Devil's Third Finally Confirmed for Q4 Release in North America, PC Multiplayer Port Announced
Nintendo of America has confirmed that they are actually publishing Devil's Third for North America, to be released Q4 2015, both retail and digital. As well, it was announced that Valhalla Game Studios would be creating a PC port of the game that will be a "free-to-start" multiplayer mode tailored to the PC experience.
SourceYou may be wondering why half of this is news, seeing as Devil's Third is launching next month in other major regions for the Wii U. Well for those that may not know, I've been following this very carefully from the first major rumor that Nintendo of America had no intention of bringing the game to North America themselves. The story goes a little bit like this:
On July 9th, Unseen64 Tamaki posted a video concerning the fact that Nintendo of America had decided to drop Devil's Third in North America. They mentioned that another publisher would likely pick it up, but they didn't know who. At the time, it was an unconfirmed report, little more than a rumor, that is until July 10th when Siliconera confirmed it. They informed their readers that a company familiar to them would be publishing the game instead. This information spread quickly and was met with a surprising amount of criticism. Believing these reports was relatively justified as well due to the fact that Nintendo:
- Didn't bring Devil's Third to E3 2015 despite highlighting it at E3 2014
- Hadn't gotten the game rated by the ESRB when other regions were announcing release dates
- Pulled Devil's Third from the future releases section of the eShop
Finally, on July 11th, two days after most people believed Devil's Third was dropped by Nintendo of America, and long after people had said more than their share of choice words regarding Nintendo's practices with mature titles, a Tweet was posted that contradicted all the information anybody had, but still failed to show any real commitment to the title. Then, once again, silence from everybody involved until July 15th, when preview impressions started rolling out. To keep it short, previews were far from favorable. Reactions largely did a total 180 compared to the upset before, with conversation shifting to just how bad the game seems to be rather than how terrible Nintendo of America was for potentially handing the game off to a different publisher.
To top things off, there was one more report on July 15th that said Nintendo was torn between publishing the game or letting XSEED publish it instead, apparently due to all the backlash from people during those first two days of information spreading. Most of it was a reasonable assumption at worst, but it did line up nicely with the Siliconera report. It didn't quite ignite the fury of others that the initial reports did, likely due to the negative preview buzz that had already made the rounds, but it still left some reasonable doubt that perhaps Nintendo of America really was backing out.
Now, on July 20th, after nine days of silence from Nintendo of America, they've confirmed the game is coming to North America, despite all the amazingly bad press the game has gotten from previewers. The nonspecific release date indicates that they weren't at all prepared to publish and distribute this game, made all the more obvious when you consider that the Japanese and European releases are coming in August. With that said, it can be safely assumed all the information on this roller coaster of a journey has been entirely accurate. Whether Nintendo of America made the right choice or not, it's hard to say.
To give some idea of how other Nintendo branches are treating this game:
Nintendo of Europe didn't push for the regular language options, instead only securing English and French.
Nintendo of Japan is exclusively distributing the game through Amazon.
It's clear that no Nintendo branch is confident in the game, which makes it all the more interesting that Nintendo of America has opted to publish the game at all.
Overall, this has been very interesting to watch unfold. Even if the game ends up being a total flop, at least it has made for an entertaining story this past week and a half.
