Nintendo of Korea gets seal of (dis)approval
by Ross Miller 
{ Sep 6th 2006 at 9:55PM }
File this under "too despairing to be fiction." 4 color rebellion has been investigating Nintendo of Korea, which was supposed to launch in July to show a bigger drive into the South Korean market. Currently, Nintendo is distributed through Daiwon, who "does a notoriously terrible job of handling Nintendo."Unfortunately, it seems Nintendo's foray into South Korea has been less than stellar. As 4cr explains in a first-hand account, Nintendo of Korea is more of a red herring, and all distribution is still run by the infamous Daiwon.
The entire account is disgusting, with one Daiwon representative, who "spoke like an uneducated thug," displaying open animosity about the company. "Did you see Nintendo written on this building?!," he exclaimed, "we don't ****** care about that ****!" The account indicates Nintendo either does not care about the Korea, or has decided not to put effort into infiltrating the market. With the worldwide Wii launch fast approaching, Iwata et al. need to re-examine its focus on penetrating new regions.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
R.U.Sirius @ Sep 6th 2006 10:07PM
"With the worldwide Wii launch fast approaching, Iwata et al. need to re-examine its focus on penetrating new regions."
rofl
You can't stop it, can you? ^_^
-R.U.Sirius
csc @ Sep 6th 2006 10:15PM
The Launch of the Wii will penetrate every region with its intuitive motion.
If nintendo succeed where sony failed and manage to launch worldwide, everyone will get a taste of wii by christmas.
nintendo FTW!
Bill @ Sep 6th 2006 10:19PM
Why is Nintendo not doing well a bad thing?
I dont get it?
Do you write articles worrying about Microsoft?
Raynre @ Sep 6th 2006 10:20PM
Youre all a bunch of anti-Sony fanboys! Bwablwablwablwablwabl...
Brian @ Sep 6th 2006 10:21PM
Christ, even with evidence of Nintendo being DIRECTLY confrontational and pissy towards custoers they are still the good guys ... awesome!
TehDestroyer @ Sep 6th 2006 10:36PM
Ah Joystiq, the uneducated thugs of video game journalism.
nothing dude @ Sep 6th 2006 10:39PM
dude, like, things are awesome.
csc @ Sep 6th 2006 10:46PM
Question:
How many of you ******* care about southern korean distribution?
I'd like to see how MS are doing there too, and how sony are going to tackle it too.
Bodie @ Sep 6th 2006 10:57PM
@Brian
RTFA Nintendo was not "DIRECTLY confrontational and pissy" with anyone. It was some hole-in-the-wall company that distributes for Nintendo. The point of the article is that their Korean distributor sucks and they should do something about it.
darryl @ Sep 6th 2006 11:00PM
I like penetrating new regions also... touching is good.
Alex Gilson @ Sep 6th 2006 11:16PM
Actually the wii's potential for party games would be a good fit for South Koreans. After a night of drinking you'll often find yourself in a Noraebang (private karaoke) or in a pcbang playing counterstrike or starcraft. And as everyone knows Warioware drinking games are the bees knees.
MyNameIsGame @ Sep 7th 2006 12:06AM
"Iwata et al. need to re-examine its focus on penetrating new regions."
Yeah they really do. Man if Joystiq would rule the world.. I mean wow.. SK is like the next emerging market next to erm.. eh.. uche uche..
Vikram Dhaliwal @ Sep 7th 2006 12:22AM
You know that the Japanese and the Koreans share very tense relations. Post world war 2, there are many citizens of each respective nation that still sneer at each other over the atrocities committed on both fronts more than 50 years ago. I don't mean to offer the conjecture that that may have an impact on a Japanese company's success within Korean borders - but its a conjecture that exists.
Vik
Lekko @ Sep 7th 2006 1:30AM
My guess is Nintendo doesn't want their Wii to get infected with mod chips and such (there and in China.).
If Nintendo's wii gets infected with mod chips, it could spread it to the rest of the world. Nintendo has historically used protection in the past, but with the wii... everyone wants to play with it.
With North Korea making Dong missiles, Nintendo seems to not want to touch anything south of the border in Korea.
At least the wii is poised and ready to penetrate the US's fertile gaming soil. They're going to penetrate out market share and spread that white system alllll over the place. It could get messy though, with so many arms flapping about with those sticks of joy, the other companies might get egg on their faces. Especially with how cheap it will be to play with your wii.
Lekko @ Sep 7th 2006 1:31AM
God I love innuendo. I'm fired, aren't I?
