>
JUNE 29, 2011
NINTENDO IGNORES FANS PLEAS
Despite numerous overtures from fans, Nintendo of America (NOA) announced today they still have no plans to release three sought after Japan-only games in the West.
“We promised an update, so here it is,” NOA announced on its official Facebook page. “We never say ‘never,’ but we can confirm that there are no plans to bring these three games (Xenoblade aka Monado, The Last Story, Pandora’s Tower) to the Americas at this time.”
With this update, Nintendo still has not announced release dates for any first-party 2011 games for the “hardcore” crowd, a demographic they sought to capture at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The WiiU console – successor to the Wii – was their main focus at the conference, in lieu of titles for their current home console. The WiiU may arrive next year, but also has no release date or games with release dates.
Fans of Xenoblade, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower had taken their impassioned pleas to Nintendo directly through a social media campaign known as Operation Rainfall (who also managed to push Xenoblade to the top of Amazon’s pre-order charts days earlier). Quickly going viral, the effort spread across the internet to various message boards and gaming web sites. However, Nintendo has thus far refused to provide a more in-depth response on Rainfall’s efforts to those sites.
“Nintendo has not responded to IGN’s requests for comments from, or a brief interview with, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime,” said IGN Nintendo Editor Rich George.
Nintendo’s response – or lack thereof – did not deter Rainfall supporters, who still have a letter-writing campaign scheduled for July. However, the final line of the company’s response – “Thanks so much for your passion, and for being such great fans.” – did not sit well with many online posters.
“The bottom line is if the games are not released, how are we supposed to take their E3 comments about a ‘commitment to the core gamer’ seriously?”
JUNE 29, 2011
OPERATION RAINFALL’S REPLY
“We never say never.”
So said Nintendo earlier tonight, in a reply to Operation Rainfall that simultaneously applauded our efforts while also informing us that they may likely be in vain.
Fortunately, we never say “never,” either. This effort has grown beyond any of us, touching gamers across the world. That’s how a relatively unknown Amazon page, displaying a little-known title, was pushed to the top of the largest internet retailer’s pre-order list in a matter of days. We’ve been able to speak in one clear voice to Nintendo, only asking them to provide us with the type of content we expected when we originally purchased our Wii consoles. Thus far, they have respectfully denied our requests, which is why we must respectfully continue to tell them that their answer isn’t acceptable.
The letter writing campaign remains ready. If you haven’t copied a template below and printed it out, please do so if you have any desire for a deep, engaging game (or three). New ideas are being created all the time for Operation Rainfall, many of them coming directly from strangers who we had never crossed paths with. This is all your work; it has been an ever-shifting, ever-changing, ever-rewarding experience.
And it’s not over yet.
