Nintendo's Reggie Talks Wii U, Western Development And Operation Rainfall

Siliconera doesn't like people copy/pasting their articles, so I'll just sum it up. Only a few noteworthy bits in the interview, but I thought the most interesting were his comments on Operation Rainfall.

Basically Reggie said the campaign had little or no influence on Nintendo's decision to localize Xenoblade. They were aware of it, but it didn't really factor into their discussion. "...in the end we've got to do what's best for the company. The thing we know is that 100,000 signatures doesn't mean 100,000 sales."

For reference, here is the original Operation Rainfall petition. It failed to accumulate even 10,000 signatures, never mind 100,000.

The interview is pretty interesting in general and worth a look.

That's odd, given that the <10,000 signatures contributed to far, far more sales between Xenoblade, TLS, and Pandora's Tower, even given the high overlap

Why would he say that...it sounds way better to say we listened to our fans and brought the games over for them.

Fact remains, Nintendo does whatever it wants to do, Operation Rainfall and petitions like those are just not a factor in their decisions to bring games over. Some people give thanks to these petitions and say stuff like "yes, Op. Rainfall was a success", and yet that's not why these games came over here.

Refreshingly honest, including the part where he said that they dropped the ball with the launch line up. Customers do like to know they're being listened to though. You don't want the salesman to try to be your friend, but you do want to know that he's trying to cater to your needs.