Pre-orders not doing so well? Well, it is still early and there was hardly any advertising anywhere to pre-order the game.

Indeed. Nintendo's pre-orders haven't even started yet.

I for one am waiting for Nintendo themselves to start pre-orders before I reserve my copy.

Same.

Well that's interesting, and I am glad that they did (if it's true).  :)

Well, a lot of the people who would have pre-ordered it were probably the people who imported it instead when NOA dragged their feet on bringing it to the US.  I have a feeling the game isn't going do well since Nintendo has waited so long to release it.  And if they're waiting to see how it does before deciding on The Last Story, that won't be coming out until about the time the Wii U releases.

Yeah, I have to decide between preordering it through Nintendo or Gamestop. I hate Gamestop, but I don't want to pay shipping. If Nintendo says no shipping fee, I might buy the game through them.

Importers aren't even a blip on the radar. Even if the game bombs, I bet 10x more people will buy the American version than imported it from Europe.

The game still has four months to go and most people wait until the very end to reserve their copy anyhow so no big deal.  Gamestop's going out on a limb for us (gamers) so that's good for them. 

I wonder how this game will be distributed outside the US. I asked Gamestop if they would allow me to buy the game and have it shipped to a friend's place in the US. I got no answer so far but I was told by others that they don't do it. The problem is that is the game I want to buy from Gamespot as it will give them an incentive to do the same with Last Story.


This situation is better than nothing but I am still disapointed with NOA. Despite the talk at the last E3 of getting back in the grace of the hardcore community, it is clear that they are afraid to release anything but their classic franchises and family oriented games. At least, they could show their customers some respect and drop this PR bullshit.

I'm on that boat too.  My arithmetic for this takes into consideration shipping costs as well as sales tax (I'm in California, NOA is in Washington, they don't charge me sales tax for eshop or Wiiware, so that's 8.25% I'm saving) and of course, how much I loathe walking into a Gamestop.  Last time I was there, some douche with a ponytail and a silk shirt was talking up the cashier about how much he loved Modern Warfare 2, he played it 5 times (yeah, he's was talking about the single-player) and he couldn't wait for Black Ops to come out. 

Nintendo needs to advertise the **** out of this game if they want anyone to take notice.  The game is absolutely fantastic, probably one of the most well-made Wii games ever.  It's so sad that Nintendo thinks Americans won't buy it or won't give it a moment's notice.  99% of why games aren't brought over here is sales and market research.  This game really deserves to sell!  I'm happy it's finally coming here and I will probably buy one when it's released.

Pre-orders not doing so well... LOL. Interesting, considering it was #1 on Amazon for a time when it was still unannounced. Of course, since it's not going to be available on Amazon, all those orders are now null and void... So if this rumor proves to be true, where did all those would be Amazon shoppers go?

It'll sadly mean that NOA was right in its reluctance to release the game, since those who were willing to pre-order when it was still up in the air clearly weren't serious enough to order again now that it's a reality and were always just going to cancel their orders as soon as it was actually announced...

Or at least that's the rational conclusion. The paranoid fanboy conclusion will be that those preorders were real, but those people just aren't preordering again because they don't want to support GameStop (despite the fact that they could also order through NOA) and that it's all part of NOA's evil plan to make sure the game is a flop so they won't look stupid for dragging their feet.

I'm all ready looking forward to reading Ian Sane's nonsensical rant about all this. Don't let me down, Ian!

Remember, there was a fraction of people (how large or small, we'll never know) who placed multiple orders on Amazon just to "show" Nintendo that people wanted the game.  I read more than once "Operation: Rainfall" members telling people to pre-order on Amazon, then just cancel if the game was officially announced.

Um, didn't you read the rest of that post? I thought that was the point I was making in the first place...

Hmm... The real rational conclusion probably includes timing and visibility though.


When those preorders were placed, it was in the midst of the game getting a large grass-roots publicity push. Being in the public eye and actively discussed in many online gaming forums makes a game more desirable for many people. But publicity (and public interest) have largely dried up in the months it took for NoA to confirm that the game was coming.


Beyond that, the actual release date is still months away. Why make the announcement during the busy holiday season when people have limited funds to spend on games that won't arrive until April 2012. What incentive is there to order this month, even if you are interested in the game? There are plenty of blockbuster games ready to play now, that are on sale now - those are the games that will be getting my December money, not full-price releases that are 4 months away. Questionable timing for the announcement and preorders to start if you ask me.




TL;DR:


I'm not disagreeing with you: many people who preordered had good intentions but fail to follow through, while others were just playing the numbers. But I think the drop in preorders also indicates that some people:

were very passionate about the game, but imported so no longer care about preordering or hyping the game to other gamers
were borderline interested and have simply moved on in the months since placing their their initial preorder
still might buy the game, but aren't aware that preorders are now open through two exclusive sites
still might buy the game, but would rather spend money on games that are on sale for the holidays and ready to play right now instead of 4 months in the future

I don't want to buy from Gamestop so I'm waiting for Nintendo to offer the pre-orders.  Surely other people are doing the same so it's pre-mature to consider this a bomb.  In fact, I'm not even sure the Gamestop thing applies to Canada because a search for "Xenoblade" on the Canadian Gamestop web site brings up nothing.  Directly from Nintendo might be my only option.

