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Nintendo of North America Needs to Get with the Program

Nintendo of North America Needs to Get with the Program

Today’s Nintendo Direct was pretty good when it comes to games. There’s some great stuff coming out for the Wii U and 3DS in the first half of 2014. I’m excited about the new Fire Emblem game, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Splatoon , and the chance to finally play Puzzle & Dragon without the associated free-to-play bullcrap. Still, the excitement of the day is tampered by ongoing issues with Nintendo’s North American branch, which seems determined to disappoint customers with baffling decisions and a lack of communication.

The latest big dis toward our fair continent was the announcement of the New Nintendo 3DS XL . While Japan, Australia, and Europe all have access to the regular New 3DS , only the New 3DS XL was announced for North America. This strange decision is about more than simply restricting our choice of sizes. The regular-sized New 3DS comes with swappable faceplates and a cool design that features colored buttons. The New 3DS XL is not customizable and lacks the special buttons. Many fans were excited about the prospect of having swappable faceplates, which would even allow them to have access to the cool designs that are released in Japan and not elsewhere. Hunks of plastic aren’t region-locked, after all.

That alone wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the string of fan-unfriendly decisions and poor communication that has come from the company for the past few years. Everybody remembers the controversy over Xenoblade Chronicles and other Wii RPGs that almost weren’t released on the continent, seemingly because Nintendo of America didn’t think anybody was interested in the genre. Fans and journalists alike failed to get a straight answer from the company about those games for years before it finally up and released them here.

Then there’s the recent debacle with Amiibos , in which Nintendo appears to have over-produced characters that are most popular with kids, like Mario , and severely under-produced most other figures, notably characters like Marth , Villager , and Wii Fit Trainer . In the face of customer frustration over Ebay scalpers and queries about whether more supply of these figures would be released, the company released only vague platitudes that neither confirmed nor denied that more Amiibos would be on the way. This kind of problem has also played out with Wii U GameCube adapters, which are nearly impossible to find. More may be on the way, but Nintendo is cagey about the timeline.

The problem here isn’t just that Nintendo of Japan and Nintendo of Europe are doing a lot better job keeping their customers happy. It’s the complete lack of open communication that comes from Nintendo of America’s official representatives. The company’s social media accounts are one-way only streams of communication, completely lacking the “social” part of the equation. So far the only reliable way to get the company’s attention seems to be concerted Miiverse begging campaigns, which is rather problematic. Even game journalists can’t get a straight answer to simple questions from Nintendo .

Nintendo of North America Needs to Get with the Program

Sadly, this is another sign of how Nintendo is far too slow to pick up on modern business practices. While other major game companies have adopted a more open communication stance, Nintendo continues to dole out information from on high at a glacial pace. Today’s New 3DS XL announcement was tone-deaf, ignoring the existence of the regular New 3DS XL as though the Internet doesn’t exist and North Americans are completely ignorant of the fact that the rest of the world is getting the device. Heck, because of the company’s retrograde region-locking policy, we can’t even import the thing from Japan or Europe unless we also want to import every game we play on it.

I’m a huge Nintendo fan, but the company needs to get with the program and treat its North American customers with more respect. It needs to become more flexible and responsive to consumer demand for its products, as shown by the difficulty we’ve had acquiring things like GameCube adapters and non- Mario Amiibos . It needs to put the “social” back in social media and develop clear, prompt answers to simple questions asked by thousands of fans. Most of all, Nintendo needs to evolve with the times and develop a marketing and public relations policy that understands the global economy and the international nature of the Internet.

Nintendo should have known that it couldn’t fool us by saying nothing but the words New Nintendo 3DS XL . We know the other model exists, we know it’s being sold everywhere else in the world, and we want to know whether we’ll be able to buy it.  While we’re at it, could we get a clear answer about future Amiibo and GameCube adapter supply? Isn’t it a good thing when people want to buy your products, Nintendo ?

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