PixlBit

Part 2 of 3

Right now I’m still counting the hours until Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is available for download on the Wii U eShop. But instead of reading about the game’s reviews and the growing anticipation of finally have a domestic Fatal Frame release here in the US, I instead find my twitter feed and email box full about the current controversies surrounding the game. Besides the usual cries to be expected about “censorship” there is another far more important issue than not being able to have bikinis and sexy lingerie to unlock.

And please don’t tell me that #GamerGate has somehow got involved with Fatal Frame because of this.

No instead I speak of the underling decision as to why Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is to be an eShop exclusive instead of it getting a physical disc based release here in the US. For some this doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. Some gamers have decided that this is how things are supposed to be now. We are moving into the realms of digital distribution so might as well embrace what is coming. Get yourself an external hard drive, some gamers have called out, figuring it’s an incentive given how all the current gen consoles now support this memory expansion option. But when you boil it all down it’s not about the changing face of gaming, it’s not about game companies vying for me control over their released content, it’s not even about what gets added or removed content-wise from within the game in any given region. In the end it comes down to respect and how you handle your business. And it seems that NoA has a problem with doing both these days, with not just certain fans but with also certain franchises.

It seems that Fatal Frame is the latest to be ousted by NoA given the circumstances surrounding the handling of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. While some might see things as just mere conspiracy theory, there are others that see a completely different picture when they connect the dots and “fight in the trenches”. I’ve had the privilege in speaking with “Fingal”, the operator behind the Operation Zero’s twitter account and J.T. Melanson, the guy behind Operation Zero’s Facebook page, on the whole situation of the handling of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water to NoA as a whole when it comes to handling certain IP’s. What I came away with was a complex and intricate narrative that makes you wonder how exactly NoA does business when compared to Nintendo of Europe & Nintendo of Japan.

Operation Zero, an offshoot of Operation Rainfall, began with getting Fatal Frame 2 Remake for the Wii published in the US. When that failed they doubled down and started their twitter account when Fatal Frame 5 was announced. Operation Rainfall has been very supportive of Operation Zero, going as far as giving them a platform and coverage when no one else would. Operation Zero was even invited to participate on one of Operation Rainfall’s podcasts to discuss their mission and the Fatal Frame series. “Fingal” didn’t start Operation Zero personally but got involved when the Wii Remake of Fatal Frame 2 campaign didn’t work out. And given how Fingal is an unbelievable horror manic, he personally believes in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water and knew he couldn’t let it slip if the game didn’t make it stateside. Fingal knew others would recognize its greatness, thus the operation’s ever increasing social media push in putting a lot of pressure on Koei Tecmo and NoA. It was a helpful boon when they got in contact with Tomonbu Itagaki (the creator of the Ninja Gaiden series) who knew the producer of Fatal Frame, to see if he could bolster some support as Devil’s Third was to be released on the Wii U.

Originally when I approached Operation Zero and J.T. about Fatal Frame, it was just to get word on the efforts made by the fans to let their wishes be known on getting this game released stateside and their reaction to the news of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water being a digital release only on the US’s Wii U eShop. But our chats ended up enveloping other aspects of NoA’s handling history of other IPs. At first I didn’t see a connection but in the end it made a lot more sense by the end of things in the reasons why Nintendo of America was handling Fatal Frame the way that they were. They’ve showed a history of this kind of action before and quite possibly their actions could be seen as them wishing for certain game series as a whole to die a slow, quiet death in the US market.

When I asked for reasons on this “Fingal’ gave me examples of how Nintendo of America has handled certain games in the past, along with a possible reason why Nintendo is doing this to Fatal Frame altogether.

“Closest thing there is to a “reason” why Nintendo is doing it this way is image and branding. It’s like they are afraid of not having a wall of Mario shit on a wall at Best Buy or Gamestop. So now the customer has to pay for it. This sort of antagonistic attitude towards customers isn’t uncommon with Nintendo. They always have been like this. Ask any Earthbound or Mother 3 fan. Remember Xenoblade? Despite it already being in English, NoA had no interest in bringing it over. I imagine the demand got so bad they worried their offices would be set on fire if they didn’t bring it over. The US got it almost a year after Europe and as expected it sold best in the US than any other region. In fact other than Monster Hunter, every game that makes it over to the US always sells the most copies. “What company would antagonize their customers that way? Nintendo wants to make money. They really don’t have interest in testing the faithful. I mean Nintendo of Europe is getting a disc [of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water] and that audience consumes much less than the US consumers. I know how companies think. I mean you don’t see them doing the same thing with devil’s third. I could be wrong and maybe your right but I am confident in this assertion. It’s hard to say but that’s what it looks like. But it doesn’t make any sense. Why spend the money on these titles if they only intend on sabotaging them? It’s wasteful and only antagonizes your costumers. But not Nintendo of Europe. Generally Nintendo fans hold NoE in much higher regard than NoA. Strange though since the US market always buys the most every time. I wonder if Nintendo HQ in Japan even knows what NoA is doing sometimes. There really isn’t no excuse for this.”

