[QUOTE=Allan Holdsworth]I doubt it takes over 10,000 sales to make a profit on a localization, which is already in English (they only have to partially modify it from British English to North American; voice acting has never been a priority for Nintendo) and which they won't advertise much...[/QUOTE]I don't know why this 10k number keeps popping up, but there's no way that it can be true.

It's not as easy/cheap as you are making it out to be.

NoA has a policy against using NoE localizations. As far as NoA is concerned, they have to localize it all over again.

The ESRB has to rate it, which is not cheap.

They have to certify the game all over again.

And down the line it goes...

[QUOTE=Tron 2.0]I don't know why this 10k number keeps popping up, but there's no way that it can be true.

It's not as easy/cheap as you are making it out to be.

NoA has a policy against using NoE localizations. As far as NoA is concerned, they have to localize it all over again.

The ESRB has to rate it, which is not cheap.

They have to certify the game all over again.

And down the line it goes...[/QUOTE]
They should get rid of that policy then. It's only hurting them.

What happened to this Reggie?
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUTl1vEG62Q[/url]

[QUOTE=Tron 2.0]I don't know why this 10k number keeps popping up, but there's no way that it can be true.

It's not as easy/cheap as you are making it out to be.
[B]
NoA has a policy against using NoE localizations.[/B] As far as NoA is concerned, they have to localize it all over again.

The ESRB has to rate it, which is not cheap.

They have to certify the game all over again.

And down the line it goes...[/QUOTE]

How do you know this?

Can't hurt. Added 'em.

It'd actually be pretty badass to see whether these two games would take the top spot from COD...

Alright, added both to my wishlist.

Also, that picture of Amazon's front page will be my desktop wallpaper forever.

Other than Monado/The Last Story/Pandora's Tower, it seems like the only other ones you can add to your wishlist are indeed Disaster: Day of Crisis, Super Robot Taisen: OG Saga Endless Frontier Exceed and...Xenosaga I&II.

Take that how you want it. It seems like even the importers know we want Monolith games. It's a shame Another Code and Last Window aren't up for Wishing either.

[QUOTE=Bel Marduk]How do you know this?[/QUOTE]
It can be deduced from their general track record, or possibly a policy of NoE only localizing NoA skipped titles that they never go back to. Just speculating though, but it seems they at least have a de facto policy against using them.

[QUOTE=Phoenix_Apollo]Other than Monado/The Last Story/Pandora's Tower, it seems like the only other ones you can add to your wishlist are indeed Disaster: Day of Crisis, Super Robot Taisen: OG Saga Endless Frontier Exceed and...Xenosaga I&II.

Take that how you want it. It seems like even the importers know we want Monolith games. It's a shame Another Code and Last Window aren't up for Wishing either.[/QUOTE]
They are there, but are under their Japanese names.

[URL="http://www.amazon.com/Last-Window-Mayonaka-Yakusoku-Nintendo-DS/dp/B002WRGK1W/ref=sr_1_3?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1309072838&sr=1-3"]Last Window[/URL]

[URL="http://www.amazon.com/Another-Code-Kioku-Tobira-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001HBIPJY/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1309072911&sr=1-1"]Another Code: R[/URL]

[QUOTE=Big Papa Husker]They are there, but are under their Japanese names.

[URL="http://www.amazon.com/Last-Window-Mayonaka-Yakusoku-Nintendo-DS/dp/B002WRGK1W/ref=sr_1_3?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1309072838&sr=1-3"]Last Window[/URL]

[URL="http://www.amazon.com/Another-Code-Kioku-Tobira-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001HBIPJY/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1309072911&sr=1-1"]Another Code: R[/URL][/QUOTE]

Odd that those didn't come up when I searched "Last Window" and "Another Code"

Anyway, here's the target on Amazon we should be hitting next:

[IMG]http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk141/Phoenix_Apollo/Xenobladecampaign5.png[/IMG]

Currently, Monado/Xenoblade's not even in the top 100 of June's bestsellers. This needs to change for us to have any lasting effect. For the record, the pre orders do count, as Dark Souls is already on the list as it is.

[QUOTE=Bel Marduk]How do you know this?[/QUOTE]It's just something I was told. I can't point you to a website or story or anything.

This was about a year after the Wii launched. If someone knows whether it's been changed or not, by all means. I don't mind being wrong.

[QUOTE=Phoenix_Apollo]Currently, Monado/Xenoblade's not even in the top 100 of June's bestsellers. This needs to change for us to have any lasting effect. For the record, the pre orders do count, as Dark Souls is already on the list as it is.[/QUOTE]
Yeah but I think that list is updated weekly or something, so we'll have to wait a while to see where it ranks in the june bestsellers.

[QUOTE=Instro]Yeah but I think that list is updated weekly or something, so we'll have to wait a while to see where it ranks in the june bestsellers.[/QUOTE]

IC.

The current short-term goal right now is targeted for Monday -- when Reggie returns to his office, all the activity over Friday + the weekend needs to be addressed in a memo and on his desk.

