Today, Xenoblade is one of Nintendo’s major RPG franchises, but its beginnings were rather quiet. The first game in the series was originally released in English over a year after its launch in Japan, and it was aimed primarily at European fans. It was only after a fan campaign called “Operation Rainfall” that Nintendo finally decided to release it in North America in 2012.
For those unfamiliar with the origins of Xenoblade, it’s worth noting that the game was originally called Monado: Beginning of the World. Its existence was quietly revealed during E3 2009. Despite the reveal at one of the largest video game shows in the United States, Nintendo of America seemed to have decided from the start not to release the RPG in the United States. -United. Kit Ellis, a former Nintendo of America employee, recently shared in a podcast that he asked about the game at E3, but was only told by his colleagues that the game was exclusive to Japan and that there was no need to worry about it. He was also advised not to invite people such as journalists to view the game during presentations, as it would not be released in North America.
“As far as how these decisions were made, it was always a very murky thing. There was a team at Nintendo that made these kinds of decisions that we weren’t a part of. It was a very executive group that analyzed the market and the size of the potential audience – all those things. It was like flipping a coin: sometimes the decisions were right, sometimes they weren’t.
