Reggie: NOA 'watching' Xenoblade performance in Europe

by JC Fletcher on Aug 11th 2011 2:00PM

Nintendo of America, the last we heard, had "no plans" to localize Xenoblade or any of the other titles for which "Operation Rainfall" is campaigning. But plans, or lack thereof, can always change in the face of enough money.

NOA president Reggie Fils-Aime told IGN that the company would be paying attention to next week's European launch of Xenoblade Chronicles. "We will be watching very closely what happens in Europe," he said. "Certainly if there are business opportunities and positive consumer uptake from some of those titles, that will be great data for us to consider as we look at what to do with these titles."

That's certainly not a confirmation of a North American release, but neither is it the sort of stubborn denial we've come to expect regarding these games. So that's something. If you want the opportunity to buy a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles, go buy a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles ... from Europe!

Source: IGN

Tags: monolith-soft, nintendo, reggie-fils-aime, wii, xenoblade, xenoblade-chronicles

Reader Comments (67)

So in other words if the game is successful in europe there a chance of this game coming to the united states.

My body is ready!

@Markolie
My body was ready the moment they announced these games.

Well, they "watch" a lot of stuff in Japan and Europe. But they still release a lot of shovel ware here from NA publishers without giving it a thought.

@Dracorian

Huge difference whether or not it's branded as a Nintendo title. Other companies can release all the junk they want, but it's pretty evident that NOA wants to keep their library of first-party releases to smash hits that lead the pack in sales. I've already played the JP release and without a doubt it's one of the must-play titles of this generation of consoles, but the JRPG genre's sales has never been impressive in the US save for maybe FF; without a doubt a release will bring down the average sale per Nintendo title, just a question of how much.

Yeah, great idea Reggie. Keep supporting the Imagine Party Babyz titles but be on a look out for releasing games from respectable studios and bigger fan base.

@ShoTime

That has nothing to do with Nintendo and their decisions on what they should do with games they have the rights to.

@ShoTime

Based on how most core third party games and RPGs sell on the Wii in the U.S. this is a smart business approach by NoA. I understand there have been thousands that have petitioned for this and other games to come Stateside, but if this does release here, I believe we will see an opening week of about 30-50,000 with lifetime U.S. sales at about 250,000-300,000. It will be a very niche game.

@ShoTime Nintendo Seal of Quality has gone downhill!

@ShoTime

"Keep supporting the Imagine Party Babyz titles"

What does this mean? You do know that Ubisoft and Nintendo are not the same comapany dont you?

Judging by Alexisonfire's being downvoted I doubt many people around here do.

Come on, Europe. Don't let us down!

@A Sandwich don't worry i'm buying wii JUST for these three games.( Xenoblade Pandora’s Tower The Last Story) i was not going to buy wii i didn't want to but these games made me too! my friend calls me crazy but such my dedication to j-rpgs.

@A Sandwich

Meh.

@DokiDokiBawanga Really? I'm only buying these games because the hype surrounding them. That and the extremely profound lack of games on the Wii (in the past 8 months).

@QuintonFlynn
Why, Mr. Flynn, I didn't know you lived in the UK!

@A Sandwich
I will not. You can thank me later.

@IrateGamer

I'll thank you now, you magnificent bastard!

I'm so conflicted. I am all for Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower being released in the US, but am not personally interested in Xenoblade Chronicles and probably wouldn't buy it even if it were.

@Abob Lyndsae By which I mean, I recognize it's a good title and deserves to be released here regardless of my interest, but what if there isn't really much of a market for JRPGs on the Wii in the US? Arc Rise Fantasia and Fragile Dreams were both huge flops, if I remember correctly.

@Abob Lyndsae You're not interested in the best JRPG of the generation?

@creid8 It just doesn't look like anything I haven't seen before, is all. I'd have been all over it a few years ago, but I'm not as into RPGs as I used to be.

@Abob Lyndsae

Forget where its made, there is a market for a huge open world rpgs with hours and hours of sidequests, and thats what Xenoblade is.

