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ash_ag · Sep 29, 2015

PR just came in to several Greek sites. Here's a translated version:

Nortec Multimedia SA said:
Dear Partners and Friends,

As you all know, Nortec Multimedia withstood the unrelenting economic crisis that has affected our country during the last 6 years. Even today, our company remains healthy and without debt.

However, a series of important trade issues we have with Nintendo leave us no choice but to put an end to our long-lasting collaboration. As a result, we deeply regret to inform you that our collaboration with Nintendo will end in 31/12/2015.

We would like to express our gratitude to all of our partners for their heartily and continuous support through all these years, and of course to the customers and fans of our products. Furthermore, we wish Nintendo all the best in their future plans and activities in Greece, Cyprus and the Balkans.

Source 1
Source 2

For those that don't know, Nortec Multimedia was the distributor of Nintendo products in Greece and Cyprus since 1997, and Bulgaria, Albania and the Republic of Macedonia since 2002. They succeeded Itochu, and have handled some of the most significant eras of Nintendo's history in those regions, like the Pokémon craze of the early 00's, the DS / Wii era, and the transition to today's Nintendo. They had recently been named Nintendo Hellas.

Nortec has had its ups and downs, but I think they did a wonderful job both as a distributor and as an ambassador of Nintendo's culture. Small as it is, the Greek Nintendo community has been especially active in the last few years (especially during the DS/Wii era) and that is in no small part thanks to how prolific Nortec was. Their customer loyalty programme, Nortec Club was superb, and they held numerous events for games such as Pokémon, Smash Bros. and Splatoon. Their pricing policies were also relatively fair, and they had developed a really good relationship with the fan communities.

Truly the end of an era.

I'm really concerned about Nintendo's representation in those regions moving forward. The current situation in Greece (high taxes, capital controls, decline in consumer spending) doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, and there's little doubt Nortec's downfall has a lot to do with that, even if the company had been healthy.

kng3025 · Sep 29, 2015

Damn, that's really unfortunate. I hope there will still be a way for people to enjoy Nintendo products without having to sell an arm and leg. I think something like that happened in Brazil some time ago, and it's crazy expensive buying games over there.

bomblord1 · Sep 29, 2015

So is this an issue with Nintendo or the economy in general? Your description makes it sound like it's just an economic issue and they dropped it due to reduced consumer spending (probably as a cost saving measure).

But this line
"However, a series of important trade issues we have with Nintendo leave us no choice but to put an end to our long-lasting collaboration."

Makes it sound like the problem lies with Nintendo.

mclem · Sep 29, 2015

It sounds like they're mad as Hellas.

L~A · Sep 29, 2015

bomblord1 said:
So is this an issue with Nintendo or the economy in general? Your description makes it sound like it's just an economic issue and they dropped it due to reduced consumer spending (probably as a cost saving measure).

But this line
"However, a series of important trade issues we have with Nintendo leave us no choice but to put an end to our long-lasting collaboration."

Makes it sound like the problem lies with Nintendo.

It's most likely both: crap economic situation in Greece led Nintendo to change their strategy/policies, and that caused the trade issues mentioned.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid we're never going to get a proper explanation. I wonder which company they will pick next to replace Nortec.

ash_ag · Sep 29, 2015

bomblord1 said:
So is this an issue with Nintendo or the economy in general? Your description makes it sound like it's just an economic issue and they dropped it due to reduced consumer spending (probably as a cost saving measure).

But this line
"However, a series of important trade issues we have with Nintendo leave us no choice but to put an end to our long-lasting collaboration."

Makes it sound like the problem lies with Nintendo.

It's probably a little bit of both.

I imagine the "trade issues" mentioned refer partly to the capital controls that have been imposed since July. They have caused issues to a lot of businesses that have to import goods, and a lot of Greek fans have been speculating about how Nortec plans to handle the situation. They've brought the most important releases (such as Mario Maker) over, but games like Animal Crossing HHD haven't made it, which is really unusual.

oti · Sep 29, 2015

mclem said:
It sounds like they're mad as Hellas.

Starwolf_UK · Sep 29, 2015

Don't know if it is connected in any way.

Something similar happened with Nortec Eurasia (Nintendo Turkey) back in ~~June~~ 2012 (though news of the closure seems to be in March, collaborated by the official Nintendo Turkey page...why the NOE microsite gets the date wrong...). A quick google finds the managing director of Nortec Eurasia left in Feburary 2012 and went on to set up the Turkish office of Riot Games.

As for what happened to Turkey after that? Impossible to find Nintendo products on shelves as another distributor was never found. Strangely enough the Turkish eShop exists though the only content is patches and youtube basically.

