Nintendo Has 'No Plans' to Publish Xenoblade In North America, But Hey, Thanks for Asking

Working for a localizing publisher (ATLUS USA), here's my two cents on this. It's rare to bring serious (that is, not casual shovelware) games over on the Wii because the general trend is that gamers say "Hey, that game looks awesome" but many end up not buying it anyway because the Wii isn't worth their time. This was the issue with Muramasa: Demon Blade even though we didn't do that one. It's probably what Nintendo is thinking - their first-party IPs always sell great, but everything else, not so much. The Wii U might change that but who knows for now.

Anyway, that's what Nintendo's product evaluators are probably thinking.

ATLUS did do casual sports and Naruto games on Wii at one point, but the former was probably testing the market, and the people that buy the latter would have bought it no matter where it came out. Why is my text all bolded.

@Contro said:

Madness.

I'm good though, I've pre ordered the UK bundle which includes a red Classic Controller Pro and some signed posters.

Looks awesome. Well, time to region-hack my Wii.

But by my completely flawed logic and no knowledge of the industry, that just means those developers and games should not happen because they're selling better everywhere else compared to japan. What am I missing?
 
Video game king, I ask you to look at sales of these kinds of games in japan. Look up any jrpg and compare sales numbers, they do exceedingly better in the west in volume of sales. In the case of xenoblade specifically, it's going to be in english dubbed for europe. How much does it cost to bring here then? I think a lot of these "cost" scenarios we hear sound exceedingly far fetched.

Mother 3

Rhythm Heaven GBA

Jam with the Band

Disaster: Day of Crisis

Tingle's Rose-Colored Rupee Land

Fatal Frame 4

Captain Rainbow

Another Code: R

Soma Bringer

Archaic Sealed Heat

Zangeki no Reginleiv

Xenoblade

Hotel Dusk 2: Room 215

The Last Story

Pandora's Tower

Guess what all these games have in common!

It's baffling. This is 2011. There are avenues for releasing smaller games that might not be blockbusters or are very niche. Maybe if there was a constant glut of games on Wii or DS at all times I could understand, but both of those platforms went through extended periods of drought (especially the Wii). Any first or second party game that could help, would help.

Great.  Games that I actually would play on my Wii. 

I'm glad to see Nintendo still cares about its fans... :/

fuck you nintendo, thanks for trolling

Nintendo could very well be the worst publishers ever. Huge release dates over regions, some places get games, other don't. Christ, even games like SMG aren't released at the same time. Pathetic.

But by my completely flawed logic and no knowledge of the industry, that just means those developers and games should not happen because they're selling better everywhere else compared to japan. What am I missing?  Video game king, I ask you to look at sales of these kinds of games in japan. Look up any jrpg and compare sales numbers, they do exceedingly better in the west in volume of sales. In the case of xenoblade specifically, it's going to be in english dubbed for europe. How much does it cost to bring here then? I think a lot of these "cost" scenarios we hear sound exceedingly far fetched.

If you don't think increasing sales by 300% for hiring some voice actors and translating some text is worth it, regardless of overall sales, there is no arguing with you. You're as bad as nintendo. 4 x crap might well be crap $, but if it costs 10% of the money it took to develop the game, I'm waiting to hear how it's bad.

I can see how they're afraid that they would ship too many and there's not enough demand which leads to large numbers of unsold copies but seriously come on, these are the consumers they need to support that supports their system.

I love this.
 
Nintendo fans are asking, "PLEASE sell us your games!" Nintendo more or less says, "No."
 
Great logic. My Wii is a paperweight at this point. It plays Netflix on occasion. . . it sits in the spare bedroom. Collecting dust. What a waste.

Nintendo needs to realise how they treat their customers now will be reflected in the next generation, i havent got a wii anymore but if my short term experience with the 3DS is anything to go by, I'M OUT(dragons den)

This is actually disgusting....taking great games and never releasing them across the US and Europe....christ this is like Nintendo 15 years ago. There's no excuse at all these days for this type of crap. It's not like they'll be hemorrhaging money with 3 or more game releases, most of the games on the Wii are shit and hardly sell anyway, what have they got to lose? Lazy pricks....well lets face it, the 3DS and the WiiU were released to make up for the Wii's dying sales. I'm really disliking Nintendo as of late...

Silly consumers, Nintendo tells you what you want, you don't ask for it!

Correction to the article -

Not sure regarding Pandora's Tower, but both The Last Story and Xenoblade already released in Japan to good reviews (38/40 and 36/40 on Famitsu, respectively).

i like how game felt it necessary to tweet to make sure people know that were getting it in the uk and not america XP

Not enough brown, too unrealistic.

Fans: Shut up and take my money!
Nintendo: No, buy a 3DS instead, come on.
 
Finally it pays of to be european, but man I'm still angry at Nintendo for not releasing Mother 3 anywhere but Japan.
WHY DO YOU DO THIS NINTENDO?

Operation Rainfall

I am sure those kinds of games don't sell that well in the states... so...

Well, nintendo decided not to lose tons of money by releasing all these games in the dead wii disc market here, so rabid fans shut it!

Well... i guess i'll have to import these titles then... well, i'll check to see if the wii is region lock... and if so, find a way around, then import a few of these titles.

And this is why I'm tired of nintendo people telling me "nah, the Wii's alright! And hey, it's Nintendo, what can they do wrong?" This is exactly what. They are driving the platform into the ground all on their own.

WHEN YOUR GAME CONSOLE HAS NO GAMES, PEOPLE DON'T PLAY THEM, NINTENDO.

I am sure those kinds of games don't sell that well in the states... so...