When I first posed questions on the how’s and whys Nintendo of America is handling Fatal Frame altogether, “Fingal” gave examples of NoA ignoring the fans with previous game series in the past. One of them being well documented circumstances behind the handling of Earthbound.

“The demand for Earthbound has always been huge. Even more so now since Smash Bros gave the game recognition. And just like Earthbound (for the NES), Fatal Frame 4 got an amazing fan translation. Mother 3’s demand is huge but they (NoA) have no interest in ever giving the customers what they want. Despite that Reggie himself has acknowledge.”

“With Fatal Frame the 4th game got a fan patch and translation so importers can play it in English. That is how devoted the following is and the lengths customers will go through to get what they want. This is money NoA could be earning. Instead they pissing it away by ignoring these customers. You don’t see Nintendo of Europe treating their customers this way. Like the Mother series. They just don’t care. There are certain levels they are expected to care. But come on! Have they yet to promote Fatal Frame 5 yet? When have they ever tried? Zero coverage. People know about it through Operation Zero mostly. You see any coverage on sites? Any gameplay trailers? Nothing to the extent even Bayonetta 2 got. Fatal Frame 1-3 had magazine ads back in the day. That was a time when you could rely on print to advertise about a decade ago. Gaming Landscapes have changed radically since then. Fatal Frame is more recognizable title than the Deception series. Fatal Frame frequently makes top 10 Lists of greats horror games of all time. Nintendo is in a unique situation where they can jump start Fatal Frame after a decade long absence with popularity of youtubers and twitch streams. Fatal Frame is a natural fit.”

Being one of many Fatal Frame fans that did consider importing the fourth game in the series, it did strike me as odd in how all the money and effort I was about to put into getting this game could’ve easily gone to Nintendo themselves instead of third party channels. It did seem plausible that Nintendo just didn’t care about Fatal Frame after they got their hands on it. The game did sell well enough in Japan but then why ignore the fans later on if they knew how well the series was liked out in the west?

Another example that “Fingal” brought up was in how Nintendo of American handled Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii. - “Xenoblade is NoA’s embarrassment. They refused to recognize the efforts of operation rainfall and the customer demand. A perfect example of the fans doing NoA’s work for them and Gamestop too LOL. The Xenoblade situation got so bad the responsible figures at NoA changed their emails. NoA won’t even admit that a third party was responsible for pushing them into finally releasing Xenoblade Chronicles in the US. NoA is too concerned with superficial “image and branding” much to their detriment.”

“I’m paid to make sure that we’re driving the business forward—so we’re aware of what’s happening, but in the end we’ve got to do what’s best for the company. The thing we know [about petitions] is that 100,000 signatures doesn’t mean 100,000 sales.” - NoA President Reggie Fils-Aime in regards to Operation Moonfall’s and Operation Rainfall’s efforts.

When asked about despite the consumer push to get Xenoblade Chronicles and Earthbound, why didn’t Fatal Frame get the same treatment given the same consumer push behind it, Fingal had one idea as to why. - “A possibility is that they just don’t want to give in to customer demands like they did with Xenoblade. Even with this posting they acknowledge the demand specifically. I suspect they want it (fatal frame 5) to fail. Perhaps internally they just don’t want to bother with Fatal Frame at all and they figure if the rig it to fail like this they don’t have to ever bother again with niche titles like this. It all comes back to image and branding. NoA are a bunch of assholes.”

