Topic: Mistwalker's "The Last Story" out in NA via XSEED!

[MegaByte]

edit: apparently the site was registered almost a year ago according to WhoIs, not sure why it was being reported on again.

I noted this in both Xenoblade threads days ago.

[Stratos]

I don't think console RPG experiences will go away. I like settling down to a nice long and engrossing game in front of my television. A lot of people live alone or have roommates/spouses that don't care much for games so concerns about sharing TV Time are non-existent for us.

[noname2200]

I don't think console RPG experiences will go away. I like settling down to a nice long and engrossing game in front of my television. A lot of people live alone or have roommates/spouses that don't care much for games so concerns about sharing TV Time are non-existent for us.

I think that by and large that depends on what type of console RPG experience you mean.  Western RPGs are probably going to keep showing up in the same or even greater numbers, since the HD consoles are essentially stripped down PCs.  But unless Japan starts buying more home console games, or JRPG sales pick up here in the West, I can definitely see console JRPGs being reduced to installments of Final Fantasy in the not-too-distant future. Shoot, this generation has brought us most of the way there already...

[BlackNMild2k1]

The Last Story to leave Japan!?
looks like it could be headed to Europe
http://jrpgtribe.com/news/a-change-of-heart-from-nintendo-the-last-story-is-coming-to-europe/

Our James McWhirter from over at the 3DS Tribe has some juicy gossip for us straight from the London MCM. Upon questioning the Nintendo representatives there this weekend, James was able to learn that we can expect to see The Last Story (Wii) released in Europe! It’s nice to see them change their minds about not releasing it here.

Let’s hope that we’ll see Pandora’s Tower released in Europe too.

..... NoA has a lot of announcement s to make at E3. This better be one of them.

[broodwars]

The Last Story to leave Japan!?
looks like it could be headed to Europe
http://jrpgtribe.com/news/a-change-of-heart-from-nintendo-the-last-story-is-coming-to-europe/

Our James McWhirter from over at the 3DS Tribe has some juicy gossip for us straight from the London MCM. Upon questioning the Nintendo representatives there this weekend, James was able to learn that we can expect to see The Last Story (Wii) released in Europe! It’s nice to see them change their minds about not releasing it here.

Let’s hope that we’ll see Pandora’s Tower released in Europe too.

..... NoA has a lot of announcement s to make at E3. This better be one of them.

And once again I have to wonder just what NoA is doing with its time since NoE doesn't seem to care about waiting for E3 to announce or leak things.

[Mop it up]

What makes Europe a more viable market for this game? I've always had the impression that RPGs sell better in North America than the UK, although I don't know if that's generally true.

[NWR_insanolord]

Yeah, I wonder why NoA hasn't said anything about this. It's not like they have a better way to announce this, where they'll get a lot more attention for it and have a bunch of people who've been begging for it right in front of them just waiting to cheer wildly for it.

[broodwars]

Yeah, I wonder why NoA hasn't said anything about this. It's not like they have a better way to announce this, where they'll get a lot more attention for it and have a bunch of people who've been begging for it right in front of them just waiting to cheer wildly for it.

That's the thing, though: why aren't all the divisions on the same page if NoA was just going to announce this at E3?  Why wouldn't NoE just wait for Reggie to announce it on-stage unless they didn't think NoA was going to?

[NWR_insanolord]

Yeah, you're probably right. Nintendo's different branches are always on the same page and aware of what each other are doing. Who does a better job than Nintendo of coordinating that kind of thing?

[Ceric]

Yeah, you're probably right. Nintendo's different branches are always on the same page and aware of what each other are doing. Who does a better job than Nintendo of coordinating that kind of thing?

My 3 year old comes to mind.

[Stratos]

And once again I have to wonder just what NoA is doing with its time since NoE doesn't seem to care about waiting for E3 to announce or leak things.

Interesting story. A lady comes into my store to order food and she's got a Nintendo jacket on. I ask about it and she says she works for Nintendo. She wouldn't tell me what she did but I asked about job opportunities and she said that its a great company to work for, but there is NOTHING going on right now. Its dead. So no job openings. I mentioned the new 3DS and project Cafe and she acknowledged them but said nothing big was happening regarding them right now.

Could this lady just not be working in the right area or is NoA really just sitting around twiddling their thumbs with a new console launch fast approaching? You'd think every employee at the company would be aware of them coming.

[NWR_insanolord]

You're in Washington, right? Didn't most of NoA's operations move to San Francisco? Maybe it's just nothing going on where she's at.

[BlackNMild2k1]

You're in Washington, right? Didn't most of NoA's operations move to San Francisco? Maybe it's just nothing going on where she's at.

That was about to be my exact response...

[Stratos]

No. The headquarters in still here in Redmond. Sales and marketing moved out to San Fransisco and New York but the rest is still here. The QA and localization stuff is here. So if 'nothing is happening' when it comes to QA and localization then you gotta wonder what Nintendo has in the pipeline. Either most of the crap they plan to release is finished and collecting dust or not coming at all.

[Ymeegod]

Actually we see reps from time to time but they're mostly some sort of marketing rep for nintendo.  Yeah I met a few of them and them admitted to being non-gamers and didn't have much to say other than what was required from the job.

A job's a job right?

[Mop it up]

So if 'nothing is happening' when it comes to QA and localization then you gotta wonder what Nintendo has in the pipeline. Either most of the crap they plan to release is finished and collecting dust or not coming at all.

Or perhaps she can't/doesn't want to talk about what they are doing.

[broodwars]

So if 'nothing is happening' when it comes to QA and localization then you gotta wonder what Nintendo has in the pipeline. Either most of the crap they plan to release is finished and collecting dust or not coming at all.

