Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE performed as expected at retail in the US during June.
— ZhugeEX (@ZhugeEX) July 18, 2016
Around the 50k mark on Wii U, nothing amazing.
Digital sales of the game should boost that number above during June, but not significantly so.
— ZhugeEX (@ZhugeEX) July 18, 2016
The game didn't bomb at least.
50k sounds like bombing to me. Maybe they were expecting around that much, but that's less sales than average profile indie games. It's unfortunate, too, because the game seems fun and I'll definitely get it.
Considering its insane niche appeal by theme and the lack of an english voicetrack I think it doesnt come as a suprise to anyone. Low localization costs and no marketing at all will allow them to make them some money around the world.
Where do have the number on the average profile Indie games from ? I heared theis numbers are much much lower.
Since when is 50k not bombing?
Since it actually did same-ish to better than in Japan, and in America, Atlus games tend to be pretty niche first month (80-90k for SMT and persona games... So 50k is not that far...)
Since the beginning of the universe.
They comparing with other niche JRPG. They usually sell less than 100k overall. So 50k is less than a month is not bad.
Specially when you consider you can't really find the game in stores because Nintendo didn't send any copies to anyone. And the game had ZERO marketing (putting trailers on their Youtube channel is not real marketing... Nintendo didn't even try this time).
No surprise that it bombed. A game like this bombing in Japan was a good indicator of what would follow outside too.
A commercial would've been nice but this is what they were expecting since all we got was a trailer on the youtube page and no real coverage at E3. They can't be mad at these numbers. I did my part.
This game is really really good so it's too bad that there probably won't be a sequel with these sales numbers. I was expecting it to do even worse tbh based on how niche it is and how badly it did in Japan.
Sucks when good games do not sell well, regardless of the reason. enjoyed this game
To be fair, they didn't make any attempt to make it more accessible to the western market. The game is way too Japanese, so most people would dismiss it as too niche without even trying it. It would be nice if Japanese companies tried to make a little more "universal" art styles and the like. However, at the same time I don't want them to compromise their vision. I suppose as long as it's viable for them financially, it's okay even if the games don't sell millions, but unfortunately that means we won't get games like this with the scope and budget of the big AAA ones.
Nintendo has done that very well with their own franchises, they were never overly Japanese.
There is nothing wrong with exploring different cultures. One of my all time favorite games is The World Ends With You and that was super japanese imo. Not sure how that game dod now that i think about it... but Monster hunter seems to do well and that feels japanese to me
It's not way too Japanese and if people used that for a reason to not buy it, they're idiots. People love anime and Japanese culture in America so there's nothing wrong with this game. People love the two series that were combined in this game so I don't see why people wouldn't buy it.
It's probably because it's on a dying system.
Being on the Wii U is the biggest reason that it didn't sell very well, not only because the Wii U is dead, but also because people that buy Nintendo consoles don't traditionally play this sort of "weeb" game if you will. The game would be right at home on a Sony system. However, you might be overestimating the US anime market. It's not tiny, but it's a fairly niche market.
Needless censoring and overall lack of interest from both companies to advertise it made this game tank...
50k for what the game was and how it was marketed is probably better than they expected. That being said, everyone I've talked to about the game purchased it digitally, so I'm either surrounding by download fans or it did respectably on the eShop as well.
With sales around the 50,000 mark some would say that's pretty good for a censored game!-It's not.
Of course what's not taken into account (reality) is that the Wii U currently is going through a massive games drought, which you would think would at least generate more sales due to a lack of titles available, and that Wii U owners just wanting something to play. However with a lack luster advertising effort and needless Censorship that went into catering to and audience that's not there, you end up neglecting the one that is, the anime and J RPG fandom. And that fandom is a lot bigger than 50,000 on the Wii U. Frankly I believe money spent on the censoring of this game was wasted, and if it had been spent more effectively on targeted advertising, sales would probably be better.
In fact I even have an idea to resolve this issue, Nintendo in the future can capitalize on the anime fandom, niche titles they make in the future should be handed over to Xseed for proper localization, as apparently NOA, no longer knows what they're doing! Of course if anyone was paying attention that would've been apparent for the last five years...
People seriously think censorship lowered the sales of this? How many people do you think care enough to not buy the game or even know about it?
