Xenoblade Chronicles coming to North America

Monolith Soft's Xenoblade Chronicles has been highly anticipated by a certain sect of Wii and role-playing game fans, but it was feared the game would never see a release in North America after Nintendo said it had no plans to localize the game. That has apparently changed, as Nintendo today posted new Xenoblade art to its Facebook page as rumors swirled that the title would be exclusive to specialty retailer GameStop.

A spy shot of what is purported to be a GameStop release list popped up on games forum NeoGAF earlier this morning showing an entry reading "Xenoblade Chronicles GS Exclusive" listed as an April 3 release. As if to corroborate the leak, Nintendo of America subsequently posted three pieces of concept art from the game on its Facebook page.

This latest wrinkle follows a fan campaign to convince Nintendo to localize and release three games--Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower--in North America, dubbed Project Rainfall. It's hard to say whether this is a direct result of the fan initiative, but it is likely to garner Nintendo some good will within the community.

Even if Xenoblade is coming to NA early next year, it's no guarantee that the other two Project Rainfall games will receive the same treatment. However, like Xenoblade before them, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower are slated for a release in Europe next year.

For more on Xenoblade Chronicles, check out GameSpot's review of the European release.

[UPDATE] Nintendo has confirmed the news and put up a product page for Xenoblade Chronicles on its North American website. The page lists the game as an April release and has links to preorder the title from GameStop and directly from Nintendo itself.