Usually, fan demand for a hot item translates to its release in the United States. Nintendo is no stranger to this, as gamers often ask for re-releases of hit games or popular import titles in the U.S. market. That said, the company is a little hesitant…and Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime explained why as he spoke to Silicon Era.

“I have to tell you – it doesn’t affect what we do,” said Reggie when it comes to fan demand. “We certainly look at it, and we’re certainly aware of it, but it doesn’t necessarily affect what we do. I’ll give you an example. I mentioned earlier that our head of product development had a bet on X versus Y-we also had a bet around localizing Xenoblade.

“I wanted to bring Xenoblade here. The deal was, how much of a localization effort is it How many units are we going to sell, are we going to make money We were literally having this debate while Operation Rainfall was happening, and we were aware that there was interest for the game, but we had to make sure that it was a strong financial proposition.

“I’m paid to make sure that we’re driving the business forward-so we’re aware of what’s happening, but in the end we’ve got to do what’s best for the company. The thing we know [about petitions] is that 100,000 signatures doesn’t mean 100,000 sales.”

Source: GamesIndustry International