Nintendo Not Planning On Publishing The Last Story Overseas
Here at GayGamer, we're very eager to play Mistwalker's upcoming Wii RPG The Last Story. Unfortunately, some recent comments from Nintendo make it sound like that may never happen outside of Japan. Localization and translation are the primary culprit, as Ninteno UK's David Yarnton saying:
With all the conversions, when we do it in Europe we've got to do the whole of Europe. So it's multiple languages. It has to be viable.We've got so much on our plate at the moment. The most important one is in the first quarter this year. Kirby's Epic Yarn is the most important title. We've got some great product coming out.
On top of that, when we add in 3DS, it's just so much.
Yarnton's comments come in the wake of Nintendo's US offices stating there are "no plans at present" to publish The Last Story outside of Japan.
This, however, does not necessarily mean the game will never see release outside of Japan. Nintendo is the Japanese publisher, but another publisher could potentially offer to publish the game for other territories if Nintendo doesn't have the localization resources available for the game. It wasn't too long ago that Sony published Demon's Souls in Japan, but passed on overseas publishing allowing Atlus and Namco Bandai to step in for the respective US and European releases. Given Mistwalker's high profile and the buzz already surrounding The Last Story in the US and Europe, a similar situation to Demon's Souls might not be out of the question.
Until there's more official word, it seems that we may have to put our excitement for The Last Story on hold for the foreseeable future. But if I were a betting man, I wouldn't be surprised if The Last Story is announced later this year for a US release under another publisher's banner.
Why The Last Story is Japan exclusive [Eurogamer]
NaviFairy
Posted to Video Games on 20 January 2011
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: japan gets all the good stuff first, localization is a chore, mistwalker, nintendo, rpg, the last story, wii
Ugh! This got a massive facepalm out of me.
Why do they insist on doing this every time?
I am getting so fed up with the Japanese gaming industry and the way they treat their customers.
If it's not the whole 'we have westernise our games for the poor little westerners' attitude, it's them not even bothering to bring amazing looking games out outside of Japan.
Sure there is a little chance of it possibly, eventually seeing a release. But frankly, I just don't have the faith.
Most of Europe speaks English, so this 'multiple languages' thing is abit old hat Nintendo - and just an excuse for laziness - let's be honest [especially when Golden Sun was brought out two+ months ahead of Kirby: Epic Yarn].
But TLS and Xenoblade will see a release over here, probably by the summer, definitely.
This seems like the nail in the coffin to me. Like Namco, Nintendo usually doesn't let other publishers touch anything that they have dibs on. It's typically Nintendo or nothing.
>.> If this game isn't released over here, who do I protest?...Mist Walker or Nintendo? D: Ugh...first awesome looking game in forever and they are too lazy to conversion it?
@Chosenoneknuckles from my (admittedly limited) understanding they are required by law to translate the game into all languages for Europe, so it's not exactly an excuse for laziness if releasing an English-only version isn't an option.
Wow, how incredibly disappointing... I was looking forward to this too.
Christ I want this game! I guess it makes sense for the pal version of the game but hopefully an ntsc version isn't completely unviable. I'd personally rather this than FFXIII-2 (blasphemy I know).
Kirby's Epic Yarn gets more priority over this? Seriously? Wow, my respect for Nintendo goes down so much. Here they have a game with so much potential, with so much effort put into it, that may rival titles of the bigger consoles… But they put their tail between their legs and prioritize kiddy games as usual. Their stupidity and ignorance really pisses me off! Well, guess I won't have to buy a Wii anytime soon… So thanks for being stupid again Nintendo? I guess?
@NaviFairy You are grossly misinformed. There are around 600 languages in Europe. Do you really think they have to translate every game into every language for them to be released here?
If a game is translated for Europe, it tends to only be French, German, Spanish, Italian (and English). Most other languages in Europe are only spoken in one country so it would make no sense at all to translate the games into every language.
Microsoft release Xbox 360 titles in all regions within days of each other. Do you think they translate the games into every language in Europe? Of course not. They have no requirement to do so, and as Chosenoneknuckles said, pretty much every gamer in Europe understands English (because nearly every game here is only in English). Nintendo are using this translation explanation as a terrible excuse.