NIS America President Issues Apology To Sony
Last week the president of NIS America, Takuro Yamashita’s interview with the trade publication MCV went live. The article focused on the successes NIS America was finding with Nintendo Switch releases. In one instance he talks about Nintendo Europe supporting them in a big way and even goes on to state that Sony doesn’t:
We’ve teamed up with Nintendo Europe for our other Switch titles. They support us in a good way. Compared to that, Sony is not friendly with small publishers like us. They just care about big Japanese companies. Also, if we simultaneously release a Switch version and a PS4 version of the same title, currently the sales trend is two to one. That means the Switch version sells twice as much as the PS4 version. Physically and digitally. A lot of PS4 titles are coming up, so the market is very competitive. Compared to that, the Switch market still has lots of room for publishers to make money.
However, it appears that the real point of the apology is to clarify what he had said in the interview about SNK Heroines. He stated that it was SNK that came to NIS America to cancel the contract of the game for PS4 and only put it out on the Switch. Here’s the quote:
I’ll give you a scoop! Originally we signed with SNK on SNK Heroines just on the PS4 format. Then last year an opportunity happened at Gamescom, two third parties happened to meet all together outside Nintendo’s meeting room. The first meeting was between NIS America and Nintendo of Europe (NOE) and the next meeting was between SNK and NOE. Of course, these two were separate meetings. Then after their meeting influential people from SNK came to our booth and said: “Hey, Mr. Yamashita, is it possible to cancel our contact on PS4? Nintendo wants to work on this title on an exclusive basis!”
So these third parties come together and the team at NIS and SNK decided to go with Nintendo for the western market. Physical copy- wise, it’s going to be a Switch exclusive. PS4-wise it’s going to be just digital. That’s the deal. We will not release a packaged version for PS4 format. Then Nintendo will act as a distributor for this game. Then they promised to buy a lot of units. I can’t reveal the number of units they’ve guaranteed, that’s secret talk.
His apology revolves around that passage. He now says he was not truthful in regards to SNK Heroines. Here is his full apology:
“I must extend my most heartfelt apology to SNK and Sony Interactive Entertainment. The truth is that the Nintendo Switch exclusive plan was originally decided by NIS America, and only later among discussions with influential SNK people did we decide the best option moving forward would be to have as much exposure as possible. This is why that in the end, we are bringing the PS4 version of SNK HEROINES to the market, and even supported this version at the NISA Press Event and in the press meetings in February and March.
In discussing matters with MCV, I thought that some insider information would make them interested in the overall conversation, and such lip service did not stand on the side of truth.
Once again, I apologize to SNK and Sony if it made them seem negative towards the PS4 platform in any way, and stress that the original goal of a “Nintendo Switch exclusive” version of SNK HEROINES came from NISA.”
Takuro Yamashita
CEO and President of NIS America, Inc.
To be clear, SNK Heroines is still coming out on PS4 in the west, but only as a digital game. The Switch version will arrive on September 7 both physically and digitally.
[Sources: NIS America PR & MCV]
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
