If you look at the state of Xenoblade Chronicles right now, gamers would tell you that it’s a proud set of four RPGs, three of which can be played on the Nintendo Switch right now, and that developer Monolith Soft is likely working on the next entry to the franchise as we speak. That’s a far cry from 2009, when the game was first announced at E3 in a way that didn’t get much attention. But as we’re starting to find out, that was kind of the point. Most people know about the “Operation Rainfall” movement that got the original game to the US, but it goes a bit deeper than that.
Kit Ellis used to work at Nintendo, and when he heard about the original Xenoblade Chronicles at E3 2009, he asked around about it. People at Nintendo of America told him not to “worry about it,” nor was he to show the title to the press because it was “Japan-only” and indicated it would never come to the United States.
For him and gamers, that raised all sorts of questions, including why Nintendo would decide that for a potentially big title. On the Kit & Krysta podcast, he revealed how this happened:
“As far as how those decisions were made, it was always a very shadowy thing. There was a team at Nintendo that made those sorts of decisions that we were not a part of. That was a very executive heavy group and they would analyze the market and the potential audience size – all that stuff. It was like flipping a coin – sometimes these were the right decisions, sometimes they weren’t.”
At the time, the decision wasn’t the right one. They eventually ported the game to Europe, but the US was still left in the cold. That’s where Operation Rainfall came in, where fans rallied together to try and get the game ported to the US. Sure enough, the game made it to the Nintendo Wii, and we got another game in the lineup via the Wii U. The first title was even ported to the 3DS so that more people could experience it.
However, it wasn’t until the Nintendo Switch days that Xenoblade Chronicles finally got to showcase its grandness to the world. Thanks to the system and the great game dev powers of Monolith Soft, not only did it get two more sequels, but both sold well, and the third entry even got Game of the Year nominations.
They even brought back the title with Shulk and overhauled it so that he could finally get his day in the sun. All’s well that ends well, but it was a very close call!
