These days Xenoblade is one of Nintendo’s bigger franchises – at least when it comes to RPGs – but that wasn’t always the case. The first entry came out in English more than a year after its Japanese launch, and that was for European fans only. It wasn’t until the “Operation Rainfall” fan campaign that Nintendo brought it to North America in 2012.
Those unfamiliar with the early days of Xenoblade may not know that it was originally titled Monado: Beginning of the World. The game was actually announced at E3 2009 with an under-the-radar reveal. Yet even though the reveal took place during what was the biggest gaming show of the year in the states, it seems Nintendo of America knew right away it wouldn’t be bringing the RPG stateside.
Kit Ellis, a former Nintendo of America employee with many years of experience at the company, mentioned during a recent Kit and Krysta podcast episode that he asked his colleagues about the game during that E3. He was simply informed that it was Japan-only and not to worry about it. Ellis was also told not to bring people (such as press) to see the game on booth tours since it wouldn’t be coming out here in North America.
Ellis also commented on Nintendo’s thinking at the time when it came to not releasing certain games in North America. On that front, he said:
“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.”
After Xenoblade Chronicles, Nintendo in collaboration with Monolith Soft would go on to release Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and 3 on Switch. Xenoblade Chronicles X also came to Wii U. These games have collectively become one of the Big N’s more popular RPG franchises.