PixlBit

Part 1 of 3

Right now I am counting the hours as I prepare for the one game that may or may not make my Top 11 Octoberween Game Titles for 2015 - Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water on the Wii U. It’s been almost a decade since we last saw a Fatal Frame title here in the US (and no I don’t count Spirit Camera on the 3DS given it’s not a console game) so it’s interesting to see how the fans of the series are preparing for this game’s release. We were not lucky enough to get Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse or the Fatal Frame II Remake on the Wii so being able to get a Fatal Frame title here in the US should be considered a bit of a red letter day. But instead fans of the series are up in arms in how they seem to perceive in how Nintendo of American is handling Maiden of Black Water and the series itself as a whole. Originally fans were upset that we didn’t get Mask of the Lunar Eclipse on the Wii then later the Fatal Frame II Remake, especially given what could be done with the Wii’s revolutionary motion controls at the time. Fatal Frame had mostly been a Sony/PlayStation 2 specific title for the franchise. But ever since Nintendo got its hands on the franchise it’s been handling it differently than Tecmo has, by keeping it mostly in Japan with little to know reasons/attempts for it to make the jump across the ocean. The Fatal Frame II Remake was lucky enough to see a release in Australia and Europe but that doesn’t help us North American fans any seeing how we had to resort to using fan translations to be able to enjoy Mask of the Lunar Eclipse.

Sure we got a “Director’s Cut” of Fatal Frame II on the Xbox long ago but that doesn’t help any.

But what people seem to forget in regards to the handling of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is that unlike Sony or even Tecmo before, is that Nintendo is a completely different beast when it comes to releasing what title on what system in what region. They are coming off the high they experienced with the releases of the Wii and DS. You recall that time last gaming generation. So many Wii’s and DS’s were selling that the joke was that they “literally printed money”.

But now those days are gone. The new console on the block is the Wii U and it has yet to meet the full potential and selling power of its predecessor. Even the much touted 3DS saw a bit of a slump when Nintendo gauged too high the interest in the system during its first unveiling that they ended up overpricing it upon launch. Though Nintendo has learned their lesson by dropping the price on the 3DS, making the 2DS line and rolling out the “New” Nintendo 3DS, the Wii U isn’t quite up to par in what Nintendo use to enjoy with the Wii. The high sales revenues isn’t there yet and despite some big selling titles like Splatoon and Super Mario Maker, it’s Microsoft’s and Sony’s current gen consoles that are leading the sales charts. Now mind you that Nintendo itself isn’t in dire straits like what has become of Sega. They are just not enjoying the luxury, or money cushion, that they use to last gaming generation. Nintendo has had to make some changes in how they do business now. These changes might not seem much. Some of them are noticeable but others were done in small, subtle ways that may not be generally known till you view things from how they now operate.

Gone is their presence at E3. Gone is the notion that ANY game can be released on their new consoles to a degree. Gone is the thought that their ideas of innovative control design can be a selling point to any product they offer. Motion controls and 3D visuals have helped in some areas but not as much as they would’ve hoped. Even the advent of HD visuals on a Nintendo console doesn’t seem to be enough to hold much saw on many games, given how we’ve come to HD visuals in other consoles last gaming generation. Yes Nintendo is now playing “catch up” when it comes to Sony and Microsoft so they’ve had to make changes in how they handle themselves from here on out. In one way they seem to be doing this is in how they decide what games get released or made the most effort out of. That shouldn’t come as a shock given how Nintendo has access to a stable of steady, well known and respected IP’s in the gaming industry. Their own IP’s alone hold a lot of sway for the nostalgic gamer and those of the newer, younger generation of gamers who have come to know the joy that we older games have come to know in regards to Mario, Zelda and the like. And while we have seen entries, or soon to be entries, into those respective franchises on the Wii U, who knows what will come for the future for other titles that will soon grace the Wii U’s gamepad controller. Who’s to say what Zelda Wii U and Star Fox will bring! And despite Nintendo will to take some risks on different IP’s under their name, like NintendoLand and Pikmin, they know they can do only so much with what they can. Sure they could branch out and release everything and anything under the sun, or worse, allow anything and everything under the sun to be released on the Wii U, but by doing so they could end up deluding their “gamescape” with other titles that could share a negative light on the Wii U as a whole. They’ve already felt the sting of certain publishers not willing to release certain games on their system after their first attempt. Mass Effect 3, Batman Arkham City Armored Edition and Assassin’s Creed III are great examples of this. Where are the other games in that franchise like the next Mass Effect, Arkham Knight and Assassin’s Creed IV on the Wii U?

