Damn, even if I can find a brit to record it for me, I'd still have to put up with damned PAL-NTSC incompatibilities.

Wait? They're going after Nintendo for the epileptic seizures problem too? That's rich. How about we drag Atari to court because I got hurt by the corner of a 2600 while we're at it?

I really wish I could find out that side of the story, because it really contradicts what Nintendo are saying about this problem, such as the warning labels and their funding and research of epilectic seizures.

Can anyone find a transcript of this? Will there even be a transcript somewhere?

Looks like epileptic seizures is the next big thing. Anyways, this program has witch hunt written all over it. I can already tell by the tone and style set by that news piece. It will portray Nintendo as this big corporation hell bent on milking the world's youth, raking in tons of money, and finally, not paying its employee a fair share of the profit. On top of that, the program will probably say that Nintendo don't care if their games causes seizure. Of course I could be wrong.

On another note, I think companies should not be made liable for epileptic seizures cause by games because they don't know the health conditions that gamers have. To be found liable or implied that they are liable is ridiculous. A warning isn't enough? Soon, we will have games that don't have fancy flashing effects such as lightning, explosions, etc . This whole thing is making me pissed.

Judging by the show's synopsis, it is clear the show is designed to infuriate the crowds with half-truths. Come on, what television program that uses the phrase "at what price" ISN'T out to make corporations look bad? Libby places Nintendo with the likes of Walmart, Disney and De Beers, for crying out loud! I expect this show to be the epitome of editorial finesse.

As for the top-secret information, I suspect it is merely Nintendo's recent anti-seizure measures used against the company as proof that Nintendo knew all along. The show will probably also claim that doctors have known about light-induced seizures for a while, so naturally Nintendo should have made the extra effort at the expense of game quality.

I mean no disrespect to those who have suffered from video game-related seizures, but compared to the mass-scale exploitation of peoples practiced by other prominent corporations, the possibility of Nintendo shrugging off epilepsy doesn't seem like too big of a deal.

Now, if the program is out to make Nintendo look as though it mistreats its employees, I fully expect a barrage of contradictory feedback from NOA employees. Especially with recent economic strains, demanding many hours of employees is pretty much standard practice in the software industry. Even so, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts "long hours with little pay" will crop up in this episode.

no mention of Saturo Iwata? interesting... or not. also,

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Lincoln now runs the Seattle Mariners, a baseball team bought with Mr Yamauchi’s money but never graced with his presence.

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Man, Nintendo can't catch a break. They're NOT the market leader yet they still get all the negative stuff like lawsuits and bad press that comes with being the leader but none of the good stuff like high sales and market share. Why doesn't Sony get some of this bad stuff. Nintendo needs to strive to be number one again practically just to make all this sh!t that people living in the 80s are shoveling on them worthwhile.

As for the epilepsy thing if there's a warning on the game you have no sympathy from me if you get a seizure playing it. Sacrificing game quality for epilepsy sufferers is like making all roller coasters flat and slow to accomodate people with bad hearts. It's STUPID. I'm allergic to cut grass yet you don't see me asking the entire world to pave their lawns. If you have a problem it's selfish to expect the entire world to make a sacrifice just to accomodate you. People who are missing arms can't even play videogames. Should we change all controllers just for them?

hmmmmm, the tongue controller? You might have something there.....

This is just another example of the "It's not me, let me blame someone with lots of money" kind of society that we sadly have to live in. If only people would use common sense. What do they think the warnings are there for anyway.

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Originally posted by: PGC NewsBot
Part of a series called "Outrageous Fortunes" which is investigating some of the world's biggest brand name companies.

In Japan, Libby traces Nintendo’s roots and gains an interview with Nintendo’s super star designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the man responsible for creating Nintendo’s most popular titles: Mario, Pokemon and Zelda.

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I think they need to do more research. How difficult could it possibly be to find out who really created that game? If they can't get something as simple as that right I think they are going to make a lot more mistakes.

EDIT: Just for fun I decided to see how long it would take to find the information. It took about 5 seconds on Google just using the term pokemon's creator and clicking on the first result.

What I find strange is of the 3 big platform publishers today, Nintendo has the most prominent warning about epilepsy. A warning is even printed on the back of the box. Both Microsoft and Sony warn about epilepsy too, but on the first page of their manuals, you know, AFTER you open it. And if that gets them off the hook, then Nintendo should also get off the hook, because they have bigger warnings about more things than just epilepsy. Motion Sickness, Electric Shock, hell even "Laser" damage.

