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Wii

Nintendo Fans Band Together to Get Wii RPGs Brought to North America

by Andrew Brown - June 26, 2011, 11:05 am EDT
Total comments: 23 Source: (Operation Rainfall), http://oprainfall.blogspot.com/

Join Operation Rainfall, and request release of Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower in the States.

A petition campaign known as Operation Rainfall has formed in the hopes of swaying Nintendo of America towards localizing three of the Wii's most hotly anticipated games this year - Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower.

In March, Xenoblade Chronicles was announced for European release, and The Last Story was confirmed by Nintendo France recently. Xenoblade was originally announced for North America at E3 2009, but no word has been given since then, and at the moment, American fans appear set to miss out on all three titles.

With a limited selection of games coming to Wii this year and knowledge that the RPGs will be receiving English translations, the last straw seemed to come when Nintendo France's Mathieu Minel noted that they couldn't show Xenoblade at E3 since Nintendo of America had no plans to sell the game.

Frustrated gamers across several internet forums decided to take action into their own hands, and the effort culminated on IGN's Nintendo forum community with the formation of Operation Rainfall, and popularity has been snowballing from there. Supporters have been posting messages on Nintendo's official Facebook page, Youtube account, and to their Twitter accounts, as well as contacting Nintendo Customer Service to voice their concern and support for the games.

Fans have since posted thousands of comments on Nintendo's Facebook page in reference to Operation Rainfall and the hopeful release of the games, and several of the games' developers have expressed appreciation of support on Twitter.

People are flocking in droves to Amazon.com, where a listing for Monado: Beginning of the World (the previous title for Xenoblade's English release) is still available for pre-order. Within a day, the game jumped to #1 on Amazon's best sellers list. No such effort has had the chance to show real monetary support through pre-orders, so this is a unique opportunity to show Nintendo of America a fiscal benefit to releasing the game. A secondary benefit is that the game is being exposed to those who were previously unaware of its existence.

Those involved in the movement plan to send off a gigantic number of letters addressed to CEO Reggie Fils-Aime at Nintendo of America headquarters, politely requesting the localization of each game. Operation Rainfall's official site has some template letters already prepared to make the process easier, and recommends including little trinkets, such as a toy sword in the case of Xenoblade, in order to get the point across. The operation plans to send out letters for each game separately during consecutive week periods.

Previous attempts, such as those seeking to have Mother 3 localized, were acknowledged, but ultimately failed in bringing the game stateside. However, in that case, the game had not yet been localized. More recently, Tales series fans successfully influenced Namco Bandai to localize Tales of Graces F.

If you'd like to help out the cause, visit any of the above links. Good luck to all concerned!

Talkback

EnnerJune 26, 2011

Tale of Graces F coming out to North America was influenced by the fans? I thought it was time for Namco Bandai USA to throw a bone and then complain how much it costed them.


Pleasant to see such a strong reaction. I can only hope that something comes from it.

TJ SpykeJune 26, 2011

All that is going to happen is that people on Amazon will get their orders canceled and fans disappointed. These online petitions have about as much chance of being successful as the chance of seeing Miyamoto dance naked in Times Square on New Years Eve. I hope one or more of those games do get localized, but these online efforts won't have any influence on the decision.

AdrockJune 26, 2011

Dammit. I was so looking forward to seeing Miyamoto dance naked in Times Square on New Years Eve. My hopes and dreams have been thoroughly crushed.

Chocobo_RiderJune 26, 2011


@ TJ Spyke

Not helping is not helpful! Go do something else!

@ EVERYONE

I'm gonna do my part!

Also, trying to spread the word best I can. (link)

Feel free to toss around this nifty image ...
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-51P-Qa6nQCg/TgeEjxEsj7I/AAAAAAAAAJY/3SwFJA4yOHg/s320/campaign.png

Quote from: TJ

All that is going to happen is that people on Amazon will get their orders canceled and fans disappointed. These online petitions have about as much chance of being successful as the chance of seeing Miyamoto dance naked in Times Square on New Years Eve. I hope one or more of those games do get localized, but these online efforts won't have any influence on the decision.

Which is why they're making the requests in writing, and flooding Amazon with pre-orders so Amazon will go to NOA and say "Hey, we've got a lot of demand for this title. You want some free money?"

steveyJune 26, 2011

If anything this has help raise awareness of all three games. Originally, I was only planing on getting Pandora's Tower, now I want all three.

Hopefully, Nintendo cuts their risk and acts nice by releasing all three games as a single disc compilation....

ThePermJune 26, 2011

so shoould we start a petition to see Miyamoto dance naked on time square on new years eve?

IDK, i have a feeling that would be dissapointing.

AdrockJune 26, 2011

Quote from: stevey

Hopefully, Nintendo cuts their risk and acts nice by releasing all three games as a single disc compilation....

And maybe Reggie will personally deliver this compilation to each of our houses on the back of a lavender unicorn surrounded 3 beautiful, naked 8 foot fairies.

