PAL Animal Crossing 'still in discussion'

Nintendo's European product manager Marko Hein has commented on the plight of Animal Crossing in Europe in a recent interview on C&VG.com.

At the Edinburgh Games Festival this year, Nintendo's David Gosen hinted to Eurogamer that a European release for the game might still be in store, telling us firmly to "wait and see," and C&VG put this to Hein, who said he "cannot confirm or deny anything at this point," before describing Animal Crossing as "probably the most difficult title we've ever had to deal with internally in Nintendo's history".

He's not just talking about marketing either, although obviously the question of niche versus mass-market is a difficult one for them - once again the spectre of localisation pops up. "In terms of screen text size, which is a huge issue for us in Europe - we have to think about multiple language conversions, huge costs and huge manpower to make it happen."

"Then there's having a closer look at Animal Crossing - you have to look at all the dates, Thanksgiving for instance: what does it mean for Germany? What does it mean for Italy? What does it mean for Spain?"

Hein also pointed out that Nintendo would want to tie the game's release very closely to the e-Reader, but encouragingly he admitted that "it's still in discussion, we're still calculating, and we'll make an announcement at the right time."

Pushed on the issue of a potential launch date - the e-Reader being due out in the first half of 2004 - Hein commented that "it depends on that," before tying a knot in our throats by saying "We also have to ask ourselves if it makes sense to launch the product after such a long time."

Sod your bottom line, chaps - do it for us!