That sucks for nintendo

We all know that some politicians would use this against Nintendo.

Sad, I probably would have played this on a handheld. Doesn't seem like a game I would spend time on at my PC.

Sounds a bit strange. The Shin Megami Tensei games are released in the US, after all. But I guess it's Nintendo of America stopping this, not Nintendo in Japan.

Mortal Kombat... is that you?

Oh Nintendo, why? First Super Meat Boy, now this? Are you pissed at them for making SMB controls more responsive than Mario?

isn't this censorship? a game is denied because it has a plot that could potentially make religious people go wa wa wa?

Look, let's be clear. The game was blatantly offensive and attacked people of religious faith. Nintendo generally tries to appeal to a family oriented audience most of whom are religious. Why would you want to offend your core audience? If I were Nintendo I wouldn't carry it either.

And see, developers are perfectly free to take religious stories and present them from an atheist point of view. However, they shouldn't be surprised when such an approach offends some people. And if those people you offend includes a platform holder, that can cost you a lot of money.

This just sold a ton of copies on alternate platforms.

So I assume this means Darksiders won't be showing up on the Wii U after all.

What's that? Nintendo only shits on indies? If you've got a lot of money or a team you can make a game about whatever you want? Oh, okay.

The people defending Nintendo's decision seem to have a hefty double standard. Religious sensibilities are given special protection while nonbelievers generally have to accept being cast as deeply flawed persons with a direct ticket to damnation.

I doubt this is a big loss to team meat or nintendo. I didn't like the game too much anyway. The eshop is already off to a great start without this game.

I doubt this is a big loss to team meat or nintendo. I didn't like the game too much anyway. The eshop is already off to a great start without this game.

Nintendo is free to do what they want on their closed system. That's how closed systems work, and it is also why PC gaming will never die and consoles will never fully embrace the internet. The internet and the PC are founded on the principals of being open.

I don't think anyone really loses here. Nintendo keeps their good name, and people can still enjoy the game through other channels.

Nintendo doesn't have to like anyones games and they don't have to allow anyone to put games on their system.

However, my concern about this is that it doesn't cast Nintendo's idea that they are willing to embrace and target a more adult demographic. From everything they have been talking about in the recent press with the developments of the Wii U is that they want to change their target demographic to support the male 18 to 35 audience and bring more games to their consoles rated higher in the spectrum.

This is one of those games that is not targeted at children. It is for designed for adults that can understand the messages and can remain mature about them. The message Nintendo is sending here is that while they want to support these things with Wii U, they aren't sure internally how to do that and they won't start with their other platforms.

This leads me to believe they want to hit the ground running with the Wii U by opening their arms to this content in a short period of time exclusively to that platform. I don't think that point is a sell, I think that's a detriment to their goals of changing their demographic.

But then again that's just my point of view. I'll buy a Wii U and fire rockets into corpses and cause them to explode into pieces of flesh, and then wonder if Isaac would be such a bad game for them to support...

Not that it matters most have chosen their side on issues like this before even discussing them, but as example ~

If someone made a game about north american indians, hunting buffalo, smoking a peace pipe, wearing feather headresses, telling war stories, dancing ect, but also stealing and eating babies of the pioneers heading across the Oregon trail. Think you might find it more offensive or more freedom of speech-ish?

I wonder.
It's definitely censorship, but it's also accidentally doing the right thing for most likely the wrong reasons.

From a consumer and developer perspective, this is the danger of increased vertical integration in game distribution.

Culturally, we (= North Americans / Europeans) consider stores to be more ideologically neutral than product makers. Libraries are more ideologically neutral than authors. My grocery store sells cigarettes; I think people who make cigarettes are evil, but I don't think my grocery store is evil for selling them.

In the eShop Nintendo has integrated their business as a publisher, distributor, and retailer. Developers who want to get their product onto the shop need to accept the first two to get the third.

Like I said, I can buy this game on store shelves. I can buy the bible. I can buy music that I find offensive, and music I like that others find offensive. Even when I can't find the item in a particular store I'm usually not forbidden from acquiring it some other way. Apple doesn't sell pornography, but there's no restrictions on watching pornography on my iPhone. I can play music from iTunes on my Android phone. I can play WMG CDs on a Sony CD player.

It's only in the software market we've found this kind of control "acceptable". If Nintendo doesn't sell this game, there's no way I can play it on my 3DS. This includes PC games, where Valve similarly acts as developer, publisher, distributor, payment processor, and DRM gatekeeper. (And includes Apple, who have adopted a policy very unlike their iTunes / iBooks one for software distribution.) We're progressing towards a world in which most of our "things" are software. How do we counter this?

Certainly not by standing around going "well, I guess it's legal for Nintendo to do this. After all it's not really *censorship* unless they're a government."

too bad for the 3ds. Binding of Isaac is a great game.

@Joe Wreschnig: "as far as I know it never comes out and says "hey if you're religious you're a idiot fuck you.""

No, I don't think it "comes out and says" that. But I think it is the obvious message. Johnathan Swift and Dante never came out and said "Hey conservative aristocracy, you're idiots! Fuck you!" But their work accomplished communicating that message far better than if they had simply said it that way. I think it's silly to make a distinction between the foundation for a person's faith and the faith itself. Obviously criticizing the foundation is the same thing as criticizing the faith. "It's stupid to believe X." when speaking to one who believes X, is the same as saying "You are stupid." This isn't complicated.

Personally I agree with strong critiques of Biblical stories. I enjoy open debate about them and the issues that arise from doing so. I think people of all beliefs should be open to vigorous debate about what they believe and why. But when it comes to making business decisions it seems pretty obvious to me that I wouldn't want products associated with my platform to say "You're stupid" to my customers.

regardless if nintendo has the right to say no to this game its still censorship because of the reason for not allowing it.
and for nintendo trying to stay in the image of FAMILY entertainment, please explain resident evil, dead space, manhunt, etc. far as i can tell those games should be waaaay more offensive than a game that satires a religious story, get over yourselves, there was a game called " left behind " shouldn't i have been offended by a game that says non believers go to hell? no, i just simply didnt buy the game, i didnt go out and say " THIS GAME OFFENDS ME! D:< "
you only find it offensive because you dont like the portrayal of YOUR religious stories so what? we have to be careful around your religious beliefs? what makes you so god damn special? i didnt see anyone bitch about the god of war series that portrays all the greek gods in some way or another didnt see complaints about that, what about games that depict wars between heaven and hell, like bayanetta, plenty of games for the past 10 years depicted some kind of religious elements, but it just seems like this particular game is offensive because you want a reason to be offended and say " nintendo was right to deny this game" like i said get over yourself, this game from what ive seen seems like an original type story of the childs perspective of a situation that ive seen plenty of times in the bible
( but exaggerated with the child defeating monsters)
i think your offended because it shows whats in your religious book and you might feel kinda awkward that its being shown to the general public and your afraid youd have to explain and be like " nuh uh nuh uh thats not what happened, its out of context!" , since ive read many times of god telling a follower to kill their child to prove their loyalty. wasn't just in one bible story, dont act like your religion is nothing but sunshine and rainbows. the game is not offensive you just want it to be.