When Nintendo announced last year that it would not be bringing cult classic Japanese RPG Xenoblade Chronicles to North America, it was no surprise that the decision drew heavy Internet protest from a subgroup of dedicated gamers. After all, groups of gamers are constantly banding together online to demand everything from LAN support in Starcraft II to a Full House game (don’t lose hope, Danny Tanner super-fans!)
But Operation Rainfall, as the Xenoblade protest group came to be known, differed from other grassroots gamer protests in one important way: it worked. Not only has Nintendo given Xenoblade Chronicles a North American release date of April 2, but the company announced last week that The Last Story, another Japanese RPG the group has been pushing to see release in North America, will come across the ocean this summer through publisher XSEED games.
The success of Operation Rainfall shows that a small group of niche gamers can occasionally effect change from a big-name game publisher, as long as they’re willing to keep up the pressure and do a bit of out-of-the-box promotion.
from Ars Technica