Dear Mr. Iwata, Please fix this Nintendo of America problem...

Coffee Beans
There are some people in the video game industry that like to place all the blame for Nintendo's current financial and Wii U situation on Mr. Iwata, the current CEO of Nintendo Company and now CEO of Nintendo of America as well. Some of those people deny that employees and management in other regions for Nintendo, like at Nintendo of America for example, might actually be part of Nintendo's overall problem as well though.

There is currently one Nintendo problem though, directly related to Nintendo of America's region, that I don't think Mr. Iwata made and might not even be aware that the problem exists. At least, I don't think he would have made this decision, based on one of his own more recent comments. It is a problem that Mr. Iwata now as CEO of Nintendo of America can hopefully address and get fixed though, for consumers and Nintendo investors.

What problem do I think Mr. Iwata as CEO of Nintendo of America should fix? Brew yourself some coffee, and keep reading to see!

Dear Nintendo of America...

Coffee Beans
Do you see that image above? It's an image Nintendo of America just included in an email to everybody signed up to receive promotional emails from them, and this email was specifically for the Wii U. It is titled, "Wii U Games, offers, and news for you", and I'm glad to see Nintendo of America actually promoting the Wii U. There's just one problem I have with it...

Do you see what is wrong with that image above? If not, take a look at the image below, as it currently appears on their Club Nintendo site, and see if you can spot it (same exact spot).

Why don't they like the Y button?

Now take a look at the image below that I have edited in an attempt to fix the one(s) above, using sub-$100 photo editing software. This is how the image should appear.

As it should appear, unless they're trying to promote the GamePad with a 3D display like the 3DS?

I'm not a billion dollar corporation. I don't blog for a living. I'm not a professional photo editor, have never taken an art course, and am pretty slow when it comes to editing basic things in Photoshop. BUT, the fact I spotted that image error, makes me wonder how quickly they throw things together at Nintendo of America without proofreading them?

 Perhaps, just perhaps, the employee(s) who edited it and put the email together just didn't have enough coffee during the day? THAT, I can understand (sort of).

So, in short:
"Dear Nintendo of America,

Please fix the first image above as it is currently seen on the Club Nintendo site (http://club2.nintendo.com/clubn-vc-promo-0613/), and please proofread emails and double check images before possibly sending them out to millions of Nintendo fans.

Thanks,
Scott"

Questions
Did anybody else, perhaps non-artist or non-graphic designer like myself, notice that error in the image? Would anybody like to donate me a few billion dollars?

Here is a newer version of the software I used to fix Nintendo of America's bad Wii U GamePad image:

It's Official - Wii's U.S. Nintendo Channel, Forecast Channel, News Channel & more taken offline.

The message you get now when trying to access the Nintendo Channel.

Coffee Beans
If you have read stories around here over the last few years, chances are you have probably seen my data report stories on Wii games. I would gather information from the Wii's Nintendo Channel, and then create images with the reported play-time on games that showed things like average times played and total hours played. You can even read a data report I did on the Everybody Votes Channel, HERE.

Well, as of now, the Nintendo Channel (seen above), Forecast Channel, News Channel, Everybody Votes Channel, and Check Mii Out Channel have been taken offline on the Wii, to never return again. Perhaps Nintendo will release a News and Weather app on the Wii U, but I doubt they will ever release a Nintendo Channel app that shows play-times of Wii U and Wii games, because that data could provide hints of sales numbers for games as well.

You can see the how the other Wii Channels now appear if you attempt to visit them, in the image below.

Click to enlarge

Caffeinated Thoughts
I have used the Nintendo Channel almost weekly, for the last 3+ years. Even weeks and months when I didn't post data reports, I would record the data for my records (data nerd). Seeing the Nintendo Channel services discontinued is the biggest disappointment for me out of all the Wii Channels discontinued. There were some newer Wii games I was hoping to get to report on, like Pandora's Tower, but due to the Nintendo Channel service being stopped that data will now most likely never be known.

