Nintendo delays game about fake war in fake Europe, due to real war in real Europe

The Advance Wars remake, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, already delayed from December 2021 into April 2022 for "we need more time" reasons, was recently delayed to no specific date due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/9/22968762/nintendo-advance-wars-release-delay-1-2-reboot-camp

The Verge specifically got comment that Nintendo is cancelling digital preorders as well, which might indicate a longer delay. It's definitely a sensitive issue given the cartoonish war is more similar in look to the actual conflict in Ukraine, as compared to a Fire Emblem or Halo style of fantasy/sci-fi war.

To the best of my knowledge, it's the first game delay where a game has been globally delayed due to the invasion of Ukraine. Most other game delays have been a publisher pulling the release specifically from Russia due to companies (temporarily?) suspending new entertainment releases in the country.

I hope for a peaceful resolution in Ukraine as soon as possible. Until then, in a 9/11-ish way, I wonder if there is going to be a long period of months where certain "war games" will be deemed in poor taste to release. Or perhaps certain publishers will be more willing to weather the blowback than Nintendo. We'll have to see.

That's disappointing to hear about this game being delayed and I hope this doesn't happen to Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.

It's understandable because of the image Nintendo maintains as an alternative to Disney as a leader of family friendly fun. I just hope that if things do not go well in Ukraine, that it doesn't spell doom to what I'm sure is a lovingly redone classic. Especially for the people that worked on it. This whole situation with Russia is lose-lose-lose all the way around.

I dunno this one is… weird? Like it’s not my place to say it isn’t a big deal to have a cartoony war game out right now I leave that to people with skin in the game.

But I’m a little cynical with performative brand moves like this.

@gtxforza: I wouldn't be too worried about FEW: Three Hopes, for the same reason that Triangle Strategy came out recently with no release issues. The conflict is so much more medieval and fantasy-based that I don't think Nintendo/players/parents would find it objectionable.

Skimming a release calendar for 2022, the games that seem more possible to get a delay are things like:

• Company of Heroes 3 (no release date, but supposed to be later this year)
• Six Days in Fallujah (no release date, but supposed to be later this year, already a PR nightmare and current events probably just make it worse)
• Sniper Elite 5 (no release date, but supposed to be later this year)
• Call of Duty or Battlefield, if Russia/something-Russia-adjacent was to be the villain (nothing is announced currently, but they might have an unannounced game intended for fall this year)

But again, maybe those publishers will have a different perspective than Nintendo, since I don't think any of these games are rated for younger audiences, whereas Advance Wars is pretty much "for all ages."

I don't know if it's performative to show solidarity with Ukraine or anything, since Nintendo didn't even make a specific mention of the country in their statement. It seems more like they are avoiding Nintendo of Europe having a bunch of headaches. If the NoE PR team still had to conduct business as usual, getting out there and running ads/social media encouraging kids of all ages to buy a game where it's fun to command tank battalions around to combat neighbouring countries, I imagine there's a high possibility of certain Western and Eastern European news agencies running headlines like "Nintendo has the gall to sell a war game to kids while they're scared about all the Ukraine war news."

It's backlash that I imagine they'd rather do without, and their sales expectations for Advance Wars are probably kinda modest to begin with, given that it's a remake and the series has been completely dead for like a decade, so they can likely afford another delay.

Said this in another thread but I'll repeat here.

I completely get why they did this, especially since the plot revolves around what is essentially a Russian invasion. Still, majorly disappointed as I was planning to buy this day 1 and put hundreds of hours into it. It seems so petty to complain about it when people are dying, but, well, I'm human and I wanted to play this. Now thinking I'll try to buy the original games on cartridge or figure out how to pirate them. The release is "delayed" but considering the political situation I doubt it will come out this year at all.

The lighthearted tone in these games was always funny to me - like, war is a fun adventure! But what really happens when you capture cities and such? Is there actually a major war happening in this universe with huge casualties? And yet somehow it is all so damn cute and charming. I kinda love it. But yeah... the tone is not going to sit well with a lot of people right now. Must be hugely disappointing for the dev team.

The GBA game was also delayed by years in many parts of the world due to 9/11. At this point, I think if Nintendo is that worried about its family-friendly image maybe they should take the basic gameplay and put it in a more fantasy/sci-fi setting ala Wargroove so that it doesn't hit so close to home.

@efesell said:

What's there to be cynical about, really? I think Nintendo is just protecting their image. Their statement doesn't seem "performative" to me. It's not like they're pretending it to be some noble show of solidarity of something. It's about PR and that's all. I can't really blame them even though I'm super sad to lose a game that I'd been dying to play for months.

I did forget exactly how similar to events the opening to one of those games is so an abundance of PR caution does probably make much more sense.

Good move. I love Advance Wars but let's face facts: never a major seller, wholly eclipsed by Fire Emblem in recent years, needs all the help it can get.

If Nintendo wants any chance of reviving the franchise they gotta make sure the timing is right.

Hopefully Wayforwards bottom line isn't affected too much. Nintendo seems like an okay publisher to work with, so I don't think they'll lose out too many of those last fiscal quarter bucks.

If only they'd released it some time in the past ten years, when Russia was only doing war crimes in Syria.

One of the earliest trailers for the show 24 features a plane exploding. That trailer was edited and the plane was not shown exploding in the episode (you hear the explosion and see flaming debris).

As someone who tends to stay away from games that depict "modern war,," this seems like a weird choice to me. This game is cartoonish and clearly not based on a real place.

@bladeofcreation: I'd say that while the art style is definitely cartoonish, the factions in the game are pretty direct analogues to real world countries and the first game essentially starts with not-Russia invading your home country.

I think Nintendo definitely could have released it and it would've been mostly fine but I can definitely understand the decision.

@wollywoo: they tried to sci-fi it up in the third game, Days of Ruin, but my understanding is that it wasn't as well received. I thought the game was good, but kind of a downer compared to the breezy mood of the first two.

@redwing42: Oh yeah, I've heard of that but haven't played it. I really like the mostly feel-good vibe of the original AW - don't really want some depressing post-apocalyptic thing. I was imagining some silly, up-beat Star Wars-like setting. Really, no one plays these games for the stories, all it needs is a bit of banter between the battles.