Is Nintendo Killing Itself?

[CaseyL]

Gotta put in my two cents here.

I've always found the DS to be Nintendo's strongest system. It has a fair amount of variety, and some of the games are seriously fun to play. Thing is, Apple basically stabbed it with the App Store, giving people inexpensive AND good games. That ruined Nintendo's niche of making good games for when someone is on the go.

On the other hand, we have this ball of cruddy motion controlled thingamajig called the Wii, which has to compete with the much more well thought out PS3 and XBox 360. The Wii wasn't the greatest system to start with. We have graphics that need a LOT more polish, gameplay that is decent on some games, but absolutely awful on others. ( Don't get Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. The game looks decent on the other consoles, but the Nintendo version is complete garbage. ) On top of all this, the other systems have decided to one up Nintendo by adding their own motion sensors to their consoles. This leaves the Wii in a terrible position. The final nail in the coffin is Nintendo's inability to make a decent new game. We still have Mario, we still have Legend of Zelda, we still have Metroid, we still have Kirby, but they're just getting stale. It's not like we really want to go save Peach from Bowser AGAIN.

I don't think that Nintendo is killing itself so much as stomping on it's feet while its rivals take turn shooting it.

 

[Cooky]

I agree, Nintendo needs a new "big" series they've been coining off the old ones for way too long.

also better smash bros fuck brawl

 

[Hydeous]

Region locks are basically legitimising piracy. Just saying.

Not sure I'm with you, what do you mean ?

 

[SgtWoodsy]

Not sure I'm with you, what do you mean ?

For example, there's a game that comes out in America/Europe but isn't released in Australia, where I live.

Since I can't import due to the region lock, why don't I just pirate it instead?

 

[Shinryu]

Not sure I'm with you, what do you mean ?

The ideal being that since people can't legally play their imported games, they'll go through illegal means to be able to play them regardless.

I do agree region locks are asinine though, I fail to see why these videogame companies still use them.

 

[Stagnant]

I'm expecting a huge swing for the 3DS come Christmas time. It sitting below $200 and has nostalgic titles behind it. In terms of system sales I'm sure it will be the best.

 

[MasterSwordsmanGallade]

I agree, Nintendo needs a new "big" series they've been coining off the old ones for way too long.

Yeah, totally agree with Cooky. Make a new series, and stop using your older one's as launching pads for 100 other games.

 

[Firestorm]

In the last five years we've had the following new franchises (not a full list, I don't feel like doing that much research):

Brain Training
Electroplankton
Magnetica
Nintendogs
Ouendan / Elite Beat Agents
Daigasso! Band Brothers
bit Generations
Rhythm Tengoku
Mii (Wii Sports, Tomadachi Collection etc.)
Card Hero
Soma Bringer
Disaster: Day of Crisis
Xenoblade Chronicles

All are either high quality or high selling games. Nintendogs, Miis, and Brain Training are among their biggest franchises in history.

Just because you don't buy them doesn't mean they're not making them. Not to mention reviving franchises that are 10 - 20 years old isn't a bad thing at all. Nor are using old franchises. It's been 5 years since the last console Zelda game. We've had 3 different Uncharted titles or 5 different Call of Duties since then.

 

[moonbound]

For example, there's a game that comes out in America/Europe but isn't released in Australia, where I live.

Since I can't import due to the region lock, why don't I just pirate it instead?

Well, I don't know about Australia, but in America, it's technically legal to pirate a game that isn't copyrighted in America. But Nintendo is definitely losing money on games that they won't internationalize and won't allow to be imported.

 

[Firestorm]

Well, I don't know about Australia, but in America, it's technically legal to pirate a game that isn't copyrighted in America.

No. It's not. Link me to where you found this.

 

[moonbound]

No. It's not. Link me to where you found this.

Sorry I based this off the leaked mother 1 english rom. A retired Nintendo employee who worked on the translation acknowledged said Nintendo wouldn't take action against the people who put it on the internet(whose identity was known) because they had never copyrighted the game. However, if a game isn't protected by an american copyright, then the DMCA can't stop you from pirating it. You're only at risk of Japanese copyright enforces taking action against you, which they are allowed to do, but probably will never happen because Japanese copyright enforcement is notably more lax than the US law.

 

[MrIndigo]

For example, there's a game that comes out in America/Europe but isn't released in Australia, where I live.

Since I can't import due to the region lock, why don't I just pirate it instead?

Yeah, this.

Basically, imagine that a new book was released in the US for $15 USD. You live in Australia, and the book won't be released there for another six months, not because of any translation or localisation issue, but because they want to use that time to tear out 20 pages from the book before releasing it is Australia for a price equivalent to $25 USD.

