Topic: Nintendo of America, Xseed Comment on Xenoblade, The Last Story Sales

[tylerohlew]

And will Monolith Soft's Wii U title make it to North America? 

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/32028

Without revealing actual numbers, Reggie Fils-Aime told Kotaku that Xenoblade Chronicles sold "quite well" for Nintendo. The title, a Japanese role-playing game from Monolith Soft, was sold only through GameStop and Nintendo's online store in North America.

As for The Last Story, Xseed's Jessica Chavez said that it continues to sell "really well" and hopes for it to do the same moving forward.

Does North America's response to Xenoblade Chronicles bode well for a Western release of Monolith Soft's upcoming Wii U title? Fils-Aime looks to be taking the same approach Nintendo of America takes to any localization efforts. The title's sales potential will be evaluated, and if it's a "profitable venture," Nintendo of America will release the game.

[oohhboy]

So a continuing policy of limp dickness. Message received.

[Sarail]

I just don't understand why Reggie doesn't get the whole "bring out different types of games for every type of gamer - which in turn will please your fanbase, causing you to prosper and grow" approach. It boggles my mind.

You can't make advancements if you don't take the risks.

[CaliforniaFloridian]

Won't they be able to hedge their bets with Wii U titles and release them only on the eShop if they desire? Hopefully we don't see the same type of debacle that we had with Xenoblade/Last Story/etc. Yes, they will still need to localize the games into English, but the distribution costs should be much less...

[Kytim89]

This imrpoves the porospects of North America getting Pandora's Tower.

[ShyGuy]

Maybe Pandora's Tower as a Wii U download.

[BlackNMild2k1]

With simultaneous translation and full retail title eShop releases, I see no reason for Nintendo to not release everything that is produced, at the very least in the eShop.

Maybe even use eShop Pre-Orders as a way to finance a translation effort.

Which makes a :lightbulb: go off.
Are there pre-orders on the console digital title services? Seems like a great way to push digital sales over retail, especially if there are pre-order (before demo) options.

[Chozo Ghost]

Reggie Fils-Aime told Kotaku that Xenoblade Chronicles sold "quite well" for Nintendo.

Does this mean Reggie now realizes he was wrong about holding these games back? North America could have had these games back in 2009 just like Europe and Japan did. Imagine how much the sales of those games would be now, if they had been on the market three years ago and hadn't had their sales cut into by so many people having imported the game, or having abandoned the Wii entirely and moved on to greener pastures. As good as these games may have sold in 2012, if they had launched in 2009 they would have done far better.

I hope these games have sold better than the garbageware he likes peddling. Its too bad these games came out too late in the Wii's lifecycle to have made much of a difference, but it would be nice if they showed Reggie that core gamers matter and that he shouldn't neglect them in the future. No one cares about Reggie's garbage waggleware anymore. We want REAL games such as these. Hopefully the sales were good enough for him to have got the message, and more importantly hopefully he will change his ways. Reggie has the power to change. But first he has to want to change and he has to open his eyes to what gamers actually want.

[Mop it up]

North America could have had these games back in 2009 just like Europe and Japan did.

So North America could magically have gotten the games a year or two before they were actually finished making them?

[Kairon]

Without actual numbers, I don't want to assume that "quite well" in marketting speak is actually significant enough to effect any change. After all, Sony keeps saying that Vita sales are in line with what they were expecting to sell, which sounds good until you actually see the worldwide numbers...

[MrPhishfood]

[size=78%]I hope these games have sold better than the garbageware he likes peddling. Its too bad these games came out too late in the Wii's lifecycle to have made much of a difference, but it would be nice if they showed Reggie that core gamers matter and that he shouldn't neglect them in the future. No one cares about Reggie's garbage waggleware anymore.[/size]

Does it make you feel more manly to insult someone? You're also making an assumption in that Reggie is solely responsible for holding back those games. Nintendo isn't a celebrity that owes something to their fans, they are business. They spend money to make money.

I consider Xenoblade to be the best game of this generation (yes including 360 and PS3) and I'm glad Nintendo localized it.