If Microsoft is owned by the richest man in the world then why doesn't anyone please sue them?!? Besides this thing can't be all bad. It might even get good publicity for Nintendo. But hey, I'm just being optomistic.

Deguello: Most PS2 and XBox games don't even have a little precautions booklet in the game cases- I know none of MY PS2 games did. And as you said, they certainly don't have warnings on the outside of the box. Nintendo, on the other hand, requires every game to have a warning about seizures on the outside of the box and to have a precautions booklet inside the case with a detailed explanation about how videogames can cause seizures if you're photosensitive. Nintendo is only being attacked because their name is almost synomous with "videogames" (although I thought that impression would have worn off over the last 8 years). It's similar to how Nintendo was included in the lawsuit the families of the Columbine victims took out on videogame companies, despite the fact that none of Nintendo's games are very violent at all- in fact, I believe Super Smash Bros. Melee was the first 1st party Nintendo game to get above an E rating.

Alright, here's your undeniable proof that the media is hell-bent on destroying Nintendo anyway it can! Is there bounty on the company's head or something?

Question for our European gamers: Do Gamecube games have a little black pamphlet explicitly telling you that you may experience epliptic seizures and such?

This reeks of socialism if you ask me. Has the BBC gone so far left?

Whatever...

Someone from Britain should write BBC a suggestion to investigate the other companies and see how much worse they are. This just sounds like a witch hunt for no good reason and anyone with half a brain will know better than to listen to it.

poor yamauchi..he was all set to see his team as they were gonna visit..and then there was a terror alert..and they stayed here...poor yamauchi...

In response to the person that asked about European gamers having that little balck booklet: yes we do!

I'm from the UK and I've got it in every game, whether published by Nintendo or not. I'm guessing it's the same as yours, containing:
~Warning - Seizures;
~Caution - Brightness of tv screen;
~Warning - Repetitive motion injuries;
~Warning - Electric shock;
~Caution - Motion sickness;
~Caution - Projection tv use;
~Game disc precautions / Maintenance.

Plus, it contains all this info in English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Danish. Suomi (sorry I don't know which language that is!), and Norwegian!

I don't see any warnings on the back of the box, although it does say specifically to make sure you read the instruction book before use!

The epilepsy warnings with Nintendo games in Europe date all the way back to the original Game Boy. I'll see if I can try to record the program with my DVD-recorder.

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It’s a fascinating story that takes presenter Libby Potter on a journey ranging from Birmingham to Hawaii, Soho to Tokyo and across the USA.

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If they complain about labour conditions, smack 'em. The video game industry is KNOWN for its inhuman work practices. I think the part of Ion Storm that was responsible for... errr... guilty of Daikatana didn't have those practices and we all know how that ended.

Why are the media against video games? They are afraid! They are cornered and losing against the behemoth that is the videogame industry. RIAA, MPAA, broadcasters, ... all complaining about falling profits while the videogame industry continues to grow. I'm willing to bet EA could buy some of Hollywood's larger labels. More and more movie directors want to make video games. Videogame tie-ins are becoming almost as important as the movie itself. They have all reason to be afraid.

Hmm, the BBC seems to have taken the Nintendo documetary off of the schedule. It has been replaced by a documentary about Bacardi, according to the online BBC 3 schedule. The dates on the Outrageous Fortunes website say the Bacardi and Disney documentaries are on at the same date and time as the Nintendo documentary is supposed to be. I'm still going to record it, just to see what's on.

I have just been watching the program and the first 40 minutes of it have been exclusively about Bacardi. Looking at the website again, it looks like it won't be on until next week.

I missed when it was supposed to be on. Did they actually show the Nintendo documentary in the end?

Berto's trying to get it from a friend in the UK. Look for it on GCA soon.

I just watched this 1 hour documentary from BBC3 and I think this Micheal TYp owes an apology (so-to-speak) to judge it beforehand. Sure, they could've had Professor Harding test Atari and Sony system games on epilepsy symtoms as well. But it was a fair point of distress they made on videogames in general, though it was only discussed for maybe 10 minutes in all, everyone got their say.

The documentary was awesome, amazing interviews, and most important unbiased.
http://www.warppipe.com/bbc/nintendo.avi
Don't thank me, thank Warppipe for the d/l.