The only reason the whole Nortec Eurasia thing appeared on my radar was because a while ago some Nortec Eurasia sealed copies of Boom Street found their way into retalier hands (that combined with what was probably the copies GAME were supposed to buy but were out of money crashed the price of that game down to £5).

ash_ag · Sep 29, 2015

As far as I know, Nortec Eurasia was originally partly(?) owned by Nortec Multimedia. In 2010, a different Greek company, Sanyo Hellas, bought about 36% of Nortec Eurasia. Not sure what the relationship between the two Nortecs was after that. I do remember a restructuring of sorts in 2012 though. It was around then that they were named Nintendo Hellas and had relaunched their websites.

petran79 · Sep 29, 2015

Nortec had also to pay 1 million Euro fine back in 2002 (almost double in todays inflation rates) for trade colluding.

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-02-1584_en.htm?locale=en

this affected multiple distributors in Europe

Individual fines

Following is a breakdown of the fines per company (all figures expressed in million EUR):

Nintendo Corporation and Nintendo of Europe GmbH (jointly liable): 149.128

John Menzies plc: 8.64

Concentra - Produtos para crianças S.A.: 0.825

Linea GIG. S.p.A.: 1.5

Bergsala AB: 1.25

Itochu Corporation: 4.5

Nortec A.E.: 1.0

CD-Contact Data GmbH: 1.0

Chittagong · Sep 29, 2015

Wow, Bergsala had to pony up a million. Owe & co must have been royally pissed off!

Mpl90 · Sep 29, 2015

L~A said:
It's most likely both: crap economic situation in Greece led Nintendo to change their strategy/policies, and that caused the trade issues mentioned.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid we're never going to get a proper explanation. I wonder which company they will pick next to replace Nortec.

At this point, I'd hope Nintendo start establishing its own distribution / publishing offices in these territories. They can't rely forever on third party distributors. But it's a process that is going to take years anyway.

Funyarinpa · Sep 29, 2015

That used to be the company that brought over Nintendo products to Turkey as well, but they stopped activity here shortly after 3DS' launch.

Sad to hear for all involved.

themagicalkitsune · Sep 29, 2015

My first bought games have the nortec seal on them. :/

Very sad news.

MicH · Sep 29, 2015

That makes me sad.

I hope Bergsala (Scandinavian Nintendo distributor) will stay for a long time. So what happens to those whose NNIDs are set in Greece? Does the eShop just close or does it just not get any more games?

-shadow- · Sep 29, 2015

With the current economical situation there I can't really say I'm surprised. I hope the people are still able to get these products regardless at a normal price. And of course also that the eShop stays up and running.

Lord Ghirahim · Oct 2, 2015

kng3025 said:
Damn, that's really unfortunate. I hope there will still be a way for people to enjoy Nintendo products without having to sell an arm and leg. I think something like that happened in Brazil some time ago, and it's crazy expensive buying games over there.

Importing from other countries can often be cheaper than buying domestically in Greece.

bomblord1 said:
So is this an issue with Nintendo or the economy in general? Your description makes it sound like it's just an economic issue and they dropped it due to reduced consumer spending (probably as a cost saving measure).

But this line
"However, a series of important trade issues we have with Nintendo leave us no choice but to put an end to our long-lasting collaboration."

Makes it sound like the problem lies with Nintendo.

The problem does lie with Nintendo. They repeatedly failed to make their products attractive, or even known for that matter, to the Greek consumer. Even in the midst of crisis, people rushed to buy PS4s. Sony markets their products and even offers Greek localised versions for some of their key titles (The Last of Us, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, Uncharted 4), while Nintendo and their distributors sit on their hands. If Nintendo wants to ever reclaim Turkey/Greece/Cyprus, they will have to match the competition's services. I won't even go into the trade issues that Nintendo seems to be running into with their distributors.

Nilaul · Oct 3, 2015

Any update?

There's quite a lot of interpreting speculation in gonintendo's comments

I suppose there might be a probability of New Distributor to replace Nortec in 2016. If not Public may bring games a few bigger releases on it's own.

Nortec did drop it's game; it became expensive in the last years. However it's biggest mistake? The fallout between them and Greece's biggest retailer; Plasio. Which caused Plasio to stop stocking Nintendo products completely. A bridge that they should had not had burnt and for sure effected sales and Nintendo's presence. I remember Wii/NDS era and the compare it to the the 3DS/WiiU era. Completely different (I guess the economic crises helped too). Can't complain, Nortec was good; and they where good in their prime in Greece and always had excellent costumer support. End Of Era. However I wouldn't be surprised if the Plasio ordeal had something to do with Nintendo's decision to cut them off. A retailer without Plasio support in Greece is like a soldier without it's sword.

