Operation Rainfall

Operation Rainfall
Operation Rainfall Logo
Logo for Operation Rainfall

Operation Rainfall (操作の降雨 Sōsa no Kōu?, literally Rainfall of Operating) is a fan campaign meant to persuade Nintendo of America (NOA) to localize three role-playing video games for the Wii console: Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower. It was launched on June 23, 2011 and is currently ongoing.

Contents

Background

Xenoblade Chronicles was developed by Monolith Soft (makers of Xenogears, and the Xenosaga series) and released in Japan on June 10, 2010, and in Europe on August 19, 2011. The Last Story was developed by Mistwalker and AQ Interactive and was published in Japan on January 27, 2011. Pandora's Tower was developed by Ganbarion and released in Japan in May 26, 2011. Although a European localization of Xenoblade Chronicles was released in August 2011,[1] and localizations of The Last Story and Pandora's Tower have been announced for 2012,[2] none of the three games are currently planned for release in North America.

On June 23, 2011, Mathieu Minel, the marketing manager of Nintendo France, stated that Nintendo of Europe wanted to show Xenoblade Chronicles at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo, but that "Nintendo of America wouldn't let them because they didn't want to show products they aren't planning to sell."[3] Minel's departure from Nintendo was announced 11 days later.[4] In response, fans of role-playing video games on the IGN message boards, specifically the Nintendo Wii Lobby, started a campaign the next day, dubbed "Operation Rainfall", in the hopes of persuading Nintendo of America to localize Xenoblade Chronicles, along with The Last Story and Pandora's Tower.[5][6] The main organizers of the campaign do not exclude supporting other titles for North American localizations, but are currently focusing on those three.[7]

Concept

The campaign is subdivided into three distinct campaigns, one for each game, all with their own periods; only the Xenoblade Chronicles campaign has currently started. This part includes sending as many physical letters and e-mails as well as giving as many phone calls to Nintendo of America's headquarters as possible, in addition to posting messages on the branch's Facebook and Twitter accounts, requesting for a North American release of the game. It also involves pre-ordering the game on the retail website Amazon.com, which has a placeholder entry for the game under its development name Monado: Beginning of the World, in order to show Nintendo the commercial appeal of the game's release.[5][6] On June 25, 2011, the game reached #1 in Amazon.com's Top 100 game sales, #1 in all Wii game sales and #1 in Wii action game sales.[8]

Coverage

“ As this all stands now, Operation Rainfall is already one of the most interesting and unique fan-fueled release campaigns ever put together. There have been groups of diehard supporters for particular Nintendo titles or series sequels in the past who have organized similar efforts, hoping to catch NOA's attention. They've rarely met with success. This one, though, has that one key thing that none of the rest of them ever did – cold hard cash. ”

—Lucas M. Thomas, IGN[8]

Operation Rainfall has been covered by Kotaku,[5] IGN,[9] Eurogamer,[10] Joystiq,[11] Game Informer,[12] Destructoid,[13] and the Japanese gaming site Inside.[14] In addition, video game designer Soraya Saga, who is married to Xenoblade Chronicles creator Tetsuya Takahashi, and Mistwalker have responded favorably to the campaign.[15][16]

Nintendo of America themselves has taken notice of the project, stating, "Hey fans, we appreciate your enthusiasm. Look for more updates to come soon."[17] On June 29, 2011 Nintendo of America confirmed on their Facebook page that "there are no plans to bring these three games to the Americas at this time."[18][19][20] Despite this, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has commented on the European launch of Xenoblade, "We will be watching very closely what happens in Europe...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."[21]

Legacy

The concept of Operation Rainfall has led to Operation Moonfall (supporting the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask being re-made on the Nintendo 3DS).[22]

