Nintendo Australia apologise for Wii game delays

Wii News | An official explanation…

Nintendo Australia's PR Co-ordinator, Heather Murphy, has recently made a statement to Kotaku concerning the lengthy delays of certain Wii games making their way to Australian and New Zealand shores.

Previously, in reply to a formal report into the common delay of Nintendo's Wii software releases, submitted to Nintendo Australia by Mr. Aaron Davies, a brief “no comment” was all that was given by Ms. Murphy. So it comes now, as some surprise, that Ms. Murphy has gone as far as apologising for the delays, telling Logan Booker of Kotaku, "We apologise for the inconvenience that Nintendo fans are experiencing compared with people outside of their region.”

NTSC to PAL conversion issues and the localisation process, were key reasons Ms. Murphy gave for the delays. Although also keen to point out, that in other instances, PAL versions had gone to market earlier, sighting Mario Strikers Charged Football as one example. Ms. Murphy went on to say “We are currently making efforts to minimise the time needed for localisations, as we understand that the difference in worldwide release dates is frustrating to fans."

PALGN understands the heart-ache many Wii owners are experiencing regarding Wii software delays both in Australia and PAL regions generally. Without full disclosure of the measures being taken to reduce long waiting times for games to reach PAL-land, we can only hope that said efforts are indeed underway.

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40 Comments

Spanca

5 years ago

Why are "localisation and PAL conversion" non-issues for Playstation and Xbox games? That really was a non-answer. At least they said they'll try better in the future though (although any improvement would hardly be difficult).

DancesInUnderwear

5 years ago

Apology accepted if we get Smash Bros this year. Which we wont.

emech

5 years ago

Somewhat surprised to heat anyhting like a sorry from nintendo, but actions speak louder then words. We speak english and have 60hz TVs - just drop or modify our region coding as sony has done. But this conversation has been done to death so I won't rant further here.

Super Sleuth

5 years ago

Remove the region lock from the game code. Problem solved.

As mentioned above...she has delivered a 'non' answer. She just threw a smoke ball and made a run for it.

ohayes

5 years ago

that is a rubbish response it is quite easy to convert from NTSC to PAL (for instance there are many NTSC to PAL game converters on the internet for various console .iso's) and the fact is that most tv's today can handle ntsc as well as pal so this is a non issue.

Stop making the same excuses that you made in the early 90s Nintendo and look how Microsoft treats the Australian consumer with its excellent release schedule

Eyce

5 years ago

She can't use Mario Strikers Charged as an example- It's nothing to do with NTSC/PAL Formatting, it's simply the fact that common sense tells you that a soccer game will deliver greater sales in a Soccer-heavy region like Europe, compared to a Gridiron/Ice Hockey-heavy Region.

arbok

5 years ago

HELLO!?! Tell us something we don't know!

Seriously, Nintendo are all about maximising profit, they probably have one work experience student sorting out the conversion and the 5 different PAL language translations.

Itachi

5 years ago

I still can't come up with a good enough reason to put in a region lock apart from $$$$$$. I just think by putting in a region lock they can charge pal area what they want. There is no excuse for a region lock imo i hate them. arghhh

This is why i think sony did the right thing by pissing off Region locking imo. I just hope the next nintendo console that happens.

EDIT: i was just thinking by knowing Japanese you would enjoy the wii so much more because they have so many more games in Japan. ahh well just a thought

EDITX2: People just think anyone can say there sorry. Its what you do after it that counts imo. I would love to hear Nintendo coming out and saying we are going to speed the process up. ahh well one can dream.

5 years ago

I support any measure in dismantling region code road blocks - so please include my vote for Nintendo to do the right thing. Meantime I'm just like everyone else out there trying to deal with the problem - looking at suitable work arounds

For me I see it as a competitive race for my money. If the vendor does it first – fine I'll go to my local store and buy a PAL one, if freeloader does it first – fine I'll use that option and buy an import, if someone in Mexico City or Beijing has the answer first - fine give me whatever that is. If I get caught typing this comment on this laptop whilst driving my car to work in traffic - fine. Everything is just fine.

Anyone know a shortcut from St Ives to Rosebery that does not include arterial road? I need to learn the back roads.

Spanca

5 years ago

The only ways in and out of St Ives involve arterial roads.

5 years ago

Spanc me - Without using "the Eastern Arterial Road" I mean.

legend166

5 years ago

Why would anyone want to go to St Ives?

Karai Pantsu

5 years ago

To meet the man with seven wives?

Alrighty, so back about those Wii game delays...

ugh the boot

5 years ago

Nintendo are backwards thinking for their customer's needs and fowards thinking for their own profits margins. There should be a nice balance of both but Nintendo just doesn't seem to care.