Vena · Oct 3, 2015

Nilaul said:
Any update?

Well, I can tell you that in Bulgaria they did jack shit to begin with other than price things in exorbitant lev sums. I've simply brought back 3DS/2DSes for my cousins when/if they asked for them when I am visiting in summer times.

A lot of the kids still really, really like Pokemon but they have like no way of playing it given current distribution and almost all of them are playing on emulators.

Lernaean · Oct 3, 2015

There is a little bit of hyperbole in all that. The really sad part is that a lot of ppl will lose their jobs, especially the technicians who were top of the business and all service in the area was done by them. That and the fact that the company has been part of the gaming community here forever. The truth is that there will still be a distributor, one way or another, and that no one really bought from Nortec the last few years because they had cheap localized covers in the games and they were kinda expensive so everyone was buying from abroad which was cheaper, even with postage included, and had english text on the covers.

Lord_Balkan · Oct 3, 2015

Very sad song for very sad news.. I shed a tear.

Nilaul · Oct 3, 2015

Vena said:
Well, I can tell you that in Bulgaria they did jack shit to begin with other than price things in exorbitant lev sums. I've simply brought back 3DS/2DSes for my cousins when/if they asked for them when I am visiting in summer times.

A lot of the kids still really, really like Pokemon but they have like no way of playing it given current distribution and almost all of them are playing on emulators.

Well then they had it coming like the old distributor of Poland basically. . The new distributor actually tries. You can buy eshop cards even in kiosks. So many competitions,meetups and various events with giveaways. Trailers in Polish etc. TV adverts etc and prices and offers that make other regions jealous.

KaneU · Oct 3, 2015

I bought my Nintendogs DS bundle in Athens and it had a Nortec seal on it... This news makes me sad

MrKeinov · Oct 4, 2015

They closed down the Turkey branch 3.5 years ago btw. Turkey has no Nintendo distributer since. For the first year, remaining Nintendo goodies were sold around with ludicrous prices. Like 1 turkish liras for SF4 3DS(0.33 usd), 150 liras for a brand new Zelda OoT LE 3DS(50 usd), 10 liras for wii fit balance board(3.33 usd) etc. Even now sometimes I randomly come across Nortec goodies that are left behind. But maybe this happened because of some unchecked stocking regulations. If the same thing is gonna happen in Greece, I might consider going there in Jan-Feb to hunt some games/amiibo/etc.

Galdius · Oct 4, 2015

kng3025 said:
Damn, that's really unfortunate. I hope there will still be a way for people to enjoy Nintendo products without having to sell an arm and leg. I think something like that happened in Brazil some time ago, and it's crazy expensive buying games over there.

The same thing happened here in Brazil.
The games now are way more expensive but to be fair the Real was devalorized a lot in the recent months.

Plasma · Oct 7, 2015

mclem said:
It sounds like they're mad as Hellas.

If people can't by games they'll just turn to Piraeus.

petran79 · Oct 7, 2015

Plasma said:
If people can't by games they'll just turn to Piraeus.

Online MMO currently are more popular than ever over here

Nilaul said:
Any update?

There's quite a lot of interpreting speculation in gonintendo's comments

I suppose there might be a probability of New Distributor to replace Nortec in 2016. If not Public may bring games a few bigger releases on it's own.

Nortec did drop it's game; it became expensive in the last years. However it's biggest mistake? The fallout between them and Greece's biggest retailer; Plasio. Which caused Plasio to stop stocking Nintendo products completely. A bridge that they should had not had burnt and for sure effected sales and Nintendo's presence. I remember Wii/NDS era and the compare it to the the 3DS/WiiU era. Completely different (I guess the economic crises helped too). Can't complain, Nortec was good; and they where good in their prime in Greece and always had excellent costumer support. End Of Era. However I wouldn't be surprised if the Plasio ordeal had something to do with Nintendo's decision to cut them off. A retailer without Plasio support in Greece is like a soldier without it's sword.

