Topic: Nintendo of America Stays Quiet About Devil's Third

[NWR_Neal]

The Tomonobu Itagaki-led Wii U game has a release date in every other region except for America.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/40633/nintendo-of-america-stays-quiet-about-devils-third

As of E3 2015, Nintendo of America had nothing to report regarding the release of Devil's Third on Wii U in North America.

"I don't have anything for you on Devil's Third. Sorry," said Charlie Scibetta, Nintendo of America's Senior Director of Corporate Communications during an E3 2015 interview when we asked about the status of the game that Nintendo rescued from the ruins of THQ last year.

Recently, Devil's Third was announced for an August release in Japan, Europe, and Australia. However, Nintendo of America has been silent regarding the status of the game. They remained silent at E3 2015.

Devil's Third first started development when Tomonobu Itagaki, creator of modern day Ninja Gaiden, left Tecmo and founded his own company, Valhalla Game Studios. The game was announced in 2010, but was set back when THQ shut down in 2013. At E3 2014, Nintendo announced that they were going to publish Devil's Third. At E3 2015, Devil's Third went unmentioned for reasons unknown.

[Ian Sane]

Come on, NOA, let's not get back into that routine of not localizing stuff that Europe does.  If it's Japan-only I get that there could be some cultural differences that make the game unmarketable here but aside from soccer games what game that would fly in Europe would not fly here?  It was frustrating on the Wii and it is frustrating now on the Wii U for the same reason - there are NO games.  The release schedule is quite empty due to a lack of third party support so when a game is available you release it because you owe it to Wii U owners to try to make their decision to buy your product worth their while.  You can be picky when you've got an abundance of games being released but you don't.  Localizing this means that maybe someone only has to wait two months between games instead of four.

NOA probably thinks "well this won't sell that much" but they fail to realize the damage that having a thin library of titles can have on their reputation with customers.  You think the Wii U's weak start happened in a vacuum?  You don't think that the very slim release schedule of the last two years of the Wii's life had anything to do with?  Nintendo neglected their customers in those last few Wii years and that likely soured a good amount of them on purchasing the follow up.  Even if they were just taking a wait-and-see approach the launch figures were weak, third parties pulled out, and anyone being cautious had their justification for doing so.

NOA should show that they care about the few customers they actually have.  So they should localize this, regardless of whether it isn't that good or isn't expected to sell that well, so that their customers think that they give a ****.

[TOPHATANT123]

Sounds like they will not be publishing it in America, probably made a deal with XSeed like with The Last Story & Pandora's Tower. Someone should just ask Itagaki on facebook.

[tyto_alba]

This is the first game i'm going to play right after i finish Yoshi's Ooly Old.

[Triforce Hermit]

I'm expecting them to make a kickstarter for the localization since it's what the cool kids are doing.

[Phil]

Come on, NOA, let's not get back into that routine of not localizing stuff that Europe does.  If it's Japan-only I get that there could be some cultural differences that make the game unmarketable here but aside from soccer games what game that would fly in Europe would not fly here?  It was frustrating on the Wii and it is frustrating now on the Wii U for the same reason - there are NO games.  The release schedule is quite empty due to a lack of third party support so when a game is available you release it because you owe it to Wii U owners to try to make their decision to buy your product worth their while.  You can be picky when you've got an abundance of games being released but you don't.  Localizing this means that maybe someone only has to wait two months between games instead of four.

NOA probably thinks "well this won't sell that much" but they fail to realize the damage that having a thin library of titles can have on their reputation with customers.  You think the Wii U's weak start happened in a vacuum?  You don't think that the very slim release schedule of the last two years of the Wii's life had anything to do with?  Nintendo neglected their customers in those last few Wii years and that likely soured a good amount of them on purchasing the follow up.  Even if they were just taking a wait-and-see approach the launch figures were weak, third parties pulled out, and anyone being cautious had their justification for doing so.

NOA should show that they care about the few customers they actually have.  So they should localize this, regardless of whether it isn't that good or isn't expected to sell that well, so that their customers think that they give a ****.

Excellent post. NoA is really indefensible and has been for a while now.

[Soren]

I'm sure NOA's August release schedule is so jam-packed...and then you're talking fall and holiday and...it's just...you know maybe we can find time for it on Spring. But man, who knows. Who knows...

[Mop it up]

I'm also staying quiet about Devil's Third.