Interview: Chris Ward of Operation Rainfall - News
by Jake Weston , posted on 30 June 2011 / 5,460 Views
Operation Rainfall has quickly become one of the biggest and most prominent fan campaigns in gaming. Their goal: To convince Nintendo of America to localize The Last Story, Pandora's Tower, and Xenoblade Chronicles, all critically acclaimed Japanese-only games, for a North American release. gamrFeed was able to get the opportunity to speak with Operation Rainfall founder, Chris Ward, on the project's beginnings, obstacles to overcome, and plans for the future.
Chris Ward: The movement started on the IGN forums after we heard nothing about Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower at E3 2011. We kicked around some ideas of what we could do before themightyme took the initiative and got the ball rolling on a letter writing campaign. We wanted to write letters to bring the games over from Japan in a similar way letter writing campaigns had helped keep TV shows on the air. Days later, word got out that Nintendo of America rejected showing Xenoblade at E3 because thy did not want to show games they were not going to sell. Word spread quickly of our campaign, and here we are.
It has a double meaning. First, it is a reference to the drought of games on the Wii in 2011. More importantly, it also refers to how a number of gamers' individual voices can swell together and reshape the landscape.
It is indicative of just how many people were interested in getting Xenoblade, Pandora's Tower, and The Last Story. From what I have seen in this movement, Nintendo of America has grossly underestimated the market for these games in North America. The support is also a result of gamers' frustration with the 2011 Wii drought. In our frustration, we have come together to push Nintendo. In a day and age of console wars, rampant fanboyism, and trolling "for the lulz," it is refreshing to see such a unified effort towards a very specific goal. An achievable goal. Part of the appeal of Operation Rainfall is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for gamers. These games are done and two of them are going to receive English translations (and Pandora's Tower is rumored to make it 3/3). We just want to be able to play them. Is that too much to ask?
Part of the reason for the three is selection bias. These were the games we talked about the most in the IGN Lobby, so they were natural selections. We want to add more games later like Fatal Frame 4 and others. There are a lot to mention. Maybe we can convince Nintendo to allow smaller publishers to bring them to America. But at the moment we want to keep the campaign focused on three things instead of diluting our message. As we progress we will be bringing more games into the fold.
One important disclaimer -- the preorders were not charged to customers and could be revoked or added to at any time. That said, I did not anticipate Xenoblade's ability to rocket up the charts so quickly. It got a lot of people's attention and gave Operation Rainfall some great exposure. Even Amazon, who has the ability to see who is ordering how much and whether the orders were unique, threw us their support after we kept Xenoblade at #1 for over 48 hours. I did not see that coming.
We were expecting the statement Nintendo gave. We would have been happy to get confirmation for even one game, but honestly 3 games or 1 game or no games our plans have not changed. Our campaign is going forward. If anything, Operation Rainfall is even more necessary now. We have shown a large outpouring of support and literally begged Nintendo to take our money. They declined. We are going to have to push harder. We are going to have to write letters, keep contacting them and make them listen.
In light of [Nintendo's recent] announcement? No, not when you use the word "likely." Well, they could be coming to America via import since Nintendo seems to be encouraging gamers to import games from countries with stronger currencies. That said, if we stop pushing, there is no way the games get sold domestically in North America. So we must keep pushing.
And even if the games do not come over, at least we can let Nintendo know that they are losing credibility fast. They promised to appeal to the "core" gamer. How can we trust the WiiU to do that in 2012 when Nintendo of America will not support core gamers in 2011? Nintendo of America says they want to give gamers different experiences, yet they highlight sequels and shooters at E3 that are already coming to other systems. Meanwhile, they deny American gamers the chance to play high quality Wii exclusive new IPs. There is a growing credibility gap between Nintendo and its core audience, and we need to let them know.
The plan is cultivate a dialogue with Nintendo in order to lobby for localization of other games that have been locked away overseas in one region or another. It would be great to be able to grow big enough to be able to lobby other publishers too. But we have to take care of the work that is in front of us first: building the campaign in light of Nintendo's initial 99% rejection. After all, it takes a lot of rain to make the flood.
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Nice to know this guy isn't as angry as everyone else, so he might accomplish something in the end.
It's good to know someone level-headed is on top of all this. Not like the people who have flipped out completely and declared "I'm not buying Skyward Sword, i'm not buying Wii U, i'm selling my 3DS for a Vita"
I think that, primarily, people are putting way too much stock in what was said on facebook. While it is certainly true, in terms of significance it is no greater than if you sent an e-mail to customer service asking for these games and got the same response. Now I agree that Nintendo should be putting a bit more stock in their social media outlets (using them for meaningful information instead of more canned PR crap and random trivia), and that's a problem they've had for a while, but given how Nintendo currently operates, we can't take these statements to mean that there aren't plans.
I can understand some of the anger among fans though . . .
Honestly it's due to the current landscape of social media. If there was no facebook, and twitter. This would not be as big as it's current is.
Well hopefully Nintendo will bring these titles to the USA, nothing worse than wanting to play a game but cant because a company doesn't want to spend the time to make it happen
We will do all we can to make sure that it will happen.
well, nice to hear they havent give up just yet... I as well will continue to post on the facebook as polite as I can, but still very possitive that we will get the nice ending of this story...
Excelent interview Jake Weston... Congratulations VGChartz... Nintenderos remember IMPOSIBLE IS NOTHING... XD...
... gamrFeed would like to thank Chris Ward and the rest of the Operation Rainfall campaigners for their hard work. ... ME TOO!!! :)
i did pre order all 3 game at
videogamesplus.ca web site
on your right you can see operation rainfall videogameplus keep nintendo in touch with pre order to show them how much interest there is in the 3 game
if you interested order them!
i did pre order all 3 game at
http://www.videogamesplus.ca/
on your right you can see operation rainfall videogameplus keep nintendo in touch with pre order to show them how much interest there is in the 3 game
if you interested order them!
If Nintendo ends up still not wanting money people are wanting to give to them, just download them for free. That is what I will be doing if they continue to deny money like they are, they obviously want me to have it for free through piracy.
Operation Rainfall I mean!
Be surprised if Nintendo ignore this ..
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It appears Google has failed me, it is fixed now. Thanks for the heads up!
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