Archive: Pitching Pandora’s Tower

UPDATE: Pandora’s Tower has been announced for North America, published by XSEED Games, and scheduled to be released Spring 2013!

The information below is being kept as an archive. For up-to-date resolution status for those looking forward to receiving a collector’s case, please visit this page.

When the campaign now known as “Operation Rainfall” got its start after E3 2011, little did we know things would have progressed in the manner that they did. What began with Nintendo’s retort of “No plans… at this time” eventually grew into a December announcement that Xenoblade Chronicles would be released in 2012, and a few months later, the announcement that XSEED Games would be publishing The Last Story, set to launch this summer.

As they say, “Two-out-of-three ain’t bad, right?” No, it isn’t. Two amazing games that have been heaped with critical acclaim are either already out or coming our very soon. But, when we started this campaign, we made a commitment to see all three games localized, and we will stand by that commitment until we’ve tried every technique we can think of to see Pandora’s Tower published in America*.

Just this week we finally received our shipment of five new copies of Pandora’s Tower that we plan to showcase to several different U.S. publishers with the intention of finding a willing party to approach Nintendo of America to obtain publishing rights in America. Our plan is to assemble a package containing themed items from the game and promotional materials, as well as the Limited Edition of the game, and then proceed to demonstrate the game to them with a console that we’ll be bringing along. (To see the full details of our plan to pitch the game to publishers, please see our original article).

At the same time, our staff also acquired our own copy of the game separate from the pitch package, solely for the purpose of answering the question: Is Pandora’s Tower really worth it? Of course, the short answer is an emphatic “YES!” but we’ll get to the specifics later.

Now that we’ve purchased a copy of the game and have played it ourselves, we would like to present to our readers a fascinating look into the world of Pandora’s Tower with a multi-part series showcasing the game itself, along with commentary provided by Operation Rainfall staff. The first part of the series will be showcasing the Limited Edition itself, along with all of the contents, and a brief look at the game’s opening moments. The next few parts will showcase the 12 towers themselves, as well as a few short segments highlighting the game’s relationship system, where Aeron must develop a relationship with Elena. We will cap off the gameplay highlights with a part the recaps the game’s important moments and unique features. Finally, we will conclude the series with a brief look as our staff actually makes the pitch to various publishers, with highlights from emails, phone calls, meetings, interviews, photos, and maybe even a bit of video footage while we attempt this bold, never-before-seen mission to find a publisher for Pandora’s Tower.

Pandora’s Tower is a beautifully crafted game with a tremendous sense of style, fantastic memorable battles and an emotional relationship system. We look forward with much eagerness to presenting this series starting within the next week, and we hope you are just as eager to follow us in our crazy escapade. Our goal is simple: to see Pandora’s Tower released in America, whether physical, limited release, or even released digitally via Wii U. All we ask is to see this unique game, which has already been translated and localized, running on American consoles.

* For the purpose of this article, “America” refers to the NTSC-U region of consoles sold in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and most countries of Latin and South America.

PLEASE NOTE:
Pitching a game to publishers requires a lot of planning, forethought, expense, and facing a lot of rejection. The old ways of writing a petition and leaving spam on publishers social media pages and forums do not help when trying to build a solid reputation with publishers. We ask that our followers please refrain from this activity while we attempt to promote Pandora’s Tower. Do not harass publishers to seek information. Also, because each of these publishers is running a business, the nature of any meetings as well as the final outcome will be kept private. As Operation Rainfall started off as a fan-run campaign, this may be a difficult concept to grasp, but something that is critical to maintaining a business relationship. Most of these publishers already have set agendas and release schedules that have been booked months or even years in advance. Due to these reasons, as well as many more that may or may not be disclosed, we cannot share the results of our meetings. Some of the publishers may choose to make a statement themselves, but it is not our place to do so. Finally, Operation Rainfall does not own any rights to the game at all. We are simply demonstrating the appeal of the game and making assurance that there is an audience that will buy it, and we will assist with promotion. It is up to the individual publishers to contact Nintendo, and ultimately up to Nintendo to decide whether or not the title will be published. Even if a publisher wishes to publish the game, Nintendo could still refuse to grant publishing license. There are many factors to consider, and in the end, there is still the possiblity that no one will be able to publish the title. These are the risks we face, and we hope you are all understanding of this concept going into this massive project.