I think the 25GB disc capacity on the Wii U will be interesting. This generation if someone wanted to make an RPG with a huge expansive world then it had to be PS3 exlcusive because players would find all the disc swapping cumbersome on the 360. Final Fantasy 13 could have turned out to be a very different game if it remained PS3 exclusive. A Nintendo developed RPG will remain exclusive and won't suffer from any design road blocks from having to go multiplatform.

Because there is so much storage on a single disc I would also expect full Japanese voice overs and stunning CG cut scenes with hardly any compression.

[ThePerm]

he held them back and then created the marketing push to bring them, improving their sales from what they originally would be.

all a clever ploy. New Coke. You marks fell for it.

[Chozo Ghost]

Does it make you feel more manly to insult someone?

I'm not insulting someone, I'm insulting the casual waggleware that Reggie has been peddling the last 6 years. That is not someone, that is something. And the reason I insult it is because it is an insult to gamers everywhere. By pushing it on us Reggie was insulting us. He was insulting our intelligence by expecting we would buy into it. But we didn't want that. We wanted REAL games like Xenoblade and Last Story. Hopefully now Reggie realizes he was wrong all along and will change his ways accordingly.

[Mop it up]

How can Reggie satisfy you when you want games to be released before they are even completed?!

[Kairon]

Hopefully now Reggie realizes he was wrong all along and will change his ways accordingly.

You're still assuming that "quite well" means what you think it means...

[MrPhishfood]

I'm not insulting someone, I'm insulting the casual waggleware that Reggie has been peddling the last 6 years. That is not someone, that is something. And the reason I insult it is because it is an insult to gamers everywhere. By pushing it on us Reggie was insulting us. He was insulting our intelligence by expecting we would buy into it. But we didn't want that. We wanted REAL games like Xenoblade and Last Story. Hopefully now Reggie realizes he was wrong all along and will change his ways accordingly.

When you associate the words pedlar (as opposed to salesman or advertiser)and garbageware with someone, when is that not insulting? Especially when said person likes to peddle their garbageware? Nobody pushed anything on to you, the games were simply available and you either buy it or don't buy it. It doesn't insult you by merely existing and doesn't insult you by being advertised to you.

Whatever was advertised to you surely didn't go "hey you the gamer, buy this game you'll love it". Maybe you're just too sensitive if you feel so incensed to go as far as ranting about it on a public forum. Who are these "gamers" you are referring to, I assume you must be one of them but that doesn't tell me a whole lot. Are these "gamers" a group of people that companies owe something to? To me a gamer could be anyone from 3 to over 100 years old, working in any profession or not working at all, a model citizen to a degenerate scum bag. A broad spectrum of people who would have a very broad spectrum of tastes when it comes to entertainment.

You may be upset with the existence of waggle games but not everyone has the patience and time to put 100 hours in Xenoblade. There are people out there who actually play that stuff, it may not be for you but you shouldn't write off its significance to others.

You're still making the assumption that Reggie is soley responsible for holding back those games. Where is your source? He may be the head of NoA but he's not the head of Nintendo Japan, you don't even know what this professional responsibilities are.

You make far too many assumptions and come off as entitled as if companies are beholden to you.

[Chozo Ghost]

How can Reggie satisfy you when you want games to be released before they are even completed?!

They came out in 2010 in Europe and Japan, right? If so, then I was wrong about 2009, but my point is still valid. The games came out in other regions 2 years before they came out in North America. If it were just Japan I would understand it was because of localization issues, but then why is it that Europe had them localized into English without a problem?

Nobody pushed anything on to you, the games were simply available and you either buy it or don't buy it. It doesn't insult you by merely existing and doesn't insult you by being advertised to you.

I didn't say he forced it on gamers at gunpoint. Obviously you had the option of not buying it or going to the competition (which many Wii owners did). But he did "push" the games, and by that I mean that's what he promoted and trumpeted for you to buy. His attitude was basically "here's your food. If you don't like it, starve". And that was it... and then when he received criticism he responded by saying "gamers are insatiable" those were his actual words. I'm not making that up.

