Thursday 30 July 2009

Nintendo hates Europe

The title for this post is both appropriate and a plug - GameCentral is going to be turned off in the new year, so there is a petition to try and save it: here.

Now for the appropriate: I've been a bit miffed recently. I make it no secret that I enjoy the Pokemon games, which are just plain awesome.
Every so often Nintendo puts on events, some of which are difficult to get to, where you can download special exclusive Pokemon.

They've been in various places: the Metrocentre, Woolworths in the Metrocentre, a Toy'R'Us in Stockton... and the Sunderland Air Show on Seaburn Beach.

That is not difficult to get to, but the problem is the timing. Nintendo announces these things by having a website which first of all teases us then reveals the details. The Sunderland Air Show was the weekend of the 25th and 26th of July. This was revealed as a location on the 20th of July.

Think about that. I work on Saturdays and I tend to be at John's on Sundays. If I were to change either of those facts I would need more than 5 days notice. I need at least 7.

Now imagine I was a child and I did not work... but to go there I might require my parents, who might be in the same position as the adult me.

When I left the event (I did it on Sunday morning) I stopped by a cafe, where I was informed that it actually costs people £2,500 a day to set up a tent.

So Nintendo spent £5,000 on this, but shot themselves in the foot by not actually announcing it quickly enough (and it won't have been a last minute decision.)

Finally to add insult to all of that injury, today (30th) I got this email. Oh goody. They only actually advertise the event after it happened (though, obviously not with the Sunderland one on that list.)
Also take a further look - only in England and not in any major cities, either.

Sodding Nintendo. How I love to hate you, or hate to love you. I'm not sure any more.

Wednesday 15 July 2009

NIN and Game Design

Though those topics are not linked together. Or at least not in this post.

So, in reverse order: In December I had an article published on Gamecentral on Teletext. I have no created a page which has my original version of the article, and links to their mirrored bits. You can use the link on the sidebar, or this one.

Secondly, I saw Nine Inch Nails in Manchester last night, and they were amazing (as they are 3/4 of the time - sorry, but that Edinburgh gig was not that good.) There were many good points, but two particular highlights for me: They played their version of "I'm Afraid of Americans", and 30,000 (or however many people there were) singing along to "Hurt".