So I remember going to the The Summer of Sonic convention a few years ago. If memory serves correctly, that also started out as an unofficial event... before Sega got in on the act and (benevolently) went out of their way to have key personnel associated with Sonic (such as Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka etc) be flown in to the UK at staggering costs to themselves. Of course, the difference between Sega and Nintendo (plus its associative subsidiaries) is that Sega actually encouraged and promoted the event, as opposed to Nintendo / Pokemon Company who've just gone out of their way to oppose (and shut down) a fan-related convention in the USA which would have made little to no money - irrespective of any foreseeable licensing agreements that Ramar Larkin Jones could have arranged. In other words: Sega did, and continue to do, what Nintendon't.

This isn't the first time that Nintendo have acted out of sync with modern gaming conventions, as Angry Joe from Youtube will testify. But then again, when the company has a 10 year history of offloading crappy, outdated hardware onto a market that still defends its overpriced products and dated business strategies, one does wonder as to how gamer-friendly Nintendo actually are in an age when ...