Nintendo teases PAL regions with Brawl release date

by Scott Jon Siegel { Feb 1st 2008 at 12:00PM }

While Wii owners in Japan are feverishly playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and everyone in the States is biting their fingernails in anticipation of the March release, we forget our friends in the PAL region, who thus far haven't even been given a firm release date for Nintendo's franchise fighter. Wii Fanboy helps us catch up with all the drama.

A few days ago, Nintendo updated the Brawl page of their UK site, posting a release date of June 1st for the game. Once word had gotten out of the posted date, Nintendo quietly removed it, replacing it with the super-helpful time frame of "2008."

What's even weirder is Nintendo's denial of the slipped release, claiming the update is likely a mistake as June 1st is a Sunday. Keep in mind that the official Brawl release date in the US is March 9th: a Sunday. So either it's a flimsy excuse for an unannounced release date, or the date really doesn't mean anything. Either way, we'll keep you updated on whether Nintendo ever decides to "set a date" with our PAL pals.

Tags: brawl, europe, nintendo, pal, smash-bros, smash-bros-brawl, smashbros, smashbrosbrawl, ssbb, uk

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

FOXHOUND @ Feb 1st 2008 12:07PM

LOL harshest Joystiq article picture yet... and I'm from the 'States. XD

Marty @ Feb 1st 2008 12:07PM

How could we forget our PAL's?

(I know, I know, terrible joke)

ThornedVenom @ Feb 1st 2008 12:10PM

I'm guilty for taunting my European friends over this issue.

A Pissed-off English Gamer @ Feb 12th 2008 10:59AM

These days all developers planning an eventual world-wide release need to at least have a release date for all the other regions before releasing in one of them. Nintendo aren't doing this, and it is seriously angering me.

The game is done. There isn't even any dialogue in the Goddamn singleplayer, so unless they've hired one dyslexic monkey to translate into a bunch of other European languages, as well as handling the marketing and distribution, there really is no excuse for this hefty gap. One region's been playing it for almost 2 weeks, one region's still waiting a month and another doesn't even have a release date. Unacceptable.

Anam @ Feb 1st 2008 12:16PM

Question: Are there seperate PAL versions of games for each country/language in Europe or do they normally release one copy with language options? Also, if they have seperate versions of the game for each language, do they release them at seperate times?

I'm just curious.

Fernando Rocker @ Feb 1st 2008 12:19PM

Well... I bought Super Mario Galaxy in the launch day, in USA... and it comes in spanish, and almost every DS titles comes in Spanish too...

I guess is the same in Europe.

Anam @ Feb 1st 2008 12:28PM

Thanks Fernando. And I think I was suppose to spell it "separate" rather than "seperate." Please feel free to mock me for butchering English in a post about languages.

ssuk @ Feb 1st 2008 12:45PM

Most Wii games I own are multi-5 (Contain English, German, French, Spanish and Italian screen text). Nintendo makes this clear by having a "5-in-1" emblem on the back of the box. I don't doubt Smash Bros. will probably be Multi-5 as well.
Although this means that they can print just one kind of disc for Europe, the games have to be marketed for different regions, packaging and manuals have to be produced for those 5 languages and then they have to distribute for the many countries Nintendo Europe oversees.
A lot of EU games get released along side each other. There will be the odd time where one region falls behind by a few days by distribution error or a certain country doesn't want the game in their country (Looking at you, Germany), but on the whole, EU regions get the same release date.

Anam @ Feb 1st 2008 1:35PM

Thanks for the info ssuk!

Zertoss @ Feb 1st 2008 12:23PM

Hasn't Nintendo of Europe been guilty of denying the truth several times in the recent past? I'm betting June 1st is the real deal.

WillTheSecond @ Feb 1st 2008 12:49PM

I've never heard of games being release on Sundays. It's very rare. Even special releases like Zelda and SMG were on Fridays.

Savok @ Feb 1st 2008 12:49PM

I don't expect the game here in PAL until 2009 to be honest.