I used to hail the coming of the next big Nintendo game, now I just look at it with fear and dread because they are delayed, overpriced and technically inferior compared. I found an awesome workaround for this a few months ago....I gave up expecting anything from Nintendo and i'm going to concentrate all my time and money on Xbox and Playstation stuff. Nintendo doesn't deserve my money.

5 years ago

Damn you Karai Pantsu - I fess up - I did dump 2,800 cats over the harbour bridge on my way home one night. Each with a tom thumb to keep them warm (for several second).

Im looking at that work around too Ugh. I dont have an XBox 360 & no use relying on PS3. For me I'm focused on the PC more and more.

Go to your local game store and ask for a pre-order invitation to play the Hellgate London Beta. Very Diablo - I like it. Im also loving World in Conflict and waiting on Crysis. Best of all, there are no region hurdles.

Spanca

5 years ago

legend166 wrote

Why would anyone want to go to St Ives?

Synagogue?

And on topic: I guess it's good they made an apology rather than the typical "no comment", but it came with pathetic excuses and the real test will come in how they manage to rectify the situation.

Itachi

5 years ago

Can't anyone see that they apologised does that mean there going to do something about it??? I really doubt it tbh

LeonJ

5 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

I used to hail the coming of the next big Nintendo game, now I just look at it with fear and dread because they are delayed, overpriced and technically inferior compared. I found an awesome workaround for this a few months ago....I gave up expecting anything from Nintendo and i'm going to concentrate all my time and money on Xbox and Playstation stuff. Nintendo doesn't deserve my money.

To call the big N's top titles technically inferior is very harsh. While I agree there is certianly more cash-in-crap on the Wii that's overpriced, there are more satisfying titles on the Wii then on the PS3 for mind. Just because the resolution/raw processing power is not up with the 360/PS3 doesn't mean the games are techincally brillant in terms core gameplay mechanics. Look at Zelda. That was 60 hours of the most polished/refined gameplay you'll ever play. Was worth $100 in my book.

I'm certainly looking forward to Mario and Metriod over anything the PS3 is offering this year and the rest of the calender year releases on the 360 (hrmm maybe not Mass Effect).

ugh the boot

5 years ago

Cookie wrote

I heard off a mate that Hellgate London is Diablo 3 but he's not a huge game player so I took it with a grain of salt.

I'll only buy the essentials for my Wii now...which is basically anything Mario that isn't a party game and all Capcom games.

5 years ago

Hellgate is multiplay only (I generally dont like those) and is very buggy being in Beta so I was simply messing about playing a few levels and not expecting much from it. I have to say that three hours in and it has got my interest. I'm playing as an Engineer "JolleyDodger" and are at level 12. Maybe its just the Engineer class thats good as I have not tried the others. Its too easy at the moment but you can see the glint of quality in it. The potential .

Quality Wii titles are very thin for me at present but I do believe that a giant "wave of titles" will hit this time next year. It took DS a while to get any variety and to be honest Im flooded with games on the hand held. The big question I have is quality control.

ugh the boot

5 years ago

LeonJ wrote

To call the big N's top titles technically inferior is very harsh. While I agree there is certianly more cash-in-crap on the Wii that's overpriced, there are more satisfying titles on the Wii then on the PS3 for mind. Just because the resolution/raw processing power is not up with the 360/PS3 doesn't mean the games are techincally brillant in terms core gameplay mechanics. Look at Zelda. [b[That was 60 hours of the most polished/refined gameplay you'll ever play. Was worth $100 in my book.[/b]

I'm certainly looking forward to Mario and Metriod over anything the PS3 is offering this year and the rest of the calender year releases on the 360 (hrmm maybe not Mass Effect).

Yea the same 60 hours of gameplay that was in Wind Waker, Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time just a different setting (the same in some cases). I didn't even finish that game so imo it wasn't worth even 1/2 of the $89 I paid for it. Technically it might be great for Wii hardware (which I guarantee it's not seeing as it's a GC port) but i'm not just comparing amongst Wii games when I have all the consoles....I compare games to games of all systems...had it looked anything like Kameo (a 360 launch game which came out over a year before Zelda: TP) I would be singing a very different tune. I know you're happy with your Wii but that has absolutely nothing to do with my levels of enjoyment with it. Personally i'm looking foward to more Ps3 games this year than I am the whole Wii's lifespan...2 games for the Wii: Umbrella Chronicles and Super Mario Galaxy whereas on the Ps3 just this year: Uncharted, UT3 and Haze...don't even get me started on the 360's lineup which we both know is hella awesome.

LeonJ

5 years ago

^ Well I agree with you in some regards. I'm certainly not happy with the Wii atm, the games release schedule is still thin and just like the thread suggests, I'm not happy with the PAL delays at all.

Marlor

5 years ago

If NTSC-to-PAL is such an issue, then just release the games as PAL-60. There aren't really any TVs out there that don't support the format, and several Gamecube games were released like that without issues.

Also, in the article, "sighting" should be "citing".