'Operation Rainfall' campaign seeks localization of Wii RPGs

by JC Fletcher on Jun 27th 2011 10:45AM

Normally, online petition efforts seem doomed from the start. But a grassroots campaign, born on the IGN forums, and aimed at getting Nintendo to localize Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower outstrips the normal, futile campaign through cleverness and pure vigor.

Fans have taken to spamming Nintendo's Facebook and Twitter pages and email with requests for those three games. "Operation Rainfall" also involves coordinated physical mailings of letters to NOA headquarters, aimed at one game at a time.

Even more clever -- and likely effective -- is a campaign to pre-order "Monado: Beginning of the World" from Amazon. Back in 2009, before it was even called Xenoblade, Nintendo announced this game at E3. Amazon accordingly added a pre-order listing, which has been sitting dormant for two years. Now, that orphaned pre-order listing is Amazon's top seller in video games. Unlike most petitions, this can be translated directly into purchase intent -- i.e. money on the table -- and is more likely than anything to attract Nintendo's attention.

It's at least attracted the attention of Nintendo's social media intern: the company tweeted, "Hey fans, we appreciate your enthusiasm. Look for more updates to come soon!"

Source: Operation Rainfall

Tags: localization, nintendo, operation-rainfall, pandoras-tower, the-last-story, wii, xenoblade, xenoblade-chronicles

Reader Comments (43)

I would have been more excited for operation chocolate rainfall.

@sammo21
Bet you're gonna get is operation yellow rainfall.

Amazon is going to make a lot of money accruing interest on this money. I want to start a online store and start taking pre-Orders for Halo 6, Zelda HD and Uncharted 4.

@FriedConsole its called Gamestop. Gamestop and Amazon both, and probably others, start taking preorders for games the second they are barely announced. I had a preorder for Twilight princess for what I think was around 3 years or so.

@FriedConsole They don't actually take any money until the product ships, though.

Payment isn't processed by amazon until package ships.

Great! I sent this tip in, glad it got picked up. Please guys, we'll take as much support as we can get, visit the Facebook, Twitter pages and tell Nintendo you want these games localized! If you plan on buying Xenoblade eventually through Amazon, put a pre-order in! You won't be charged until the game ships (if it does) and the price will surely lower from $60 down to the normal $50. Please don't pre-order if you don't plan on following through, as it will cause inflated numbers and does more harm than good =(

Thanks Joystiq for helping spread the word!

@Rucury
Count me in.

@TheShaper Well done! i've love to support your cause.

Wish my tips got through, i sent in two tips about a bunch of Sonic Generations details ripped from the demo (like the list of levels and mission levels) and only a tiny handful of blogs covered it.

@Rucury

I don't even have a Wii, but I would buy one if these games got localized. Nothing else on the platform interests me...

@TheShaper

Ditto. I need Xenoblade...

@Rucury

I'm still waiting for Mother 3 to come out, honestly. After Nintendo bit me with that one, my Wii just started gathering dust; I stopped buying Nintendo-made games. I think the thing you guys are doing is pretty epic, though I'd not buying another Nintendo title until Mother 3 comes out here.

You hear that Nintendo? Suck it up, pay the people for their hard work with the Mother 3 patch, give them a goddamn job or something, and let Mother 3 see the light of US shores. I'm sick of Japan hoarding all the good games (Vesperia PS3, Mother 3, etc) and leaving us with half-bit trash like Hyperdimension Neptunia.

Remember a few years ago when hundreds of people did this to get Bionic Commando Rearmed on Wii?
That worked well.

@Protome
Yeah, because it's not like those RPGs already exist or anything...

This is why i love gaming, i get to see such an awesome and passionate community show their love of games, and this is a perfect example.

@Mrguy you know that guy
Sometimes the passion is too much though. This can be witnessed in the translation scene. (Crimson Nocturnal) Sometimes, it's the passion and love for the games that push away from a translation.

Come on Nintendo pull your finger out

Heal the world
Make it a better place
For U and for Wii and the entire human race

I hope we get all 3 of them.
Nintendo wanting to go "Oh were all about the core gamer", releasing these would be a good step in the right direction.

@chocobox
Back in the day, when there wasn't this stupid distinction between "core" and "casual", any JRPGs were as mainstream as it gets in the gaming community.

@chocobox

fyi - as you guys can see in our mission statement, we don't adhere to the hardcore/casual garbage at this community: nintemple.com

stop by and say "hi" if you ever feel like it ^_^

I really hope Nintendo pays attention and attempts to get all three of these games in any way possible. Even though there's a slim chance I will buy any of these games should it be localized (not because I hate the genre but because I let my friend borrow my Wii), I really hope this fan campaign works in wonders. It already has a Wikipedia article which is linked to the Xenoblade article.

The more happy video game fans, the merrier.

Knowing Nintendo of America and Reggie, I expect the games won't be ported.

Why? Because NoA has gone down the crapper since Reggie took over.
From a gamers perspective, not Nintendos.