Nintendo has a Nintendo and Wii youtube page. Maybe we should start commenting on there too.

http://www.youtube.com/nintendo
http://www.youtube.com/wii

[QUOTE=Luigiv]Suit yourself. The only thing I found to game to have going for it was the hilariously racist stereotype of Americans.[/QUOTE]
Honestly, if that was how EVERYONE in the WORLD saw Americans, I'd be okay with that. Have you ever seen a bad 90s action movie? I fucking love those, not because they're any good, they're mind numbingly bad, but they're still FUCKING AWESOME. Disaster looked FUCKING AWESOME. It didn't have to be good.

[QUOTE=Big Papa Husker]Nintendo has a Nintendo and Wii youtube page. Maybe we should start commenting on there too.

[url]http://www.youtube.com/nintendo[/url]
[url]http://www.youtube.com/wii[/url][/QUOTE]I cannot stress this enough:

Spamming Nintendo ad nauseam will do nothing for you. Commenting on a New Super Mario Bros Wii video about Xenoblade is not going to help your cause. You will be ignored.

[QUOTE=doomed1]Honestly, if that was how EVERYONE in the WORLD saw Americans, I'd be okay with that. Have you ever seen a bad 90s action movie? I fucking love those, not because they're any good, they're mind numbingly bad, but they're still FUCKING AWESOME. Disaster looked FUCKING AWESOME. It didn't have to be good.[/QUOTE]

This. Extremely and exactly this.

I love American stereotypes from foreign countries. They've yet to offend me in the slightest.

[QUOTE=Tron 2.0]I cannot stress this enough:

Spamming Nintendo ad nauseam will do nothing for you. Commenting on a New Super Mario Bros Wii video about Xenoblade is not going to help your cause. You will be ignored.[/QUOTE]
There is a comment field on their main youtube pages. Its not on a video.

That's probably only a small improvement at best.

[QUOTE=BocoDragon]Remember Electroplankton, a game Nintendo only sold through their online shop and Gamestop Canada? Niche as fuck. Couldn't have been hugely profitable... and yet it happened with a nice modest print run..[/QUOTE]

And Electroplankton was released as a normal game in Europe; I found it in Italy as well, quite strange considering the typology and the small potential.

[QUOTE=Tron 2.0]I don't know why this 10k number keeps popping up, but there's no way that it can be true.

It's not as easy/cheap as you are making it out to be.

NoA has a policy against using NoE localizations. As far as NoA is concerned, they have to localize it all over again.

The ESRB has to rate it, which is not cheap.

They have to certify the game all over again.

And down the line it goes...[/QUOTE]

I dunno, there are whole series that survive on 10k sales in Japan. And they have to recoup development costs etc. I can't image a localization being that expensive, especially when it's already in English (surely it takes less time to translate from British English than from Japanese?). But in any case, even if I'm wrong, Xenoblade and Last Story would sell 50k minimum. I'm sure they would profit from that, but obviously that kind of profit isn't worthwile to NoA.


Anyway, wishlisted Chibi Robo DS 2, Tingle 2 Captain Rainbow. Not going to do anything, but I was curious if there were there

[QUOTE=Big Papa Husker]There is a comment field on their main youtube pages. Its not on a video.[/QUOTE]Okay. The point is still kind of the same.

There's a fine line between having your message be viewed effectively and just spamming the shit out of them.

YouTube user MCSkatCat99 is meaningless to Nintendo and will be ignored. But if Bob Everyman wrote an actual letter to Nintendo, that's effective messaging.

EDIT: I'm not trying to be an asshole. You should do whatever you want and I hope the campaign is successful.

If he just leaves one comment, that's not spamming their page. Honestly I'd say to do it just once to get all of our bases covered.

[QUOTE=Allan Holdsworth]I dunno, there are whole series that survive on 10k sales in Japan...[/QUOTE]The Japanese market is so different from North America that I'm not sure how that's a valid argument.


[QUOTE=Phoenix_Apollo]If he just leaves one comment, that's not spamming their page. Honestly I'd say to do it just once to get all of our bases covered.[/QUOTE]Okay. But if he leaves the same message on their Facebook page, their Twitter account, etc, etc, that's spamming them and it's not effective. They can easily write it off as the ramblings of a tiny group of people.

This campaign seems based on the Save Our Show campaigns fans have when their favorite television show is in danger of being cancelled.

It's instructive to note that the last one that actually worked was Chuck. And that's because the fans went out and bought a lot of Subway sandwiches. They spent actual money. That's why the Amazon pre-order thing is a good idea.

Sending physical letters to Nintendo HQ is a good idea too. I don't think sending things in with the letter (book pages, swords, monkey feces) is a good idea, though.

[QUOTE=Tron 2.0]The Japanese market is so different from North America that I'm not sure how that's a valid argument.[/QUOTE]
I wonder sometimes if we'd overall be better off if we were paying more. Yeah, we all like to save money when possible, and I really wouldn't want to pay Japanese prices on a lot of games out there, but for those I really want? Especially if it's the difference between whether or not we get them? Makes me kinda wish Sony weren't as aggressive as they were with PS1 pricing.

