Nintendo's eagerly anticipated fighting game
Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been delayed again, only this time the delay applies only to Europe and Australia. When Brawl was given its February release date in America, many people, including myself, believed that this guaranteed a similar launch date for PAL regions. All the obvious reasons were there. Usually the main playing factor for European delays is the language barrier. It would be deemed unfair to launch English language copies of a game in Great Britain and Ireland just because they speak the tongue of their native brothers across the pond in the States. And with games containing as much context as they do these days this can often take many months with many different translation teams. Unfortunately for our Australian readers they fall into the same basket just because of a region-lock difference.
The game has officially been set to release some time
after Q2 2008 in the PAL region, that being the second quarter of 2008. Revealed by a Nintendo spokesperson to
VideoGamer.com, the news came as a nuclear bomb to the already disheartened consumers, following setbacks of other massively anticipated games such as
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and
Battalion Wars II. Now here's the confusing list of questions. Why? Surely they had enough time to translate everything during the initial delay? What can possibly be the reasoning behind this delay? How much text could possibly be in a game like Brawl? What other factors besides screen modes could be different from the North American version of the game?
"If the game is not listed on the schedule up until the end of Q2 it is currently not due out until after that time"
Nintendo spokesperson speaking to VideoGames.com
I myself am European. I am not suffering. I am not screaming with frustration as many of my American friends believe. I am just confused, and slightly taken aback by the complete ignorance of a large company such as Nintendo. Bungie's
Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 is my guinea pig for this subject. Halo 3 was launched in North America on November 25, 2007. It was launched in Europe on November 26, one day later. Now I'm no expert, nor do I have any insight to the games trade, but I'm fairly certain that Halo 3 has a lot more text in it than Brawl. So what else could be behind these delays? And why do Europeans and Australians constantly get pushed to the back of the line? And why is it only Nintendo? So many questions, and yet so few answers.
Written By: Aaron Hastings
wasnt this already portalized? nicely written though.
Thanks. This is an editorial of opinion. The other one was the news post
i see. well its really just a swift kick into the balls of PAL gamers. not fait at all.
I think the reason that other companies release simultaneously is because they delay the NTSC regions to keep it as a simultaneous release. Nintendo, on the other hand, wants to ship it out the second it's ready. If it were Sony or Microsoft making Brawl, they would have pushed the release date of the game to post-Q2 for EVERY region, not just PAL, to make it fair.
I doubt it. All companies will be wanting steady release dates.
I feel sorry for all the europian gamers. I'm glad though that I live in the U.S
Sony and Microsoft >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Nintendo for release dates.
I don't care if they can justify it. How can they have Mario Kart Wii (a game that we only learnt about this year) on the first half schedule yet Brawl (a game we learnt about nearly two years ago) isn't on there? Nintendo... you suck... that's all there is to it.
I think the reason that other companies release simultaneously is because they delay the NTSC regions to keep it as a simultaneous release. Nintendo, on the other hand, wants to ship it out the second it's ready. If it were Sony or Microsoft making Brawl, they would have pushed the release date of the game to post-Q2 for EVERY region, not just PAL, to make it fair.
My thoughts exactly. That, and Nintendo has a knack at giving us release dates when it would be much more wise to keep us in the dark about it till about a month before release.
I feel sorry for all the europian gamers. I'm glad though that I live in the U.S
Don't bother, we've finished getting angry at it by this stage
I think they should delay the NTSC releases to be fairer to the rest of the gaming world.
meh, if they did that, and never told us it *should* be comming in Febuary, then no one would be complaining right now.
I could care less, I don't own a Wii. :p
After the excellence of delayed games like Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3 people still haven't figured out why games are dalayed yet?
I mean crap, the only reason games are delayed is to make them better. They aren't trying to drive up demand or wait for the holiday season or anything like that no matter how many times the press says so. Companies are simply trying to improve the game as much as possible.
Nintendo fans should be used to it anyway. Nintendo has delayed all of their biggest games in the last 25 years, and the result? They are all even more amazing than people think.
Twilight Princess was delayed for what, 2 years? It no doubt would still have been good, but just imagine how inferior it would have been in comparison if they rushed it out to meet deadlines. If anything, delays should almost be welcomed. Had Red Steel been released even a few months later it probably could have been everything it was acually supposed to be.
I think delays are annoying and companies should not release dates until they have a more realistic estimate, but the game industry is much more complicated than just an assembly line push-out-the-door type of thing.
The thing annoying here is its a PAL only delay. Did you read the editorial? Its only PAL being forced to wait, which is stupid and senseless. Don't try and tell us delayed games aren't better for it... we know, we figured it out long ago. We don't mind that Brawl was delayed til Feb in the US... its the flipping fact that we have to wait til after July to play the game legally. And its freakin' bull**** that we should have to endure it.
well your importing anyway, so it doesn't really matter.
Yes, but think of the other people who aren't. This is just incredibly frustrating. Then again Nintendo are a very frustrating company.
Using Halo 3 is not a good excuse. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft had all versions being worked on simultaneously. Nintendo doesn't do that.
If anyone is to blame, its the PAL region Nintendo offices. They suck. Its their job to get it ready and localized and they're not doing their job.
You see, that's because Microsoft probably realises how important it was to get Halo 3 out worldwide asap.
Nintendo is too clueless, otherwise maybe they'd try and help out the PAL offices.