While we used the Forecast Channel, Everybody Votes Channel, Check Mii Out Channel, and News Channel, none of them were used anywhere near as much as the Nintendo Channel in our house, and some of them hadn't been used regularly in years.

The Nintendo Channel was by far my favorite Wii Channel and not just because of the data, but also because Nintendo started things like Nintendo Week on it and it provided a good way to watch trailers of new games coming out as well.

Questions
Did any of you use a Wii Channel (or two) regularly, and perhaps will be disappointed now that these Wii Channel services have been discontinued?

Did all of you know that the Wii Channels in the U.S./Western market were being taken offline? I didn't see any sites really report on them being discontinued in the U.S., but I did see it mentioned for Europe and Japan.

Nintendo Sources Revealed: Metroid Prime Trilogy's Cancellation Confirmed...again?

(rehashed from the previous article!)

A few weeks back, I broke the news that Nintendo of America wasn't shipping Metroid Prime: Trilogy anymore in North America.  I provided some quotes in the original story and thought that would be the end of it.

Earlier today I was browsing GoNintendo.com, seeing what news was happening on the Nintendo side of the gaming world.  I saw a title posted up, "Amazon drops Metroid Prime Trilogy at Nintendo's request".  I didn't realize this was still an evolving story, so I clicked the link to the original source and it brought me to Joystiq.com.
The title on the original article was, "Amazon: 'Per Nintendo, we will no longer be offering Metroid Prime Trilogy'", written by Alexander Sliwinski.

The first line of the article reads, "Nintendo continues to drag its feet on an official response about Metroid Prime Trilogy's retail status, though online retailer Amazon tells Joystiq that the game has been discontinued."
It baffled me, because I already had given a quote from the official response I received from Nintendo in the original article.  Why is Nintendo dragging its feet?

Then a little further down in the article, I read a line that stated, "Nintendo refuses to acknowledge it ever made the statement that the game was 'no longer being shipped.'".
This line didn't baffle me, as much as it shocked me.  If Nintendo wasn't acknowledging they made the statement, did that make my article false and show me as a liar?

Well, I quickly sent an email over to Joystiq to get it straightened up.
It seems that Nintendo's PR department wouldn't simply state the game wasn't being shipped anymore, because I didn't provide a direct source, other than stating it was a quote I received from Nintendo.

I really can't figure out why a billion dollar company like Nintendo has communication issues with the press.  They know whether or not Metroid Prime: Trilogy is being shipped/produced anymore, but because they didn't have the original source, they were just going to deny it, making me out to be a liar?

So, did I lie in my original story, since Nintendo "...refuses to acknowledge..." what I stated?

In each picture below, I've provided a screen capture of the emails I received from Nintendo.  My original questions are in the bottom portion of each email, after Nintendo's response.  If you want to know the questions and then the responses I received, read the bottom portion of each email first.

Just click each picture and they will open larger, or you can "right click" and choose to "open in new window" or "open in new tab".

If you noticed, I had two different sources at Nintendo confirm the same thing, Metroid Prime: Trilogy is no longer shipping(in North America).

The first source was a Ms. Barbara Soules.

The second source was a Mr. Bruce Mann.

Also, you can see where I asked if the New Play Control! titles Pikmin, Mario Power Tennis, and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat were still shipping.  Mr. Mann replied that "...the original titles are still being shipped."

The employees did nothing wrong.  They were both extremely professional and pleasant in their responses. They simply were replying to questions I had submitted.

Question:

Why do you think Nintendo of America has refused to acknowledge this with a "public" statement, when they already confirmed it via email...twice?  
Nintendo or GolinHarris, if you would like to issue the statement to me, my email address is CoffeewithGames@gmail.com.


If you haven't purchased the game, now may be the best time to get try and find it locally.  Amazon.com has it available from 2nd/3rd party vendors, but the asking price is more than the MSRP, as you can see from the picture below!