Even with the Wii's phenomenal success in America, Nintendo has no plans to ramp up video game development here, so says senior vice president George Harrison. When asked if Nintendo wanted to develop more games tailored for the North American audience, Harrison told Wired News, "I'm not aware of any plans to push for more software development here in the U.S."
"The actual decision about producing more software and who should do it is driven by Satoru Iwata and the management team, including Mr. Miyamoto, in Japan," he said.
This statement seems confusing considering the Wii is seeing its best sales in the U.S. market. Nintendo is moving about half a million consoles per month here, well above what they are currently selling in Japan. So what gives?
Believe it or not, it's an honest admission from the famed creators of Mario and Zelda that they're really not very good at producing games for the western market.
Nintendo's recent history with western-style games is less than stellar. While one of Nintendo's top-selling Wii titles in North America, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, was developed by Austin, Texas-based Retro Studios, that success is the exception rather than the rule. Project Hammer, an action game developed by Redmond, WA based Nintendo Software Technology was shown at E3 2006 but is now officially "on hold."
And that's the only other Western-developed first-party game that's ever been announced for the Wii, other than Mario Strikers Charged, which was developed in Vancouver.
Nintendo attempted to expand into North American development during the GameCube era, but never managed to create products as highly-rated as their Japanese titles. The now-defunct Exile Entertainment was chosen to create a game called Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball, which was canceled, presumably for quality issues and a first-person shooter called Geist, created by Florida game makers N-Space, was released to a critical drubbing.
On one hand, the fact that a game maker as respected as Nintendo can't seem to find the magic touch when it comes to western style games is a bit dumbfounding. Then again, if they can manage to sell consoles without them, more power to them. But you have to wonder, how long can the keep that up?
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