Will Smash Bros. Brawl delay spread to U.S.?
Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 10:53am by Jack
Will Super Smash Bros. Brawl be delayed in North America too?
That’s the question greeting Nintendo fans as they awake from their Nintendo press conference megaton-induced hangover this morning. Why? Because, as we learned yesterday, Japanese gamers will not be getting Brawl until Jan 24, 2008. Ouch.
On its face, if the delay migrates over the oceans and into North America, things look very bad for Nintendo. The holiday is where these kinds of companies make mad bank, and not having a game as powerful as Smash Bros. in the lineup could be compared to ritual suicide. Then again, delays are a part of life and Nintendo is notorious for delaying 1rst party IP so that when the game launches, it launches without bugs or poor gameplay (which, IMO, has unfortunately become a rarity in today’s “shovel me out, patch me up later” development mentality).
Additionally, if we examine this hypothetical and as-of-yet non-existent delay from a business perspective, it begins to make a little more sense. You have Super Mario Galaxy, which for all intents and purposes is being billed as the Second Coming of Mario titles with incredible graphics, gameplay and character (or is that Third or Fourth Coming at this point?). This game will sell basically to anyone and everyone who owns a Wii; it will create new Wii owners; and such is its power that I predict droves of Xbox 360 and PS3 owners will go into a trance and buy this title and a Wii console against their better judgment.
Putting Smash Bros. — which is very popular among the more passionate gamer community, but is still not as popular as a straight up Mario title — up against Galaxy would hurt its sales and possibly siphon away sales from Galaxy itself. People only have so much scratch to go around, right? Therefore, Nintendo could very well delay Smash Bros., tweak online play a bit or even add new content, and release it in January, thereby giving Galaxy free reign over the holiday.
It’s really just a case of simple numbers: Galaxy will sell more then Smash Bros. Why compete with yourself when you can stagger the releases and make twice the profit. Would a delay suck? It sure would. I want Brawl now and don’t want to wait, and Nintendo did make a commitment to December. Would I 100% defend a delay, should it occur? Nope, but I understand.
UPDATE: It’s now official. Smash Bros Brawl is delayed in North America until February 2008.
October 11th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Did they ever have a concrete release date in japan anyway? I know America was assured Dec 3rd but i dont remember the Japanese ever getting a set date.
October 11th, 2007 at 11:09 am
I agree with you completely there to be honest.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see it pushed back to the beginning of next year, though from a selfish standpoint I hope it doesn’t. Can’t wait to get my hands on it :D.
But I think you’re right with the prediction that they’ll push it back to maximise sales of both Brawl and Galaxy.
Finally, I too put up with Nintendo delays because I know that the only reason they do it is to ensure quality in their games. Remember how long Twilight Princess was delayed? Completely worth it though.
So far as Brawl is concerned, what with Nintendo announcing that online co-op thing (really interested to learn more about that) there’ll probably be a few bugs to iron out on that front and who knows, they might just make it a full-blown online title, which would kick insurmountable amounts of ass.
Either way, bring on the Nintendo goodness!
October 11th, 2007 at 11:19 am
For me, Galaxy takes priority over Smash.
October 11th, 2007 at 11:30 am
I don’t understand the “cannibalization” argument. Sure, maybe someone *can’t* afford both games during the expensive holiday season. But if I buy Mario Galaxy does that mean I won’t buy Brawl a month later, regardless of Brawl’s release date??? These games aren’t limited-time offers, you know. To me, intentionally delaying Brawl until after Christmas means willingly passing up a huge selling opportunity, and that makes no sense. And Brawl is a “console pushing” game. Why not lure as many buyers to the Wii platform as possible during the biggest spending spree of the year?
Besides, the holidays are when many of us have free time for gaming. I want *both* Galaxy and Brawl, and I want them during the time I’m with family, off work, relaxing. And that’s the latter part of December, not January. Frankly, if I can’t have Brawl for the holidays, I might not buy it until March or April, if then. I just don’t understand the intentional staggered release strategy. It’s like when Battalion Wars II was delayed because they (reportedly) didn’t want to conflict with the Halo 3 release. Huh??? Did these games even have the same target audience? No. Not to mention the games are for two entirely different platforms. Seems irrational.
But what do I know. I’m just a common sense kind of guy. And common sense says intentionally delaying Brawl until after the holidays would be a big mistake.
October 11th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Kannon is right, Japan never had a firm date. However, I due expect a delay to come stateside.
