SCATTERED SHOWERS: Europe's Most Delayed Games

SCATTERED SHOWERS: Europe’s Most Delayed Games

– February 8, 2013

You may think Europe has had it pretty sweet over the last year or so, what with games such as Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower all being released months before North America. And to tell you the truth, it has been. Us Europeans have felt pretty special with the recent treatment we’ve been getting; yet it hasn’t always been like this. We’ve been known to wait months, years, and in some cases, indefinitely for releases. Heck, even Australia has been known to get some games months before Europe.

Which is why this week’s edition of Scattered Showers is all about the most delayed games in Europe… Interestingly, these games were all on Nintendo systems. I smell a conspiracy.

So many delays

Whilst it’s understandable that the cause of these delays was due to localisation, because of Europe’s million and one languages, it didn’t make the wait any less painful.

	NAME: Secret of Mana FORMAT: SNES RELEASE DATES: JP – Aug 6, 1993 NA – Oct 13, 1993 EU – Nov 24, 1994
	NAME: Super Mario Bros. FORMAT: NES RELEASE DATES: JP – Sept 13, 1985 NA – Nov 17, 1985 EU – May 15, 1987
	NAME: Ogre Battle 64 FORMAT: N64 RELEASE DATES: JP – July 14, 1999 NA – Oct 7, 2000 EU – Mar 26, 2010
	NAME: Animal Crossing FORMAT: GCN RELEASE DATES: JP – Dec 14, 2001 NA – Sept 15, 2002 AUS – Oct 17, 2003 EU – Sept 24, 2004
	NAME: Super Mario RPG FORMAT: SNES RELEASE DATES: JP – Mar 9, 1996 NA – May 13, 1996 EU – Aug 22, 2008
	NAME: Harvest Moon 64 FORMAT: N64 RELEASE DATES: JP – Feb 5, 1999 NA – Nov 30, 1999 EU – Still waiting.
	NAME: Baten Kaitos Origins FORMAT: GCN RELEASE DATES: JP – Feb 23, 2006 NA – Sept 25, 2006 EU – Still waiting.
	NAME: Excitebots: Trick Racing FORMAT: Wii RELEASE DATES: JP – Aug 30, 2011 NA – April 20, 2009 EU – Still waiting.
	NAME: Arc Rise Fantasia FORMAT: Wii RELEASE DATES: JP – June 4, 2009 NA – July 20, 2010 EU – Still waiting.
	NAME: Earthbound FORMAT: SNES RELEASE DATES: JP – Aug 27, 1994 NA – Jun 5, 1995 EU – Still waiting.

Yeah, alright North America. Laugh all you want, but us Europeans still got Pandora’s Tower, so there! … wait? … you guys are getting Pandora’s Tower too? …. Bollocks!

I’m sure they’re plenty of other games that got delayed in Europe, and not just on Nintendo systems. Let us know any others you can think of in the comments below.

SOURCE (http://excitebotstrickracing NULL.com/)

About David Rawlings

David Rawlings, or ‘Rawky’ as we like to call him, joined the Operation Rainfall Campaign at the beginning. He’s British and found solace with us as he was able to understand our pain about Nintendo and their localizing faux pas. He’s a big fan of the letter ‘U’ and refuses to remove them from words, even though we constantly ask him to. He also believes it’s about time Princess Daisy got kidnapped.

Guest

Xenogears, Chrono Cross
- http://www.facebook.com/Ryukai Jamie D. Clarke
  
  They haven’t even had the decency to release them on the PSN. Had to make an American account and buy them like that.
Fox

Well right now NOE it’s pretty much getting everything Nintendo launches on Japan…. such as bundles.
NOA is pretty much just screwing NOA, with lazy launchs, no bundles… and well we got all the ‘OpRa’ very late.
- Ryan_oprainfall
  
  Yeah NoE seems to be the superior of late in terms of localization. Or really, in terms of everything really. Not much of a NoA fan these days.
- madmofo145
  
  I’m really hoping above expected sales of some of the rainfall games change NOA’s mood a bit. With an apparent loss of casual gamers to social gaming and mobile, you’d hope that NOA would really try to bring over as much as they could to recapture the core gamer.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000388338897 Nate River
  
  Their bodies are not ready enough.
http://www.facebook.com/Ackercocke Lord Ackercocke

That’s one of the main reasons my Brit arse moved to America lol
http://www.facebook.com/mark.nanninga Mark Nanninga

Some of PS2′s RPG’s europe never got either like radiata stories, Kingdom hearts chain of memories and so on, really lame to be an rpg fan … well at least untill lately.

Those nintendo directs are helping it seems, thats already a step in the right direction.
http://twitter.com/Hailinel Justin Graham

Persona 4 Arena, or really any Atlus game, typically sees long delays for a European release (or no release at all) due to the lack of an official Atlus subsidiary in the region. This forces titles to be picked up by other publishers in order to handle the European and Australian releases.
Slickster

Region lock is what screws us Europeans over the most. I understand why it exists but every game that won’t be released in Europe will probably leave me with additional grey hair later on. Not all of us want to resort to homebrew either. Even if you don’t pirate, it’s still not legal and leaves a bad aftertaste.
http://twitter.com/PatrickKul Patrick Kulikowski

You guys also got Terranigma. North America never saw that. Super jealous.
http://www.facebook.com/chris.leonardi.90 Chris Leonardi

They Got Terranigma, I’d say that’s worth a couple of points.
http://twitter.com/kawaiisza riesza

First party games aren’t what most people are worried about, it’s the third party games that either never come or only years later.

The original Devil Survivor was released in June 2009 in the US, Overclock in December 2011. The DS version never got released in Europe (same with 2 obviously). Overclock is coming out in Europe later this month I believe. Devil Survivor which came out in February 2012 in the US is still TBA in Europe.

And that’s disregarding 3DS games that Europe will probably never get like Harvest Moon ANB, Soul Hackers or Rune Factory IV. Nintendo’s region lock is obviously not helping either.
http://www.facebook.com/Ryukai Jamie D. Clarke

There were some missing from the PS2 as well – Grandia III, Radiata Stories, Tales of Legendia. I’ve since imported them and just play them on PCSX2.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001090875407 Charlotte Buckingham

No mention of Chrono Trigger? Really? We didn’t get that game till the DS remake in 2009.

Off the top of my head, I can name Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Xenosaga I and III (but for some reason we got II…?). Due to not getting Etrian Odyssey II and III, as the first game sold poorly over here, we probably won’t be getting IV either, meaning I’ll need to get an NTSC 3DS to play it.

More recently: Code of Princess. And Devil Survivor Overclocked. Oh, and FE:Awakening.
John Ellis

I think at one point Japanese publishers didn’t think that Europe was a profitable market. back in the 80s the only company who took interest was SEGA. Also there no companies like RSG.
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Best/100003863840372 James Best

Well, hopefully this ridiculous policy will stop as Nintendo starts to standardize international game releases as they’re doing with Pokemon X and Y.
Gary65

I rest my case. This is why region locking is a joke.