Back in March, Nintendo announced that they would be [delaying Advance Wars Reboot Camp in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine crisis](https://www.ign.com/articles/advance-wars-1-2-re-boot-camp-delay-ukraine-war). Nobody in the gaming community, especially developer WayForward, could’ve anticipated this development. And now the game is currently stuck in purgatory while other Switch games get their moment to shine, namely Switch Sports, Mario Strikers, Fire Emblem Three Hopes, Xenoblade 3, Splatoon 3, and Bayonetta 3.
On the one hand, I get why they did it in the first place: it would be really bad PR to make light of the Russian army while an actual Russian invasion is going on. And parodies of real war are definitely going to be more susceptible to real world comparisons than fantasy war games like Fire Emblem. But on the other hand it really left this game’s chance of success up in the air, especially now that we have a new mainline Fire Emblem game right around the corner.
Nintendo is absolutely waiting for this story to fade from the headlines before going ahead with releasing the game, but no one knows when that will be. They kinda dug a rabbit hole for this game that no one on either side knows how to get out of. And this whole situation is just another piece in the forever-cursed release history of the Advance Wars series. It’s kinda sad really.
by Asad_Farooqui
36 Comments
It’s silly.
My guess is they probably feel fine releasing it now, and are just waiting for a gap in the release schedule.
At this point they should just release it and maybe put some of the profits towards helping refugees.
I understood why they originally decided to shelf it because the timing was terrible but we’re at the point now where I don’t think they have to worry about bad press anymore.
That said, they’re not gonna just release it out of the blue. They’ll probably time it with their current release schedule to fill in any gaps.
I always thought Nintendo could have just put out a generic statement that the game is a work of fiction and just a coincidence of the game similar to real life events, and then donate a portion of the game sales for a few weeks to support Ukraine.
They could then just release the game as normal and nobody would think ill of Nintendo. If anything, I think by delaying the game so long, they are giving Russia power when it should be more of a “F you, Russia we’re going to support Ukraine and not let you have any power over our decisions.”
Edit: Changed game sales from a few months to a few weeks instead.
Funny enough, the original advance wars was delayed overseas because of the september 11th attacks.
#NOT HAPPY
Euro Truck Simulator did the same thing with their Heart of Russia map expansion. Except that made even less sense because it’s literally just a map of Russia that you drive through. It’s been completed for a long time now but they’re not releasing it because of the war which makes zero sense.
It’s just delayed until we achieve world peace. Nbd.
I feel like I’m back in the 90s reading all this….
I’d say at this point it’s not coming out until at least Spring 2023. Nintendo’s release schedule is packed right now. With Pokémon around the corner, nobody wants to go up against it.
I have been itching to play this game since they announced it. I probably look it up weekly to see if there has been an update. It seems silly and I really wish they would just release it.
They better release it soon!
i lost interest, there are so many better games coming out that the hype has died out
This was the game I was most excited for, so I hope it comes at some point.
Let’s also keep in mind that Modern Warfare 2 just released with no political issues as far as I’m aware. Though it may not be a switch game, the point still stands that this delay on Advance Wars seems ridiculous at this point.
I think it’s a complete waste of time. Look at Call of Duty, they get released nonstop and I don’t see them losing sales or getting negative publicity because it includes warfare. Just let me play already. They care more about saving their already perfectly secure image than they do about their fans.
I’m extremely frustrated. The Advance Wars franchise has been one of my favorite Nintendo IPs, and I was already unhappy at how little attention it got from Nintendo. I was excited to hear about Reboot Camp (although even then, I was ticked that it was just getting a GBA remake when Fire Emblem gets a proper AAA console game). And now it’s been delayed indefinitely over what is essentially a non-issue.
Yeah, I see the similarities between the plot and current events. But it’s a 20 year old plot. Nobody in their right mind is going to look at parallels between that plot and the current situation in Ukraine and assume Nintendo is condoning it or anything. It’s also frustrating since this kind of delay is by no means the industry standard. Other franchises are far more on the nose with their IPs, depicting actual world powers, and conflicts that actually happened or are still ongoing. Call of Duty just released their MW2 remake, a realistic game that’s about a major invasion from Russia. I haven’t heard anybody even commenting on its similarity to current events. If that flies, then a cartoony game about an invasion from pseudo-Russia shouldn’t pose any problem. It sends real mixed messages when Nintendo chooses to withhold this game, while their eshop still offers This War of Mine, an infinitely more disturbing game in this context.
The atypical decision surrounding this, followed by total radio silence for months is aggravating. It sucks to have no idea if the release is months away, or if it’s years off. As is the knowledge that, given how they’re handling this release, Nintendo will likely not be continuing the franchise after this.
meanwhile call of duty is being released
It fucking sucks
It’s bullshit, as if other warfare titles like CoD have any problem releasing worldwide. It’s a game, let people play it.
My cousin was going to get his brother Advanced Wars Reboot Camp for Christmas last year… he’s still waiting lol.
Still waiting on this. Hopefully with this delay, we get a complete game without any problems at launch.
TERRIBLE
Big sad
Meanwhile Activision shitting out a new COD yearly
Personally, I feel that the delay is abso-fucking-lutely ridiculous. Just release the damn game already.
It’d be great if they added the DS games to the remake. Unless they are planning on a second reboot camp game.
Advance Wars is a war game. I think it less the case that this series is cursed, more that war games will always be inextricably linked to any real wars in current events.
Considering Call of duty has released they don’t have to worry about catching flak for a war game in a war time. 🤷🏻♂️ I’d argue that they wouldn’t have had to worry originally. I don’t recall the original release what a week or 2 prior to 9/11 being scrutinized BUT I could be wrong.
They really don’t have a reason not to release it at this point imo. But I’m 90% sure it’s staying in purgatory for the foreseeable future because nintendo.
Release the damn game, anyone that plays it knows it didn’t cause any war. We can be trusted to separate art from current events, to think otherwise is condescending.
Meanwhile Call of Duty which is realistic combat against perceived threats released and nobody batted an eye. I know Nintendo is better than that and that’s why they delayed but at this point take my end of the year money.
Pretty frustrated. It’s such a dumb delay. I can understand for a short time, but it’s been so long.
Call of duty came out and made massive bank. Nintendo delayed this thing way too long. Should of came out a week later.
I think it’s very considerate of them to not release it while Ukrainians and Russians are being killed by the thousands.
And the posters in here acting like *Call of Duty* of all things is a good standard for morality is like a quadruple backflip mctwist in mental gymnastics.