This revelation that Gamestop approached NOA (we all suspected something though) just makes NOA look worse.  NOA talked about taking it into consideration based on the European sales.  But they had to be approached by Gamestop to do it.  Clearly NOA never had any plans to localize this until someone else helped with the publishing costs.

In a way buying this USED from Gamestop would be the best way to stick it to NOA since they get no money for it.  Since Gamespot is partially responsible giving them the used business would allow for the right party to get the credit.  But I figure this will be a rare game so I'm going to pre-order it from NOA just to ensure a copy.  But I wish I didn't have to.

oops.. another double post, what's wrong with this site today?

Yea, put me down for also waiting for Nintendo's online order.

Yeah, just reinforcing it and making the point that we really have no way of knowing what that number of people is.

Psst.  Preorder is only $5 down.

People would willy-nilly "say" they planned to buy the game - until they actually had to put some money down on it.

That would hurt the chances of The Last Story coming out then because sales of Xenoblade will determine if it comes out here.

But that's still $5 out of my pocket right now with absolutely no benefit for months to come.

Preorders aren't going to shut down in the next couple of months and I've certainly got other, more immediate things on my mind during December. More to the point: last week I walked out of GameStop with Broken Sword (Wii) and Ninja Gaiden (DS) for $5+change. The week before that I grabbed Hotel Dusk (DS) for $3.50, and not long before that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates for another $5. I'll take games in hand over pre-order deposits for something that is months away anyday.


Maybe my opinion shouldn't count because I've already imported and probably won't pay for the game again... but I bet there are a lot of people out there who have the same disdain for preorders that I do and aren't in any rush to loan a company their money months in advance.

You're saying the very demand that was the source of all the publicity declined because that publicity subsided? How exactly is that rational?

The movement gained the Public's eye only after it got the game to the #1 spot on Amazon. Meaning the initial pre-orders that got it to the top were made prior to the publicity. The movement drying up, explains lack of interest of pre-orders made from the publicity. Not, the initial pre-orders that created the publicity. Therefore there are two possibilities:

A.) There was a  grassroots effort that culminated from legitimate demand that was being unheard.

B.) There was a small, yet very organized minority group whose numbers weren't big enough to warrant a release but who worked together create the false appearance of being in larger in numbers to to warrant the release.

If the demand was legitimate in the first place, a lack of publicity wouldn't make it decline.

Hurt the chances? Only if you actually believe that NoA is seriously considering bringing The Last Story over to begin with.

Given what we know and what is rumored about Nintendo of America releasing Xenoblade, it's very difficult to believe that they are seriously looking at The Last Story unless Xenoblade greatly exceeds current sales expectations. To do that Xenoblade would need to overcome a limited release, virtually no effort or expense applied during publication, and minimal advertising support...

Somehow I don't think that used sales for a huge game that takes dozens of hours to complete are going to have much (if any) effect.

The rumor is that GameStop is only interested in helping to bring over Last Story (like they are with Xenoblade) if Xenoblade does well. So if people decide to buy the game used, they are hurting the chances of Last Story ever coming out here.

Saying that preorders aren't doing that great right now is kind of stupid, since it was only announced a week ago and the game isn't coming out for almost four months. They expected people to go out of their way to preorder it immediately and wait that long? Especially if you want to get it from a physical GameStop location, why the hell would you go there during the madness of this shopping season, unless you were already going for some other reason, when you could wait until things calm down?

First, you should read the whole post. There are several things I think combine to account for a decline in interest. Fake preorders do matter, but are clearly not the only thing that matters.


Second, if you don't easily see why momentum and timing are important when releasing software in the gaming industry then it's unlikely anything I say will change your mind. Feel free to pick apart what I'm about to say, and I'll feel free to ignore you from here on out.


When there is a crowd of people talking about and passionate about a game, then other people become more interested and more likely to talk about/play/buy that game. A sense of momentum builds that increases the appeal of that game and artificially increases demand. In this case, the most fervent supporters have already imported while most of the other interested parties have changed their focus to the next hot release (and there is always a hot new release just around the corner in the gaming industry). Any momentum and demand generated by the European release of this game is dead, and everyone is sick of hearing about Operation Rainfall in North America.


Building hype and securing preorders a second time is usually more difficult than the first, because at least some of your core supporters have been lost. Asking people to actually put money down instead of just stating they have interest is a huge difference as well. I suspect that Nintendo will be lucky to get 25% of the preorders that were gathered previously simply because of how this release was handled - granted, 50% of the previous preorders might've been cancelled anyway so maybe it's not a big difference.

Just put my pre-order in for Xenoblade yesterday when I picked up my copy of Skyward Sword. Hopefully The Last Story will make its way to the US as well.