I think I recall NoA saying they do their own localizations. I think that was the case with Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin [in comparison to NoE].

Treehouse is pretty good at what they do, so Xenoblade with their work would be great, even if it takes a bit longer (I sincerely doubt we'll just get NoE's localization, TBH). Strangely, Treehouse has no Wikipedia page.

[QUOTE=Luigiv]Disaster is horrid. Just be glad NoA never gave you the opportunity to waste your money on that shit.[/QUOTE]
Nonsense... Disaster is one of my favorite games on Wii... I absolutely loved it. And I've played a LOT of games on that platform. On what grounds are you claiming its horrid?

[QUOTE=Phoenix_Apollo]For the record, I totally wanted Metal Wolf Chaos to come over here, too.
But yeah, I can see this easily having the same appeal as Deadly Premonition. Easily. And, you know, I just want a goddamned localize title that I care about from Nintendo so bad, I'll take Disaster even if I end up hating it for the rest of my life.[/QUOTE]
Its really nothing like Deadly Premonition at all... I wouldn't consider Disaster a B-game like that is... its legitimately fucking awesome.

And as far as stereotypes in the game... what? I'm an American and I never noticed anything like that... people need to stop looking for ways to be offended.

Feels good to at least go out with fight, ignore the naysayers and lets keep trucking on with this.

[QUOTE=Tron 2.0]The Japanese market is so different from North America that I'm not sure how that's a valid argument.


Okay. But if he leaves the same message on their Facebook page, their Twitter account, etc, etc, that's spamming them and it's not effective. They can easily write it off as the ramblings of a tiny group of people.

This campaign seems based on the Save Our Show campaigns fans have when their favorite television show is in danger of being cancelled.

It's instructive to note that the last one that actually worked was Chuck. And that's because the fans went out and bought a lot of Subway sandwiches. They spent actual money. That's why the Amazon pre-order thing is a good idea.

Sending physical letters to Nintendo HQ is a good idea too. I don't think sending things in with the letter (book pages, swords, monkey feces) is a good idea, though.[/QUOTE]

I would hope that the Facebook and Twitter ramblings stay there, myself. We definitely want to use every asset available to us, whether it's using the Club Nintendo forums or going on their Youtube or whatever else to spread the word, but we should be focusing this activity in a few places for the most part. Obviously, the Amazon listing takes priority, and joining the Facebook group doesn't hurt things either. But there needs to be a difference in things we just casually lay it on them versus pushing it into mega-overdrive on them.

Meanwhile, it's still nice to see Monado taking the topspot still.

[QUOTE=Tron 2.0]The Japanese market is so different from North America that I'm not sure how that's a valid argument.

[/QUOTE]

Ignored the rest of the post, ok. What about Atlus/Xseed profiting from games that sell on the 10k range?

Buy anyway, do you have figures on how much it costs to localize a game (sounds like you do)? If it costs that much, how does NoE can afford to translate it into 5 different languages?

Point is, there is no doubt the game will make a profit if released in the US, it's just that NoA deems it not enough to spend their (limited from what it looks like) resources. This is a clear shift from the GameCube days, when stuff like Odama and BK Origins brought over.

I think some people are being overly negative. I agree that posting 15 times in one thread about the same thing isn't good, but posting once should be enough to say what you have to say. Which is why I think the preordering of Monado is a great idea. It says a lot and I hope that Nintendo takes this kind of thing to heart.

I worked there for a while a few years ago and they seemed real interested in community feedback and were a little concerned about their image especially if it leaned too far negative. Of course, that was at the end of the Cube's life so I don't know how it's changed since then.

Anyway, I went ahead and added Pandora's Tower and The Last Story to my wish list on Amazon. If if this thing fails, I wanted to say that I think everyone has been acting classy and it's great so see something like this take off.

Fire Emblem DS 2.

: (

I mean this series sells enough right...?

The first Fire Emblem you thankfully gave us was prequel to the Fire Emblem (with Roy in it). Yet some reason you never gave us that one. Now you give us the Fire Emblem with Marth in it but not the sequel? Stop toying with Fire Emblem fans hearts Nintendo.

[QUOTE=Buddha Beam]
That said, given the state of the Wii as it is today, the only one I think could sell reasonably well of the 3 is Pandora's Tower. [b]Its much more action oriented and comes across as more of an "old school" type of game. Those seem to do best on the Wii.[/b][/QUOTE]

Didn't help Sin & Punishment: Star Successor any (and NoA actually bothered advertising it)...

The IGN article upload on N4G made it to the main page momentarily (around page 4 now). Will surely spread the word on other forums.

[QUOTE=Big Papa Husker]We need to send Geoff Keighley to interview Reggie about this campaign. He wouldn't take any shit.[/QUOTE]

Definitely. Anyway way we can contact him?


[QUOTE=Cow Mengde]I made a video trying to spread the word on youtube.

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqV_P25_O4A[/url]

Hopefully, others will do the same and make their voices be heard on youtube as well.

