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

Perhaps you are already aware of Operation Rainfall. If not, a brief overview.

Nintendo currently doesn't have much on its plate as far as upcoming Wii releases go. In fact, apart from Skyward Sword, Kirby, and Rhythm Heaven, it's safe to say that Nintendo has almost nothing on its plate as far as Wii releases go, leaving some Wii owners wondering when they may have another opportunity to dust off their little white boxes and play some damn games.

But wait, new contenders have entered the field!

As it happens, Nintendo has a trio of exclusive RPGs all currently set for Japanese release: Monolith's Xenoblade Chronicles, Mistwalker'sThe Last Story, and Ganbarion'sPandora's Tower. Xenoblade and The Last Story are both set for European release as well, meaning that at some point, someone's going to have to translate those games into the English language. However, as of this past E3, Nintendo had made it clear that it had no intention of selling any of these games in North America.

This has led a group of concerned Nintendizens to take up a campaign (the aforementioned Operation Rainfall) to convince Nintendo to release any and/or all of these titles here, to help ensure that North American Wii owners would not be left wanting. Letters were written, YouTube videos were made, Facebook pages were created, and eventually, Nintendo took notice, promising an update in the near future on the requested titles.

That update came last night, and, uh... well, why don't you just read for yourself?

"Thank you for your enthusiasm. We promised an update, so here it is. We never say “never,” but we can confirm that there are no plans to bring these three games to the Americas at this time. Thanks so much for your passion, and for being such great fans!"

In other words, "Nope! Run along now!"

While this statement does leave a slight sliver of hope that Nintendo might change its mind somewhere down the road, as it has in the past with other products it originally had "no plans" to release in North America (the black Wii, anyone?), the announcement is nonetheless discouraging for Wii fans who have been aching for some new, interesting games to play on their console of choice. Evidently the Operation Rainfall campaign will continue, but at this point it all seems rather moot. Nintendo knows people are interested. If they're gonna announce these games for North American release, they will choose to do so in their own sweet time. When has Nintendo ever done any differently?

In the meantime, feel free to take solace in the few Wii releases that are coming up in the next few months. I know I plan to run out and pre-order the Wii-exclusive Smurfs Dance Party as soon as I finish typing this sentence.

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

Project Rainfail.

Kinda sucks that it's not coming to north america but I don't really see alot of success of them comming here, maybe if the sales go up in Europe Nintendo will change their minds.

Awww....

I really don't understand this. 
 
Why let the Wii wither on the critical vine?

Shame these games look cool. But i sold my wii a long time ago

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

God damn it, Nintendo... all I really want is some great RPG's for my Wii.  Just a few, please.  If I could play them with a Classic or Gamecube controller, so much the better, but at this point I'll even play it with your damned Wii remote.  Just... come on.

Unfortunate. Who is going to fulfill all those Xenoblade preorders on Amazon now? Oh well. If you want it so bad, import it.

Not to mention - part of the thing with Operation Rainfall is pre-ordering the fucking game on Amazon. In other words, they are backing their words with money. Nintendo, in a move that's bizarre for any company, publicly traded or otherwise, is turning around and walking away from that money. What kind of company turns around and walks away from relatively easy money?

I still haven't come to terms with the fact that Mother 3 will probably never get an official English release =(

Glad to see some coverage on Giant Bomb about this issue. I've been playing Xenoblade for about a week now and it's really a shame it's not coming out in North America. If anything it showed that a group of people were trying to do the right thing and play this game for their respective region, but now all this does is encourage thousands of Wii owners to mod their consoles.

@BeachThunder said:

I still haven't come to terms with the fact that Mother 3 will probably never get an official English release =(

The sad part is that Atlus practically begged Nintendo to let them do it

Why release it now when they can make it A HIT RELEASE OF A JAPANESE CLASSIC FOR THE Wii U?

haha oh Nintendo; i've read your book etc..

Not to mention - part of the thing with Operation Rainfall is pre-ordering the fucking game on Amazon. In other words, they are backing their words with money. Nintendo, in a move that's bizarre for any company, publicly traded or otherwise, is turning around and walking away from that money. What kind of company turns around and walks away from relatively easy money?

@Slaker117 said:

@Count_Zero said:

Not to mention - part of the thing with Operation Rainfall is pre-ordering the fucking game on Amazon. In other words, they are backing their words with money. Nintendo, in a move that's bizarre for any company, publicly traded or otherwise, is turning around and walking away from that money. What kind of company turns around and walks away from relatively easy money?

While putting money on the table is a good way to show you're serious, I'm sure Nintendo has spreadsheets to show it just isn't worth it. It's unfortunate, but that's business.

But there are other companies that are willing to do it for them. The English is already done. They would only benefit.

@zoner said:

@BeachThunder said:

I still haven't come to terms with the fact that Mother 3 will probably never get an official English release =(

The sad part is that Atlus practically begged Nintendo to let them do it

Really? If so I love Atlus more than I already do.

