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[fireflame]

The recent incident with Axiom Verge brought back an old ghost, the common issues Nintendo sometimes has to communicate properly with people in the West, whether it is about developers or players. I am wondering why this seems specific to Nintendo, as Sony, which is a Japanese company too, does not seem to have that many problems with third party developers or players.

Some Nintendo fans say that people are just not smart enough to understand Nintendo and that Nintendo has nothing to be blamed for, but I feel some mistakes in the past could easily have been avoided.

Why does Sony appear to deal more peacefully with people most of times?

 

[ViolentP]

Marketing and PR budgets.

 

[Vinc]

Didn't the SIE HQ move to the US a couple of years ago?

 

[Patrick Klepek]

Sony US has more power and autonomy than Nintendo US.

 

[jonno394]

"Some nintnedo fans say that people are just not smart enough to understand Nintendo and that Nintnendo has nothing to be blamed for"

Really?

 

[FelipeMGM]

The recent incident with Axiom Verge brought back an old ghost, the common issues Nintendo sometimes has to communicate properly with people in the West, whether it is about developers or players. I am wondering why this seems specific to Nintendo, as Sony, which is a Japanese company too, does not seem to have that many problems with third party developers or players.

Some Nintendo fans say that people are just not smart enough to understand Nintendo and that Nintendo has nothing to be blamed for, but I feel some mistakes in the past could easily have been avoided.

Why does Sony appear to deal more peacefully with people most of times?

Sony HQ is in Japan, but the PlayStation (SIE) headquarters are not in Japan anymore, now they are in San Mateo in California

 

[-shadow-]

Because they actually bother communicating instead of not even trying. They figured that the industry is mostly outside of Japan these days while Nintendo keeps their focus on Japan. Just look at how Iwata went to NOA because he admitted he had no idea how the world worked outside of Japan.

 

[fireflame]

Sony US has more power and autonomy than Nintendo US.

Given the american market is big(apparently bigger than Europe) what stops Nintendo from giving more autonomy to NoA?

 

[Eria]

Sony has better infrastructure than Nintendo

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Probably because people don't take singular examples from Sony as indicative of larger scale issues...

And Sony probably has much more Western influence within the upper management than Nintendo does

 

[NoctisVsStar]

Sony US has more power and autonomy than Nintendo US.

And we're done.

 

[tuxfool]

Given the american market is big(apparently bigger than Europe) what stops Nintendo from giving more autonomy to NoA?

Nothing, except being Nintendo.

 

[LegendofLex]

Sony HQ is in Japan, but the PlayStation (SIE) headquarters are not in Japan anymore, now they are in San Mateo in California

This was actually going to be my response.

The PlayStation business is not a Japanese business anymore. It's an American one.

 

[JB2448]

All of the big three console makers have positive and negative encounters with independent developers. See: the infamous parity clause with ID@Xbox and the whole cross platform multiplayer debacle. It's not necessarily a "Japanese versus Western company" thing. Besides, Sony Interactive Entertainment is headquartered in California.

 

[Dystify]

Nintendo is a lot smaller than Sony by employment numbers. They're also strictly controlled by Nintendo in Japan. However, they've been getting more liberties lately. Treehouse created their own tumblr blog (https://nintendotreehouse.tumblr.com/), they started using an official reddit profile (https://reddit.com/u/Nintendo_America) and generally have seemed more open lately. It's very slow progress but progress nonetheless.

 

[sugarhigh4242]

All the reasons people are saying, plus Sony has strong North American and European first party development. Nintendo basically just has Retro which is a shell of its former self.

 

[Charles Brandon]

My, no doubt incorrect, take on this is that Nintendo is an ultra-traditional, old-fashioned Japanese company. The stubborn old farts make the decisions and they don't listen to the younger members of staff and the certainly don't listen to their American marketing team. Which is unfortunate given that the biggest market for their products is young Americans.

Sony seems to take a more modern approach and is more willing to pay attention to developments in foreign markets.

 

[MightBeMagic]

The CEO was American based, and he used to head the PlayStation division.

