Nintendo consoles have been on the sidelines of the console war in Western countries for a while now. While nostalgic value is a powerful selling point for their consoles, it doesn’t make up for the lack of features that most Western gamers would consider basic level stuff. The Wii U, Nintendo’s next-generation console, is barely even selling outside of Japan. This raises the question of if Nintendo should go back to being a Japan-only game maker.
For a column intended to sift through the often obscure world of import gaming and international game development, Jetsetter devotes a whole lot of time to talking about Nintendo. The House of Mario is an international corporate force, its consoles are available from Kenya to Kazakhstan, and its Italian plumber mascot has been more recognized than Mickey Mouse since 1997. Despite its reach though, the company itself and how it is run is arguably the most mysterious guiding force in both the video game industry and the craft of game design. To an importer, it remains one of the few purveyors of console and handheld games that are regularly only released outside of the U.S. As the column discussed just two short weeks ago, the Nintendo releases coming out of Great Britain provide some of the best, most-language accessible import experiences an American gamer could ever ask for. But will it remain a company that continues making games that are often intensely regional?