Also, does anyone have an account on the IGN forums? Maybe you can contact the guys who started operation rainfall and show them my video, and ask to include a video campaign as well?[/QUOTE]


Oh wow, first I've ever seen and heard about Pandora's Tower, and the story already has my interest going by what you said in that video.

Not sure if it means anything, but I decided to not only add Pandora's Tower and The Last Story to my wish list, but I went further and added Another Code R, Zangeki no Reginleiv, and Disaster as well. I was trying to add Last Window, but it's not listed anywhere.

[QUOTE=IceDoesntHelp]I'll post it up on the thread
Edit: I also PMd MightyMe (creator of Operation Rainfall) about it as well.[/QUOTE]

Cool thanks. The point is to make a lot of videos on youtube about it. Not who gets the most views. People are free to take my video and up it on their own channel and edit it in anyway they want. They can also make their own brand new videos, just flood youtube with videos about it.

[QUOTE]
Oh wow, first I've ever seen and heard about Pandora's Tower, and the story already has my interest going by what you said in that video.[/QUOTE]

Ah ha! That's why I thought I video campaign would also do good since people might not know or have heard of all these games. A picture's worth a thousand words, and a video is worth even more. Make videos and put it onto your youtube account, guys!

Take mine, silence it and put your own voice over or music over it. Do whatever it takes.

[QUOTE=EDarkness]Not sure if it means anything, but I decided to not only add Pandora's Tower and The Last Story to my wish list, but I went further and added Another Code R, Zangeki no Reginleiv, and Disaster as well. I was trying to add Last Window, but it's not listed anywhere.[/QUOTE]

Make sure to "like" them too.

[QUOTE=Cow Mengde]Cool thanks. The point is to make a lot of videos on youtube about it. Not who gets the most views. People are free to take my video and up it on their own channel and edit it in anyway they want. They can also make their own brand new videos, just flood youtube with videos about it.[/quote]

No problem at all. He posted it up on their twitter about 5 hours ago, and said we "need YouTube support" so I believe he's taken your idea to heart. Now we just have to wait and see if people start following that idea (which i'm sure they will).

I wonder how long Monando/Xenoblade will stay #1 for, hopefully at least a week if not more

[QUOTE=PSFan]I wonder how long Monando/Xenoblade will stay #1 for, hopefully at least a week if not more[/QUOTE]

Unlikely. For me it's surprising it's still there. Anyway, it's catching attentions, which is promising in a sense.

[QUOTE=PSFan]I wonder how long Monando/Xenoblade will stay #1 for, hopefully at least a week if not more[/QUOTE]


The longer the better. I'm amazed it's still there, honestly.
I'm hoping that staying at Number 1 means people that aren't even part of this campaign are looking at it and preordering it.

[QUOTE=AceBandage]The longer the better. I'm amazed it's still there, honestly.
I'm hoping that staying at Number 1 means people that aren't even part of this campaign are looking at it and preordering it.[/QUOTE]

News about the campaign is still spreading. Not everyone has caught on yet; also, remember it's the weekend. Some people might be too busy doing things right now, but when the weekday comes, we might be able to get more pre-orders from people that take notice then too -- I hope. Hopefully, more gaming sites will cover this. There's still 1-UP and Nintendolife, among others.

Ideally, the amazon pre-orders lasting throughout all of Monday would be great. That's when Reggie will be in his office.

Check out this vid: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_750fJRWOc[/url]

Impressed by the presentation.

Well, good on you guys for fighting. Though if the worst happens and y'all don't get it at least you can hack your Wiis and import the games. As a member of PAL land hacking and chipping gaming consoles has been the usual for many many years.

Hopefully this story can be ran in GI or something too. Its nice to see IGN and others on it. I hope we get an answer soon, now even the Last Story is confirmed for Europe. They are getting both games now. They will be in English, no excuse whatsoever to leave them in Europe. Specially since the Wii catalog is looking rather pathetic right now. Next year is even a joke. Are they really going to just support the 3DS until the Wii U comes out?

What the hell is this "join the revolution" crap. Scary, scary bunch.

[QUOTE='[Nintex]']What the hell is this "join the revolution" crap. Scary, scary bunch.[/QUOTE]

How come PAL land doesn't show this amount of fanaticism for unlocalized games :(

[QUOTE=hamchan]How come PAL land doesn't show this amount of fanaticism for unlocalized games :([/QUOTE]

Difference:

-Europe > North America/Canada: the game is already localized in English

-North America/Canada > Europe: the game is localized in English, but not in German, French, Spanish, Italian ect...... thus making it a lot harder to persuade the publisher/dev to bring it over

=(

[QUOTE=hamchan]How come PAL land doesn't show this amount of fanaticism for unlocalized games :([/QUOTE]
Because we know it's useless, this is useless too. Remember the Zack & Wiki campaign, that was quite a bomba. Sin & Punishment 2, also a bomba. Please 'insert company' release 'this japanese game' usually ends in bomba's and tears. Nintendo is going to regret doing Kid Icarus before Smash Bros. 3DS because of 'fan demands'.

