Sure, but it's not as if Sega Japan didn't know what they were getting into when they decided to expand their Europe operations.
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An Updated Look at Japanese Game Sales on Steam [Steamspy figures - May 2016]
- Thread starter kswiston
- Start date
I think some of these companies underestimate the importance of a good port and not having a late stealth release.
Bad ports in particular hurt future releases from the same publisher, developer or game series. I think Final fantasy has suffered from this as well as K-T games. I see many people in threads say that they avoid FF games on pc because of FFXIII. I was hesitant to buy FFX/X2, i am happy that i did though and the port has been very good for me but i still don't understand why they couldn't make a pr statement at least one or two months ago.
Bad ports in particular hurt future releases from the same publisher, developer or game series. I think Final fantasy has suffered from this as well as K-T games. I see many people in threads say that they avoid FF games on pc because of FFXIII. I was hesitant to buy FFX/X2, i am happy that i did though and the port has been very good for me but i still don't understand why they couldn't make a pr statement at least one or two months ago.
Chairmanchuck
Member
I wonder why this happens, a bad port is bad desicion but at least it will cost less money to make. What is the benefit of not making a pr statement in a timely manner though? Sites will cover the news and word will have time to spread, there is like zero reason other than not bothering, unless i am missing something.
If reading those Sega/Atlus threads about Europe has tought me anything, it is that the three Sega 'divisions' could very well be 3 competing companies who don't give a fuck about each other.
Sega Japan reacting to anything that happened because of Sega Europe seems pretty unthinkable to me.
Your first two reasons sounds like the same one which is lower cost but would a tweet or a press release cost anything other than a couple of hours for someone already on payroll? I thought the cost would be insignificant.
GhostTrick
Banned
Just a bit of poking fun! But yeah, here are some games worth adding (many of which are roughly as notable as Ikaruga among genre enthusiasts):
Cave (published by Degica):
Mushihimesama - 24,034
Deathsmiles - 11,669
Pyramid (published by Degica):
DARIUSBURST Chronicle Saviours - 12,888
G.Rev:
Strania - 2,264
Dracue (published by Playism):
Armored Hunter GUNHOUND EX - 20,202
MOSS (published by H2):
Raiden III - 16,023
Raiden IV: Overkill - 10,275
It was 700k+ even before the free weekend.
It was in the range of millions during the free weekend , and then started going back to normal once it was done. SFIV was much more succesful than SFV and the fact that SFIV sold that much even though it was primarily a GFWL game. SSF4 though had all the users move to steam once GFWL shut down.
If the transition to steam from gfwl wasn't so bad, sales would be even better. I think it affected sfv sales on pc as well. The previous games having gfwl wasn't that helpfull either.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Grimrock 1 and many Japanese PC games have that "uniqueness" going for them that later iterations may lack. "Oh man, we're getting one of X here and/or on PC!!!1" may or may not have staying power 4 years and 10 similar titles later despite any increased excellence, sadly.
Something for everyone to keep in mind.
Plus Steam due to changing demographics/game venue choice/shitty economy/perception over in Japan means most Steam ports isn't domestic either.
KillerMan91
Member
Except if you are Rockstar. GTA V has probably tons of double dippers who already had GTA V on last gen consoles so late release actually netted them more money. I guess this is the plan SE also has with FFXV....
You also can't understate that both ports were really good with minimal launch issues (other than the few Dark Souls hiccups which were solved fairly quickly)
Sort of unrelated, but it's pretty sad to look at the Nekopara sales and compare them to Higurashi, Root Double, Gahkthun or Tokyo Babel. Even Danganronpa should be selling way more.
Depressing as shit, though I'm part of the problem
bought it on GOG instead of Steam
Abilidebob
Member
To be fair:
Rockstar did a tremendously good job with the PC port, so that delay, with the PS4/X1 versions at least, I think was warranted.
But would it have sold more if it was released at the same date as the current gen versions? Hard to know, as that would most probably mean a worse port.
I prefer infinitely more a dev that takes time with their PC port than one that rushes it with barely any optimization and QA work.
Of course, the perfect dev is the one that releases quickly and did a good port, but not many can do that.
PrinnyBomb
Member
Glad to see pretty high numbers on Recettear, though the tales and Disgaea are a bit low compared to a lot of the trash I see on that list.