@Abob Lyndsae

Arc Rise is a good JRPG but its failure can be attributed to its really terrible voice acting.

It's like hearing nails scratching on a chalkboard. repeatedly.

It's not that hard to import the game.

You just need to softmod the wii or get the import disc w/e its called.

@Viiral
then please import it so you can help out the rest of us. soft-modding a Wii is a lot more complicated than walking into a store and buying a regular copy that would work right out of the box.

Thanks for the false hope Reggie.

But I guess I am importing the game, so my purchase (and any other importers) may slightly help bring it to North America.

Slightly.

I don't see why they don't just make it a Nintendo loyalty program exclusive in NA. Maybe make it freely available if you purchase a 3DS and two 3DS games. They already spent the localization money, now it's just a matter of deciding if it's worth paying for a print run. Limit it to an exclusive like that Zelda: Collector's Edition that came out on Gamecube.

Then if that becomes a huge success, re-release it at retail with some trivial extra content and a different cover graphic so the collectors out there don't feel like they lost something unique and probably buy second copies. Everyone wins.

God I hate Reggie.

So the game is now translated into English.

Nintendo needs to stop being coy and announce it's NA releases otherwise nothing is stopping me from importing and playing on the Homebrew Channel.

I'm so sick of this corporate BS, "Scream hard enough fanboys or we might not release it!" When it is already part of their marketing strategy to release it over here, they just want to make a big stupid announcement.

And the reverse of this is when they decide to blame the fans for a game they were going to cancel anyway, "Megaman Legends 3 is canned because you didn't yell loud enough fanboys!"

@lonecow
Given how completely out of tandem with their standard policy the EU releases of Xenoblade (and, presumably, The Last Story) are, I'm inclined to believe that NoA really is undecided about whether they are going to release these games or not. If they had already decided for certain that they were going to release it, why respond to a massive fan campaign by saying they have no plans? Surely keeping the release date under wraps for a few more months is not worth all the negative publicity from fan communities and major gaming sites that that move generated. Also, if they were already planning to release the games in the US, I'm pretty sure they would've been localized there first.

@gatotsu911

Mark my words, and I'm prepared to dine on a hat if I'm wrong, but they are waiting for the bad press around 3DS to die down and then next month have a big press conference saying, "Because you fan demanded it! Last Story! Xenoblade Chronicles! AND Pandora's Tower!"

They just want to make a big deal about it and have fanboys kiss their collective asses for a few months.

Do I sound bitter? I feel bitter.

@lonecow eat hat because that won't happen. The only thing that makes bad press die down is positive press. I doubt they really care about tarnishing the hypothetical announcement of these titles to the NA market with negativity about the 3DS. They're only publishing them. Their fortunes are riding on the 3DS, however.

Plain and simple, while big gamers are very much aware of these titles, historically they have NOT sold well on the Wii. No one bought Zack & Wiki, or No More Heroes, or Murasama: The Demon Blade. What did sell was Sonic & Mario at the Olympics. They've done the math and they don't feel they're going to even turn a modest profit so they'd rather focus on something else.

Oh, and this has nothing to do with Capcom's decision not to finish Mega Man Legends. That's all Capcom. It's not some big conspiracy.

The usual PR, car dealer speak. Reggie is incapable of delivering less than positive news without an upbeat spin because he's the mouthpiece of the company (and one hell of a "company man").

@RickGhastly

I think that watching Reggie work is pretty fascinating, but maybe that's because I'm a PR major. I think that he, Iwata and Miyamoto make a really balanced team.

@RickGhastly
That said, the situation COULD be worse. If NoA had already decided against releasing these games, Reggie could simply not acknowledge their existence at all, even indirectly.

Yea, and it'll be released by the time Wii U is out.....

@yab

...and at that point...they can just keep it.

God... I wish I there was some way to transmit physical force through an email over the internet...

Because I would smack the PR bullcrap right out of his mouth through email. Just release the games already. You got them in English, so port them over, otherwise everyone will just pirate the games and mod their Wiis, two things you guys really seem to hate.