[QUOTE='[Nintex]']Because we know it's useless, this is useless too. Remember the Zack & Wiki campaign, that was quite a bomba. Sin & Punishment 2, also a bomba. Please 'insert company' release 'this japanese game' usually ends in bomba's and tears. Nintendo is going to regret doing Kid Icarus before Smash Bros. 3DS because of 'fan demands'.[/QUOTE]


Kid Icarus being made has nothing to do with fan demands...
Sakurai had an idea for a game. Iwata said "Hey, why not use a Nintendo character in it?" Sakurai chose Pit.

[QUOTE='[Nintex]']Because we know it's useless, this is useless too. Remember the Zack & Wiki campaign, that was quite a bomba. Sin & Punishment 2, also a bomba. Please 'insert company' release 'this japanese game' usually ends in bomba's and tears. Nintendo is going to regret doing Kid Icarus before Smash Bros. 3DS because of 'fan demands'.[/QUOTE]

Was Sin and Punishment 2 object of a campaign like this? I don't remember. Nintendo saw a fairly good interest in the game on Virtual Console, and decided to bring the title in the West. And I don't even think that it performed under what the company had expected. Do we know some numbers?

[QUOTE=electroplankton]Was Sin and Punishment 2 object of a campaign like this? I don't remember. Nintendo saw a fairly good interest in the game on Virtual Console, and decided to bring the title in the West. And I don't even think that it performed under what the company had expected. Do we know some numbers?[/QUOTE]
I believe someone on GAF said that the LTD was less than 10k copies

[QUOTE=Mockingbird]Check out this vid: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_750fJRWOc[/url]

Impressed by the presentation.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, the guy contacted me to chain up our videos.

[QUOTE='[Nintex]']I believe someone on GAF said that the LTD was less than 10k copies[/QUOTE]

How sad! Anyway, Nintendo decided to produce the game knowing that the first one wasn't popular at all, and it didn't see an international release; possibly, Star Successor went to sell on par, if not more, than the first one in Japan (about 40k copies); even if it sold 60-70k abroad, maybe the result is not so bad at the end (it obviously depends on what Nintendo expected).

I can't really think of any other industry or company that could afford not to sell finished product to willing customers. Many other companies would bust through all obstacles to increase the ROI for that development and localization investment.

To understand NOA's rationale, you need to get inside the decision making process of businesses. Businesses pursue initiatives where the business case is NPV positive. So, for some reason Nintendo thinks this is not the case here.

So let's look what assumptions contribute to Nintendo's business case

Anticipated sales
Price
Margin
Cost of localization
Cost of certification
Cost of product marketing (packaging art, manual, website, disc art etc.)
Cost of promotion (advertising, direct sales, retail support)
Cost of support

Now, you can chuck these items to an excel sheet and mess with different assumptions and see how wildly the business case swings between positive and negative.

In this initiative there is a sense that Nintendo's assumptions might be too conservative, that many of those cost components will be very low, that they are leaving money to the table. For example, the alleged policy of not using localizations by NOE would introduce a big cost component to the equation that would pull the entire business case under.

The only way to successfully reason with Nintendo is to demonstrate the business case.

[QUOTE='[Nintex]']I believe someone on GAF said that the LTD was less than 10k copies[/QUOTE]
LOL Seriously? It's that bad? Even PSP games sell more in the west.

[QUOTE=Chittagong]
The only way to successfully reason with Nintendo is to demonstrate the business case.[/QUOTE]
Ding ding ding, but that seems almost impossible they're going to put all their marketing efforts on Zelda for Nintendo it doesn't make sense to have 2 RPG/Adventure-like games. I'm also not sure if it's possible to convince them in any way. In March this game would've made sense I guess they waited too long to make up their mind and kinda missed the launch window in which this game would've worked.

[QUOTE=Wazzim]LOL Seriously? It's that bad? Even PSP games sell more in the west.[/QUOTE]
It was Anihawk(?) with a list of massive bomba's, like Spyborgs sold less than Dead Space Extraction which sold less than S&P 2 sort of thing.

[QUOTE='[Nintex]']Ding ding ding, but that seems almost impossible they're going to put all their marketing efforts on Zelda for Nintendo it doesn't make sense to have 2 RPG/Adventure-like games. I'm also not sure if it's possible to convince them in any way. In March this game would've made sense I guess they waited too long to make up their mind and kinda missed the launch window in which this game would've worked.[/QUOTE]


Except that they'll be releasing this game in Europe just months before Zelda...
I'm sorry, but if they did an August release, that would be plenty of time between XB and Zelda.

my second day in campaign, reporting second round of mail, and Facebook comments.

[QUOTE=Chittagong]I can't really think of any other industry or company that could afford not to sell finished product to willing customers. Many other companies would bust through all obstacles to increase the ROI for that development and localization investment.

To understand NOA's rationale, you need to get inside the decision making process of businesses. Businesses pursue initiatives where the business case is NPV positive. So, for some reason Nintendo thinks this is not the case here.

