Topic: Hoping For Rain: Is Operation Rainfall a Failure or is There Still Hope?

[TJ Spyke]

The same rumor says that GameStop is interested in doing the same with The Last Story, though it depends on how well Xenoblade: Chronicles does with sales and pre-orders.

[nickmitch]

But why would Gamestop give a **** about a niche Wii game? I wonder if Gamestop will goad Nintendo into releasing Last Story and Pandora's Tower?

Exclusives = $$$
It doesn't get much more simple than that. There's little risk on GameStop's part (unless the rumors that they're helping to publish are true), and they probably think the sales are gonna be pretty solid.

[NWR_insanolord]

GameStop understands that a lot of people hate them, but they're not going to change the practices that make people hate them because that would cost them money, so they're trying to win support by doing this.

[ejamer]

But why would Gamestop give a **** about a niche Wii game? I wonder if Gamestop will goad Nintendo into releasing Last Story and Pandora's Tower?

Did you see GameStop also has exclusive rights to sell the Circle Pad Pro for 3DS? Lots of money to be had in accessories - considerably more than in software most of the time. Maybe that two exclusivity deals were related?

As discussed on the recent podcast, it's also bringing core gamers (at least what few Wii gamers fit that description) into stores around the country with money in their pockets. That's not a bad deal for GameStop.

[Monteblanco]

But why would Gamestop give a **** about a niche Wii game? I wonder if Gamestop will goad Nintendo into releasing Last Story and Pandora's Tower?

It is good business to both part. Because Gamespot has a good predictor of sales based on pre-sales, Nintendo can print the right number of copies without the risk of having a huge number of unsold copies in the warehouse. Also, by selling to just one company, the distribution is far cheaper.

From the Gamespot side, this scheme will bring hardcore gamers to their shops. The right kind of customer they seek out. Considering hardcore gamers are more likely to purchase multiple games in a visit, they will get a nice profit from the deal. Also, I don't see them expending much money with marketing. I don't antecipate any TV spot or other expensive divulgation. They will print some promotional material to the shops, give a Game Informer cover and do some online adds.

[nickmitch]

GameStop will put out commercials. They definitely will. They may be a little more low budget and less extensive, but they WANT to drive traffic to their stores/website.

[Kytim89]

I would bet my last quarter that Xenoblade will make the front cover of Gameinformer possibly in their next issue and that there might be a possible page or two with Last Story and Pandora's Tower for advertising purchases.

[noname2200]

I would bet my last quarter that Xenoblade will make the front cover of Gameinformer possibly in their next issue and that there might be a possible page or two with Last Story and Pandora's Tower for advertising purchases.

I'll take that bet! I want to see what your last quarter looks like, and losing will only set me back 25 cents. 

[Kytim89]

Check out this nice video:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X_4cGVxwvg&feature=player_embedded

[Kytim89]

What should Operation Rainfall work on next? Here is a list of Wii and DS games that they could campaign for if and when Pandora's Tower is released in North America.
 
Wii:
 
428: Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de
Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen
Captain Rainbow
Dragon Quest Collection
Earth Seeker
Harukanaru Jikuu no Kade 4
Ikenie no Yoru
Imabikisou: Kaimei Hen
Ougon no Kizuna
Takt of Magic
Disaster: Day of Crisis (yes, I want this, too)
Fatal Frame 4
Zangeki no reginleiv
 
DS:
 
Archaic Sealed Heat (ASH, which is made by Mistwalker)
Last Window: The Secret of Cape West

[Sarail]

Don't forget Soma Bringer. I still REALLY want to get my mitts on that one.

[GoldenPhoenix]

If Captain Rainbow was localized, I would be extremely happy, I'd never say anything bad about NoA again (Well at least for a year or so).

[TJ Spyke]

What should Operation Rainfall work on next? Here is a list of Wii and DS games that they could campaign for if and when Pandora's Tower is released in North America.
 
Wii:
 428: Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de
Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen
Captain Rainbow
Dragon Quest Collection
Earth Seeker
Harukanaru Jikuu no Kade 4
Ikenie no Yoru
Imabikisou: Kaimei Hen
Ougon no Kizuna
Takt of Magic
Disaster: Day of Crisis (yes, I want this, too)
Fatal Frame 4
Zangeki no reginleiv
 
DS:
 
Archaic Sealed Heat (ASH, which is made by Mistwalker)
Last Window: The Secret of Cape West

Nintendo's issue with Fatal Frame IV is that it's a very buggy game (you have that game listed twice BTW, "Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen" is the Japanese name of the game), but Konami refuses to fix those bugs (which is why Nintendo won't let them localize it). 428 is unlikely since it's a visual novel, and wasn't a very strong seller to begin with, and being over 3 years old now the likelihood of it even breaking even would be low. As for Dragon Quest Collection, Square Enix likely hasn't released it here because the SNES remakes on it were never released here, so they would need to translate all of them. Several of those games are obscure and seems like you picked them just because they are Japan-only games (like ImabikisŨ Kaimei Hen, which is a 4 year old visual novel which is mostly static and animate photographs), the Operation Rainfall games were picked for specific reasons (partially because they are Nintendo published RPGs).

