New Xenoblade Chronicles release date

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 8 July, 2011

Launches two weeks early.

Wii exclusive action role-playing game Xenoblade Chronicles will launch two weeks early, Nintendo has announced.

It was down for 2nd September. It now releases 19th August.

Nintendo's Game/Gamestation exclusive pre-order bundle includes the game, a red Classic Controller Pro and a poster tube with three A1-sized posters, electronically signed by the founder of Monolith Software, Tetsuya Takahashi.

Nintendo said the pre-order bundles are limited. You know what to do.

Xenoblade Chronicles promises over 100 hours of gameplay. "Enjoy the freedom of being able to reach whatever you can see in the distance, exploring and plotting your way around the many quests," reads the official blurb. "Xenoblade Chronicles is a real departure from traditional RPGs due to its real-time combat and the freedom you are given to roam the seamless universe without having to endure random encounters."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 11 months ago

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  • abigsmurf #1 11 months ago

    May have to dust off my Wii to play this.

  • munki83 #2 11 months ago

    As much as I love the wii.....its just so blury :(. Will still play it though MH was the same looked awful on my tv played awesome.

  • Ror1984 #3 11 months ago

    Might have to spring for this bundle. At the very least I'll be getting the game :)

    @munki83 - Get yourself a Wii component cable, that should help.

  • KDR_11k #4 11 months ago

    I wonder if I'll enjoy the game as much as watching Americans whine over missing some games.

  • MattEdWithCheese #5 11 months ago

    Smart move, hopefully that will mean it sells better!

    @munki as Ror said, component is the only way to go on an HDTV, same with PS2

  • jimnastics #6 11 months ago

    I don't want "over 100 hours of gameplay"... that's too damn long, I haven't got the time! Anyone reckon the main storyline will be more like 15 - 20 hours?? Maybe it's the side quests that take it up to 100+.

  • vyseofhr #7 11 months ago

    I really want this but £49.99 is a bloody rip off.

    The 'bundle' is just getting rid of unsold 25th Anniversary Mario Classic Controllers.
    Edited by vyseofhr at 08/07/11 @ 12:17

  • Der_tolle_Emil #8 11 months ago

    Really looking forward to this. I'm just a bit afraid that this will not sell all that well and it will be another bad example why JRPGs do not sell. I say bad example because the release date is a bit weird, years after the original release in Japan and the Wii is practically dead. Who knows, maybe having no other releases at all for months will make people rush out to get it - I know I will.

  • Kikizosan #9 11 months ago

    Developer estimated play length is typically an overestimate, in my experience. Also, if you've played plenty of games in the same genre, you'll get through it faster. I would imagine too that, yes, a portion of that time will go to optional side quests.

    So, if you want to just blitz through the story, you could prolly do so in around, what, 50 hours? Total guess.

    But then, if you don't want a long game, do you really want to be playing any sort of RPG?

  • Daeltaja #10 11 months ago

    Excellent, releases on the day I get home from a 2 week holiday. Perfect remedy!

    I too have the same problem as munki83, yet I run the Wii through a HDTV using component cable. It's terribly blurry. Strangely, if I run the Wii through an old CRT with scart cable, the image quality is incredibly sharp =/

    Anyway, YIPEE!

  • Cappy #11 11 months ago

    It's difficult to reach the JRPG audience on the home consoles since they've ended up distributed across three platforms in this generation with the Wii having the smaller portion of the audience due to very few releases of this type.

    Hopefully this release does well enough to demonstrate there is an audience to support more localisations.

  • tomjoadsghost #12 11 months ago

    Is the actual game a game group exclusive or just the bundle, i noticed that neither amazon nor play have the game listed.

    Zavvi do (for a good price, too) but zavvi seem to be long on promises but not so big on delivering currently.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #13 11 months ago

    Strangely, if I run the Wii through an old CRT with scart cable, the image quality is incredibly sharp =/

    HDTVs are not able to switch to a lower resolution - they need to upscale the image to their native resolution which is not an easy thing to do, especially because it needs to be done real-time otherwise you will notice input lag. Speed is more important than quality and that's why it's not looking as good as it could look - although even a high quality upscaler will have problems keeping everything crisp when resizing from 480 to 1080.

  • TearYouAsunder #14 11 months ago

    This is excellent news! September is incredibly packed for game releases as it is. An August release will allow me some (much needed) exclusive time with Xenoblade. Good stuff!

  • Daeltaja #15 11 months ago

    @Der_tolle_Emil

    Thanks for the clarification. The HDTV is only 720, but I guess its the same problem as 1080. Shame that, because the old CRT is tiny and downstairs in a comunal room. Might have to make use of it though, particularly for the new Zelda.

  • orangpelupa #16 11 months ago

    to keep the picture quality sharp, try playing on PC using dolphin emulator.
    in the youtube there many video showing Wii games got visual quality boost

  • Mr_Brown #17 11 months ago

    Done. Pre Ordered it from Game. The game looks great and it looks like a great bundle. For 49.99 for the game and classic controller is pretty reasonable to me, so I'm happy. I was expecting it to be more.

  • RustyNail #18 11 months ago

    Can't wait! Its release is on my Birthday too. I already have the day off work!

    As for component cables... Its what I use and I find it fine on my 40" HDTV. Monster Hunter didn't look as sharp as my xbox through HDMI but thats pretty obvious!

  • MrVengeance #19 11 months ago

    Pre-ordering this tomorrow!

  • Nevflinn #20 11 months ago

    Freakin' typical! Everytime release dates are mentioned, it's always delays, delays and more delays! I hope this two-week delay is worth the extra wai---
    ...
    Hold on Wesley, what did you say?

  • darkmorgado #21 11 months ago

    This deserves to sell well, if only to send a message to Nintendo that they need to stop their practice of preventing awesome games from leaving Japan.

  • cerebralbored #22 11 months ago

    @vyseofhr

    Were those red Classic Controllers Pros ever sold? I know there was a red Wii Remote Plus bundled with the 25th Anniversary Red Wii, but I've never seen any red Classic Controllers being released before.

    Also, I'm fairly confident that Xenoblades Chronicles will be sold as a cheaper standalone product without the controller as well.

  • Phishfood #23 11 months ago

    electronically signed = he signed it in photoshop before it got printed

  • Daeltaja #24 11 months ago

    Deus Ex: Human Revolution launches the following friday. Not passing that one up, but at least I can get a solid week of Xenoblade in. Just a shame it's not releasing earlier again!