The Awesomest Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 (edited) Hey guys. I'm sure you're aware that Nintendo of America, in recent years, has been unwilling to localize certain games in niche genres - The Last Story, Pandora's Tower, Captain Rainbow, Xenoblade, and many others, including our own beloved Fire Emblem. A group of IGN forum-goers decided that they had had enough of this, and so they began Operation Rainfall in order to let NoA know that there was plenty of demand for these games. Now, I'm sure you all know how internet petitions and boycotts usually go - not very well. Petitions are meaningless and are often inflated by people signing multiple times, and boycotting gamers are usually so small an audience that it doesn't even faze the company. The IGN guys learned from this, and so they decided to protest in a way that was sure to get Nintendo's attention: pre-orders on Amazon. That's right - a bunch of devoted fans decided to pre-order Xenoblade on Amazon to show Nintendo that there is, in fact, a whole lot of money to be made. How did they do, you ask? (Monado was Xenoblade's old name) Not bad, beating out Zelda and a Kinect bundle to get the #1 bestsellers spot in Games. That said, the fight still isn't nearly done after this. We still have to get NoA's attention. Xenoblade needs to stay in the number one spot, and Nintendo needs to notice. How can I help? The primary way this protest works is simple to pre-order Monado on Amazon. Show Nintendo that there is money on the table. That said, ONLY pre-order if you actually intend to buy the game. Pre-ordering and cancelling, as well as pre-ordering multiple copies, is counterproductive and only inflates the numbers, causing the whole campaign to backfire. Also, be aware that pre-ordering is FREE on Amazon. You only pay when the game is available. What if I don't want to pre-order the game? There's a massive Twitter, Facebook, and snail mail campaign as well! I believe NoA's Twitter and Facebook are being bombarded by posts and tweets about Xenoblade. For the snail mail campaign, see my links. What makes you think this would even work? Well, we don't know if it will. If it doesn't work, life without JRPGs continues as usual. If it works, we get Xenoblade and maybe a few other titles localized in North America. Why would Nintendo pay attention to Operation Rainfall? Well, Xenoblade is already scheduled for a European release, so NoA wouldn't have to spend any money on localization. It's not set in a real world location, so who cares if they're all speaking British English? All they have to do is press the game and release it. Even if it only sells like 10,000 copies, they'd still make a profit because they hardly have to spend any money to produce it! Besides, with Wii U, Nintendo is trying to "bring the hardcore gamer back into the fold." How better to show it than to localize some of their most wanted games? Is Xenoblade even any good? Apparently, very much so. It was voted the best JRPG of the entire generation in Japan. It looks far beyond most efforts we've seen by developers on the Wii. Monolith Soft is no slouch of a developer. Apparently, it's like Final Fantasy XII but it takes place on two giant robots and it doesn't have all that political stuff (I've never played either game). I've heard it described as a "single-player MMO." If you don't believe me, take a look for yourself. There's a reason IGN put this game at the head of the movement. Other Links NeoGAF - very comprehensive thread, more links and information inside Wikipedia article on Operation Rainfall Edited June 26, 2011 by The Awesomest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Awesomest Posted June 30, 2011 Author Share Posted June 30, 2011 Nintendo said "no." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuxhero Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Well, see you in 5/6 years Nintendo! The fact that they not only officially said "no" instead of ignoring it is what makes the choice clear. I used my Wii mostly as a 2nd GCN because it had few games to appeal to me. The one controller thing put me on the fence because I use Nintendo consoles for local MP I can't get on my PC, but this has confirmed to me they don't care about the core market like they claimed and I wouldn't find any games worth playing AGAIN, and I'm not spending $250+ for the "pleasure". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darros Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Nintendo said "no." Well then, fuck them. I don't know why Nintendo is so stubborn to not release games, even after stuff like this happens. Looks like I'm playing FE12 emulated. At least I get it free this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragnell Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 (edited) I'm mostly just surprised that OR didn't pull more of a Wii U angle on the whole thing. I wasn't really expecting Nintendo to say yes immediately, but I feel they would be much easier to persuade if their next console was threatened. After all, the big N just got done with an entire convention where they promised that the Wii U would deliver a core gaming experience, because the Wii was criticized for not having core games. Now, right after the show, they refuse to release three already-made, highly publicized(especially in Xenoblade and Last Story's cases), well-rated core games for their systems (one already being in English). They could gain some major bad publicity among gamers due to this thing, especially given how widely spread it has been (virtually every game news site and even Yahoo Japan has covered it). If OR had thrown that in their face more prominently, I think they would have had a better shot, though I really don't know if anything will ever sway Nintendo. Still, I hope people continue campaigning, at least until the letter-writing stage. If nothing comes of the letter writing, then I think we can call it hopeless. Sucks, though, I kinda wanted to play Last Story and Xenoblade soon, even if I had no interest in Pandora's Tower. I was actually hoping that Nintendo was planning on releasing at least Last Story and Xenoblade already, and they would have just used this as a very high publicity way to reveal those titles. Although I'm not sure Nintendo would like to set a precedence that if you spam their page tens of thousands of times you get what you want... Edited June 30, 2011 by Ragnell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuxhero Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 (edited) Well, if NoA doesn't want my money... I guess Microsoft will be happy to take it for a 360 wired pad for my gaming PC! *evil grin*. Are the pads as good as I've been told? What system of controls are used for Pandora's Tower? Edited June 30, 2011 by deuxhero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragnell Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 (edited) I might be a bit deluded, but a thought occurred to me during the ruckuss last night. Perhaps Nintendo still does intend to release the games eventually. Nintendo was put in a major lose-lose situation these past few days. If they gave in to our demands, I have no doubt that they would be absolutely flooded with spam for the next year or so begging for every game in existence to come over here. Heck, it was already being brought up as an option to try and get other games (including FE12). Nintendo can't have all its social media outlets covered in thousands of pleading messages forever. However if Nintendo denied all the requests, then they would piss off a small chunk of the hardcore gaming crowd. Neither of these is particularly appealing, but one is reconcilable. What if Nintendo plans