Though there have been successful petitions by fans that helped bring popular titles such as Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower to the West (the petition itself dubbed “Operation Rainfall”), Nintendo of America head Reggie Fils-Aime told Siliconera that this doesn’t affect what the company does.
“I have to tell you — it doesn’t affect what we do. We certainly look at it, and we’re certainly aware of it, but it doesn’t necessarily affect what we do.
“I’ll give you an example. I mentioned earlier that our head of product development had a bet on X versus Y—we also had a bet around localizing Xenoblade. I wanted to bring Xenoblade here. The deal was, how much of a localization effort is it? How many units are we going to sell, are we going to make money? We were literally having this debate while Operation Rainfall was happening, and we were aware that there was interest for the game, but we had to make sure that it was a strong financial proposition.
“I’m paid to make sure that we’re driving the business forward—so we’re aware of what’s happening, but in the end we’ve got to do what’s best for the company. The thing we know [about petitions] is that 100,000 signatures doesn’t mean 100,000 sales.”
As a side note, he also mentioned the Nintendo WiiMote as the most significant innovation to gaming in the past decade. “The WiiMote introduced a completely new style of play that arguably set an industry standard for motion controls, and let the consumer experience games in an entirely new way. The thing, I think, that’s really set Nintendo apart from the competition is its focus on new styles of play.
“We’re always looking for ways to innovate, ways to bring new and fun experiences to the consumer. In the end, it’s all about the software, and all about how you experience that software—and controllers have a huge effect on that.”
The first point is kind of debatable – and it will look even more so if Operation Dead Angels succeeds in getting the first Bayonetta to be ported to the Wii U – but it’s hard to argue with the second. The success of the Wii is arguably the reason why motion gaming is so big right now. Do you agree? Let us know what you think below.