So let's look what assumptions contribute to Nintendo's business case

Anticipated sales
Price
Margin
Cost of localization
Cost of certification
Cost of product marketing (packaging art, manual, website, disc art etc.)
Cost of promotion (advertising, direct sales, retail support)
Cost of support

Now, you can chuck these items to an excel sheet and mess with different assumptions and see how wildly the business case swings between positive and negative.

In this initiative there is a sense that Nintendo's assumptions might be too conservative, that many of those cost components will be very low, that they are leaving money to the table. For example, the alleged policy of not using localizations by NOE would introduce a big cost component to the equation that would pull the entire business case under.

The only way to successfully reason with Nintendo is to demonstrate the business case.[/QUOTE]
Sometimes manpower and/or room in the schedule is a concern. It's possible they either don't have enough people to handle all aspects of bringing it over, or they might not have room to fit it into their current plans and still give it proper marketing and such.

Not saying this is the case, just saying this is one other reason why games sometimes (rarely, but sometimes) don't make it over.

[QUOTE=john tv]Sometimes manpower and/or room in the schedule is a concern. It's possible they either don't have enough people to handle all aspects of bringing it over, or they might not have room to fit it into their current plans and still give it proper marketing and such.

Not saying this is the case, just saying this is one other reason why games sometimes (rarely, but sometimes) don't make it over.[/QUOTE]

Ah, yes, the opportunity cost. i.e. what else could they deploy their limited resource to. Which given how lean Nintendo is can be a real concern. Although I do think their 2011 roadmap is a bit barren.

I dont think its a matter of cost of releasing this in the states.

I think its more about diverting attention from their main line up. They know exactly how many titles you can release in an specific period of time and how to maximise the sales of those without them cannibalising each other.

Remember how nintendo used to only allow third parties to release x amount of games on the nes?(hence konami->ultra)

Nintendo consoles are completely set up to sell nintendo games. And they dont even want competition from themselves.

[QUOTE=electroplankton]How sad! Anyway, Nintendo decided to produce the game knowing Star Successor went to sell on par, if not more, than the first one in Japan (about 40k copies);[/QUOTE]
It did? I only recall the 5.6k first day sales Famitsu reported and the 22nd position on the Media Create chart at launch and it was never seen on the charts afterwards.

ok, just saw this on twitter, can anyone verify?

http://www.destructoid.com/xenoblade-reconfirmed-for-na-last-story-confirmed-for-eu-204635.phtml

Im not trusting this "customer support response" yet...

[QUOTE=john tv]Sometimes manpower and/or room in the schedule is a concern. It's possible they either don't have enough people to handle all aspects of bringing it over, or they might not have room to fit it into their current plans and still give it proper marketing and such.

Not saying this is the case, just saying this is one other reason why games sometimes (rarely, but sometimes) don't make it over.[/QUOTE]
Would be hilarious if Nintendo came out and said they have their hands full with their current line-up.

[QUOTE=vall03]ok, just saw this on twitter, can anyone verify?

[url]http://www.destructoid.com/xenoblade-reconfirmed-for-na-last-story-confirmed-for-eu-204635.phtml[/url]

Im not trusting this "customer support response" yet...[/QUOTE]

front page of GAF RE Last Story:
[url]http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=435260[/url]

the xenoblade thing is a form response.

[QUOTE=vall03]ok, just saw this on twitter, can anyone verify?

[url]http://www.destructoid.com/xenoblade-reconfirmed-for-na-last-story-confirmed-for-eu-204635.phtml[/url]

Im not trusting this "customer support response" yet...[/QUOTE]


That's been the standard response from e-mails for them.
"Monado is still on our release schedule! Please look forward to it!"

Wow, it's at number 1 on Amazon. Great work guys, genuinely hope they listen.

[QUOTE=AceBandage]Xenoblade is already voiced and translated in English for a European release.
NoA just has to use that exact same game and sell it here. No translation cost, no marketing.
Just press the discs and ship them out.[/QUOTE]
Well, ESRB rating and slightly different manual/case design would be a little work and cost, but pretty minimal.
[quote=Trurl]They would have to convert everything to American English. Who wants to bother with that?[/quote]
Can someone who's played the game comment on how many lorries and biscuits we'll be getting confused over?

[QUOTE=vall03]ok, just saw this on twitter, can anyone verify?

[url]http://www.destructoid.com/xenoblade-reconfirmed-for-na-last-story-confirmed-for-eu-204635.phtml[/url]

Im not trusting this "customer support response" yet...[/QUOTE]

So...we won? Did we win? DID WE WIN?!?!?

Need multiple confirmations about CS reps confirming Xenoblade is definitely coming out instead of some bs form response..

Call Nintendo at: 1800-255-3700. Then press 0.

Live in JP, so can't call myself.

This is a cool idea! Hopefully it works and we can beg for Another Code R and maybe Last Window :o

Got my response


[quote]Hello,




Thanks for contacting us. I can see why you want to see Xenoblade released here in the Americas, but at this time we have no new information to offer or announcements to make regarding this game.