Or perhaps she can't/doesn't want to talk about what they are doing.

Indeed, NDAs are a real hassle when it comes to stuff like this.  Better to just make something up and leave then risk your job.

[Stratos]

Except she could have just said they were working on the next big thing from Nintendo or something. And I was asking about the job market specifically. Asking about jobs led to her saying there was nothing going on so there was no need to hire anyone. It's possible she was only speaking about her department and that happens to be one that doesn't go crazy until around launch.

[BlackNMild2k1]

OR she would say the one thing that would make you lose interest in asking anymore questions so that she didn't accidentally say something that could get her fired, like she was probably trained to do.

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

As if this oil fire wasn't already blazing, here's some more fuel to keep it going (sorry for the elaborate metaphor):

Sakaguchi possibly confirmed release of The Last Story in Europe, says French website

Apparently, during a press event in Paris, Sakaguchi made comments that implied that The Last Story was being localised for the European market and would perhaps be released in early 2012, after Xenoblade Chronicles and Dragon Quest VI were out. Bear in mind that this is a translation of a translation in essence, so nothing has been etched into stone just yet.

Still though, I'd be happy. I don't know if I need both of these action RPGs, but if you're talking about fleshing out the final year of the Wii software line-up, having Xenoblade and The Last Story out would help a lot. As for their fate in the American market, at this point, they might as well. All the English text and voice work is being done, so it would hardly be the most laborious task. Unless co-ordination between the Western branches of Nintendo is really that bad.

[Luigi Dude]

Like I've said many times before, if these games are coming to Europe, then they're guaranteed to come to North America as well.  Xenoblade and The Last Story were both big budget RPG that Nintendo spent good money on making, and have a huge amount of content that will make any localizations pretty expensive as well.  North America is Nintendo's largest territory, where most of their games get the largest sales.  For Xenoblade and The Last Story, NCL isn't going to spend the kind of money they did to get both games made, and then spend even more to get both games an English dub, only to not release either of them in their largest territory.

This isn't like Disaster and Another Code where the games were both low budget titles that NOA and NOE were given the choice if they wanted to localize each one because they didn't cost NCL hardly anything to make.  Xenoblade and The Last Story both basically rival Nintendo's top series like Mario and Zelda in terms of budget and as a result, Iwata is going to want the most sales he can get out of each one.  This is why in this situation, NOA has to release both games because they have no other choice.

[broodwars]

Like I've said many times before, if these games are coming to Europe, then they're guaranteed to come to North America as well.  Xenoblade and The Last Story were both big budget RPG that Nintendo spent good money on making, and have a huge amount of content that will make any localizations pretty expensive as well.  North America is Nintendo's largest territory, where most of their games get the largest sales.  For Xenoblade and The Last Story, NCL isn't going to spend the kind of money they did to get both games made, and then spend even more to get both games an English dub, only to not release either of them in their largest territory.

This isn't like Disaster and Another Code where the games were both low budget titles that NOA and NOE were given the choice if they wanted to localize each one because they didn't cost NCL hardly anything to make.  Xenoblade and The Last Story both basically rival Nintendo's top series like Mario and Zelda in terms of budget and as a result, Iwata is going to want the most sales he can get out of each one.  This is why in this situation, NOA has to release both games because they have no other choice.

I don't disagree with you that the development costs would point to the game having a release in NA.  My concern is after these games didn't sell that spectacularly in Japan: 157,000 for Xenoblade and 170,000 for Last Story, assuming you believe VGChartz.  By comparison, the same source cites Final Fantasy XIII on PS3 as selling nearly 1.87 million units in Japan, which would make those two games abject failures by comparison considering the Wii's huge install base (it doesn't mean the games are bad or that I don't want them.  It simply means they didn't sell despite a huge marketing push from Nintendo on especially Last Story).  NCL might not have confidence that these games are going to sell in NA, so they're using Europe as a test market with an option to bring them to NA if they sell well (which they probably won't).

[Luigi Dude]

NCL might not have confidence that these games are going to sell in NA, so they're using Europe as a test market with an option to bring them to NA if they sell well (which they probably won't).

That doesn't really make any sense though since North America is the much larger and more successful territory for Nintendo.  Even though Wii sales have been dropping around the world, Wii software and hardware still sells much better in NA then Europe. 

Not to mention would make even less business sense for NCL because Xenoblade and The Last Story play more like Western RPG's then traditional JRPG's and these types of games sells much better on home console in North America then Europe.  Now if Nintendo was releasing both games on the PC, then releasing them only in Europe would make sense because the PC RPG market is much bigger over there.  But for a home console RPG, that plays like a game that's more popular in North America and is a territory that most of NCL's games almost always do better in, I just don't see these games not coming out over here.

Of course we only have to wait one more week now in order to find out if they're coming to North America or not so we'll all know the answer very soon.

[Stratos]

Problem is that Nintendo has used Europe as a 'test market'. Disaster: Day of Destruction's performance in Europe was cited as a direct reason for it not coming here, was it not? That's what Reggie claimed at least. Stupid to use Europe as a test for NA but it does seem to be the case.

I feel that all games should come to both regions considering the cross-over of similar languages. English is spoken in both NA and UK. And other European nations have very similar if not exactly the same characters in their written form so translation is easier than from Japanese. Feels like wasted resources on some level to not leverage that cross-over.

OR she would say the one thing that would make you lose interest in asking anymore questions so that she didn't accidentally say something that could get her fired, like she was probably trained to do.

I get your points here and by everyone else, but judging from her demeanor, personality and language used I still feel the same about it.

[Mop it up]

Or maybe she just didn't like you and didn't want you working there.