In a recent interview President of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Amie said that he believed that “there certainly will be more games launched for the Wii.” Adding, “We believe there are still millions more systems to be sold.” While most gamers and journalist blew this comment off as pandering PR speak it seems that there was some truth to those words as we can now confirm that Nintendo will be bringing the long awaited Xenoblade Chronicles to North America this upcoming April.
Speculation of the announcement came to a head this morning as a blurry photo of a GameStop point of sale system that displayed a line that read “Xenoblade Chronicles GS Exclusive” surfaced on NeoGAF. This was further fueled by Nintendo of America when they posted images from the elusive RPG to their Facebook account.
After that it didn’t take long for Nintendo to officially let the cat out of the bag with announcements on both their Facebook account and their official site stating that Xenoblade Chronicles is indeed coming to the states. One caveat of this announcement was the inclusion that the game will only be available through GameStop and the Official Nintendo Store.
Nintendo also released the below official trailer for the game which includes the PAL territory voice talent that will also be used for the North American release.
Those looking to preorder this game can do so immediately at GameStop or if they would prefer, will be able to ensure their copy through the online Nintendo store starting December 19th. While no specific date in April was given regarding the release, it’s likely that since all other information in the screen shot was accurate we’ll be looking at April 2, 2012 as the day that Wii owners have been patiently waiting for since Operation Rainfall began earlier this year.
At this time there is no word on whether Nintendo will also be bringing fellow Operation Rainfall games, Pandora’s Tower and The Last Story, to the states at this time. We’ll have more information on Xenoblade Chronicles and Operation Rainfall as it becomes available.
Im pretty excited about this. I recently mentioned the possibility of this in the recent episode of Pixltalk and im glad to see the idea come into fruition. I still hope we get The Last Story as well, but Xenoblade is just fine. I heard great things, so I feel this game is something to be hype for.
My guess is that The Last Story would be up next and is hinging on how well Xenoblade does in terms of preorders and sales. And the same would go for Pandora's Tower as well.
I feel like I must be dreaming. This is such great news.... Xenoblade Xenoblade Xenoblaaaade!!!.....
I'm just a tiny bit excited.
Cool :) Guess I might have to use my Wii to play a Wii game for once.
I'm going to have to hurt you fro saying that Kyle. A few good games just came out on the Wii in the last month or so!
Exclusive? I didn't see that on the official release page on Nintendo's website. Gamestop might have just paid them to put that link there for pre-order.
I imagine Amazon would have a thing or two to say about if all those pre-orders they got for the game suddenly became useless!
Angelo, it is indeed a GameStop exclusive, though you will still be able to get it from Nintendo directly. It's possible that if the game sells gangbusters that they'll sell through other retailers but for now our options are limited.
Thanks Jesse. I live in NY, so this may just justify taking the kids for a little trip to the Nintendo World store in Manhattan. I'm sure they won't complain.
Now my wife on the other hand....
Anyway, this also kindles my hope for the Last Story. Those and Skyword Sword will probably finish up my wii collection.
Hey Angelo, saw you were from Amsterdam, small world! Chessa and I moved to FL a couple years back from Albany, NY, but we spent time out in Amsterdam often. Chessa's parents have a little place off of Lake Sacandaga.
In any event, great news on Xenoblade. It's a shame that there had to be so much drama for it to get released here, but I'm glad people will finally be able to get their hands on it.
I'm going to pre-order it through Nintendo's site, yup.