Because of their electronics and movie businesses they have always been more exposed to western ideas, Nintendo has its niche and is very hesitant to move beyond, or at least they were. They only embraced mobile in 2016 for goodness sake.

Compare them to an old japanese veteran discovered in the jungle still thinking he's at war

 

[brawly]

Because their west reps are more than mouthpieces.

 

[Skittzo0413]

This is by far my number one issue with Nintendo, but it's all a matter of autonomy and budget. It really needs to change.

"Some nintnedo fans say that people are just not smart enough to understand Nintendo and that Nintnendo has nothing to be blamed for"

Really?

Yeah, I don't think anyone has ever said this.

 

[kitchenmotors]

The recent incident with Axiom Verge brought back an old ghost, the common issues Nintendo sometimes has to communicate properly with people in the West, whether it is about developers or players. I am wondering why this seems specific to Nintendo, as Sony, which is a Japanese company too, does not seem to have that many problems with third party developers or players.

Some Nintendo fans say that people are just not smart enough to understand Nintendo and that Nintendo has nothing to be blamed for, but I feel some mistakes in the past could easily have been avoided.

Why does Sony appear to deal more peacefully with people most of times?

You mean the incident that was nothing and people jumped the gun?

https://twitter.com/AxiomVerge/status/857442880834592769

 

[Hellshy.]

What was the axiom verge incident?

 

[Nirolak]

Sony, especially PlayStation, is basically a Western operation from top to bottom.

That said, I'm confused about what this thread is about re: Nintendo.

 

[The Omega Man]

Nintendo Us doesn't have much power or saying on anything unlike Sony America, Reggie is but PR mouth piece for Nintendo Japan.

 

[Papacheeks]

It's mainly because Sony doesn't do all their decision making from one branch in Japan like Nintendo mostly does.

They let Sony of America, and Sony of Europe to run their divisions as long as they are within guidelines set by the company.

Nintendo's decisions are mostly made in Kyoto and their parent branches in Europe/America have to go through Japan to get things green lit, and specifically certain people within Nintendo of Japan have to ok it.
Which is why Nintendo makes weird decisions that seem out of touch with the rest of teh industry.

If NOA, and NOE would have their way Youtube wouldn't be an issue, region locking in the early days would not have been an issue.
Nintendo makes most of all their decisions by Japan and mostly by a specific group of people.

 

[astrogamer]

Sony transitioned to being global a lot more than Nintendo. There's several members of Sony's board that have been occupied by non-Japanese people for several years now. Sony is also bigger with several of its products in the past relying on the American market.
While Nintendo's profits can be sourced a huge chunk from North America, they didn't have to release and change games specifically for the North American market to do so, there hasn't been a pressing need to add more non-Japanese people to their board. The Axiom Verge issue is probably not related to the Japanese culture but trying to make their digital storefront a selling point

 

[AmuroChan]

Because Kaz gets it. He doesn't see Sony as a Japanese company. He sees Sony as a global company.

 

[funkystudent]

I would guess Nintendo JP is super controlling over its western wings and everything has to be approved where as PlayStation has always let it's branches do their own thing for a lot of stuff like for example dealing with developers. Sometimes that means Sony regions don't sync on some things but for the most part it's worked.


Plus Nintendo seems to either micro manage the hell out of its releases or opens the flood gates to anything and Meme Run happens. There is no middle ground with Nintendo.

 

[Kusagari]

Sony can't be as old fashioned Japanese, for lack of better terminology, simply because of how many pies they have their fingers in. They've long had to embrace more western ideology in the company at large.

 

[JordanN]

Sony learned since 1994 to never get on the bad side of third parties. And it has paid off since then.

 

[Megatron]

What recent issue with Axiom verge? The surprise announcement? Why is this on Nintendo?

 

[Twenty7KVN]

I believe Sony is better staffed in this department than Nintendo do work load is spread it better and communication is better.

 

[SocksAndShoes]

Artificial scarcity.

 

[JoeM86]

What was the axiom verge incident?