I will say I would like to see as many games get localized as possible though, and some of those could be released without much problem.

[Luigi Dude]

What should Operation Rainfall work on next? Here is a list of Wii and DS games that they could campaign for if and when Pandora's Tower is released in North America.
 
Wii:
 
428: Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de
Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen
Captain Rainbow
Dragon Quest Collection
Earth Seeker
Harukanaru Jikuu no Kade 4
Ikenie no Yoru
Imabikisou: Kaimei Hen
Ougon no Kizuna
Takt of Magic
Disaster: Day of Crisis (yes, I want this, too)
Fatal Frame 4
Zangeki no reginleiv
 
DS:
 
Archaic Sealed Heat (ASH, which is made by Mistwalker)
Last Window: The Secret of Cape West

Half of those Wii games Nintendo has nothing to do with.  428 was published by Sega.  Earth Seeker was published by Enterbrain.  Harukanaru Jikuu no Kade 4 was published by Koei.  Ikenieb no Yoru was published by Marvelous Entertainment.  Imabikisou: Kaimei Hen was published by Sega.  Ougon no Kizuna was publish Jaleco.

[Kytim89]

Any chance that we could get Disaster: Day of Crisis? That is a shitty game, but I want it in my collection. Monolith Soft made it, and despite its flaws, makes me want it even more. Nintendo could retool the British version and sell it directly from their online store, and Gamestop, for rougly $19.99.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Any chance that we could get Didsaster: Day of Crisis? That is a shitty game, but I want it in my collection. Monolith Soft made it, and despite its flaws, makes me want it even more. Nintendo could retool the British version and sell it directly from their online store, and Gamestop, for rougly $19.99.

I don't recall it ever getting any extremely negative reviews, the game received seemingly average reviews by looking at metacritic. So it is hardly a terrible game from what I've read and I would like to see it in North America, it would be worth getting for a decent price (even $30-40 would be fine).

[nickmitch]

A lot of those games are too old to really be relevant at this point. The Wii U is almost here, so the window for putting out Wii games is closing. Captain Rainbow and Disaster would probably be the best options since they're Nintendo games. But it's not like the Operation Rainfall guys do that **** for a living. They don't need to keep finding games to try and bring over just because.

[BeautifulShy]

If I remember correctly and like nickmitch kinda pointed out. most of those games are not really relevant. I think the main reason we got these 3 specific titles chosen were because they were upcoming releases and still in everyone's mind. How many people are still talking about these other titles that you mentioned Kytim are still relevant and could be possible in the future on a Nintendo platform? 

[Kytim89]

If I remember correctly and like nickmitch kinda pointed out. most of those games are not really relevant. I think the main reason we got these 3 specific titles chosen were because they were upcoming releases and still in everyone's mind. How many people are still talking about these other titles that you mentioned Kytim are still relevant and could be possible in the future on a Nintendo platform?

Digital download on the Wii U.

[Evan_B]

Personally, I always wanted to see Earth Seeker playing on my Wii- had a deeper-than-Spectrobes feel to it.

[GoldenPhoenix]

If I remember correctly and like nickmitch kinda pointed out. most of those games are not really relevant. I think the main reason we got these 3 specific titles chosen were because they were upcoming releases and still in everyone's mind. How many people are still talking about these other titles that you mentioned Kytim are still relevant and could be possible in the future on a Nintendo platform? 

Captain Rainbow is still relevant to me!

[Chozo Ghost]

The Wii U is almost here, so the window for putting out Wii games is closing.

Not really. There's no reason all Wii releases must cease the exact moment the Wii U is out. The Gamecube seen some (not many) releases in 2007, and the PS2 still was seeing releases for awhile (don't know if it still is). The Wii's install base is huge so there's no reason to abandon it right away.

[Mop it up]

I could see the Dragon Quest Collection being offered as a pre-order bonus for Dragon Quest X and including only the NES games. They aren't on the VC, so even without the SNES versions it could still be something people wanted.

I don't really see any others happening though. Things like Captain Rainbow seem too... Japanese-y, as does most of the stuff on that list. Though, if I remember rightly Zangeki no Reginleiv was pretty well received, so that seems like the only one people may rally behind. But it wasn't released in Europe like the OpRa games, so it doesn't have an English translation ready to go.

If we're just naming stuff that didn't release here, then don't forget about Another Code R and Wii Chess.

[Chozo Ghost]

Anyway, why can't all these games like Captain Rainbow just get released on the Wii U? Who says they have to be on the Wii? Nintendo could always revamp them with HD graphics and/or new play control via the Umote.

[Kytim89]

Nintendo did announce that they are going to pursue digitally downloaded content in the future, so I assume that if these games were translated to English then Nintendo would simply release them onto the Wii U eShop and then allow the people that are interested to purchase them. If Nintendo already had this system in place we would have gotten Xenoblade and Last Story a lot earlier. If no publisher picks up Pandora's Tower then it will most likely be made available for the Wii U eShop. The same with Disaster: Day of Crisis.