I realize this is disappointing, but your comments have been documented and made available for other departments here to use as they see fit. We appreciate hearing what our consumers find important.






Sincerely,



Annie Bowman
Nintendo of America Inc[/quote]

so yeah...

My stance is that until we get a press release, this plan still needs to move forward.

Yeah, don't let the Destructoid story fool you. It's the same thing everyone's gotten.

[quote=TunaLover]Got my response
so yeah...[/quote]
I wonder how they responded to those who wrote "Monado" instead of "Xenoblade"

Thanks for contacting us. I can see why you want to see games like Xenoblade, The Last Story or Fatal Frame IV released here in the Americas, but at this time we have no new information to offer or announcements to make regarding these games.


I realize this is disappointing, but your comments have been documented and made available for other departments here to use as they see fit. We appreciate hearing what our consumers find important.

Sincerely,


Annie Bowman
Nintendo of America Inc



At least we know we're getting addressed personally, because she included FFIV in my response, and not the one above. Still disappointing.

Yeah, she had to personally select these games from a drop down menu to fill out the form. :I

[QUOTE=Chittagong]Ah, yes, the opportunity cost. i.e. what else could they deploy their limited resource to. Which given how lean Nintendo is can be a real concern. Although I do think their 2011 roadmap is a bit barren.[/QUOTE]
Nintendo's not the most profitable of the big three for nothing. It's all about opportunity cost even when you do have plenty of resources since all resources should be deployed to maximize profits.

I'll be surprised if NOA caves on this given the message that it will send, but I'm still rooting for this campaign.

Someone should ask for a response from Reggie himself.

Assuming these replies are coming from head office, there's a chance that Reggie will also be based there.

[QUOTE=Lance Bone Path]Nintendo's not the most profitable of the big three for nothing. It's all about opportunity cost even when you do have plenty of resources since all resources should be deployed to maximize profits.

I'll be surprised if NOA caves on this given the message that it will send, but I'm still rooting for this campaign.[/QUOTE]


What message would it send, exactly?
We listen to our fans when it comes to games they want to buy?

[QUOTE=M_Night]Someone should ask for a response from Reggie himself.

Assuming these replies are coming from head office, there's a chance that Reggie will also be based there.[/QUOTE]

I know what Reggie will say.

We have nothing to announce for now, but keep in eye on it in the future.

Heheh. I think the last time I wrote directly to Nintendo asking for a localization was Seiken Densetsu 3. A bit misaimed, that wish was. I did get a response, though--or at least Joshua Stone at my address did.

[QUOTE=M_Night]Someone should ask for a response from Reggie himself. [/QUOTE]

They should also ask for localisations of Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora while they're at it.

[I]Oh wait[/I]...

Why is it called Monado? Will that be the PAL title?

[QUOTE=AceBandage]What message would it send, exactly?
We listen to our fans when it comes to games they want to buy?[/QUOTE]
The worst case scenario messages are more like "we don't know how to properly allocate our resources and need fan driven internet campaigns to tell us" and "we will cave on our decisions in the face of internet mobs", although a more positive "we listen to our fans" message could be spun.

Reggie is just laughing.

I really wonder just how long Nintendo can bleed the traditional gamer as I think their little weird, casual, party game shit is not going to be at the top for too long once Microsoft and Sony really get their respective balls rolling as I think with as shitty a shape their online service is in that those two companies have a lot of room for growth from small developers in that field that Nintendo just can not match.

It's like, they want to take the Apple approach on the hardware but they don't understand the software part and while I don't really see Nintendo losing money as they don't really do things at a loss I do see them getting to a point where they lose market share again, I don't think they're going to get more casuals this time around than they did with the Wii, so with that I think Sony and MS are in the best position to grow and both of those companies have better on-line store experiences which can really facilitate that.

Anyways, so yeah, I pre-ordered like everything.

[QUOTE=Desmond]Why is it called Monado? Will that be the PAL title?[/QUOTE]


Monado was the working title. It'll be Xenoblade Chronicles in Europe.

[QUOTE=mAcOdIn]It's like, they want to take the Apple approach on the hardware [B]but they don't understand the software part[/B] and while I don't really see Nintendo losing money as they don't really do things at a loss I do see them getting to a point where they lose market share again, I don't think they're going to get more casuals this time around than they did with the Wii, so with that I think Sony and MS are in the best position to grow and both of those companies have better on-line store experiences which can really facilitate that.[/QUOTE]

...

[QUOTE=Desmond]Why is it called Monado? Will that be the PAL title?[/QUOTE]
That's what they called it when we saw the first trailer a few years ago. Name got changed, but it just sits there in NOA's lists untouched. Euro name is Xenoblade Chronicles.

Wow, I hate RPGs but I just might buy this out of principle. This is impressive.

Does anyone have an idea as to how many pre-orders it would take to bump a game to #1?

[QUOTE=mAcOdIn]I really wonder just how long Nintendo can bleed the traditional gamer as I think their little weird, casual, party game shit is not going to be at the top for too long once Microsoft and Sony really get their respective balls rolling as I think with as shitty a shape their online service is in that those two companies have a lot of room for growth from small developers in that field that Nintendo just can not match.

