So, this week we got news that the white knight known as XSEED was stepping up, once again, and publishing Pandora's Tower for the North American territory. I have a somewhat personal connection with the idea of Pandora's Tower being released in North America. Way back in April 2012, I ran a series of articles and investigative journalism concerning the likelihood of such a release (Article 1, Article 2, Article 3). The long and short of that situation is I had a GameStop manager and his employees telling me Pandora's Tower was in their system for a North American release.
The famous (and awesome) Operation Rainfall was kind enough to pick up our story (link) and even make follow-up reports on it. However, when I tried sharing this story with bigger Nintendo sites like GoNintendo and Nintendo World Report, they mostly shook their heads politely and said I wasn't a credible enough source to run the stories themselves. GoNintendo ran the first one and that was it.
A few weeks later, a NinTemple site visitor contacted us saying he heard a similar confirmation at his GameStop over 1,000 miles away. We ran that story. Then, unfortunately, that seemed to be the end of the discussion. No major sites really followed-up after that and the hopes of a North American release for Pandora's Tower started to fade quickly. By the beginning of 2013, the general opinion was so bleak that Jonathan Metts of Nintendo World Report commented Pandora's Tower had "no hope" of a NA release.
Well, shortly thereafter, we all got word straight from XSEED that the game would be localized under their efforts! Huzzah! "Sage is vindicated!" said some.
But, this story is not about me (well, sure, most of this article is but the overall story is not!). In fact, realistically, our contribution to this drama is more about faith than fruitful leads. And the entirety of this story is more about democratic action and rewarded faith. These three great games, Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower, the three games most synonymous with Operation Rainfall, were too good to be ignored and those of us who participated in Operation Rainfall knew that. We had a feeling action was worth taking because the cries for these games shouldn't be ignored and ultimately would not be ignored. People had been saying since November 2011 that games like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword were the Wii's "swan song." They had no faith that all the great games of 2012, and now the third game in the Operation Rainfall trio, would be released.
But, now, in just a few months, I'll be able to look at my shelf of games, and see tangible proof that our faith was rewarded. So maybe, in the future, we can look back on rocky experiences like this and say "hey, sometimes it does all work out. Have a little faith!"
Saturday, January 19, 2013
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5 comments:
"The famous (and awesome) Operation Rainfall was kind enough to pick up our story (link) and even make follow-up reports on it. However, when I tried sharing this story with bigger Nintendo sites like GoNintendo and Nintendo World Report, they mostly shook their heads politely and said I wasn't a credible enough source to run the stories themselves."
LOL! ROFL! Seriously they said, "...wasn't a credible enough source"? Yet, let's link to "news" or "pieces" from Kotaku, IGN, Nintendo Life, and GameInformer? Those sites, repeatedly, show they run stories with no credibility, or printing a story for the sake of printing a story (see: much of what is wrong with gamez journalizm). Also, let's not forget to mention some of them publish "reviews" with zero credibility. It would have taken a simple phone call to GameStop to verify at the time, and the fact it might have helped the game see a release sooner, rather than later, I think would be enough reason to keep a spotlight on it.
I'm just glad to see it happening, even if I do find it very unfortunate that another company is having to do NoA's job these days.
Nice writeup and I agree with it. Too many times people just throw up their hands and give up and while I may be pretty optimistic about these types of things I do realize that Nintendo can't release every single game out there. I think the main thing that stopped them from releasing Last Story and Pandora here is that they had to release the Wii U. It takes a lot of work to release a new console so I'd imagine that Xseed was given the go ahead on it and once Last Story sold as well as it did for them well they picked up Pandora's Tower. It is simple as supply and demand and what could be localized for the market within their schedule. It probably didn't work for Nintendo's schedule but it did for Xseed's.
@Coffee
Thanks for understanding what I wanted to say but didn't! ^_^
The GameStop employee was still mistaken, as the game didn't come close to being announced when he said it would. So I'm not sure what lead to that mishap.
But it doesn't really matter, because enough people did what really mattered to support Pandora's Tower, which was buy The Last Story. Being XSEED's most profitable game is likely what lead them to picking up Pandora's Tower, hoping to capture some of that same success. I may not have had much faith this would happen, but I did buy The Last Story day one, so I still supported the cause. Never say never until it's all over.
@Mop_it_up:
Just because the GameStop employee was mistaken, or perhaps it was in their system at the time, but was incorrect, doesn't mean that a simple phone call by the sites (assuming they actually cared about credibility) could/couldn't confirm it for their area.
The issue was that some sites were trying to raise awareness on the issue of Pandora's Tower coming over, and keeping it in the spotlight at the time might have helped NINTENDO, not XSEED, bring it over sooner.
"Gamez journalizm" is a joke these days, and the fact most of the sites are run unprofessionally and dishonestly makes me think it's not even worth the effort. They will lie to you all day long in emails, and give you fake "thanks for the tips!", even say they are going to post a "tip" and never post it...because it isn't from the trash "connections" at the major sites.
Video gamez journalizm is like a big trash heap from my experiences, and it seems most are happy playing in the trash heap, for a few more thousand hits.
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