We'd be lucky to get ONE of these games released in North America at this point. Don't push your luck on a compilation. This is the same Nintendo that released 17 year old Super Mario All-Stars for $30. Do you really think they're going to sell 3 brand new games for $50 when they could sell them for $50 each?

They wouldn't all fit on one disc anyway.

AdrockJune 26, 2011

They could with the use of alchemy.

SundoulosJune 26, 2011

A few hours ago, Nintendo just posted a slightly encouraging comment on their facebook and twitter accounts. 

"Hey fans, we appreciate your enthusiasm. Look for more updates to come soon!"

steveyJune 26, 2011

Quote from: Adrock

Quote from: stevey

Hopefully, Nintendo cuts their risk and acts nice by releasing all three games as a single disc compilation....

And maybe Reggie will personally deliver this compilation to each of our houses on the back of a lavender unicorn surrounded 3 beautiful, naked 8 foot fairies.

We'd be lucky to get ONE of these games released in North America at this point. Don't push your luck on a compilation. This is the same Nintendo that released 17 year old Super Mario All-Stars for $30. Do you really think they're going to sell 3 brand new games for $50 when they could sell them for $50 each?

But they don't think the could even sell any meaningful amount of them for $50 or even $20 individually.

Also Reggie started out at pizza hut, he could always go back to his roots and start his own unicorn game delivery service to help push Nintendo product...

Mop it upJune 26, 2011

I thought it was pretty funny how fast it shot up on Amazon. I wonder how many pre-orders that actually translates to, and how long it will last...

ShyGuyJune 27, 2011

Operation Rainfall.

Make it Rain!

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k302/shyguy70/money.gif

AdrockJune 27, 2011

Quote from: stevey

But they don't think the could even sell any meaningful amount of them for $50 or even $20 individually.

Exactly. I'm not sure I get what you're saying. It's not the price, but the number of units they think they can/cannot sell. Nintendo would rather make potentially $150 than $50.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorJune 27, 2011

Quote from: Adrock

Quote from: stevey

But they don't think the could even sell any meaningful amount of them for $50 or even $20 individually.

Exactly. I'm not sure I get what you're saying. It's not the price, but the number of units they think they can/cannot sell. Nintendo would rather make potentially $150 than $50.

It's all about sales vs. price.

If they can sell 10 people two titles each at $50, then they just "made" $1,000.
But, if they can sell 100 people all three titles in one package for $50, then they just "made" $5,000

Obviously, more people would buy all three titles collected than would buy the individual titles individually.  It would just be up to Nintendo to determine the best way to release the games so that they'll make a profit without undervaluing them.

AdrockJune 27, 2011

I definitely get what you're saying. However, it's not about the price for the people who want these games and are petitioning for them to be brought over. That said, would significantly more people buy a collection? Or would most of those same people have bought all three games at full price anyway? Nintendo runs the risk of giving 2 games for free, which, let's be honest, we would all love but it makes no sense for Nintendo to do that.

roykoopa64June 27, 2011

I'm doing my part!

-Twitter message for NOA (DONE)
-Comment on NOA's facebook page (DONE)
-Amazon Monado pre-order (DONE)
-Sending Reggie letters per the recommended schedule

KDR_11kJune 27, 2011

Quote from: MegaByte

They wouldn't all fit on one disc anyway.

Don't some of them take multiple discs all by themselves?

grantimusJune 28, 2011

It seems as though every hour that passes has another major online games website covering Operation Rainfall, and the most encouraging thing to me is most definitely that this is not just an "online petition."  The snail mail campaign will turn as many heads as the Amazon campaign did.  Xenoblade was the #1 game on Amazon for a day, people! 


Get the bug out of your bum and contribute!  Preorder on Amazon, get your snail mails ready (Xenoblade specific mails should arrive in Washington between July 11th and 13th) and respond to every NOA Facebook post or Tweet with your reasons for wanting all three of these games!


Don't be Negative Nancies.  This campaign will cost you the cost of three postage stamps, and HOPEFULLY, the cost of three Wii games!


http://oprainfall.blogspot.com/


Also, this movement has gained steam internationally, and all three of these games are now in the top 10 Wii games on Amazon Japan.  Xenoblade came out in 2010 there!

BlackNMild2k1June 28, 2011

Quote from: MegaByte

They wouldn't all fit on one disc anyway.

They would on a WiiU disc ;)

Quote from: grantimus

Don't be Negative Nancies.  This campaign will cost you the cost of three postage stamps, and HOPEFULLY, the cost of three Wii games!

$166.50!!!!?? Good LAWD that's a lot of money!!!

grantimusJune 28, 2011

Quote from: BlackNMild2k1

Quote from: MegaByte

They wouldn't all fit on one disc anyway.

They would on a WiiU disc ;)

If that is their decision, then I'd be happy with it.  Just as long as they friggin' announce it already!  Damn, Nintendo, say SOMETHING about these games!

criffoJuly 05, 2011

I haven't seen gamers care for any game this much in a long time. Heck, half the comments on the Wii Facebook page are people wanting these games. xD

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