Fatal Frame shuttered in US, EU

By Staff, GameSpotPosted Apr 10, 2009 2:25 pm PT

Tecmo confirms that Nintendo has declined to publish Grasshopper-developed horror game outside Japan.

The success of Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition and House of the Dead: Overkill have shown that there's a place for horror games on Nintendo's latest system. Unfortunately, Nintendo is apparently unconvinced of that, given that Tecmo has confirmed to GameSpot that Nintendo has declined to publish the Wii installment of its survival horror franchise Fatal Frame in North America and Europe.

Fatal Frame is nothing if not spooky.

"Nintendo holds the publishing rights to Fatal Frame Wii, which was developed by Tecmo LTD. and Grasshopper Manufacture and released in Japan on July 31, 2008," Tecmo said in a statement. "Nintendo of America has since then decided not to publish the title in North America--consequently, the title will not be released in this territory. As the owner of the IP, Tecmo feels very unfortunate that the fans of the series in North America will not have a chance to play the game, but respects the final decision made by Nintendo of America."

As with previous Fatal Frame games, the Wii edition drops players into ghost-infested environments with a magic camera as their only defense. Players can damage the threatening phantoms by taking pictures of them. The longer a spectre is held in the frame before the picture is snapped, the more damage it does, and a limited amount of special film serves as "ammunition" for the game.

As of press time, Nintendo had not returned a request for comment on the decision not to publish Fatal Frame Wii in the West, or whether it would consider selling the rights to another company.

186 Comments

  • sun_and_earth

    Posted Nov 28, 2009 2:00 pm PT

    Figures. Good games for the Wii are in short supply. Is Nintendo afraid of money or something?

  • Love-Hina

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 12:02 am PT

    I think wii is ok. but Tecmo shorn't gave the Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse it to Nintendo Wii. Fatal Frame games was only on Sony PlayStation 2 and Micosoft Xbox and it short of went to Sony Playstation 3 and Micosoft Xbox 360.
    I'm not saying that Nintendo Wii is bad but the Fatal Frame games as been on PS2 and Xbox for years. but i don't know how it will be good on a Nintendo Wii ?

  • santinegrete

    Posted Nov 23, 2009 8:00 pm PT

    What the f*** is Reggie Fils Aime thinking?

  • chano7

    Posted Nov 12, 2009 5:50 pm PT

    this is like give a kick in the ... to all the loyal fans of great videogames because there are people who don´t like this system and only buy for Special games like this or Tatsunoko and give it a cancellation this is big f%&(( jocke

  • GameShark9000

    Posted Nov 9, 2009 7:17 am PT

    I'll say it is a safe guess that anyone at Nintendo of America that has any business-wise talent, or at least cared a little bit about the fans that supported them for more than 20 years, had fled the company due to a sudden yet huge wave of hired-by-sony/microsoft retards that come up with business decisions via throwing crayons into a fire burning printer paper.

  • xraystar

    Posted Nov 4, 2009 12:48 pm PT

    Nintendo, now you know why the sales for Wii have stalled - because of crap like this. Don't forget it's the avid gamer that made you who you are - gamers who grew up playing NES and SNES!

  • Kleeyook

    Posted Nov 1, 2009 8:52 am PT

    Nintendo sucks! Please don't support Wii! We must make them realize that us gamers aren't just kids who'll only play their childish games!
    The Grudge come out but not Fatal Frame 4.

  • evil_snuffkin

    Posted Oct 30, 2009 3:17 pm PT

    After so many budget kids games, keeping console prices high for the uk when they're being lowered for the rest of the world and now refusing to make great games like this availible world wide I'm feeling pretty sick of Nintendo. I've probably played about every decent game they'll ever bring out so selling my Wii for a PS3 is looking pretty sensible right now.

  • Guuthulhu

    Posted Oct 24, 2009 11:43 pm PT

    I had been hoping for a new Fatal Frame game for quite awhile now, and when I saw this, my heart fluttered only to break from disappointment. There's just not enough good horror titles and it seems really stupid that they should make such a decision. If I didn't already have a Wii, I'd have bought one just to play this game. Ugh.

  • Dshenlong

    Posted Oct 20, 2009 1:29 am PT

    Really...you allow Cursed Mountain and The Grudge to come out but not this game, which is actually good? Someone should slap Reggie Phils Aims

  • GameShark9000

    Posted Oct 2, 2009 1:04 pm PT

    @ kiramaski

    I hope Tecmo dosen't cut ties with Nintendo considering Team Ninja is making the next Metriod.

  • strike_77

    Posted Sep 18, 2009 8:15 am PT

    would've been a good game.

  • strike_77

    Posted Sep 18, 2009 8:13 am PT

    Nintendo is so unfair.this is one of the reasons people are trying illegal things (e.g. creating a translation patch and selling it in the Internet.)and also...JUST BECAUSE THE GAME IS IN A JAPANESE SETTING DOES NOT MEAN THAT GAMERS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES WILL NOT APPRECIATE IT!!!!!EVEN WE IN THE PHIL. LIKE THIS GAME!!!I CAN'T BELIEVE NINTENDO!!!IF TECMO WANTS TO SAVE THE SERIES FROM EXTINCTION THEY SHOULD MAKE THE GAME FOR SONY AND MICROSOFT CONSOLES AGAIN (PS2,PS3,XBOX,XBOX 360....PC,maybe?)!!!!!

  • 143C5

    Posted Sep 9, 2009 3:52 am PT

    Wow that's sucks.... I hope they'll make an english this time next year or this year....

  • QtrArt

    Posted Sep 6, 2009 6:39 am PT

    I think they do english next year dont all be sad

  • silveraddiction

    Posted Sep 1, 2009 1:43 pm PT

    Lets learn japanese tho! lol

  • GameShark9000

    Posted Aug 30, 2009 7:31 am PT

    This isn't Nintendo's [as a whole] fault, I blame NoA. It's obvious that they don't care about the fans that get margenilized just for them. But just like with Mother 3 they are too scared as in the pee-my-pants zone of lossing money when they have more money than a bank. I understand that this is a business but they are going to far! I say since they are to stubborn to listen to our hate mail we should launch the entire staff on a rocket to pluto since nethier Nintendo and it's fans will find rest untill they leave the planet! It is expensive, but it's for a good cost.

  • GameShark9000

    Posted Aug 30, 2009 7:18 am PT

    Is NoA drunk?

  • Bballplaya8217

    Posted Jul 1, 2009 10:18 pm PT

    Big mistake from Nintendo.

    The only thing that would be to argue the decision would be the sales in North America from previous titles. However, there would lie another argument that Temco and the Fatal Frame series has Never to my eye been advertised. I have Never seen one commercial depicting this game, and even though it is not heard of by many, everybody that DOES know this title has had a great time with it.

    Again, huge mistake by Nintendo, as this game is the hands down best in its class.

  • Claudu

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 9:23 pm PT

    And I was wondering why this game still isn't around, I thought it was still in development... Nintendo sucks! I was thinking about buying a Wii for a long time now for a few games and Fatal Frame (Project Zero here in Europe) was one of them. There are still a few nice titles on the Wii, but I won't buy the console just to give Sucktendo my "screw you" vote on this one.

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse Quick Links

Summary | Reviews | News | Images | Videos | Answers | Hints & Cheats | Forum

advertisement
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse Boxshot Enlarge the boxshot
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

Game Stats

Full Game Details »Close

Games you may like…

Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.

See More Similar Games
advertisement
Click Here