Nintendo Believes In "Giving Proper Credit" After Backlash Over Donkey Kong Country Returns HD

Talk is cheap, and Nintendo sure have been doing a lot of talking.

If credits are so important, then patching in the names of the original is the least that can be done. But the names of the original dev team should have been there from the start.

They need to specify who worked on the original since 99% of this game was made by them. Some of the 1% makes it feel worse, sadly

Well that's clearly bollocks isn't it?

Pretty nothing statement that didn't directly address anything.

I don’t like this recent trend, honestly it doesn’t cost Nintendo literally anything to credit the people that deserve it and they could clearly separate the remaster team from the OG while still crediting both.

This statement just makes them sound even more ***** as they don't acknowledge the original devs

Patch them back in.

Imagine a Super Mario game that Shigeru Miyamoto had nothing to do with, and in the credits you see "Based on characters created by employee."
I mean, it is not like they have to credit every specific person, just add the name of the studio in the credits.

@IOI yes, it does: ego.

I mean the OG team wasn't involved at all in this new version so why credit them. We can all go and look at the original credits if we want. They haven't been erased or anything.

I don’t know why this has been such an issue for Nintendo lately. Metroid Prime Remastered, Nintendo Music and now this have all had this problem of not crediting properly

I don't know if Monster Games is included in the credits, I'm guessing not, despite the 3DS version being the basis for this port. If Metroid Prime Remastered is anything to go by, they're not going to do anything about it.

This is such a scummy practice. I thought Nintendo was better than this, really.

We believe in doing what we are not doing. 🤣

@JohnnyMind It's even more jarring if you consider that Nintendo thanked Rare for Donkey Kong's design in the credits of Mario Kart 64 (the right thing to do).

Lip service. This really should not be an issue at all.

I'd say it's simple: If the the game's official title includes the words "HD," "Remastered," "Definitive Edition," etc, then by rights you better give proper credit to the original game's creators!

These remasters are just glow-ups of the hard work of past devs, who did the actual creative heavy lifting. It seems thoughtless and/or petty not to acknowledge the original creators.

I call this bull****.

I side with Nintendo.

They own the copyright to the franchise. They can do as they please with recognition.

To Nintendo, the current team that did the port work, testing, and all the grunt work to get to release is the focus. Slapping in credits to the previous team would dilute the recognition.

I'll go even colder. The previous contract demands were met for the first release. That team was paid and given credit. Unless there is a stipulation for continued credit recognition in future re-releases, the matter is closed. Nintendo isn't a white knight. It's a business. Get everything in writing or deal with it.

Perhaps Nintendo would feel more inclined to include Retro Studios staff on the credits if the Retro Studios staff could actually release a game sometime?

It has been 11 years now since Retro Studios released a new game. That's 11 years worth of staff payroll, rent, utilities bills, expenses... is it really any wonder Nintendo left them off?!

@RupeeClock I think the answer to this seeming paradox lies in the example you provided. Ocarina was an in-house (at the time) R&D production, and most of that staff is still at the company. Retro may be OWNED by Nintendo, but I don't think they've ever or will ever be considered on the same level as "home office" employees, and it can probably be traced to just how terrible the turn over rate is at Retro. If that one rude artists' comments are anything to go by, Texan pride did not go well with Nintendo's craftsman perfectionism. While much of the Returns staff may still he at Retro, a vast majority of Prime's are not. They all got head hunted by Booz Allen Hamilton or any of the other studios in Austin. Notice how we never saw this stories for the port Next Level's Luigi's Mansion 2, who have never had these types of turn over issues, but did see the complete explusion of Intelligent Systems' staff from Re-Boot Camp as most of Team Wars is seemingly no longer at the company.

So Nintendo's official statement is a formal denouncement that the original staff doesn't count as being "anyone involved in making or contributing to a game's creation".

At least they're honest about their insane position?

Empty words coming from a company who's actions prove otherwise.

Pretty tough words coming from a big faceless corporation

Actions speak louder than words Nintendo.

Didn’t this happen with Metroid Prime too? Another retro studio game interestingly…

@StyrofoamCup I'll go even coldest. Donkey Kong should've been a mutant hybrid of a donkey and ape.

@Zeebor15 I looked through the credits for Tropical Freeze the other day on MobyGames and it does look like many Returns/Tropical Freeze staff remain at Retro, showing up in Prime Remastered's credits as well. And I just skimmed through Days of Ruin and found that a lot of people who worked on that game still appear to be employed at Intelligent Systems, with credits on Fire Emblem Engage, TTYD, or WarioWare: Move It!. So I kinda doubt that's part of the issue

They gave credit. It just wasn't up to the standards of the Internet's righteously indignant who always need to feel like kings of whom they deem weak. That team didn't work on this version. And if this version was lousy they'd be mad for their names being on it without consent.

All I’m asking, and I think I speak for a lot of folks, is would it have killed them to at least say “Based on the work of the original development staff, Retro Studios” instead?
That’s all they had to do. Mentioning specific names is a plus but then they have to extend the credits scene even longer.