Experience is a harsh teacher.

ssuk @ Feb 1st 2008 12:56PM

6 months for a AAA game from Nintendo? Doesn't surprise me, I believe that was the same time it took for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl to hit European shores.
I've been a PAL gamer all my life and over the last 7 years, I have been very disillusioned by Nintendo and their release time-frames. Especially as importing has become a viable option to me, I've relied on soft-mods like SwapMagic for PS2 and ActionReplay for Gamecube to boot my imported wares. However, Nintendo now seems very happy to stamp those out and leave us PAL gamers stranded for the Wii. And while Microsoft and Sony move away from region coding, Nintendo clings to it.

But I'll spare the region coding rant for today. Just know that it's redundant and will only serve to harm game developers and console manufacturers in the future, especially when others are dropping the idea. And will, as it always has, harm consumers.

StarFoxA @ Feb 1st 2008 1:01PM

Wait... the Wii's release date was a Sunday.

RobLink @ Feb 1st 2008 3:09PM

Not over here it wasn't. T'was on a Friday like every other videogame release.

aMac @ Feb 1st 2008 1:27PM

This will be the game to make me re-buy a Wii after selling it at christmas for a tidy profit.

How long are the waiting times for new Wiis here right now? Are they back in stock in the UK yet? It's not like I need to worry about having enough time to wait in a queue for a Wii before THIS game is released though :(

motang @ Feb 1st 2008 1:40PM

I know and we ain't going to be getting that game from another month here in the states :-(

joakim1306 @ Mar 6th 2008 9:26AM

awww, you POOR american.....NOT. Hello ! WE PAL`s DON`T EVEN HAVE A SET RELEASE DATE AND IT`S PROBABLY NEVER COMING IN THE EU ANYWAY. It doesn`t matter to me anyway I`ve bought a FREELOADER disc from codejunkies.uk and pre ordered BRAWL from the US

NecronomiconUK @ Feb 1st 2008 2:06PM

Games in the UK pretty much ALWAYS come out on Fridays. Halo3 came out on a thursday but that was only because to time in with the worldwide release. It will NOT come out on a Sunday of all days due to the resticted opening hours. I expect some point in may or june, probably around easter. Not that i care too much, I'm not exactly excited about SSB. I'll get it when it's out but I won't lose any sleep.

Purple Haze @ Feb 1st 2008 2:46PM

I think they should bring it out tomorrow, that means I can go on a marathon and play it for the rest of time. Mind you, if I'm doing that, I can't be buying anymore Nintendo products.

RobLink @ Feb 1st 2008 3:04PM

A month? Consider yourself lucky. We're having to wait til JUNE in the UK. And that's if rumours are to be believed. What the hell are they doing all that time - counting their money?

RobLink @ Feb 1st 2008 3:08PM

Not over here it wasn't. T'was on a Friday like every other videogame release.

RobLink @ Feb 1st 2008 3:11PM

GAH!!!!! Joystiq, please fix this broken comments/reply system. I'm wasting precious minutes of my precious time retyping and then replying to myself (which still takes a couple of clicks to get it right) to comment about the broken replies.
And those minutes are like GOLD, I tells ya!

Esupio @ Feb 1st 2008 5:25PM

Europe!
Stand strong against this barrage of unknown release dates

If patterns repeat, we should get Mario kart Wii before those americans, we got Double Dash before them (I seem to remember.

PizzaMan22 @ Feb 1st 2008 10:05PM

don't worry too much Roblink......sounds like we're gonna have lotsa time waiting for this game to come out.......

Alphez @ Feb 12th 2008 7:14AM

you dont get it... for australia, (i live there), the shops arent open sunday... none... in the whole country. all shops are closed sunday, im not sure if thats the same with other european countries or america, but i highly doubt nintendo will let a pal country like Australia start selling such a popular game when they arent able to open their stores up.

evan @ Feb 12th 2008 8:41PM

Alphez, what the hell are you talking about?

I live in Melbourne, Australia and about the only difference between a sunday and any other day is public transport takes longer to arrive.

JB Hi-fi is definitely open sundays, I believe EB is also (though i'm not a regular there). Target, Kmart, and Myers all are open, and most large shopping centres too. Not just in melbourne but all over the country.

the only day "everything" (bar 7-11's and pubs) is shut is christmas day itself, and then they usually can't wait to open for boxing day sales.

all that aside, i don't like the idea of a Sunday release is 'cause i work on mondays :(