This whole situation has gotten out of control. It's already localized so why not just release it? Why should sales in Europe have anything to do with releasing the game(s) in the states?

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

Agreed. At this point it just seems like they're being stubborn. I do think that they'll get around to releasing them regardless, but in the face of the 3DS price cut debacle I don't think they want to do anything that makes them seem weak. Claiming to analyze European sales gives them a way out without making it look like they bungled the whole thing from the get go.

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

"Why should sales in Europe have anything to do with releasing the game(s) in the states?"

I agree.

@A Sandwich & Co

I'm glad we can all find common ground and not belittle each other.

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

Look, we clearly favor Nintendo consoles as opposed to your Sony tastes. Let's not kid ourselves, "fanboy" wars fuels sites like these. You and me both, McPoop, have done our fair share of contributing to that. I would very much like to continue that trend :)

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell
This is especially infuriating since the "Xeno-" name is already an established brand in the US, whereas in Europe the only previous Xeno game that's been officially released is Xenosaga Episode II (yes, Episode II). If I'm not mistaken, -gears and -saga did better in the US than they did in Japan. Why Nintendo would not bring the games out in the US first based on that alone boggles the mind.

Less watching, more publishing these games in North America. If you won't do it, give publishing rights to ATLUS. They will do it and give us extras for free in the process.

@The Joy of Painting w Bob Ross

of XSEED

They seem to be doing a damn good job localizing/publishing games. No doubt either Atlus or XSEED would have rocked the hell out of these games.

For the record I wouldn't clamor for steel-diver if it was a $1 iPhone game. Which strangely enough from all the screenshots and videos is about what it looks like ~.~

Please... every time someone says "We're gonna wait and see", what they really mean is "I'm sick of these angry fans, let's just tell them we're gonna wait and see, so when we don't do what they want, we can say that it didn't perform to our expectations". This happens to TV shows all the time, so you'll forgive me if I'm skeptical...

I'm actually curious, If they had just released these games without the fans/customers having to kick, scream and claw, beg and plead for them to do so for months and months. To the end that they still have no apparent plan to bother releasing them.

Would that have positively effected 3DS sales simply based on the positive light they would have shined upon themselves, along the respect and faith they would have instilled in their customers?

Guess the world will never know .....

Now I know how the Europeans felt with Demons Souls.

@SuperAnthony64
at least the Europeans had the ability to easily import and play any version of that game. it was already in english and everything, and the PS3 isn't region locked. if Nintendo weren't so desperate to cock-block people who want to play imports, this wouldn't even be an issue- we'd just buy a Euro copy :/

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Xenoblade Chronicles

Reggie: NOA 'watching' Xenoblade performance in Europe

Reader Comments (67)

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:04PM bargaingamer said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:05PM Markolie said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:40PM The Cole Train said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:07PM Dracorian said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 3:06PM Muu said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:09PM ShoTime said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:13PM Alexisonfire said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 4:01PM ItsameMatt03 said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 4:46PM Prince David said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 5:10PM TwEE said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:10PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:18PM DokiDokiBawanga said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:55PM Qehb said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:57PM QuintonFlynn said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 5:17PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 6:07PM IrateGamer said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 11:51PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:10PM Abob Lyndsae said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:13PM Abob Lyndsae said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:20PM creid8 said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 4:25PM Abob Lyndsae said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 5:27PM TwEE said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 6:01PM glemtvapen said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:11PM Viiral said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 5:08PM laser beams said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:11PM Alexisonfire said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:24PM onan said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:34PM koehler83 said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:34PM lonecow said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 5:16PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 5:57PM lonecow said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:46PM onan said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:36PM RickGhastly said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 3:03PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 5:12PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:42PM yab said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 3:43PM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 2:52PM DevilSei said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 3:00PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 3:05PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 3:13PM Co said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 4:49PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 5:06PM Co said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 5:10PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 3:04PM The Joy of Painting w Bob Ross said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 3:53PM Scuffles said

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