Delay sounds good to me. *Wallet Smiles*
October 11th, 2007 at 11:56 am
I really don’t think it will be delayed. As has already been stated I don’t think Japan every really had a concrete date for the game so I don’t really think it has been ‘delayed’ over there. Besides has Smash brothers really been a big Japanese title? I always though it was more of an American thing. Anyways until some concrete word comes stating otherwise I will stick to the Dec 3 release.
October 11th, 2007 at 11:59 am
It was never given a date in Japan, so it isn’t delayed. Also, from what I understand, the Japanese version of “Christmas” is in January anyway, so this might be better timing for their market.
October 11th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
i hope it is delayed
i have finals week in the middle of the release–>sooo bad for GPA…
October 11th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Ladies and Gentlemen.. here is the downer News:
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2007/10/11/smash-brothers-wii-delayed-until-febrary-in-the-us/#respond
Well I will pre order Mario Galxy today….
Fireitem and Iceitem FTW
October 11th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Aww, just when I starting to get myself worked up for Brawl, they delay it. I was honestly more excited for Galaxy, but seeing the updates and the addition of Sonic really raised by excitement level.
October 11th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
More reason to go play it at E for All, right?
I’m crying foul. Delaying a game to maximize sales is certainly within their rights, and consistent with the past, but it’s brutally annoying.
And I don’t believe that it will hurt the long-term sales of either. They just won’t have as much top-of-the-charts time.
With all those titles coming out for the Wii this holiday, most of them are junk. Why not have a few good ones in there, too? What they’re really going to do is hand over holiday money to all those mediocre games so they stand a chance.
October 11th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Fool — I know you’re involved with E for All, and I owe you an apology from a previous post (when I somewhat bad mouthed E for All).
Seems that Nintendo, at the very least, has gotten me very interested in this show. I’m a flip flopper in that sense, since I hadn’t been interested before, but I’m not above an apology.
Kudos
October 11th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Feb 10, 2008!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH that sux. I want my BrawL
October 11th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Well, that’s sort of good news to me .. I wonder which game I’ll get instead of Brawl for my birthday!
October 11th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
I know that this is going to be the most uneducated thing I have said but I don’t care right now.
DON’T DELAY BRAWL, SCREW GALAXY, THAT CAN WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR
October 11th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Well I guess that blew my idea out of the water. Not to start a vicious rumor but I here that they delayed it so that they could add some kind of functionality that lets you tilt the screen like the c-stick did in melee….j/k btw
October 11th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I’m pretty sure it is going to be delayed, if you look on http://www.smashbros.com the section regarding release date changed from December, 03, 2007 to TBD, which isn’t good.
October 11th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Wii systems are sold the most during the holidays and I think SSBB would sell more because you have the hardcore gamers during christmas. Who is gonna buy a Wii system as christmas present for their Grandma? Galaxy should be the one delayed. Nintendo needs the game to keep its momentum and yet another game is not gonna sell for me at least because I’m hard up on cash and I’m picking and choosing the titles these days. I have a feeling that most other gamers feel the same.
October 11th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
I bet this delay is cause by 3rd parties whinning that 1st party games get all the sales, and Smash was going to get all the attention during Christmas.
3rd party games might be more important right now to Nintendo than another game that’s going to sell millions for sure… I bet the game is finished already and Mario can get all the attention it deserves in stores.
October 11th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
@vakerorokero:
I thought the same. Anyway, this means nothng to me, actualyy, the extra time will deliver some nice extras i`m sure, and c`mon, we all are gonna be full handed this Crhistmas season, there are so many games!
October 11th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Well, I’m getting the game no matter when it comes out.
It’s alright for me personally because there are already more games I want to play than I have time to play coming out this fall.
October 12th, 2007 at 3:52 am
The game is delayed, not held back. There’s a big difference between the two. I certainly don’t mind waiting for the game while they polish it even further. You wouldn’t want the game rushed to market before it’s 100% finished (*cough* EA *cough*), would you?
October 12th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
I dont care about the delay aslong if is to make even better, maybe they’ll add more characters and more contents to it and perfect the online multi. So is all good for me..
The Wii will be hard to find this holiday season alone, it will be harder due to the higher demand just for Galaxy and for those who will buy the Wii for Brawl will be even impossible to find , why not delayed till feb when they are usally a drought of games during that time? And remember No More Heroes is schedule for Feburary (TBA) also, that’ll keep us busy until Mario kart (that will include bikes) hit the streets..
For those without Wii yet get’em while they last now..
October 13th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
I’m with Jared there, my finals week looked bleak if that was coming out early December…its a blessing in disguise for me and many of my friends.