to wait until Operation Rainfall fades away to announce at least one or two of the games' releases, that way they get the approval of the hardcore gamers back and they discourage spamming their facebook/twittter/etc to get localizations. EDIT: It also surprises me that NoA is willing to screw over NoE so quickly. NoE apparently wanted Xenoblade shown at this year's E3, but NoA wouldn't allow it because it didn't want to advertise a game it wasn't going to release. I've been thinking about it more, though, and that's just cruel to NoE. Xenoblade was not likely to sell all that many copies in Europe due to its niche status, but advertising it at an event like E3, which is followed primarily by dedicated gamers, could have been great publicity, and could have given it a better chance of doing well. However, because NoA doesn't want to risk losing any money on Xenoblade by bringing it over, they're dooming NoE to get less return on the risk they had the balls to take. It's not quite so bad now, since OR has given Xenoblade more publicity than E3 ever could, but that was a real jerk move by NoA. Edited June 30, 2011 by Ragnell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celice Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 http://wii.ign.com/articles/118/1182192p1.html Nintendo of America has been officially issued a trademark for The Last Story, one of the missing Wii games that the company said it had no plans to bring to the US.Nintendo filed for the trademark back in January 2010, but only received it this week. This doesn't mean that the company will release the game, but it could spark hope in those fans still holding out on the Mistwalker RPG. The game is still on track for a 2012 release in Europe. The game is still on track for a 2012 release in Europe. The game is still on track for a 2012 release in Europe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Alear Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 (edited) Celice is an extremely perceptive individual. Someday, I would like to know HOW perceptive, but I am not entirely sure I trust him. As for Xenoblade, I'm very interested in the game, and I guess the moral of the story is you will need to break the region-restricting software to get around it, unless nintendo has the brains to cave to fan demand and get rid of region locking. Edited July 15, 2011 by Loki Laufeyjarson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superbus Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 I've said my piece on this. Long story short: I think Nintendo's doing this intentionally, but today's JRPG fan needs to understand that they are no longer the highly desired "core" market that they used to be. http://gamingbus.tumblr.com/post/7159019965/a-different-take-on-operation-rainfall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rewjeo Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 I read the first half of that, and while what you're saying makes sense for why they wouldn't in the first place, now it would make sense for them to release since it's been made clear that there are some people who really want those games. And two of them are getting English releases, anyways! All they'd have to do with those is change the region to NA. I don't even really care about these games- I'm certainly not a fan of JRPGs- but this is just the kind of thing that bugs me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superbus Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 I read the first half of that, and while what you're saying makes sense for why they wouldn't in the first place, now it would make sense for them to release since it's been made clear that there are some people who really want those games. And two of them are getting English releases, anyways! All they'd have to do with those is change the region to NA. I don't even really care about these games- I'm certainly not a fan of JRPGs- but this is just the kind of thing that bugs me. If you'd have read the second half, you would have seen that I said that Nintendo is likely doing just that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuxhero Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 http://nintendocharged.com/2011/07/22/nintendo-power-interviews-eiji-aonuma-about-skyward-sword/ And also, localization is obviously going to be underway soon. So your translators have been idle NoA? I've never see a company this dedicated to not taking my money... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rewjeo Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I always figured that since Nintendo has spent so much time focused on not exactly text heavy casual games that not having the resources to translate games couldn't be the reason for not getting certain games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuxhero Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 But seeing it confirmed so blatantly... There is no possibility of "current market place realities and underlying economic considerations", just "buy our new system instead even though it isn't out for a year and accept our market speech about games for you even though we won't take the comparatively easy step of giving you them now kekekeke". Honestly, fuck NoA at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rewjeo Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Yeah, all the money Nintendo's getting from me will be for Japanese versions of Fire Emblem. If you really don't want my money, NoA, then I am alright with not giving it to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celice Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 http://nintendocharged.com/2011/07/22/nintendo-power-interviews-eiji-aonuma-about-skyward-sword/ And also, localization is obviously going to be underway soon. So your translators have been idle NoA? I've never see a company this dedicated to not taking my money... Hey, when power's put to it, it doesn't take too long to get a good translation inserted. It took one single month for all the translating, modifying, insertion and testing to port Secret of Mana from Japanese into English. Including marketing and production costs. You could say the amount of text is a telling difference, but really it's more telling to observe what happens when the corporate sees something worth investing in. As such was Secret of Mana at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuxhero Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I honestly don't see why marketing thinks its a good idea to alienate and belittle one of the most dedicated fanbases in the industry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dondon151 Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 EDIT: It also surprises me that NoA is willing to screw over NoE so quickly. NoE apparently wanted Xenoblade shown at this year's E3, but NoA wouldn't allow it because it didn't want to advertise a game it wasn't going to release. Isn't it obvious? E3 is a US gaming convention. Of course NoA isn't going to show a game that is strictly for European gamers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rewjeo Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Or they could have just also released it... But that's been talked to death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celice Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I honestly don't see why marketing thinks its a good idea to alienate and belittle one of the most dedicated fanbases in the industry. They aren't. Kirby's been getting pretty much every release ever made localized and made available for their fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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