Fingal seems to think that NoA is doing this because they want to keep a certain image by bolstering their own IP’s like Mario and Splatoon with a possible consensus from certain individuals at NoA that just want Fatal Frame 5 to fail. That was much apparent with the first statements made. But as I looked deeper into this idea, Fingal offered another example of how some games get more support in comparison to the publisher of another game franchise on a different system. - “Remember NoA has given retail releases for NES Remix for two platforms. The Wii U and 3DS. Fatal Frame 5 is made by Koei Tecmo. They have put out a lot of niche games. Look at their recent games. They put out Deception 4 on disc in the US twice. Once on PS3 and again with the PS4. They obviously make money putting out niche games out on disc otherwise they wouldn’t. Even obscure games like Nobunaga’s Ambition and Blade Storm got out on disc. Remember this is the same company that made Fatal Frame 5. A year ago Nintendo put out Bayonetta 2 and it came with a disc copy of Bayonetta 1. I don’t believe it is expensive to package discs is all."

That situation did seem a bit odd in given how Koei Tecmo would release more than one version of a game on different consoles, a similar practice that Nintendo is also willing to do with their franchises, and yet neither of them would seem to commit about going as far as seeing on releasing a game from a well-established franchise in the US as a standard retail disc release.

 “Fingal” brought up an interesting point when it came to Bayonetta 2 on the Wii U fand had an interesting idea on how that deal came to pass. “I suspect that was a very high level executive decision that even NoA had to obey. Would explain why USA didn’t get the awesome [Bayonetta 2] collector’s edition the UK got. Again USA sold more copies. NoA is always fucking with their customers. It doesn’t explain Mother, Devil’s Third or Fatal Frame. Bayonetta and Xenoblade Chronicles was the fluke though with Xenoblade the almost didn’t publish it at all. We also didn’t get Disaster Day of Crisis, another game the UK got that we never did.

It would seem to point out in that instance that Nintendo of America was keen on pursuing certain IP’s that fit their agenda. A statement that Reggie himself is been known to say when it came to certain games. The video above seems to confirm his thoughts on the matter. But seeing it in possible action with just more than the Mother series as a context seem to show that despite Reggie’s vague claim for pursing specific IP’s at specific times, that mentality at NoA could be indeed a blanket directive for all games coming outside of Japan.

When asked as if Nintendo of America is thinking they are doing fans “a favor” by giving us Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water by any means possible brought up an interesting response. “The thing is they aren’t doing us a favor. Customers have to pay for it. Business doesn’t work that way. Bear in mind that Nintendo’s online infrastructure for downloads is very poor. The console breaks you’ll have to buy a new console. Also NoA thinks we are retards. They once said the download to Earthbound was “out of stock” on the VC eShop. Timed releases is one thing but denying your customers what they want is what they do best. Their method to their madness doesn’t explain how NoE is infinity superior. So long NoE is around there is no excuse for NoA for being so shitty. Their current system is anti-consumer. If they had a real account system and if the Wii U had storage capacity which was comparable to what the PS3 had I don’t think anyone would have minded that Fatal Frame 5 was online only or even if it was region free. If it was region free people would just import the PAL copy. Many are doing this. They would rather buy a UK Wii U copy of Fatal Frame 5 and commit to importing PAL Wii U games. Let’s hope they will make their next console not a disaster. The Wii U has incredible games but the console itself is a disaster.”

I myself never gave much thought to Nintendo’s online infrastructure, given the little experience I’ve had with it on the Wii U. So hearing of that news was a bit of an eye opener for me. I had known of the pains one would have to work thru in getting their accounts right on the Wii if your console died, but I had assumed Nintendo would’ve worked out those issues in the Wii U. You finally had a Nintendo ID now instead of the dreaded “friend codes”. But still the thought that if your Wii U console breaking and having little to no means to re-acquire the digital content you originally bought on the system was a troubling thought to me. Perhaps I had grown too use to Xbox Live and PSN with their relatively “painless” procedures to gain back your digital content.

When asked about personal reaction to fatal frame 5 being officially announced for release but only as a digital title Fingal was frustrated.

“NoA was terribly vague to begin with in their announcement about it first coming out in the fall. Then the rumors of it being digital only started floating about. Eventually the rumors were proven true when NoA made the official announcement. That’s when the phone calls to NoA customer service went into overdrive. Since that announcement there have been no promotions for Fatal Frame 5 from Nintendo of America. Operation zero has done more for Fatal Frame than NoA ever has. Considering the complete illogical direction NoA took with Fatal Frame 5, I’d say nobody could have expected that it would become digital only. I don’t’ think the fans were rejoicing too soon. They are the customers and they deserve their money’s worth since they have to pay for it. Nobody expected it because it doesn’t make sense. The customers naturally assumed that getting the game would mean getting a retail disc format. In this case they are probably bolstering Yoshi, Chibi Robot or Xenoblade X given the timing of the releases. “It (Chibi robot) is getting a special edition in the US. Its own amiibo. I’d say that NoA really wants to push it. Chibi robot seems to be a favorite among the higher level execs at Nintendo. That would explain why it endures despite all the unsuccessfulness it has.