Seeing how 'The Last Story' is kind of a console seller for me personally (as in I might get a Wii U at release to play it), I can't quite grasp their reluctance. Even if they'd see little gains from doing a proper port, it'd still be the right thing to do for the few who care.
 
Then again, I'm living in Europe and apparently Nintendo Europe will publish these games in the European territories - lucky me RPGs are big in Europe. Now I'll just have to snag me one of them Wii U consoles.
 
Hey - maybe they want to publish HD versions of these games at the release of the Wii U and want these games to be fresh and viable when the console hits next year. That'd be nice!

Nintendo should bring these types of games over to other places besides Japan. They will sell well and they have the resources to do it.

Guys come on, I mean the localization between British-English and American-English would just take forever. Nintendo of America doesn't have the money or the manpower to take on such a task. I mean it's not like they could just release it without localizing it. That would just be crazy.

Oh and on side note. Sega totally did this with Yakuza 3, but that actually released the game.

Then again, I'm living in Europe and apparently Nintendo Europe will publish these games in the European territories - lucky me RPGs are big in Europe.

Nintendo is so full of shit with their supposed caring for the "core" (fuck you) userbase.

@Seppli said:

Then again, I'm living in Europe and apparently Nintendo Europe will publish these games in the European territories - lucky me RPGs are big in Europe.

As far as I know only Xenoblade has been confirmed for Europe.

May I humbly request a 'shoop of Reggie's head on Never Girl? It can be the afro, I'm not picky.

Alex was good to mention the potential for hope/backpedaling, but I don't expect Nintendo is likely to "pull an Atlus" on this. Remember Catherine was briefly declared NOT coming for North America, and then they're all 'psyche!! you still love us right? dawwww.'

Anyway, my UK copy of Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland still proves NOA won't just throw money unless they expect to see some profit. Maybe they're planning to finally put Quest 64 on Virtual Console? /chokesonvomit

@Icemael said:

@Seppli said:

Then again, I'm living in Europe and apparently Nintendo Europe will publish these games in the European territories - lucky me RPGs are big in Europe.

As far as I know only Xenoblade has been confirmed for Europe.

Let's hope then Nintendo's only holding back for HD versions at Wii Us release day.

lol Nintendo, you so silly

I guess i'm going to have to learn Japanese and start importing these games, I find it sad that game companies like to think there is no market for good Japanese games in america. I mean look at the huge popularity of FF7 and the fanbase it gained here. That's proof enough that a good game has a market anywhere. I'm tired of being drenched in poor first person shooters and lackluster role playing games. :(

Sad and disappointing news. Oh well, less Nintendo games to look forward to.

What I don't understand is why Nintendo is responsible for publishing other companies games? Just because it's their system doesn't mean they have the time/resources to go around translating and voicing everybody else's games. I'd rather they focus on getting me some Layton as fast as possible.

Also this desire for the 'core gamer' doesn't mean spending time on resources on games that I can promise you wouldn't sell more than 100k copies. That just wouldn't be responsible for them.

What I recommend is trying to hit up companies like Atlus, who actually have a history of doing exactly what you want Nintendo to do, because they have the know how and resources to do it.

Nintendo: Fuck what the fans want, here is some more Mario!

cue "sad trombone"...

Welp, another reason for me to not buy a Wii.

'We want the core gamer back. You want Xenoblade? No, not that core gamer. We want some of those CoDbucks'

@zoner said:

'We want the core gamer back. You want Xenoblade? No, not that core gamer. We want some of those CoDbucks'

in fairness, nobody wants to hang out with the type of guy who is into xenoblade

Nintendo's profits are in the hardware. Why fall for the idea of building up a "core" with the long-time fans when they've made SO MUCH MONEY by only focussing on selling their platforms to the casuals, and are trying to sell them and you two new platforms? 
Releasing one Mario and one Zelda is plenty to get the nostalgic "hardcore" to invest in their console, and that jobs was done years ago. Wii owners will get one last Zelda game, and that is all.
"See ya later. Buy our next console 'cause there's some hope of maybe playing good games on it possibly. Did we mention that It also has "Nintendo" printed on it somewhere!? You better grab a 3DS and Wii U before we lock them up in Walt Disney's vault."
 
I agree with the people who think Xenoblade would probably sell well enough here to invest in shipping it. But, again, they want to sell you the next console, not the one you already ponied up for. Just buy a Wii U and play the new Mario and the latest Zelda port while praying for something unexpected (like an interesting new title on a Nintendo platform). 
 
/earned cynicism

The only thing more annoying than Nintendo's desire not to release these games in the USA, are the trolls who come into these topics with comments about how they won't buy a Wii because of this (even though, they never plan on getting one in the first place).

I guess the Wii stays turned off for a little while longer then.  So remind me what the point of buying a WiiU is if they aren't going to have any hardcore games that the PS3 or 360 doesn't have?  You have basically made a device that is probably too expensive for most casual gamers and yet you constantly go out of your way to alienate core gamers.

loltendo and their fanboys...good for a story.

@DrRandle said:

What I don't understand is why Nintendo is responsible for publishing other companies games? Just because it's their system doesn't mean they have the time/resources to go around translating and voicing everybody else's games. I'd rather they focus on getting me some Layton as fast as possible..

These are Nintendo's games. Nintendo owns these IPs and funded their development.

Hell, Monolithsoft, the maker of Xenoblade? Nintendo wholly bought them up years ago. Xenoblade is technically a 1st party Nintendo game.

Also it's ironic you mention Layton, since Layton is Level 5's IP, not Nintendo's, and Level 5 is going to be publishing them from now on, not Nintendo.

Let Atlus, Xseed, Ignition, or one of the many other localization publishers take them.

Project Rainfail.