The strange situation surrounding Devil’s Third in North America

A few weeks ago, the status of Devil’s Third in North America was entirely unclear. Nintendo of Europe and Japan had both announced a late August release date for the game, but there hadn’t been a peep about what was happening in North America.

Rumors eventually surfaced that Nintendo had dropped Devil’s Third in North America, though another publisher could step in. That was followed up by a recent report from Siliconera (a site with a reliable track record) indicating that a separate company had indeed picked up the title, and there were strong signs that the mystery publisher was none other than XSEED – a partner Nintendo had worked with for the launches of The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower in the states.

We mentioned that Siliconera had heard about Nintendo not handling Devil’s Third in North America. This is something that Nintendo Enthusiast previously reported on previously as well, in which they wrote:

At E3, we spoke with a very high level figure in Nintendo of America about Devil’s Third, who will remain anonymous. Their quote on the matter? “We aren’t handling that game”. At first, I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but the more I thought about it, the more damning it felt. In simple terms, it appears that Nintendo of America will NOT be publishing the game here.

Siliconera and Nintendo Enthusiast weren’t the only outlets that had received similar information. We’re also aware of a writer from a well-known gaming website who was also under the same impression regarding the fate of Devil’s Third in North America.

Well before the drama surrounding the game escalated, one person who obtained knowledge about the situation – who wishes to remain anonymous – reached out to a top developer at Nintendo. This developer works with Nintendo of America on a daily basis, and said that the company wouldn’t be publishing Devil’s Third in North America. He compared it to a potential Disaster: Day of Crisis situation. That Wii game did release in Europe and Japan, but never made its way to North America.

It did truly seem as though Nintendo wouldn’t be in charge of Devil’s Third in North America, and there were plenty of signs that pointed in this direction. It was strange, then, that Nintendo responded to the speculation – something the company rarely does – this past weekend and stated that they are “excited to bring the game to Wii U and will have more to share soon.” So what happened?

We’ve heard that concerns about the quality of Devil’s Third caused Nintendo to initially drop the game in North America. While it was initially thought that the title had moved to XSEED, things supposedly changed following backlash from gamers. Nintendo had been receiving a great deal of flack when rumors about the company not distributing Devil’s Third in North American began to pick up steam. Because of what transpired, Nintendo is now looking into publishing and backing Devil’s Third once again.

I can’t say that I know for certain what is happening inside Nintendo. However, all of the information that’s out there – as well as what I’ve heard personally – suggests that the original plan was to have XSEED handle Devil’s Third in North America. In the end, perhaps it doesn’t matter as we now have absolute confirmation that Devil’s Third will be launching in all major territories.