Even if that was the choice of specific game publishers not to release games on the Wii U, Nintendo still has a say in what they want on their system. So it’s up to Nintendo to find out what will or won’t work on their system to maximize the system’s potential. I can’t say I know their formula or if even there is a formula, but it’s up to Nintendo to decide what will or won’t work for a game release. Indeed they have become far stricter in what they want on the Wii U and 3DS to fit their core audience of gamers. Be it nostalgic gamers or a younger demographic or even a mix of the two, it would appear that Nintendo is keeping ahold of the console keys to their gaming kingdom.

Now I know what you must be thinking. What does any of this have to do with Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water? Or even the series in general? Well the answer to this is quite simple. Cost. Again I can’t say for certain how Nintendo crunches the numbers but Nintendo has seen fit to handle Fatal Frame with the minimalist possible effort. Despite Mask of the Lunar Eclipse and the Fatal Frame II Remake selling well on the Wii, it may not have been the smash hit that Nintendo had hoped in Japan. Lunar Eclipse itself was followed with a multimedia endeavor consisting of a live action movie, an original novel and comic. And since we haven’t heard any heralding news of how well this effort has paid off for Nintendo and the Fatal Frame franchise itself, seems to put into question how well it worked out for them in the long haul. For all we know it might’ve ended like the whole SquareEnix “Compilation of Final Fantasy VII” project by getting only a mixed response. And if mixed is all Fatal Frame can gather instead of the smash hit status like other Nintendo properties, Fatal Frame as a franchise may not be something Nintendo wants to fully back again for fear of it not meeting the lofty expectations expected of it.

Even if the series did well enough in the US before on another system, Nintendo seems fit not to use those figures in their decision making in how to handle things. It’s their game on their system now, so therefore it has to meet a different standard than before. They did this with Bayonettta, pursuing the sequel to this game by making it a console exclusive, and going as far as releasing the first game with the second all in the same packaging. But unlike Bayonetta, Fatal Frame has had 2 chances on a Nintendo console. Three IF you count the 3DS title Spirit Camera. And despite those titles selling well in Japan, there doesn’t seem to enough hard numbers of the prior games in the series selling well enough to warrant their continuation. After all you have to remember: Fatal Frame I & II saw a release on both the PS2 and Xbox but only the third game saw light on the PS2. Were the sales numbers not high enough for even Tecmo’s standards to warrant publishing the game on the Xbox? Sure you could say that the arrival of the Xbox 360 could be the cause of the third game not making it to the original Xbox. But then again like it would seem to be the case, Nintendo has either decided not to take the US sales numbers of the Fatal Frame series into consideration or have different standards they expect out of the series now that it’s under the umbrella of Nintendo.

So in seeing how they’ve handled the release of Lunar Eclipse and the Fatal Frame II Remake isn’t any wonder that Nintendo is taking the “digital only” route with the game in the US? By releasing the game digitally, Nintendo is taking less of a risk in pressing a physical release game and having a lot of possible surplus of unsold games in the US market. You could argue that it doesn’t cost much to make a game physically these days but perhaps by Nintendo’s standards that small price is still too much of a price to risk another situation like the one in Japan with Lunar Eclipse. Even if Nintendo is late to grasp the digital aspects of gaming, they seem to be taking the lessons they’ve learned on the Wii with its digital distribution. They may not be the great strides that Microsoft and Sony have made, but they are at least a push in the right direction if they want to be considered relevant in the digital realm of gaming. You could say that they missed the mark by offering only a 32 GB model of their system but in seeing how the Wii U was the first console in the current gaming generation to allow external hard drive connectability, a feature that the Xbox One, PS4 and even Xbox 360 took a while to implement, seems to imply that Nintendo intended costumers to be proactive and have an external hard drive idea in their minds for future console game releases. Even the earlier statements from Koei Tecmo seem to imply that those wanting to pursue a digital option in Japan would have to go that route.