@hami83
What did Reggie do?

I've done my part. If you own a Wii and consider yourself a true gamer, do your part, get behind this effort. Even if your Wii "has been collecting dust" you should really get involved.

@the5th I agree Xenoblade is totally worth it.

I am (sort of, a little bit) proud to have been a part of this; I really hope it works.

The problem with Nintendo's policy isn't that they're not bringing these games over. It's that they refuse to let anyone ELSE bring them over. When Sony decided not to bring over Arc the Lad and Demon's Souls, they licensed them out. When Microsoft decided not to bring over Phantom Dust and Maximum Chase, they licensed them out. When Nintendo decided not to bring over Fatal Frame 4 and the sequel to Hotel Dusk, they flat-out refuse to let any other company do it. If Nintendo doesn't want to publish it, they've decided that we CAN NOT play it. That's the part that infuriates me. Open these games up to Atlus, XSEED, and Aksys. They'd be more than happy.

@Mike Kelehan
Nintendo isn't one for third-party companies...It appears they want to change it around with the WiiU and 3DS, but they're still a bit wary of them.

@The Only Girl They've said that every generation, starting with the N64. If they're not doing it now, there's no reason to believe they will. This is their opportunity to show that they mean business, in terms of both core gamers and third parties.

@Mike Kelehan
The sad part is, it wasn't always this way. Back in the early 2000s, Nintendo licensed several titles that they had published in Japan (Ogre Battle 64, Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, Cubivore) to Atlus for localization in the USA. What happened?

Count me in!!

I'm doing my part on my little corner of the web, too! ...

http://nintemple.blogspot.com/2011/06/game-localization-campaign.html

Nintendo's always had massively bizarre methods for choosing titles to localise. It seems they take the staircase method most seriously. I mean, didn't we get a Docomo game for the DS some months back? Yet it took virtually a decade for them to localise a female-version of Harvest Moon.

The old excuse of "there won't be a big enough selling base" is just not going to work now that over half of American households play video games on a regular basis, yeah?

I hope this really works, why?

Two of those 3 games have some mammoth power behind them.

Xenoblade is by Monosoft, who made the most excellent Xenogears and Saga
And The Last Story? Mistwalker is behind that one, with Uematsu's music.

I don't know much for Pandora's Tower though, other than the character has some real love with the chain-bondage thing.

I might actually play a non-Mario game on my Wii of this comes out.

I'm all for this as long as Nintendo doesn't do what UTV-Ignition did with Arc Rise Fantasia...

It's like the localization team and voice actors didn't even care about the game (If you don't know what I'm talking about just youtube it).

Here's hoping Nintendo takes the hint and releases these games with the localizations they deserve.

I want The Last Story so much.

All I can think is that hopefully they'll have more luck than the poor, poor Mother/EarthBound fans. I won't be holding my breath though.

How about Zangeki no Reginleiv? IMHO that and Xenoblade (more so for Xeno) are the two titles that without a doubt need to be localized. Dunno about Pandora's tower as I did not pick that one up myself; Last Story, IMHO can be left on the back burner as it was really more of a letdown when compared to Xenoblade.

If we cannot even get these traditional games on the Wii, why should anyone have faith in getting games on the Wii U?

Or maybe Nintendo just wants to try and sell the Wii U to the Call of Duty audience even though people who play CoD are okay with their 360 or PS3.

Nothing wrong with CoD, Nintendo just needs to know who their audience is.

Looks like tales fans are jumping on nintendo now

The Last Story better make its way over here. That and Skyward Sword were all I was looking forward to on Wii.

Dear Nintendo.
Give me these good games and I will give you money.
Sincerely,
A fan of good games

Xenoblade Chronicles

'Operation Rainfall' campaign seeks localization of Wii RPGs

Reader Comments (43)

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 10:46AM sammo21 said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 2:05PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 10:52AM FriedConsole said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 11:02AM sammo21 said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 11:21AM creid8 said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 10:56AM lfegerber said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 11:02AM Rucury said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 12:39PM TheShaper said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 12:54PM Nergy said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 12:56PM Kevadu said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 5:10PM dissectional75 said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:37PM ShivanSwordsman said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 11:07AM Protome said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 12:36PM TheShaper said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 11:08AM Mrguy you know that guy said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 1:06PM The Only Girl said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 11:14AM YoungCardinals said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 11:14AM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 11:15AM Jawmuncher said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 12:39PM TheShaper said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 1:18PM CrashMan said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 11:45AM MetaFalchionAether said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 11:46AM hami83 said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 2:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 11:55AM the5th said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 12:23PM eddoes said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 12:18PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 12:52PM Mike Kelehan said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 1:11PM The Only Girl said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 2:42PM Mike Kelehan said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 3:27PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 1:19PM CrashMan said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 1:26PM phenylketonurics said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 1:31PM DevilSei said

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Posted: Jun 27th 2011 4:39PM FancyCat2008 said

Posted: Jun 27th 2011 4:53PM Muu said

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