Also those Trails numbers... Makes me cry, those two games blow most rpgs out of the water
Also those Trails numbers... Makes me cry, those two games blow most rpgs out of the water
CrAzY FiNgErS
Member
Yeah, it's a shame about Dariusburst's lower numbers, but I guess I am part of the problem. I missed an opportunity to get it cheap through GMG. I hope it goes on sale on Steam soon. Maybe it will be discounted for the Steam summer sale. All that DLC looks fun too.
As an aside to this, I thought it was curious that ArcSys had marketing in Japanese (and Chinese and Korean) along with English for the Steam release of Melty Blood: Actress Again: Current Code. Figured that was a bit odd, since most publishers don't even bother with authorizing a Steam release for their games in Japan, even if they already have a full translation. (SteamSpy says there are 930 releases on Steam with Japanese language support, which is... more than I expected.)
It turns out that roughly 33% of the game's buyers are from Japan. That is mind-boggingly high for... well, anything. This is a bit of a crazy edge case, being a series that has had a long presence as a PC game in Japan (going back over a decade) where the latest PC version previous to the Steam release was only available with the limited edition of an anime Blu-ray release.
I was wondering if there were anything else that was beyond that, and while searching that was is rather clunky (there's no way to get that data from searching Steamspy on the website or via the API, from what I can tell). However, I did manage to find that Darius Burst and Deathsmiles were at around 45% of their sales from Japan, which is just a little crazy -- but I could see it, given the relatively low numbers and how absurdly hardcore shump fans are.
It was a great game. I was burned by their second release, and from all reports staying away from the rest of their games was the best choice. Surely there's something like Recettear they could've translated instead of the garbage that followed.
Wouldn't be surprised if it's around a million, it was in one of the very first humble bundles and people are selling keys for it on G2A for 1 buck
Pellegri Testament
Member
Just goes to show that sex sells more than quality in the VN space on Steam. Teasing also doesn't go that far when you look at the later Sakura games or some of the other releases, people want the act and will pay for it.
Remembrance
Member
One of the only games in this thread I double-dipped on, and coincidentally one of the worst-selling on both platforms.
Senko no Ronde on Steam is never going to happen at this rate.
Yeah, those sales are such a shame. It hasn't moved much at all since launch, and whenever the game comes up I feel like I see a few people that otherwise like the genre that have never even heard of it before.
I bought it! Along with most of those shooters with low sales. Gotta put my money where my mouth is.
It's too bad that some of these great games never found an audience though. Too many games, not enough buzz I guess.
edit: I lied. I apparently returned Strania once I found out there was no way around the resolution lock.
It's too bad that some of these great games never found an audience though. Too many games, not enough buzz I guess.
edit: I lied. I apparently returned Strania once I found out there was no way around the resolution lock.
Frankly I think that title currently belongs to Square Enix (with Western franchises from Eidos Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and Hitman + almost all of their flagship IP Final Fantasy).
After the Sega group, I think Namco is a bit behind with Tales, Naurto and Dark Souls (sorta... but they'd probably continue their relationship with From after their multi-million partnership). I know they're also bringing on God Eater series, and their arcade classics. If Tekken/Souls/iM@S (lol) do the same they'd be above Sega for me.
texhnolyze
Banned
Now that you mentioned it. MGSV is such a perfect game in terms of technical values. They really are a bunch of wizards, aren't they?
It's such a same that the talents will be wasted due to the company's turn in business strategy.
GhostTrick
Banned
It's not unrelated, it's about price point.
It's usually 9.99 dollars and has been sold for sometimes less.
9.99 dollars is impulse buy territory. Danganronpa games are late ports of ports, sold for 30 dollars. In Europe, they're even more expensive than the Vita version on the PS Store, outside of sales. There's also the fact that Nekopara has been out for far longer.
Abilidebob
Member
Absolutely. Aside from a few wonky things, PP's PC release was pretty good. I got incredibly surprised and happy that they managed to push the release from 2 weeks later to the same day.
That game has been free or a part of some Humble Bundle like things so many times that I really don't think it's indicative of any kind of potential success for a (full priced) sequel.
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
Pretty disappointing numbers, really.
TC McQueen
Member
Compared to what? AAA games? Most Japanese games tend to be really niche and have shit advertising (at least for the ports), so them having sub-1 million sales is to be expected. The ones that do really well tend to be for titles that have a big cult following/hype in gaming circles and haven't been ported to tons of other platforms beforehand.