Based on the number of articles about this game and the content that was removed versus articles praising the game just for itself. But it's not just that simple, you also have to take into account the advertising or their lack of.
Still, people that don't support censorship might still want to support the game, because, in the end, it could be a whole lot worse (like, not getting the game at all), and also it's not everyone that is against the censorship; some people might actually see that as a positive, or at least not care about it.
On the other hand, pretty much all the reviews of the game have been positive, with some being extremely positive. I think the game is definitely leaning towards a positive vibe overall, despite the cut content. The problem is that the game is too niche. Let's not use censorship as the excuse here, as we'd be pretty much missing the real reasons as to why it didn't sell great.
I agree with almost every think you've stated, in fact I'm going to support the game myself (granted when the fan patch is in a more stable version) in fact in my earlier post in the thread, I even stated the game is very niche and aimed at a particular audience, and that the budget used to censor the game would've been better spent on targeted advertising. Also I believe that these types of games that do come out of NCL and their Japanese partners would probably be better handled if they delegated localization, promotion and distributing to Xseed.
Now as for where we potentially may disagree, I do believe some people chose not to buy the game because of the censorship, and I believe some people bought the game because they were more comfortable with the game, because of the censored content, however any gains that have been made I doubt offset the losses. Which is a shame that people have chosen not to buy the game because of the censorship, as especially the patch does exist, and rectifies many of these issues!
It's pretty hard to tell if the censored content was "worth it" for Nintendo or not. I would lean towards it not being worthwhile because it also required additional effort by the art team (in order to modify assets) and in the end it was probably just a waste. However, if it managed to knock a few years off its rating (say, from M to T), then perhaps it was worth it. It's not a game that has all that much provocative content, to be honest, so an M rating would be uncalled for.
Maybe they shouldn't have censored a game that didn't need to be censored. Thanks NoFunNintendo
Oh yeah that definitely would have boosted the sales of the super niche japanese idol RPG.
I don't see why everyone keeps calling it niche.
Niche means that it's for a specialized market, not the overall consumer base. In the west, the Japanese idol and entertainment industry isn't popular. So the people who enjoy it are a smaller group of the larger base. So niche. It's not rocket science lol.
Yeah, sorry. What I meant was like everyone is saying that but where are the actual people saying "That's too anime. That's too Japanese." Stuff like that. I see people saying "This game might be too niche for Americans." but I don't see any actual people enforcing those points. Are you saying you wouldn't be interested in this game?
What I'm saying is that the game just didn't sell well but I don't see actual people saying they wouldn't buy it due to it's origins or what it looks like. I see people saying that other people won't buy it but I see no basis for the argument.
I do not believe anything this guy says. I've been to his twitter account and his blog and nothing there says this guy is an analyst. There are no predictions about game sales, no talk of trends in gaming for consoles or mobile platforms. No analysis of past console sales or past games sales. The only sales related info on his blog are financials released by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. Those are released to the public every quarter. I'll wait for Nintendo's financials to get the real numbers. This guy is not a trustworthy source.
I don't trust analysts in general. But do you really believe you will see different numbers when Nintendo is posting them directly? This Zhuge guy seems pretty popular, I guess, he did not talked so much BS like Emily Rogers or Liam Robertson.
So, here is my personal view: 50.000 sounds decent, and I guess this is what it is considering the Wii U is dead like a doornail and counting the censorship madness in which was one of the main reasons I ignored the Game and I guessed, since this is a niche Game, a lot of other people have done it the same way.
Of course 50.000 sold copies so far is miles away from a good number. The Game bombed in Japan, which was quite the foreshadowing. I guess Nintendo made quite the loss with Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Just look at the edits made to the Game. For their stupid edits, they had to rewrite Dialogues, call the developer to re-program the new Outfits (also designing the new fugly Outfits) and, most likely the most expensive part, get many of the Voice Actors back to re-record 300 Lines of Dialogue to fit the new cesnsored/edited (call it what you want) Script. No one can tell me that this release paid off in any way for the Company.
Anyway. I think, a Sequel is still possibly on NX. Maybe an NX Version with more or even restored content for the West? Go for it, Nintendo, show us you learned something from your mistakes.