I just now noticed that there are no Nintendo products at their online store page.
Plaisio can go bankrupt for all I care. Worst company ever and their custom PC and hardware brands are notorious for failure. I wonder how they became #1 seller in Greece.
With capital controls there is a lot of profiteering regarding money transfers between bank accounts. Fortunately I have some cash credit on Paypal so that can bypass credit cards.
Returned from Project Cars refunds

Other big chain stores like Public still have 3DS and Wii U games, though not the new releases. Plaisio is mainly focusing on console, PC and home cinema. While Public is far more attractive to parents since it has also a bookstore and games, comics, movies etc

Nilaul · Oct 15, 2015

petran79 said:
Online MMO currently are more popular than ever over here

I just now noticed that there are no Nintendo products at their online store page.
Plaisio can go bankrupt for all I care. Worst company ever and their custom PC and hardware brands are notorious for failure. I wonder how they became #1 seller in Greece.
With capital controls there is a lot of profiteering regarding money transfers between bank accounts. Fortunately I have some cash credit on Paypal so that can bypass credit cards.
Returned from Project Cars refunds

Other big chain stores like Public still have 3DS and Wii U games, though not the new releases. Plaisio is mainly focusing on console, PC and home cinema. While Public is far more attractive to parents since it has also a bookstore and games, comics, movies etc

Man the only reason I go to plasio is for art supplies (just so much cheaper then anywhere else), ink and other offices supplies. There gaming section/lounge is full and comfy but the store is mainly full of people cause of there office/art/school supplies. It is the reason why thousands of parents visit plasio. I haven't visited a local bookstore in for supplies for years now.

I wouldn't go off and buy their electronic brand (dunno maybe they improved it now) but I got burnt buying a Turbo-X laptop and I got burnt by temporarily owning the first ever TurboX phone (which was so quite you couldn't hear the other person speak). However no one is telling people to buy Plasio electronic brands; they promote them but you can still find good deals from other companies. There's still a legit reason why they have such a large presence in Greece.

You must admit the cookies are good though.

Public could be the only big chain that would be willing to bring a few games on there own (and then you also get all those small niche shops on skroutz.gr).

ash_ag · Oct 19, 2015

Good news about digital support. Someone on ninty.gr asked if the eShop will continue to operate normally (since Nortec's branding appear in the digital receipts, making the whole thing unclear) and received word that it will:

Good evening,

As a market, Greece remains among the countries officially supporting the eShop.

You will not run into any issues.

As for [Nortec's branding], following 31/12/2015, it will presumably not appear [in the receipts].

Thank you.

Incidentally, enternity.gr has done three pieces on the whole situation if any Greek readers are interested.

The takeaway from the third article is that the decision was Nortec's (rather than NoE's), and the author speculates that capital controls may not have played a role on it, since it was probably taken before they were imposed. There's no comment offered on the actual reason.

Nilaul said:
Public could be the only big chain that would be willing to bring a few games on there own (and then you also get all those small niche shops on skroutz.gr).

An exclusive partnership with Public could actually work. Most major cities have a store, and Public was the most recent (de facto) Nortec partner chain, in that it was where most events (for Pokémon and the like) took place. Their Nintendo sections are usually pretty solid too (unlike Plaisio's back in the day).

I think both NoE and Public could be open to the idea. The former working with a single partner with excellent coverage of Greece (and Cyprus!), and the latter collecting the majority of Greek Nintendo sales without owing a stake to a separate distributor.

ramparter · Oct 19, 2015

ash_ag said:
An exclusive partnership with Public could actually work. Most major cities have a store, and Public was the most recent (de facto) Nortec partner chain, in that it was where most events (for Pokémon and the like) took place. Their Nintendo sections are usually pretty solid too (unlike Plaisio's back in the day).

Hoever If I'm not mistaken, there are laws that require stuff as greek manuals when selling foreign products in the greek market. Would public be willing to cover those costs?

ash_ag · Oct 19, 2015

ramparter said:
Hoever If I'm not mistaken, there are laws that require stuff as greek manuals when selling foreign products in the greek market. Would public be willing to cover those costs?

As far as I know, it was NoE that assembled the games even until now. Nortec simply provided the translations (and backcover adjustments). Worst-case scenario, Public will have to print cheap A4 manuals themselves (which was often the case with Nortec). If it comes down to that and quick-and-dirty translations, I don't see it as a major issue.

ash_ag · Apr 26, 2016

So, I'm bumping this old thread considering there's nothing concrete at the moment, but we may be close to a deal. According to a former Nortec employee:

More than one company has expressed interest in becoming the new Nintendo distributor
Candidates are said to be pretty interesting and potentially more effective than Nortec
Concrete support and service plans almost identical between all of them
Could start distribution before Christmas, but no rush

Incidentally, Public (and other retail chains) can be counted out based on what Kampas says.

Neiteio · Apr 26, 2016

mclem said:
It sounds like they're mad as Hellas.

Nintendo didn't like them because they're Greece-y

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