References

  1. ^ "Xenoblade Chronicles". Nintendo of Europe. April 1, 2011. http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/wii/xenoblade_chronicles_32583.html. Retrieved June 25, 2011. 
  2. ^ "Nintendo announces packed 2011 line-up of upcoming games". Nintendo of Europe. August 17, 2011. http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/news/2011/nintendo_announces_packed_2011_line-up_of_upcoming_games_44323.html. Retrieved October 24, 2011. 
  3. ^ Ronaghan, Neal (June 23, 2011). "Xenoblade Chronicles Not Coming to North America". Nintendo World Report. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/26928. Retrieved June 25, 2011. 
  4. ^ "Jeux Vidéo : un départ chez Nintendo". Boursier. July 4, 2011. http://www.boursier.com/actualites/news/jeux-video-un-depart-chez-nintendo-441097.html. Retrieved July 5, 2011. 
  5. ^ a b c McWhertor, Michael (June 24, 2011). "How Badly Do You Want The Last Story, Pandora's Tower and Xenoblade for Wii?". Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5815447/how-badly-do-you-want-the-last-story-pandoras-tower-and-xenoblade-for-wii. Retrieved June 25, 2011. 
  6. ^ a b themightyme (June 22, 2011). "xenoblade, the last story, pandora's tower mail campaign for localization". IGN. p. 1. http://boards.ign.com/nintendo_wii_lobby/b8270/203345328/p1. Retrieved June 25, 2011. 
  7. ^ "@Osaka_san we almost certa ...". Operation Rainfall. June 24, 2011. http://twitter.com/#!/OpRainfall/status/84185537161863168. Retrieved June 25, 2011. 
  8. ^ a b Thomas, Lucas M. (June 26, 2011). "United Nintendo Fans Push "Monado" to Amazon's #1 Bestseller". IGN. http://wii.ign.com/articles/117/1179129p1.html. Retrieved June 26, 2011. 
  9. ^ George, Richard (June 25, 2011). "Nintendo Fans Campaign for Missing Wii Games". IGN. http://wii.ign.com/articles/117/1179120p1.html. Retrieved June 25, 2011. 
  10. ^ Dutton, Fred (June 24, 2011). "Fans spam Nintendo for Last Story release - Article". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-06-24-fans-spam-nintendo-for-last-story-release-article. Retrieved June 25, 2011. 
  11. ^ Fletcher, JC (June 27, 2011). "'Operation Rainfall' campaign seeks localization of Wii RPGs". Joystiq. http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/27/operation-rainfall-campaign-seeks-localization-of-wii-rpgs/. Retrieved Jul 11th 2011. 
  12. ^ Kollar, Phil (June 25, 2011). "Join The Fight To Bring Some Good RPGs To The Wii". Game Informer. http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/06/25/join-the-fight-to-bring-some-good-rpgs-to-the-wii.aspx. Retrieved June 25, 2011. 
  13. ^ Holmes, Jonathan (June 26, 2011). "Fans bring Xenoblade to #1 on Amazon, internet goes wild". Destructoid. http://www.destructoid.com/fans-bring-xenoblade-to-1-on-amazon-internet-goes-wild-204642.phtml. Retrieved June 26, 2011. 
  14. ^ nat (June 27, 2011). "北米でも発売してくれ！海外版『ゼノブレイド』発売未定にも関わらず米アマゾンのNo.1ベストセラーに". Inside. http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2011/06/27/49964.html. Retrieved June 27, 2011. [dead link]
  15. ^ Saga, Soraya (June 24, 2011). "Thanks a lot for hoping it ...". http://twitter.com/#!/sorayasaga/status/84328639444942850. Retrieved June 25, 2011. 
  16. ^ "@shomangaka Thank you for ...". Mistwalker. June 25, 2011. http://twitter.com/#!/mistwalker/status/84462555216617472. Retrieved June 25, 2011. 
  17. ^ "Nintendo of America Take Notice Of Xenoblade Chronicles Fan Campaign". Siliconera. June 26, 2011. http://www.siliconera.com/2011/06/26/nintendo-of-america-take-notice-of-xenoblade-chronicles-fan-campaign/. Retrieved July 07, 2011. 
  18. ^ "Here’s Nintendo of America’s Response To Operation Rainfall". Siliconera. June 29, 2011. http://www.siliconera.com/2011/06/29/heres-nintendo-of-americas-response-to-operation-rainfall/. Retrieved July 07, 2011. 
  19. ^ Jones, James (June 29, 2011). "'No Plans' to Release Xenoblade, Last Story, Pandora's Tower in North America". Nintendo World Report. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/27029. Retrieved 2011-07-11. 
  20. ^ "Thank you for your...". Nintendo of America. June 29, 2011. http://www.facebook.com/Nintendo/posts/126089684142160. Retrieved July, 11 2011. 
  21. ^ Reggie: NOA 'watching' Xenoblade performance in Europe | Joystiq
  22. ^ "Operation Moonfall - Bringing Majora's Mask to 3DS". July 25, 2011. http://www.zeldauniverse.net/zelda-news/operation-moonfall-bringing-majoras-mask-to-3ds/. Retrieved August 2, 2011. 

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