Survival horror fans were more than a little disappointed when the overseas Fatal Frame IV release was canned. Fortunately enough, there is a fan translation underway for those who need their horror fix.
Kombo Writes: "Immediately following the news of Fatal Frame IV likely never receiving a US release, we got in contact with Nintendo and asked several questions concerning the statements made by Tecmo about Fatal Frame IV, and whether or not more factors were at play in the decision. It's been a week now and we got an answer back from Nintendo on the subject."
IncGamers contacted Tecmo, who confirmed that the horror sequel will not be making its debut on Wii in Europe.
Seems Fatal Frame IV is finally being released outside of Japan. Now we will be clear Tecmo has not made any announcements about release dates or even it being released in Europe but it's hard to argue with the above print of the game in a magazine.
From the article: "Gaming Target has recently heard from a video game industry analyst (who wishes to remain nameless) that Fatal Frame IV is coming to America in 2009, but it may not be released as "Fatal Frame IV." Why any publisher would throw away the cult of popularity the series has gained over the years is questionable, but the desire to start fresh, and make Fatal Frame more than a cult series, could be the impetus behind that decision."
Reggie confirms that the rumors about Nintendo publishing Fatal Frame IV are untrue.
A lot of impatient folk imported Fatal Frame IV when it came out in Japan this week, rather than wait around for someone to announce a US ship date, and they may be regretting it. The game shipped to stores with some crippling bugs unfixed. Most of the bugs are documented at the NeoGAF forum, the most severe causing the game to freeze and lock up. These sort of errors tend to be fixed before North American releases, but Tecmo has apparently released some extremely buggy DLC content for Ninja Gaiden 2 in the US.
Computerandvideogames.com writes
Tecmo has been silent about Fatal Frame for some time now, but that doesn't mean the horror franchise has been forgotten. To the contrary, 1UP learned at the Tokyo Game Show that Tecmo's enlisted the help of Grasshopper Manufacture to produce the next Fatal Frame game. And here's the kicker: it's for the Wii.