It's like, they want to take the Apple approach on the hardware but they don't understand the software part and while I don't really see Nintendo losing money as they don't really do things at a loss I do see them getting to a point where they lose market share again, I don't think they're going to get more casuals this time around than they did with the Wii, so with that I think Sony and MS are in the best position to grow and both of those companies have better on-line store experiences which can really facilitate that.

Anyways, so yeah, I pre-ordered like everything.[/QUOTE]
I'm not sure you've really been paying attention to Nintendo at all this generation.
They fully understand that they need core gamers to continue to be successful, in addition to the casual gamer.
They also fully understand that software is what makes a system, as evident by the fact that they have the most 10+ million selling games out there.

The problem, here, is that they seem to be holding back titles for no apparent reason.

[QUOTE=ElectricBlanketFire]Wow, I hate RPGs but I just might buy this out of principle. This is impressive.

Does anyone have an idea as to how many pre-orders it would take to bump a game to #1?[/QUOTE]


Already is #1 in Video Games. Has been since yesterday.

[QUOTE=ElectricBlanketFire]Wow, I hate RPGs but I just might buy this out of principle. This is impressive.

Does anyone have an idea as to how many pre-orders it would take to bump a game to #1?[/QUOTE]

It's already at #1. It just needs to maintain that position for a bit.

[QUOTE=Chittagong]I can't really think of any other industry or company that could afford not to sell finished product to willing customers. Many other companies would bust through all obstacles to increase the ROI for that development and localization investment.

To understand NOA's rationale, you need to get inside the decision making process of businesses. Businesses pursue initiatives where the business case is NPV positive. So, for some reason Nintendo thinks this is not the case here.

So let's look what assumptions contribute to Nintendo's business case

Anticipated sales
Price
Margin
Cost of localization
Cost of certification
Cost of product marketing (packaging art, manual, website, disc art etc.)
Cost of promotion (advertising, direct sales, retail support)
Cost of support

Now, you can chuck these items to an excel sheet and mess with different assumptions and see how wildly the business case swings between positive and negative.

In this initiative there is a sense that Nintendo's assumptions might be too conservative, that many of those cost components will be very low, that they are leaving money to the table. For example, the alleged policy of not using localizations by NOE would introduce a big cost component to the equation that would pull the entire business case under.

The only way to successfully reason with Nintendo is to demonstrate the business case.[/QUOTE]

The problem with all of this analysis is it defies Nintendo's own strategy of publishing long shot games in Japan because they acknowledge it's tough to tell what the next hit will be. This sort of math can be done to demonstrate why most of Nintendo's core games should not be developed to begin with.

[QUOTE=Cow Mengde]It's already at #1. It just needs to maintain that position for a bit.[/QUOTE]
I meant how many did it take to get to this position. I knew it was #1.

Nintendo doesn't even have to release the games themselves. They could get a super juicy deal with atlus, xseed or any of the other company that does that sort of thing.

But no obviously nintendo will never do such a thing. Nintendo is the company that region locks handhelds.

[QUOTE=ElectricBlanketFire]I meant how many did it take to get to this position. I knew it was #1.[/QUOTE]


Imposable to say. However, it started out at position 12,000 or so, meaning it took quite a few preorders to boost it so high.

[QUOTE=vall03]ok, just saw this on twitter, can anyone verify?

[url]http://www.destructoid.com/xenoblade-reconfirmed-for-na-last-story-confirmed-for-eu-204635.phtml[/url]

Im not trusting this "customer support response" yet...[/QUOTE]

Nintendo's customer support lines have been saying this from the beginning. Jim Sterling should really learn to do some research on it before he posts something like this. Five minutes of browsing GameFAQs would have told him that they're all modified copypaste responses.

[quote=ElectricBlanketFire]Does anyone have an idea as to how many pre-orders it would take to bump a game to #1?[/quote]
[QUOTE=AceBandage]Already is #1 in Video Games. Has been since yesterday.[/QUOTE]
Do we really know how to interpret that? Like, does the list count sales/pre-orders from the previous 24 hours? Or whether it's by unit or price? Easier to make #1 on a Saturday? What sort of numbers a daily #1 usually is?

[QUOTE=JoshuaJSlone]Do we really know how to interpret that? Like, does the list count sales/pre-orders from the previous 24 hours? Or whether it's by unit or price? Easier to make #1 on a Saturday? What sort of numbers a daily #1 usually is?[/QUOTE]


I believe it's overall sales for the past hour.

[QUOTE=JoshuaJSlone]Do we really know how to interpret that? Like, does the list count sales/pre-orders from the previous 24 hours? Or whether it's by unit or price? Easier to make #1 on a Saturday? What sort of numbers a daily #1 usually is?[/QUOTE]

Don't know. All we can do is not give up. Even if it's #1 seller for 100 days, it would be pointless if the game doesn't come out so that number is pretty meaningless for now. But it is getting attention at the very least.