For a lot of fans, the confirmation of Fatal Frame 5’s launch in North America came as bittersweet news. Sweet, because after multiple instalments in the series being passed over for an American release, this one was finally coming over. Bitter, because it would only be getting a digital launch.

These fans aren’t sitting around- recognizing the success of fan movements in the past, they have formed Operation Zero, a fan campaign that is trying to get Nintendo to launch a retail version of the game in North America.

“What opzero aims to do is to show publishers (specifically Nintendo of America) that there is a profitable demand for the Fatal Frame (aka project zero) intellectual property and customers have been waiting for this one especially,” OpZero states.

“What opzero has done so far is provided a voice for customers and fans of the Fatal Frame franchise to convince that this latest game was worthy for western localization. This was an ongoing endeavor that took about a year, but it seems to have worked as illustrated in the Nintendo Direct announcement- the fact that they specifically acknowledged “fans clamoring” possibly alludes to the fact that Nintendo of America is listening and heard opzero.”

These fans have a legitimate, practical reason for demanding a physical release too, and that has to do with just how minuscule on board storage is on Wii U.

“16GB is the file size for Fatal Frame 5 so that renders the standard WiiU console ineligible for downloading the game unless NoA is expecting customers to purchase an external hard drive with a power source as well (and a power strip too). Even the deluxe model WiiU which despite being 32 GB is actually closer to 22 GB will not leave much room for anything else.”

Fatal Frame 5 launches exclusively on the Wii U in October.

Last year, Fatal Frame 5, the newest entry in the psychological horror series, released in Japan, exclusively for the Wii U. Many assumed that the game would never be brought over to the west, considering the debacle surrounding the localization of Fatal Frame 4, which had been exclusive to the Wii.

Those many people were wrong- during their Nintendo Direct webcast yesterday, Nintendo confirmed that the game will be coming over to the west later this year, exclusively to the Wii U. This, of course, further bolsters the excellent Wii U lineup (just as we had predicted), which was left a bit weaker thanks to the unexpected delay of The Legend of Zelda last week announced last week. It also adds another atypical game to the Wii U’s lineup, something different from the usual Nintendo fare, which should endear the console to even those who traditionally aren’t Nintendo fans (other such games on the console include ZombiU, The Wonderful 101, Monster Hunter, Bayonetta 2, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and the upcoming Devil’s Third).

When we learn more about Fatal Frame 5, we will be sure to update you. Stay tuned.