"NoA Doesn't Actually Listen?" or "What The *&$# Is Going On In Redmond?"

So a while ago I wrote a post about how Nintendo listens to consumers and gamers and delivers to them... the problem is that while Nintendo as a whole might, it's North American branch, Nintendo of America (NoA), seems to be forgetting the gamers and customers who got it where it is today.

Now it's time for examples. These following games have been clamored for by North American gamers, and have been released by Nintendo elsewhere in the world:

Disaster: Day of Crisis


Fatal Frame 4


Earthbound 3


So we have three games listed (this is a small sampling just to keep videos short) but there are others like Metroid Prime 1 and 2 for the Wii (updated controls and other features) or Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for the Virtual Console.

The problem is that the now president of Nintendo of America, a Mr. Reginald "Reggie" Fil-Aime, seems to have lost touch with the core gamer. He was quoted as saying that Animal Crossing was Nintendo's core gamer title last year, a viewpoint that is viewed as an insult to the core gamer community. This is in stark contrast to the Reggie of only a few years ago when he was "about kicking ass and taking names" at E32006.

Now the issue may lie with Nintendo Corporate Limited in Japan, but I don't think Reggie is keeping in touch with the gamers he impressed just a few short years ago. The problem is that Nintendo of America as a whole seems to be out of the loop in terms of what the core gamer wants, they are content to focus on the more mainstream crowd while giving us lip service that they care about core gamers.

There is a slight caveat here though, Nintendo delivered more iterations of their core franchises sooner this generation. Within the first two years we had Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Smash Bros. but the problem is those are all great games, but there are new IPs out there that can and should be introduced to North American gamers that Nintendo refuses to pay attention to.

In the end, I like the Wii, I have some great games for it, and I don't need more and more and more like some gamers who seem to always want a backlog... but I am sick of the lip service. I will definitely be watching E3 in June with great interest to see if Nintendo wakes up or not.