Will Nintendo of America's Future Hardcore Games Continue To Use European Localizations?

With Nintendo having used the European localization of Xenoblade Chronicles for the North American release (presumably to save time and money), some Nintendo fans have been left wondering how Nintendo of America will handle future hardcore niche titles. GP Editor Jason Clement discusses how NOA may proceed with their next titles and why gamers may see Nintendo's North American and European branches handle future localizations together.

[ThePsychoGamer]

No, what they should do is just make there systems region free so when they decide not to bring a game to both US and Europe the people left out can just import the game.

Of course that will never happen

[PopRocks359]

Importing games does not give them much money; especially if someone orders off of eBay. You need to think of it from a business standpoint in order to understand their decisions.

Anyway, I hope they do continue that trend. I've been playing Xenoblade Chronicles and it is amazing. The English dubbing is very good and I hope they use them more for other JRPGs on their platforms.

[Kamikaze135]

But if people are importing them from websites or buying from their local import stores, those places will have to replenish supplies, thus making the publisher/developer more money.

[PopRocks359]

Exactly how often does a publisher give you the option to buy a game from a region that isn't your own? I wouldn't know how much a publisher makes off of import stores, I don't think it would be very much.

Basic point is I waited for the official release of Xenoblade and I purchased and therefor supported the official release. If more people did that I reckon Nintendo would be more inclined to forget about region locking and also localize more of their core/underground titles.

[Baka-akaB]

Refusing free regions lead mostly to two things for people that care about imports :

- Console hacking , wich is then an easy gateway to full on game piracy

- Some people like myself holding on the purchase of their consoles .

This is pretty much why i dont have a 3ds , with my needs divided between japan , us and eu games .

[Blastoise]

"The English dubbing is very good"

Is it?.... is it really?

[ronin4life]

The yen to dollar is killing Nintendos profits. The euro to dollar is NOT.
Furthermore, converting euro to dollar shows that the European games cost more than the American counterparts in dollars.

Basically, Nintendo makes more money on European sales than American sales. A LOT more.

While this is a little rude of me, I would like to post a link to a blog I wrote awhile ago on the subject:
http://www.destructoid.com/...

[ThePsychoGamer]

That is false, imports will give a publisher the same revenue they would have gotten from normal sales of said region. From that aspect alone Region locking makes no sense, in fact there are so many ways they are untimely loosing money that from a business standpoint, Region locking is becomes a stupid idea.

[PopRocks359]

@ThePsychoGamer

Aside from import shops (which are far and few in between) what import source can you name that actually gives money to the publisher? eBay sure as hell doesn't; and plenty of imports are purchased from there.

Your money goes to the seller on eBay and none of that goes to the publisher. It may as well be a used game purchase which, again, does not at all go to the publisher.

Finally, I'm not defending region locking at all; I'm merely stating the reasons I think Nintendo uses as a basis for their consoles and what I think people can do to encourage Nintendo to stop the act since pirating and importing doesn't seem to work with them. If you have a better strategy then I am all ears.

And before you provide said ideas, I'd like to add that I prefer to support the industry. So no, I will not import games if I am aware that money will not go to the publisher.

@Blastoise

Yes, I think it is.

[Venox2008]

I would say, no matter which localisation they'll use (NOA or EU) it's a matter that we would get games and some words that we may not understand, can be translated by myself).. I mean it's better than to wait for a localisation from other region, like it was with Xenoblade and Last story, I can live with it.. I think it's better than to not a game at all and it's cheaper than to make a separate localisation, so be it..

[na-no-nai]

I thinking the reason they are doing this so and probably will for a good while; is cuz the yen is strong and the US dollars is weak. Definitely not going to make them money if localized it to America too. And they can save the cost by bringing over European localization with minor adjustments.

[ronin4life]

Nintendo are not the only publishers focusing on Europe, either. WotS4 will be getting a packaged release across the pond, but be digital only here in America. As was arcana hearts 3.

Expect to see this trend increase within the next few years.

[CaptainN]

I guess we will see by what they do with Pandoras Tower and if they bring it to NA !