The real Nintendo is NCL Japan. Nintendo of America, the marketing company, has no say in these things. And NCL Japan has made it clear through their actions how they want these remaster credits listed.

This doesn't bother me that much, but I do wish they would give more information. For example, who should be credited from the original game? If you rebuild the graphics from the grounds up, do original Graphics designers get credit? If you use completely different play testers, should you still just carve in copy those original credits with play testers who didn't do anything on the HD version?

But at the same time, level designers, well it's still the same levels! Seems like they would have a credit somewhere. You don't have to pay them, because you already paid them for their original work. But a credit would make sense.

Nintendo certainly making themselves look bad by stating that hypocritical statement. I still think back on how the didn't properly credit the creators of the DK rap in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Fact is, saying this is “based on the work of” isn’t good enough. This IS Retro’s (& Monster Games) work.

If I was a colourist and fine tune coloured a B&W Manga I wouldn’t be allowed to say “based on the work of” or claim that it was my work.

I’m not saying Forever Entertainment did nothing, Porting a game is still a job and a half to do, but this is most certainly a collaboration at least so other peoples efforts should be recognised in the credits.

The crazy thing is that it’s such a nothing piece of effort to add this in that Retro’s Staff not being included was almost certainly a decision made from above.

@Sonicka
Here's another way to look at it. Nintendo DID give them full credit for their work. Nobody deleted the credits from Donkey Kong Country Returns. Anytime you want to know who designed those levels and made that game, and find those credits. It's not like anyone actually reads all the credits at the end of the game anyway. The point is that there's proof in the wild so they can put it on their resume. So if an employer asks did you work on Donkey Kong Country Returns they can say yes. If an employer asked did you work on the HD remake they can say no.

These credits don't change the fact that they are credited on their original work.

It's a statement to shut people up. Which is good.

I guarantee 99% of the people "outraged" haven't once looked at the credits of ANY version of the game.

They gave credits. It was just not up to the standards of the people on the internet.

Bit of a d*** move, really, given the not inconsiderable size of the Metroid Prime 4-shaped hole that Retro is digging them out of…

I wonder if this is to save money from license fees? If they mention Retro Studios do they have to pay them to do so? That might be why they give such generic credits for non in-house games.

I don't get why it's so hard for Nintendo to keep the original credits and have the studio make a new list of credits for those who helped to re-release the game. Other studios do this often.

Seems like PR speak like they’d follow their statement if pressed on it by saying they believe the port is it’s on separate game so the people who created it are properly credited.

Nintendo doesn't care about who's credited, only sales.

Why do we care so much about credits in games and film? Do we care who stocks your grocery store shelves? Who makes your pizza? Who drives the bus? It's a job. They get paid to do it just like everyone else.

These hollow statements are getting worse. That means absolutely nothing if it’s not backed by actions

Sometimes this company can make it difficult to like them. The arrogance is something else. Crediting the original team really shouldn't have been difficult but of course Nintendo is doing something baffling again.😐

@IOI Exactly. I don't know how anyone but diehard fanboys can defend Nintendo on this.

I want a port collection of the dkc games

This on top of the recent reports of them not allowing translators, localization and some other workers to put their work on Nintendo games in their resumes with required NDAs is super gross.

It almost sounds like they are slowly reverting back to the times of anticompetitive control of trying to make it harder for employees to get jobs anywhere else that the entire video game industry used to be infamous for. Especially in the 70s and 80s the video game industry was infamous for not properly crediting people. That's where the first Easter eggs came from.

They put their idea of "the brand image" over the well-being and future livelihood of their employees. Believing the brand deserves recognition over individuals or crediting people. Whoever is pushing this at Nintendo recently, please stop.

Past leadership President Reggie and Satoru Iwata directly led against this. They believed in celebrating work of the people who made the games and holding them up. They would do constant developer interviews with designers and developers with "Iwata Asks" and videos, and even in Nintendo Directs. All those developer interviews have become massively less common in recent years outside of large releases and are more subtle when they do happen.

The acknowledgment in the credits is abrupt and corporate sounding. It’s a shame.

Let’s all pause for a moment before we lose our minds and think of just how many millions of people in countless fields of work don’t get to see their name swish along a screen for their hard work. Starting with the actual hardware designers, do we see their names each time we power down our Switch? It’s thanks to them we’re playing anything at all.

I was waiting for the "but". Until they clarify, I'm thinking that their point of view is because this remake wasn't literally handled by the original team is why they only referenced them, since their credits can be found on the original article. We just want to hear them say it or explain otherwise.

Action speaks louder than words. If Nintendo honestly believes in giving proper credit, they would of done so but this is at least the second time they got caught failing to give credit. This is just damage control, Nintendo does not actually care.

maybe retro studios staff simply didn't want their names on this lackluster, barebones remaster? we all know they would have poured their heart into it if they were on the project.