You're still making the assumption that Reggie is soley responsible for holding back those games. Where is your source? He may be the head of NoA but he's not the head of Nintendo Japan, you don't even know what this professional responsibilities are.

1) Apparently everything is an assumption.

2) I realize he's the head of NoA and not Nintendo of Japan. But do you realize that the head of NoE isn't the head of Nintendo of Japan either? Yet, somehow the head of NoE was able to localize these games two years ago and didn't drag their feet about it or make excuses.

Reggie's excuse for taking so long to deliver the games may have been his belief that they wouldn't sell, but this recent comment where he said they sold "quite well" seems to prove he was wrong for rejecting the games as long as he did. Yes, that's an assumption, but so what? Everything I say is an assumption apparently. But isn't that assumption correct?

[Fiendlord_Timmay]

ITT: Good news? More reason to BAAAAAAWWWWWW about OpRainfall.

[Mop it up]

They came out in 2010 in Europe and Japan, right? If so, then I was wrong about 2009, but my point is still valid. The games came out in other regions 2 years before they came out in North America.

Xenoblade was released in June 2010 in Japan and August 2011 in Europe, and The Last Story was released in January 2011 in Japan and February 2012 in Europe. In both cases the games were released in North America six months after the Europe release. That's a far cry from the two/three years that you claimed.

The dates seem important to your argument, so if you get that wrong then it just goes to show that you're blowing things out of proportion. I don't totally disagree with you, I don't think it should have taken something like Operation Rainfall to get the games here (regardless of whether or not it affected anything, it shouldn't have needed to exist), but I understand the reasons behind it. Europe is a different market, I'm pretty sure that these days RPGs sell better over there, and so it was likely seen as a better choice. I don't think things are as bad as you're making them out to be. Unless these two games are the only ones out of the entire Wii library that interest you, in which case you should have bought a different system a long time ago.

[MrPhishfood]

1) Apparently everything is an assumption.

Well there are assumptions that are based on facts where sound reasoning is given for the assumption.

Then there are assumptions based on facts with little to no reasoning given in to how you came to your conclusion, that is called conjecture. You seem to take it one step further and word it to sound like the worst thing ever. That is nearing the activities of a spin doctor.

I noticed you didn't bother responding to this:

When you associate the words pedlar (as opposed to salesman or advertiser) and garbageware with someone, when is that not insulting? Especially when said person likes to peddle their garbageware?

You're still sounding very entitled, its not like those games you didn't like were marketed specifically for you. There are people who enjoy those games too. What if it was the other way round? What if you got all the games you wanted but then there are people out there on forums asking "Hey where are the fun casual games, I don't have 40 hours to pour in to a game, I didn't buy a Wii for this crap".

[Vahne]

Just picked TLS up yesterday, and am loving it! 4 hours and 38 minutes in and 1 hour spent just running around Lazulis City!

[doodies]

RPG fans are not mentally trained to be patient due to the massive amounts of hours spent grinding and questing per game.  It's a stereotyped point of view but it's true, unfortunately.

[Kairon]

RPG fans are not mentally trained to be patient due to the massive amounts of hours spent grinding and questing per game.  It's a stereotyped point of view but it's true, unfortunately.

Isn't it the other way around? Don't you need an extraordinary amount of patience to grind out levels for hours of delayed gratification?

Oh well, I'm a Zelda fan AND an Animal Crossing fan. I'm used to waiting forever to get my games, either because of numerous delays in the first case, or laborious localizations in the second case.

[joshnickerson]

Meanwhile, I've yet to have time to even OPEN the copies I purchased...

[LittleIrves]

Hey Chozo Ghost, buddy, ease up on the harshness, yeah? I've been playing games for 25 years and have loved this gen's "garbage waggleware" like Wii Sports Resort, Wii Music, and whatever else you don't consider "real" games. You can enjoy your 100 hour RPGs. I can enjoy my quirky new motion-control. We're all playing games. See you in the Miiverse...