Have any online game release petitions ever worked?

[motley6]

I was reading on IGN about that big Policenauts petition campaign from a few years ago that got a bunch of signatures and a press response from Konami, and of course the big Earthbound 64 petition awhile back. I was wondering if any petitions have been fruitful in releasing or rereleasing games.

[chrisbid]

i remember signing one for square to release the SNES final fantasy games on the PSX, and it came to fruition. though i dont know how much the petition had to do with their decision

[zmweasel]

I was reading on IGN about that big Policenauts petition campaign from a few years ago that got a bunch of signatures and a press response from Konami, and of course the big Earthbound 64 petition awhile back. I was wondering if any petitions have been fruitful in releasing or rereleasing games.

Internet petitions don't work, regardless of subject: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.htm

-- Z.

[Tron 2.0]

Nopper most of the time.... japanese compenys do what they want.

We all know what happen when fans beg for Policenauts :frustrated:

[Keranu]

I signed that Mother (Earthboard) 64 petition once before about a year or two ago. Of course I haven't seen any progress on Nintendo actually releasing it out here for Gamecube or any other system. Yeah so my experience with signing game petitions so far now have been crappy, hah. :P

[K3V]

The petition to get Telegames to release unfinished Jaguar games after the demise of Atari worked. That's how we got to see games like Zero 5, Towers II, World Tour Racing and Worms.

[Keranu]

Whoa, very sweet.

[Ed Oscuro]

The petition to get Telegames to release unfinished Jaguar games after the demise of Atari worked. That's how we got to see games like Zero 5, Towers II, World Tour Racing and Worms.
Hmm, amazing.

I think real letters work much better, really. I'd write a few...if I really cared and stuff.

[Captain Wrong]

I think real letters work much better, really. I'd write a few...if I really cared and stuff.

Exactly.

I know petitions have allegedly gotten companies to do things, but I seriously doubt aan Internet petition has done anything. I think it's more likely that the company was going to do whatever in the first place, but the petition provided a piece of free publicity ("by popular demand...").

[grayrobertos]

yeh petitions are a waste of time, and make me angry when I see them on message boards. I motion for all topics about petitions to be locked instantly and posters flogged :angry:

[Vectorman0]

The majority of these mass petitions we are talking about are in regards to sequels or remakes. I honestly don't see the appeal of these at all. I enjoy a good game in its original form, and don't want some new game to muck it up. A few fanboys and a ton of free webmail accounts, and no reason other than the prospect of a little bit more money isn't enough for companies to do remakes. Nintendo on the other hand, has caught my attention, and probably many others, with the prospect of offereing games that would have amassed 5 digit sums otherwise for a small price.

In regards to unreleased/finished games (or stories/plots, such as Shenmue), it's a whole different matter. I can see how they are successful, or should be, in how the original projects had work, time and money put into them, but never had anything to show for it all, or had the privelege of a finished story. A book is going to be bad whether it never starts, or it stops halfway through.

[Push Upstairs]

The only time i have ever known an online petition to work was when people wanted the "Willy Wonka & the Choclate Factory" DVD released in widescreen.

[Crush Crawfish]

I'm pretty sure that there was a petition to get Castlevania: SOTN released in the US that worked. Something similar might have been done for Megaman X4, though I'm not sure.

[Cav]

I despise online petitions. Except this one: http://tinyurl.com/62cz3

[Berty]

There have been recent dreamcast petitions that worked, but as previously mentioned, it may have happened anyway without the petition.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm pretty sure that there was a petition to get Castlevania: SOTN released in the US that worked.
What? Haha, you don't really believe it was a petition that did it, do you?

...well, maybe you do.

Hell, we need to get SotN released for the Game.com!

[stressboy]

How many petitions have been created to have Sega rerelease Rez? Sadly, they never work and I still have not played this game
:(

[Neil Koch]

I helped run a site that was against how Miramax screws up the foreign movies they buy and release in the US and we had an online petition. I'm pretty sure it had no effect on their practices, but it was funny seeing their press relases for the US version of Shaolin Soccer that had quotes like "uncut... as demanded by fans all over the internet!"

Seriously, though, companies pay very little attention to online petitions... it's just far too easy to do fake/"joke" entries....

[evildead2099]

Let's start an online petition for Nintendo to re-market the Virtual Boy :P

[Mayhem]

I'm fairly sure that Animal Crossing was eventually released in Europe after quite a bit of correspondance and "pressure". Certainly that's the only one that springs to mind where there was sufficient interest to make it happen here.

[sharp]

I'm fairly sure that Animal Crossing was eventually released in Europe after quite a bit of correspondance and "pressure". Certainly that's the only one that springs to mind where there was sufficient interest to make it happen here.

I think the main reason Animal Crossing was released in the end was the fact it was getting lots of positive attention in magazines and I even saw gamstores storing Australian version which sold well. I think that was the reason for the release.

About online petition, they may work for some small companies, but certainly not for the bigger ones.

[Sylentwulf]

How many petitions have been created to have Sega rerelease Rez? Sadly, they never work and I still have not played this game
:(

Rez WAS re-released at least once that I know of, has the price really gone back up on this game AGAIN?

[SamuraiSmurfette]

it wasn't re-released so much as Sega found some leftover copies, and sold through them (in a very short amount of time) No true re-release.

[googlefest1]

what i heared about petitioning was that the internet ones don't work as well but help. people have told me that if you want to pettionfor something you have to do a letter campaign - that is snail mail
suposedly they count the letters they get and store them at least for a little while (some suposed reason they have to). suposedly they feel that mailled in letters are more real or count more as if a real person sent it. unlike internet where many people can just make up accounts and post a hundered times.

so if any of you in the future want to request a company do something then i would use the internet to organize a letter writing campain. i would expect more of a response that way.

you would have to find out the address of the head quaters and the name of the president and send him/her the mail.

suposedly letter writing campaings worked for the startrek fans, buffy the vampire slayer fans, farscape fans, some other shows. granted those are all tv shows but id think it could work for game companies as well.

physical letters are more real than electrons on the internet.

[Sylentwulf]

it wasn't re-released so much as Sega found some leftover copies, and sold through them (in a very short amount of time) No true re-release.

Ah, wasn't sure if that was the case, my bad :)

[Promophile]

The Kite Uncut petition at animeprime is credited as the reason why Kite: Directors cut (still cut) and later Kite Uncut (finnaly a totally uncut version) were released.