Once again, Nintendo takes the most precautions, yet gets the blame.

Edit: I'm not referring exculsivly to this program, but to non-gamers blaming gaming in general. I suppose my sister did think my N64 was a "Sega" the first couple of years I owned that.

Interesting. I'm going to just have to look for myself, because there are two (or more) sides to every story and it really does seem unfair that Nintendo cops the flak despite all the effort they put into customer awareness.

But these days, everyone knows the console names, but the makers? Nintendo is usually the first answer.

As for epilepsy as a condition, flashing lights almost anywhere can cause an attack. Why not attack the refridgeration industry to abandon the little lights in the fridge? (You might laugh, but I have seen it happen to someone I know) So I am quite angry at this moment, and at the bottom of the page there is a "Making Money the Nintendo Way" which is hilarious.

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~ Sign up Hollywood to make feature films about your company.
~ You may have a family business but you can still sack your cousin from the company.
~ Make the games exciting with lots of colours and flashing lights!
~ Market your main product Mario like he's going out of fashion!

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Be prepared to walk into shops personally and beg them to stock your product.

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Maintain a single-minded focus! If some of your more successful competitors like Sony are making games with blood and gore or using big movie franchises it doesn't mean you have to.

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You don't understand it?

Popular new form of entertainment becomes big, threatens existing media outlets.

If video games had been identified with the anti-war movement or some disliked ethnic minority they'd probably be illegal right now.

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Originally posted by: Shifty
~ You may have a family business but you can still sack your cousin from the company.

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After watching this article, it is clear I was wrong to judge this program prematurely. However, If I were Libby I'd be going after whomever wrote the press release highly emphasizing the aggressive portions of her report.

The show makes a few half-statistics. For instance, it mentions the recent European lawsuit on unfair practices, but doesn't point out the suit was concerning actions Nintendo had abanndoned years before the lawsuit was filed. However, it makes more than a few fair criticisms of Nintendo's former business practices, and is NOT out to pigeon-hole Nintendo as I had expected. In fact, the only truely off-putting aspect of this show was its generalization of "Nintendo" games to be all games on Nintendo systems, relating Mega Man X to Nintendo multiple times during the seizure section and never mentioning Capcom (well, maybe its logo in VJ footae, but that doesn't count). Libby also seemed unaware that Nintendo does put warning on the outside of its boxes in America (though NOE really should do that too).

I must admit, though, that the argument that avoiding certain patterns for safety is a sticky one. I mean, Nintendo IS right that games just wouldn't be as fun if they were limited in such a way. There example of driving up the staircase in the MKDD's Daisy Cruiser is a perfect one: to fix the potential trigger, Nintendo would have had to axe significant detail in the scenery. As for testing 8-bit games, I'd argue it is borderline unfair to criticize repeating patterns when the NES could do little else.

There are a lot of funny, historical and entertaining moments in this piece of journalism. Do check it out.

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Originally posted by: TheYoungerPlumber

Yes, NOA inludes inside-slip warnings as well. Her point was that warnings should be on the outside, before someone purchases the game. This is already the case over here in the states.

The nostalgia of seeing all the old advertising (and a kart race with two guys in Mario and DK suits - awesome) was worth much more than the journalism and insight IMO.

Yamauchi is portrayed as a guy "looking for a quick buck" in the documentary, probably due to his reluctance to an interview, but you also see that he is a highly motivated, creative, shrewd and tough businessman - willing to try something different to make his way in the world.

As for the epilepsy issue, they definitely forget to mention the warning labels in red on the backs of games. All of Nintendo's games since I can remember looking have them. But the front? Surely we don't need to idiot-proof every form of entertainment. Removing the responsibilities of parenting seems to be an increasing trend, and legal action like those mentioned in the article are assisting .

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If you have problems with that because he's your friend he'll drag you down.

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Yamauchi fired his cousin once he inherited the family business. The article doesn't mention why, but I suspect that he wasn't up to Yamauchi's high standard of his staff.

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Ah, that explains how RE4 became exclusive, he made an offer Capcom couldn't refuse.

anyone have this video? I remember watching it on google video a while back but can't find it there anymore. I was reminded of it by the bbc tetris documentary on infendo. I watched it before google video let you download it to your hard disk.

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Originally posted by: slacker It will portray Nintendo as this big corporation hell bent on milking the world's youth, raking in tons of money, and finally, not paying its employee a fair share of the profit.

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