and the 3 games for the nintendo I'm starting to think that it has something to do with the games origins because all the games I can think off that have had a similar situation all seem to be Japanese

 

[Ghengis John]

snip

Great episode Jimmy boy. I can't help but be reminded of a news story that I just read as a matter of fact:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111443-Carpe-Fulgur-Picks-Out-Third-Japanese-Indie-Project

You put out a pretty reasonable position, built it up with logic and evidence and the great looking video footage shown all through out the video left me with the impression that this looks like a great game that I would happily play. I was amazed to see the list of sales figures showing just how much better Japanese games actually sell here in the states as opposed to japan. (Literally twice the number for a Bleach game? Yowzer.)

 

[Ailia]

For once I agree with him. Scary.

I haven't touched my Wii since clocking in 120 hours on Rune Factory: Frontier two years ago, as no games have caught my fancy. The spiders in my basement are having more fun with my Wii than I am.

I looked up Pandora's Tower and the two other games and damned if I'm not interested. But if the 'States don't get the games I doubt the people up here in Canada will get it either.
...I just realised how much I miss JRPGs which aren't FinalFantasy or other mainstream series.

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

Definitely agree with you, Jim. In fact, I wonder...

If Project Rainfall sent them THIS VIDEO, how do you suppose Nintendo will react?

 

[gbemery]

Nintendo of America

Thus Jimquisition descends from on high to spread the word that Nintendo of America are a bunch of pricks.

Watch Video

So I see you kind of went with a casual tuesday kind of look....interesting

 

[DrOswald]

The only downside I can imagine for Nintendo is that a company only has so much money to invest in business decisions, and Nintendo expects other investments to yield a higher investment to profit ratio. Under those conditions, they are making the correct decision.

This, of course, rests on at least one of the following assumptions:

1. That Nintendo has already pissed away all the billions they made on the Wii and DS in their 3DS and Wii U product launches, so they have no more money available.

2. That Nintendo actually knows what is going to return a large profit, which I am convinced they do not. The Wii was a fluke and I have never seen anything to make me suspect otherwise. I will be shocked if the Wii U does half as well as the Wii.

3. Nintendo has made the active decision to completely ignore the hardcore gamer market in favor of the casual market. The problem with this decision is that a console is a hardcore product these days, when every person in the country has a phone and a computer they can play games on for free or less money than you can find couch diving. The Wii saw success in the casual market because it hit before free Facebook games were big and before the rise of the smart phone.

 

[I forgot]

I like it that for once, someone criticized a subsidiary rather than the broad company. I hate it when people blame Nintendo for something that only their subsidiaries are responsible for. Nintendo of Europe is responsible for European localization, NOA for American, etc., etc. So if a game isn't localized, like Mother 3, that's not Nintendo's fault but their subsidiaries whose decision it is to localize and publish them.

 

[Ekit]

This show is getting better and better. You just got another regular viewer, Jim.

 

[Epona]

I like it that for once, someone criticized a subsidiary rather than the broad company. I hate it when people blame Nintendo for something that only their subsidiaries are responsible for. Nintendo of Europe is responsible for European localization, NOA for American, etc., etc. So if a game isn't localized, like Mother 3, that's not Nintendo's fault but their subsidiaries whose decision it is to localize and publish them.

So if I run a company with separate branches and one of the branches make a very bad decision, should I just say "Oh well, not my problem"?

Nintendo of Japan can overrule Nintendo of America and if it doesn't, then it is as much to blame as NOA is. You think Reggie got his job without the approval of Nintendo of Japan?

 

[TheLastTatlFan]

As much as I like Nintendo as a whole and loved some of their past titles (i.e. Zelda: Majora's Mask, my personal Best Game of All Time), I'm gonna have to agree with Jim on this one. Nintendo of America are a bunch of ungrateful pricks with some sort of passive-aggressive grudge against the people who buy so much of their product and take such an active interest in it.

As an example that goes beyond poor business decisions, have you ever sent some fanmail about the Zelda timeline to Nintendo (Of America)? Did you get a stock-letter back telling you "There is no timeline?" Did you perchance happen to inspect the reasoning by which they come to this conclusion? An out-of-context line from Aonouma about how it's a different Link every game and an equally context-free line from Wind Waker's prologue calling it "but one of the legends of which people speak" or something.

If that's not a cop-out, I don't know what is. To ignore fanmail on a subject is one thing, but to go out of your way to twist a couple of quotes in order to claim that the subject of the fanmail is directly against series canon is just a dick-move and spiteful to the people discussing the topic.

On a lighter note, this is one of Jim's better episodes. Being a smug prick every now and again is fine and all, but I like this show best when there's an actual point and/or serious discussion.
Although I'll give Jim some more credit here, even when he is carrying himself like a total douche in his videos, he's at least sticking to the point, unlike MovieBob, who took a break from actually encouraging and engaging in thoughtful examination of gaming culture to try to show off his l337 5cr33nwri7ing 5k33lz with a poorly-written unfunny evil doppelganger storyline, complete with some seriously lower-tier fight scenes.

So what I'm trying to say, Jim, is that I promise never to ***** about your show up until the point you try to shoe-horn in some bullshit narrative into it.

 

[Stammer]

AAAAHHHH

It must be the end-times because I found myself sending this video as a link to a friend to watch.

Either that or maybe I found Jim good enough to pass on finally. Keep it up, Jim!

Why is it right after I watch a show on The Escapist like Jimquisition, MovieBob, Zero Punctuation, or Extra Credits, I always have a friend talking about the same topic that I just watched... and then they deny that they watched the show? This happens at least twice a week for me.

 

[SoopaSte123]

Wow lots of responses this time. My comment may be drowned in a sea of others...

Loved your ending, Jim. The angry "thank god for me" was wonderful and made me laugh despite knowing the line was coming. You seemed genuinely angry in this episode, which really worked. For you, angry + arrogant is funnier than smiling + arrogant. Angrily coming up with silly solutions using an intensely arrogant persona? Recipe for comic gold. I don't know if you have many things that make you angry, but if you can find them on a regular basis, your show will only get better.

Good job and keep on improving.

 

[Your once and future Fanboy]

well if you want a good example of Nintendo of america can be a group of douches, just look at how they've handled the Mother 3/ Earthbound 2 issue.
They made no effort to release it in america, but tried to shut down sites who worked of fan-coded versions.

for more info, here is a good review of the series and talk about the issue:
http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2011/01/16-bit-gems-earthbound1/

 

[Ferrious]

I... err... hmm.. huh.

I agreed with the Metacritic one. I found this one funny. I will have to go away and think about this for a while.

Good work for sticking at it Jim, this show is definitely getting better!

 

[NicolasMarinus]

Jim... this is an instance... I thank god for you.

I honestly forgive the slow and rocky start of the show. I am officially sold.

He didn't change his show, you got used to him