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I wouldn't go as far as to say that it will never receive that recognition. Xenoblade's only been around for ten years, which is still relatively young for a video game franchise, and there's only been three installments thus far. There's still room for it to grow and expand before we judge its presence in the mainstream.

Now that being said, I highly doubt it will ever be as successful as Mario, Zelda, or Pokemon. But remember that it took twenty two years for Fire Emblem to receive the attention it has now, and Animal Crossing has arguably just broken into the mainstream consciousness. Many franchises take time to build up a solid base of support, and very few of them have the same kind of instant appeal that games like Splatoon have.

I've only played XC2 and Torna thus far, so I can't speak for XC1 fans or Gears/Saga fans, but all I can say is "wait and see". Nintendo has already given Xenobade more attention in these past few years than it has to stuff like Golden Sun, Rhythm Heaven, and even Earthbound, and I believe it will eventually pay off. That being said, I could be wrong, as there's also a chance it won't pay off. There is definitely a market for Xenoblade, though, and from it seems, neither Nintendo or Monolith Soft are gonna be letting go of it any time soon.

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