In the end “Fingal” had mostly glowing reviews about how Nintendo of Europe handled things by offering better exclusives and as a whole “Nintendo is a great company.  But he added, “It’s their American branch that’s a real pain.”

 At the end of our conversations, Fingal told a very compelling and believable reason why things are like they are with Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. Indeed it made no sense that Nintendo would put money into the franchise and only not to release it in the US. The examples he gave in how NoA has handled other Japanese game franchises as well as how other Nintendo country branches handled them gave a stark contrast to what exactly saw the light of day here. Even if you take into account Reggie’s statements on what games get decided here, you really can’t see the “timing” in their “business momentum”. Should we have not seen a stronger push for Earthbound Beginnings after the release of the Smash Brother’s series when Ness showed up? Wouldn’t the news of Bayonetta 2 being a Wii U exclusive warrant a collector’s edition much like what is now happening with Xenoblade X? And wouldn’t NoA be taking a closer look at consumer reaction after all that came about with Operation Rainfall?

Seeing how well Super Mario Maker, Splatoon and anything first part related seems to confirm that indeed Nintendo is pushing their priorities as being top on the list. Though most of what “Fingal” had to say about the Fatal Frame situation seemed circumstantial at best, it did portray a broader picture of NoA’s unwillingness to release certain games regardless of the timing or business momentum that we are being told is used for the basis in deciding what gets released. In the end it’s a little hard to ignore or push aside the logic behind Operation Zero’s statements on what has come about to this day. Indeed not everyone has a Wii U that can handle a 16 GB download, let alone an internet connection that can support that size. A 16 GB title sounds like something that should come out on a disc first, then later be offered digitally like what we see in what is being offered on Sony and Microsoft’s platforms. But to expect fans to buy an external hard drive just so they can enjoy “one game” doesn’t seem to make much sense in their “timing” and reasons for a game release.

 

I think J.T. Melanson may have hit the nail on the head when it comes to another reason why NoA doesn’t want to do much with Fatal Frame. – “Personally I feel NoA is scared to dip their feet in the water (no pun intended BTW) because the series is M-rated and deals with the darker side of things where just about anything else published by them is bright, colorful and happy. Also they probably looked at the sales numbers from the past titles and decided to foolishly relegate the game to a digital only release. Yes this view is shared by many on Facebook, a lot of people were and are genuinely pissed off about Nintendo about it. But we are doing our best to let them know we want the disc.

In the end it could just boil down to image and branding for Nintendo right now. Despite their best intentions in trying to pursue M rated content, they can’t seem to shake the feel that they are first and foremost a company that caters to the demographic that doesn’t want a heavy dose of M rated content on the Wii U. All they are willing to take is a handful of titles that will give them the most bang for their buck. Can you recall how many good M rated titles were released on Nintendo consoles that were of the survival horror genre? Aside from the Resident Evil ReMake, Resident Evil ports and Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem I can’t think of any others that have graced a Nintendo system.

In the end it seems that NoA got the whole release of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water all wrong this go around. Fans want the game but are frustrated in how NoA is handling it. Why won’t NoA give it a chance to be something special on a system that could use more games that are not Nintendo franchises? In the end it seems that the writing is on the wall that indeed they don’t want this game to make it and they could care less in how it all plays out in the end. Just put the minimal effort into it and see how it fairs. If it doesn’t sell well online then it must not have been a popular enough franchise to begin with is probably their thoughts. Who cares if the fans keep calling, tweeting, facebooking, blogging or petitioning for this game. All that doesn’t mean a guarantee that they’ll get money in the end. Nintendo of America doesn’t seem to care or hold much interest in wanting this game to succeed. Which is why I’m sure everyone, myself included, are asking this questions just mere hours before the game is released on the eShop: WTF Nintendo of America?

Ta-ta

“N”

BONUS VIDEO

In this episode of “Camera Obscura”, Clara stumbles upon another keepsake trove left by her grandfather. Enjoy!

 

Sleep well tonight….