If I read correctly, Nintendo are being a bit picky with ports onto the Switch at early life and so haven't approved it. But I may be wrong.

It's not really a communication problem though. They do have one, but indies are saying it has improved dramatically.

 

[Nanashrew]

Playstation has become a western business and moved SIE to America.

However, I would like for NoE and NoA to have more autonomy and have more influence in decision making and communication.

 

[AESplusF]

You mean the incident that was nothing and people jumped the gun?

https://twitter.com/AxiomVerge/status/857442880834592769

The fact that there was miscommunication in the first place is a problem no?

 

[The Horror the horror]

Sony US has more power and autonomy than Nintendo US.

Worked well for Sega.

 

[jonno394]

The fact that there was miscommunication in the first place is a problem no?

Miscommunication, but not from Nintendo. Theyre likely referring to themselves and interviews/tweets as the miscommunication

 

[Deleted member 752119]

They aren't isolated in Kyoto and actually give their American and European branches a lot of input and power in those territories.

 

[jdmonmou]

This article is a good read that reveals Nintendo's poor management of its relationship with Indie developers.

It all boils down to just a mixture of incompetence and arrogance on Nintendo's part. They really are a stubborn company that's adverse to change and seem to be stuck in early 90s.

 

[kitchenmotors]

The fact that there was miscommunication in the first place is a problem no?

Because Dan Adelman was spouting his mouth off and calling former employees douche bags.

Sorry, but not everything is Nintendo's fault and they've dramatically improved indie relationships.

 

[ShinMaruku]

Keep in mind Sony's CEOs fromStringer on had West based CEOs becoming CEOS. Kaz for example worked at Sony in the US for many man years.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

The fact that there was miscommunication in the first place is a problem no?

Not really, unless you think the "Nintendo" they were referring to is the entire company when in actuality it was probably a single sales rep responsible for them that was probably confused.

This article is a good read that reveals Nintendo's poor management of its relationship with Indie developers.

It all boils down to just a mixture of incompetence and arrogance on Nintendo's part. They really are a stubborn company that's adverse to change and seem to be stuck in early 90s.

No, it reveals the relationship with less than a handful of developers. We can easily find articles for many more with nothing, but positive things to say. I'll say it again, people need to stop attributing a few people to a large problem. It's especially ironic since people here SHAT on Polygon for doing the same thing (taking a few devs comments as large scale sentiment)

 

[Papacheeks]

Worked well for Sega.

Sega of Japan sabotaged Sega of america at almost every turn during the 90's. Which is why Sega fell from grace.

Go read up on it:

Console Wars Book, it's amazing.

 

[The Omega Man]

Because Kaz gets it. He doesn't see Sony as a Japanese company. He sees Sony as a global company.

Many Japanese executives from SONY like Kaz and Yoshida have studied abroad and learned English this made them more sensible and aware of global tendencies and practices. I don't think that's the case with Nintendo executives, besides the late Iwata, I don't think any of Nintendo's top executives speak English.

 

[jonno394]

This article is a good read that reveals Nintendo's poor management of its relationship with Indie developers.

It all boils down to just a mixture of incompetence and arrogance on Nintendo's part. They really are a stubborn company that's adverse to change and seem to be stuck in early 90s.

Read the countless indie Devs singing Nintendo's praises and you realise you can't cherry pick things.

 

[JordanN]

Worked well for Sega.

Wasn't it the opposite?

Peter Moore and Tom Kalinske were constantly arguing with SEGA of Japan's operations.

 

[JoeM86]

The fact that there was miscommunication in the first place is a problem no?

Yeah but that miscommunication was not on Nintendo's side. It's on the developer's side.

 

[Charles Brandon]

Isn't Sega an American company in Japan many ways (and always has been)?

 

[Leafhopper]

"Some nintnedo fans say that people are just not smart enough to understand Nintendo and that Nintnendo has nothing to be blamed for"

Really?

That sounds exactly like some crazy stuff I would hear but like from 1 person. Not a common thing.