Laurent Fischer (NoE) Explains Brawl’s Delay

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Here at WiiNintendo we respect all of our readers. So, to show our respect, I will write this in European English and then translate to American English. Why European first? The original article was in European. Unfortunately, the American version won’t be available until sometime in 2009.

In all seriousness, though, I realize (note the “Z” instead of an “S”) that the localization is more than just adding a “U” to “color” and swapping the “Z” in “realize” to “S”. There is the matter of a different media format and at least FIVE more languages.

Anyway, here is Laurent Fischer speaking to ONM:

“So localisation issues are one part of the delay, but you also have production issues, logistic issues… so a release date is always the result of a large number of factors, and it’s a complex decision process,” he explains. “It’s not that we deliberately like to be late in Europe, and it’s our job to take care of it, but to localise in six languages is always a challenge.”

“I realise that from time to time we have still been disappointing some people, but in general we have also been able to bring to them games which would have never been available before in a European market, and the time frame is slowly decreasing, so I’m positive for the future. We know that we are still not reaching the expectations of all the people, but we’re really doing our best to resolve this.”

To those of you in the dark, Super Smash Bros Brawl is slated for a June 27th release in Europe.

Via WiiFanboy



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  • DASMASHA

    I’m not surprised.

  • PaulT

    I don’t think any English speakers in Europe necessarily begrudge Nintendo for doing this.

    What we DO resent, however, is the fact that Nintendo have so heavily regionalised (yes, we use the S here!) the Wii that we are NOT allowed to import the US version of the game instead of waiting. Also, when we do finally get the game, it’s at a heavy price premium. Yes, I can chip the console, but then my warranty would be voided and system updates might not work (or might fry the system).

    If Nintendo want to get rid of these complaints (and much of the grey console / chip market), they just need to do what they did with the DS – don’t force regional controls. That way, people who want the localised version can wait, those who want the game now can get it, no complaints. This is how it works with DVDs (the regional controls are laughably weak) and CDs, why not Wii games?

  • Jon

    Yeah I don’t mind waiting, I just massively begrudge the higher prices. Why should we have to pay more? £70 for Wii Fit just takes the piss.

  • Bob

    Why not just release it in England as just English? We don’t need no German and Portuguese rubbish in our games.

    Its bad enough we got all the polish stealing our jobs, but we have to wait for video games to get translated for them as well???? come on now….

  • Neoatlex

    Translation is actually EXTREMELY simple once the game can use English letters, and normally games have about twenty different teams focused entirely on translation, which is why there wasn’t any delay at all with mario kart and mario strikers. There really isn’t an eligible excuse why brawl isn’t out here yet.