ABigSmall @ Sep 7th 2006 1:39AM
@ Bill: Did Microsoft open a corporate office in Korea to fix a botched customer outreach program and then proceed to continue a botched customer outreach program? No. Stop your unnecessary whining.
@ csc: I do. I have cousins and relatives who live in South Korea and would love them to easily access Nintendo's goodies.
@ Vik: Previous businesses have done well between Japan and Korea. Sony, Samsung, and BoA come to mind.
ABigSmall @ Sep 7th 2006 1:41AM
"With North Korea making Dong missiles, Nintendo seems to not want to touch anything south of the border in Korea. "
That's one of the most idiotic things I've ever heard.
schtum @ Sep 7th 2006 1:44AM
@Vik
The article states that Sony has a very strong presence in Korea, so whatever animosity exists between the two nations, it clearly doesn't affect the consumer electronics market. Unless you're suggesting that Nintendo execs are purposely staying out of Korea because they're racist against Koreans. It certainly is odd that a global company would pass on guaranteed profits like this.
Which is why I like the article author's suggestion: Let Reggie deal with it. He's got no grudge against Koreans and vice versa. Let him do his ass-kicking, name-taking thing and boom, there's another billion dollars in Nintendo's bank account.
schtum @ Sep 7th 2006 1:56AM
@Lekko
I don't think you know what innuendo is. It's supposed to be subtle. What you did was like grabbing a girls tits at a party, then saying you were just flirting.
epobirs @ Sep 7th 2006 1:56AM
Mario has yet to penetrate Peach after all these years. Korea is far down on his euphemistic 'to do' list.
John Lucas @ Sep 7th 2006 7:15AM
The name change was brilliant.
Wii is BETTER than Revolution.
...even if I didn't think so at the time.
The puns will be endless & end result?
Everybody has a smile on their face when they mouth the word "Wii". (there's another pun there for those who want to make it)
Don't think Nintendo didn't think of the alternative applications of that name. It works in its "clean" fashion AND its "naughty" fashion. Brilliant.
...
However, Nintendo has to tighten up with its non-Japanese & American markets.
Tightening up the European market is one step.
But if Nintendo REALLY want impact it needs to make sure it operates smoothly with these other regions as well.
Don't give the competition an avenue to exploit.
And if ancient Korea/Japan politics are in the way, they need to let that go.
If true that Koreans & Japanese don't get along because historical tension then it REALLY makes no sense for them to get along with *us* after our government horribly dropped those nuclear bombs on them in WW2. The only country EVER to use that level of arms against another country (who's the rogue nation really?).
So if they have forgiven us of all people & we've forgiven them, then they need to do the same with the South Koreans and likewise with the Koreans to the Japanese.
War gets in the way of good playing partners.
It's time to let all of that old shit go.
It's time Wii connect once and for all.
John Lucas
Martin @ Sep 7th 2006 7:45AM
Still wondering when the Wii is going to penetrate my market!
Doom3 @ Sep 8th 2006 12:28AM
Pop culture is big over there and most of the american artist music wise that get no respect over here enjoy sales over there. The PS2 sold over there based on it's pop status... If the xbox 360 or wii ends up being the pop thing then they will get the pop crown over there. Money talks...
Johan Krüger-Haglert @ Sep 8th 2006 9:14AM
This sucks since south korea is such a great gaming and technology nation. But I guess most of them play games on PC anyway?
Ohwell, it's not their lose, it's bad for Nintendo.
Liam @ Sep 26th 2006 2:23AM
Hmm, this is depressing. I've been over here in South Korea for a while now, and have searched high and low for any kind of Nintendo product. I was hoping with the Wii launch in November I'd be able to pick one up, but it seems not. PS2 and XBox are both here though, and seem to do well enough, I suppose.
And with the South Korean mentality of gaming -- and communal gaming, at that -- Nintendo seems like it might find fertile ground here if it made a push to enter the market. People are forever spending their free time in PCbangs playing games.
Also, isn't the Wii going to have a regional lock? I'm going to be heading over to Japan for a while later on in the year, but I didn't want to have to wait that long to pick one up. And I won't even be able to take it home with me... which seems like a bust. I want my Nintendo product dammit. I've already got a PS2 that's regional for here, so I can play games here, but I don't want to have to stick with that for the year.
And since Japanese electronics and other products are fairly prevelent, it seems odd that Nintendo hasn't exactly followed suit with the likes of Sony, which is quite common. Le sigh.