Xenoblade Chronicles

[Nester the Lark]

Here's an interesting thing of note: the official trailer (same as above) on Nintendo's YouTube account lists "operation rainfall" among the tags. Nice little acknowledgement there from NoA.

On a side note, I think those of us in North America owe a big thanks to those of you in Europe and other PAL regions who bought Xenoblade. Operation Rainfall aside, you guys probably helped show that there is still interest in JRPGs outside of Japan, and we might not be seeing it over here if it weren't for you.

So, thanks guys!

[Wildcat]

Aye, massive thanks indeed.

[Flint]

Now I have to figure it how to preorder and import it from gamespot...

[8bitretroshit]

This game is gonna bomb so damn hard and NoA will learn to never ever listen to group of vocal people on the internet again.

Or atleast that's what I'm predicting [/glass half empty]

[Dull Boy Jack]

Dec 6, 2011 2:35:18 GMT -5 8bitretroshit said:

This game is gonna bomb so damn hard and NoA will learn to never ever listen to group of vocal people on the internet again.

Or atleast that's what I'm predicting [/glass half empty]

I'd think the fact that the game sold so well and got such a positive reception in PAL territories contributed more to Nintendo's decision to release the game in North America than the internet campaign.

[Wildcat]

As Nester pointed out, Nintendo did tip their hat to Operation Rainfall on their Youtube page tags for the trailer, so I believe it's a combination of European sales and fan demand that convinced Nintendo to give it a shot.

[8bitretroshit]

Though according to this dude 30k sales the first week's considered so and so. Apparently. Also I suspect quite a bunch of diehard US folks already imported a PAL copy/ got their hands on a ripped iso

But hey I certainly hope it sells well, if only so Nintendo will bring Mother 4 over here in 2029

[Nester the Lark]

I expect Nintendo of America has pretty conservative estimates for Xenoblade. After all, they didn't announce its release at a trade show, press conference, or special event, but on Facebook and Twitter (which was ironically the same method used to deny its localization last summer). It's also not getting a wide retail or online release, but is available exclusively from GameStop and Nintendo's own online store.

NoA also has no other major releases planned for the Wii between now and the release of Wii U, which likely won't be until next holiday season. So, maybe they decided to float Xenoblade as an experiment to see if fan demand would actually lead to decent sales.

Plus, the release date is April 3, which is right after the end of Nintendo's fiscal year (March 31, I believe?), so even if the game sells poorly, it won't make their bottom line for this fiscal year look any worse, and strong 3DS sales and a good Wii U launch could possibly make up for it (assuming they don't screw it up).

[Nester the Lark]

Here are some rumors from an anonymous source:

- GameStop reached out to Nintendo to get Xenoblade Chronicles released in the states
- GameStop is helping to pay for publishing
- Nintendo is interested in localizing The Last Story as well
- This localization depends on sales of Xenoblade Chronicles preorders/sales
- Xenoblade Chronicles preorders are not doing well thus far

These don't really shed light on anything that wasn't already speculated, so it's not exactly a news flash. Still, I hope pre-orders pick up over the next few months.

[Wildcat]

Well, they did just announce the game for America, and Nintendo's not even taking pre-orders yet. XD

I plan on reserving mine through Nintendo as quickly as I can.

[Leon]

For those of you interested, pre ordering from Nintendo is now up for Americans and Canadians.

[Wildcat]

I sent Nintendo an e-mail regarding when my account would be charged - now or when it comes out in April. Their site is terribly unclear on that point. If anyone has made their order already, could you let me know? That'll help me determine when I can pre-order my copy.

[Da Robot]

Well this is sad, Xenoblade was the third most pirated Wii game of last year with around 950,000 copies.


And now IGN has made an awesome plea to get NA pirates to buy the game.

Nearly one million copies of Xenoblade were acquired in 2011. That Nintendo's epic, deep RPG is seeing that much interest from gamers on a decidedly casual-centric system is remarkable. It proves Nintendo of America shouldn't have been so timid in determining a release date, or publicly declaring its plans to support the game.

There's just one problem - those million copies were pirated, downloaded globally by gamers either too cheap to pay for the game or too scorned by Nintendo to import or wait. That most of these illegal acquisitions are coming from North America, the only territory to not actually have the game publicly available, seems a reasonable conclusion to draw.

There's no denying Nintendo must own some of the blame for the massive Xenoblade piracy. By staying silent and avoiding comment on whether the Monolith Soft RPG was coming to the world's biggest video game market, Nintendo of America convinced many gamers they would never see a title that promised dozens of hours of play. With the system starved for releases, and importing the game (and a Wii for that region) too cost-prohibitive for many to consider, piracy seemed the only solution to actually have content on a near-dead system. Japanese players have watched the game sit on store shelves for years. European players have been able to buy the game for months. American players, meanwhile, were left alone in the dark, with little comment from Nintendo to keep them in the loop.

Unfortunately the stakes are a bit different now. Despite the fact that Nintendo handled the Xenoblade situation poorly, the fact that the game is officially coming to North America means it needs support. Simply put, not supporting Xenoblade will have implications for the future, in the short and long term.

The Last Story is less than two months from release in Europe, and is already out in Japan. Produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the game has received high praise from publications and gamers that have had a chance to play it, and would be yet another increasingly rare gem for the Wii in its last years of support. Just like with Xenoblade, however, Nintendo of America is being silent on whether it plans to bring the game to its customers. Given Xenoblade's eventual release, Last Story seems somewhat likely - but if no one supports Monolith Soft, NOA might get cold feet. Why continue to bring games to this territory if no one wants to buy them?

Signs seem to point toward reasonable pre-order figures for Xenoblade (it's currently GameStop.com's 7th Most Anticipated game and the 5th best-selling Wii game), but they're a far cry from showing the type of demand that would lead to sales of close to one million copies. Zelda: Skyward Sword, for all its buzz and the power of a major Nintendo brand behind it, just hit the million mark after being in stores for over a month - with massive hype behind it. Think about that - Xenoblade, the RPG that Nintendo seemed to doubt would perform, yielded just shy of one million downloads.

It seems ridiculous to have to reward a situation that leaves such a bad taste in all our mouths, but it's necessary. Do we want to play The Last Story without jumping through 500 hoops or do we want to simply walk to our local Best Buy? Do we want to rob those creators who have worked so diligently on the game? Do we want to make sure Nintendo understands there's a hardcore market that is still interested in its software? Do we want to have any hope of playing Dragon Quest X?

For whatever reason, Nintendo of America doesn't believe there are enough of us to make Xenoblade a success. It doubts we will actually turn up and commit to a purchase.

Let's show them we're wrong, and not do things to undermine our own interests. There's no doubt we want to play games like Xenoblade - clearly nearly one million people around the world are already doing so. Let's just make sure we also put our money where our mouth is. Ultimately, that's all Nintendo will care about.

(Yes, NoA should get some of the blame here for now announcing a release ealier on, and encouraging so many people to pirate).

[Wildcat]

Americans importing the game was also a side effect of Nintendo's hesitance. Hell, I'm considering importing The Last Story, although if I did I'd try to get an American release as well if it happened to support it.

As soon as I get some money, Xenoblade will be reserved.

[Wildcat]

Xenoblade Chronicles has an official US date now - April 6th. Nintendo of America's also updated the site for the game so it actually has some content, too.

I've pre-ordered the game myself, and I'd like to hope many of you American NinDB'ers who dig RPG's (or any sort of Wii content) are considering picking it up.