Now, imagine just to top it off, if you try and order an American version of the book, it comes with the pages glued together to make sure you can't actually read it.


This is basically standard practice for video game producers. In fact, in the modern technology of the internet, they basically have near-zero distribution costs so there is literally no cost justification for restricting sale in other developed markets like Australia.

It is entirely legal for them to do this.

In effect, you are being denied the opportunity to ever actually purchase the product, and even when you are allowed you're getting it late, diluted, and/or at a steep mark up. This basically leaves Australian consumers in the position of "You can either not have it, or pirate it. Which would you prefer?"

It's not a legal excuse (although in several Australian copyright cases, one particularly prominent one about PlayStation modchipping, region-locking has been viewed as a sort of fraud on Australian consumers and has led to the Court looking unfavourably on the foreign copyright holder for trying to use it) - but it's basically giving an economic justification for piracy.

That being said, one of the standard remedies in copyright cases is to have damages calculated based on what license fees the pirater would have paid to otherwise get what they did. I could see an effective legal argument that if something was region-locked so as to not be available at all in a particular country, if someone in that country pirated it then the damages by that metric would have to be zero because there is no loss of license revenue to the copyright holder.

 

[Chispy]

I could see an effective legal argument that if something was region-locked so as to not be available at all in a particular country, if someone in that country pirated it then the damages by that metric would have to be zero because there is no loss of license revenue to the copyright holder.

I see the opposite.

You account for importing the system from the region you are getting the game.
Now you account for importing that game.

This is the total loss.

 

[Minwu]

I see the opposite.

You account for importing the system from the region you are getting the game.
Now you account for importing that game.

This is the total loss.

nintendo refuses to release mother 3 in english; nerds everywhere get swindled by play asia

 

[Minwu]

actually, why don't I just pirate it

 

[MrIndigo]

I see the opposite.

You account for importing the system from the region you are getting the game.
Now you account for importing that game.

This is the total loss.

I'm not sure that would work - For a start, I think it might fall foul of anticompetition laws relating to parts-and-accessories (though I'm not entirely sure on the details).

Further, I don't think you can account for the cost of the system, because:
a) They're not actually infringing any laws relating to the system so they're not actually costing you the loss of the system; this would be like claiming damages for medical costs from when you fell and hurt your knee while walking to the courthouse to file a suit for fraud.
b) In many cases, there is no relevant system (e.g. PC games purchased over the internet).
c) In many cases, the IP protecting the system will be treated in the same market-discriminatory (anti-import) way, so the same logic would apply to the system+game, being no cost as there was no way to legally import it.

 

[MrIndigo]

Sorry I based this off the leaked mother 1 english rom. A retired Nintendo employee who worked on the translation acknowledged said Nintendo wouldn't take action against the people who put it on the internet(whose identity was known) because they had never copyrighted the game. However, if a game isn't protected by an american copyright, then the DMCA can't stop you from pirating it. You're only at risk of Japanese copyright enforces taking action against you, which they are allowed to do, but probably will never happen because Japanese copyright enforcement is notably more lax than the US law.

It's not actually pirating if they don't copyright it.

I can't remember how the international aspects work, either. I think for Copyright, most countries (read: anyone who trades with the US) have a provision in their Copyright Act that copyright created outside the country is treated as though it was created within the country. If you had a country that didn't have that provision, then you could legally download a copy of a game copyrighted in the US (or Japan or whatever) and the copyright holder's could do nothing about it because their court's wouldn't have jursidiction.

For patents (e.g. the US software patents), it's much more jurisdiction-limited. You have to actually register your patent in any country where you wish to enforce it. While there is a treaty-based system where you can do international patent registrations via WIPO or the WTO, if you don't actually register a patent in Australia, people in Australia can copy it, sell it (to other people in Australia), do whatever they want with it and you have nothing to enforce against them.

 

[moonbound]

nintendo refuses to release mother 3 in english; nerds everywhere get swindled by play asia

Nintendo didn't release mother 3 because it contained so much copyright-violating music that if they released it, they would lose more money from lawsuits than they would make from selling the game. Japanese copyright law is a lot less strict than american.

 

[CaseyL]

@ Firestorm

Actually, I've never even heard of most of those games, the exceptions being Nintendogs, Brain Age, and of course the Miis. (and it's not like Nintendo is making a ton of profit of of the Miis, seeing as you get the basic Mii game with the Wii.

And what the heck is Electroplankton? Not to be rude or anything, but what the heck is that supposed to be? Shooting electrified plankton at something? (That's the image I get from the title, anyway.)