So when fans spoke out in wanting this game in the US, Nintendo once again crunched the numbers, sampled customer interests and came up with the most viable solution they must think would be beneficial for all parties. Give the fans what they want but do it as cheaply as possible. Nintendo of Europe maybe will to take the risk of releasing the game physically in Europe, but they are only going so far by releasing a limited collector’s edition run, thus ensuring most if not all of these copies will be sold. And seeing the digital success that was Earthbound on the Wii U’s Virtual Console release seems to have given Nintendo more of a bolder push to see about releasing Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water as a digital release. More people seem more inclined to buy their games digitally as seen with the current trend in the gaming industry, which makes all the more sense that Nintendo would take this route with Fatal Frame. If fans want it bad enough they’ll endure a long download wait or buy an external hard drive it would seem to be Nintendo of America’s thinking. If fans are willing to import the prior games AND have fan translations then surely they’ll put that same effort in being able to play a digital domestic release of Fatal Frame.

But instead we get the fan backlash with them being upset and with great gnashing of teeth in how horrible and wrong Nintendo of America is for not listening to their demands in having the game physically. They say it’s to inconvenient to expect fans to download a 16 GB game to either their 32 GB Deluxe model Wii U or have to track down an external hard drive for one game, when there is a good chance you’ll eventually end up using that hard drive later for future eShop/VC buys. Why do the fans have to “take one for the team” when Nintendo could do all they could to release the game physically, or even do what Europe did by releasing a limited release of the game? To that I answer: why not?

Fatal Frame Fans: You know you want it.

Fans have shown how far they are willing to go in being able to play the prior games in the series not released here in the US. Fans have translated the game, fans have imported the time, fans have literally soft modded their Wii consoles to be able to play specific region locked content on their domestic systems. Why does a company have to bend to the will of the consumer just because they “want” something? Sure they are a business and their business is to make money but they also have to take into account how much money it would take to sell this kind of title to a broader domestic market. What may sell well in Japan in the past may not sell well here in the US or not at all. Despite the determination of fans, Nintendo is not willing to take the risk that they will actually do what they say and say what they do when it comes to buying a specific game title. Even if the game was reserved that is still no guarantee that the money would go to that game in the end. Reserves can be cancelled or changed. It’s not like the money was pledged to some kind of patreon/gofundme/kickstarter campaign.

Nintendo wants a sure thing when it comes to their game releases now. Each title is looked at carefully it seems to ensure it makes the most bang for its buck. And given how Fatal Frame has fared in Japan, it would seem that Nintendo doesn’t want to take the full risk of possibly losing out if the game doesn’t do well in the US. So Fatal Frame fans, instead of just demanding a game being sold to you, just be glad you’re getting the game at all. You didn’t get Lunar Eclipse before and the Fatal Frame II Remake before that. We were lucky enough to get Spirit Camera on the 3DS and upon seeing how that game faired in sales and reviews we are just as lucky to be seeing a release of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water right now. Still congrats to you all for making Nintendo aware that Maiden of Black Water may have a shot here in the US, they added the game to the April 1^st Nintendo Direct announcement. Now don’t blow it by continuing to moan and whine in how you’re not getting a shiny physical release and how you’d rather not get the game at all given the digital ramifications. Nintendo doesn’t owe you anything and doesn’t answer to the whims of shifting public and social media opinion. If you want the game to success you had to put your money where your mouth is, regardless where the game comes from. For in the end Nintendo isn’t your friend or partner or lifelong partner. It’s a business. And business want only one thing: Money.

And don’t get me started on the “bikini” censorship issue that’s just come up. We’re playing Fatal Frame folks, not DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball!

Ta-ta

“N”

Bonus Video!

In this episode of "Camera Obscura", Clare and Jason share a moment after their latest encounter. Enjoy!

Sleep well tonight....