If you’re a game developer who is solely (or majority) owned by folks who are not Japanese, Nintendo says you’re going to have to partner up with a Japanese company if you want to release your game in that region on one of their consoles. It’s an interesting rule to have in place, and one that doesn’t affect too many publishers– but indie developers get hit pretty hard when trying to bring their games overseas.

Various developers have chimed in on the subject below:

“Unless you own a Japanese company, you are required to partner with a Japanese company. This results in shared royalties, which is not ideal. Not all developers are willing to go through the hassle of releasing their games in Japan, which reduces the number of games available in that market.”

– Renegade Kid’s Jools Watsham

“Our opinion on the rule you talk about is honestly moot. We have no desire to tell others how to do their business, and if they require 51% of publisher’s stocks to be Japanese owned, we’ll work around that if we want to release in Japan; and will find a publisher who meets that criteria.

“Do we wish we could self-publish in Japan? Certainly. But we trust that they have their reasons for the above rule, and we will do our best to get our games to eager Japanese fans, whatever it takes.”

– Gaijin Games

“I think Toki Tori 2 is interesting for the Japanese market, but as I said before we have to find a good publisher first.”

– Two Tribe’s Shan Poon

Via NWR

Sakurai says fans shouldn’t worry about his injury and Smash Bros. development

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 1 Comment

Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai is dealing with a lot of pain at the moment. In this week’s Famitsu, he revealed outright that he is suffering from calcific tendonitis and several ruptures in the muscles. The pain itself is bad enough, but it’s also affecting his work on the next Smash Bros. games.

Sakurai does have a Twitter account and fans from all over the world have been writing in and wishing him well. He’s been keeping tabs on the various messages, but told everyone that they shouldn’t worry about his injury or the development of Smash Bros.

Thanks a lot of encouragement messages.Please don’t worry about my injury & SMASH BROS development.
— ?? ?? (@Sora_Sakurai) March 1, 2013

Source

Tsujimoto on increasing Monster Hunter’s popularity overseas, localization time, won’t make changes just for the west, more

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments

Monster Hunter is one of the biggest gaming franchises in Japan. But much like Dragon Quest, its popularity has never reached similar levels overseas.

Capcom hopes that it will begin to change the situation with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. On Wii U, users will be able to play with others online. The Wii U and 3DS versions feature save transfers. And in Europe, a Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate bundles will be released.

According to Monster Hunter producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, these were all steps taken to enhance the series’ appeal in the west:

“You’re right in terms of us intentionally doing this. It’s always been our wish to make a good start and we’ve always been saying we’ll do this at one point. Monster Hunter in Japan started and developed in a very different way to how it’s been in Europe so far, Japan being a rather densely populated place with a quite prominent culture of visiting each other’s places to play games together. You see kids carrying their consoles taking them to their friends. They already had this basis of playing games through local network, whereas it’s a bit more difficult in the US and Europe where your neighbour is seven miles away. With Wii U, which is online compatible, and with 3DS with its portability, releasing both of them together, we’re giving opportunity and options to consumers to really pick up the version they want and the one that suits them. By doing that we might be able to actually have a breakthrough. That’s definitely our intention.”

The Conduit HD confirmed for NVIDIA Tegra devices

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii | 1 Comment

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