@BeachThunder said:

I still haven't come to terms with the fact that Mother 3 will probably never get an official English release =(

The sad part is that Atlus practically begged Nintendo to let them do it

Nintendo sucks.

Really, they do.

Remember when Nintendo was awesome?

Wow this made me realize I haven't played an actual RPG on the Wii... jesus the Wii sucks. I would love these to be released in the US, it would give me an actual use to play my Wii.

It sucks, but at least there are English version of those games coming so just import, that's what us Europeans had to do back in the 90s with the RPGs on the SNES and some PS1 games :)

Wow, yeah! It just kind of hit me the emptiness that is Nintendo's Fall '11, and the hype that I would have if any or all of these 3 were coming out this year here! If they want the core, look no further big N, Hello!!

@PolygonSlayer said:

It sucks, but at least there are English version of those games coming so just import, that's what us Europeans had to do back in the 90s with the RPGs on the SNES and some PS1 games :)

It was bullshit then; it's bullshit now.

It amazes me that Nintendo of America doesn't want our money. We demand good games and get a "lol no" in return? Ridiculous.

So they're already jumping ship for the Wii U? How do they expect people to buy the Wii U if they are showing they don't give a shit about their previous console?

And this is why i don't own a Wii yet and never will, these 3 games are the reason i want a Wii.

They don't have to do english voice-overs, sub them and translate the text into english, what would that cost them? next to nothing, what do they have to lose? nothing, wii made a bajillion dollars

Publishers like Atlus and XSeed are proof that games like these can be localized at a profit. Instead of satisfying their fans -- or handing these games off to one of those companies so they can be localized, letting Westerners play these games -- Nintendo instead prefers to lock this content down and withholding it from people who want to play it.

And Nintendo wonders why they have such trouble connecting to the "core". :|

Nintendo of America has been making stupid decisions for years.

They're really high on that casual gamer dollar, and are completely ignorant that those people have likely moved on to the apple devices, where the casual games are just as crappy as they were on the wii, but they're only $1.

Nintendo would be smart to take these titles as an investment in their core market, keeping them interested in the platform and keeping nintendo on their mind until WiiU comes out.

Not localizing these games also has the negative effect that those who want them are going to import/mod, and modding your wii for importing is basically the same as modding your wii for piracy - who knows how many will be lead down that route because of nintendo's refusal to publish already localized, fan-demanded games..

It's no worse than Namco and their reluctance to release 2/3's of their Tales series in Europe, or at the very least a year or two later.

Of all the potential outcomes from this I wouldn't have expected a smug nah from Nintendo.

Is the wii region locked? I always thought Nintendo was notorious for doing region locks on their consoles.

This doesn't seem like such a big deal.. The Wii is very easy to mod and the game is being released in English in the UK and other European countries. Import the game and prove that there is a big enough audience for this type of thing.

Considering it's already being translated though, I really don't understand why they wouldn't just release it in the US, even if it were a limited thing.

Is the wii region locked? I always thought Nintendo was notorious for doing region locks on their consoles.

Could tell it was Alex by the title.

@TheHT said:

Of all the potential outcomes from this I wouldn't have expected a smug nah from Nintendo.

I'm guessing you really haven't been paying attention to Nintendo of America these past few years then.

I might as well say it: hey, remember the last time an interesting Japan only Wii exclusive (eventually) got an American release? Remember how everybody just fucking loved it, and it sold more copies than the Wii itself? Exactly. I don't see any hope of these games coming out.

Looks like Nintendo have finally joined everyone else by being bored on Nintendo.

Madness. 

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

@PresidentOfJellybeans said:

Could tell it was Alex by the title.

You can always tell it's Alex by the title.

Anywho, this sucks. I don't even own a Wii and I'm kind of bummed about this. The Last Story looks kind of cool, and that's from someone who doesn't like playing JRPGs these days.

This news is a bummer for sure. But the people losing their shit on GAF and various other gaming sites need to get a grip.

Expected it to end this way. This whole thing accomplished as much as any online petition would have. That is, nothing.

In this console generation, the JRPG is the one genre where the Wii could have gained an advantage over the PS3 and Xbox 360. They are sorely lacking on those platforms. So what does Nintendo of America do? They squander it. Really disappointing, Reggie. Also, I applaud Operation Rainfall for its efforts.

I might as well say it: hey, remember the last time an interesting Japan only Wii exclusive (eventually) got an American release? Remember how everybody just fucking loved it, and it sold more copies than the Wii itself? Exactly. I don't see any hope of these games coming out.

This just seems like a real bad move on Nintendo's part.  Also, I sort of hope that Operation Rainfall doesn't give up.  I know that it probably won't accomplish anything, but, if they could continue to stress to Nintendo "You guys are making a huge mistake" who knows, they might actually learn something from all of this.  That or they'll lose a lot of initial support for the Wii U.

I'm tired of having to polish their turds