Wii Owners Rain Challenge on Nintendo

[Macstorm]

North American Wii owners wish it would rain down all the RPG love that Europe is getting, so they've taken to the internet to make it happen. Will all this attention make a difference or will this forever be a sore spot for Nintendo fans?

Story

[Strawberry Eggs]

While similar, I'd say this is a larger movement than the rally to get Mother 3 localized. While a part of me wonder if Nintendo's silence on Xenoblade is intentional, I also know that even if it were, there's still no word on The Last Story and Pandora's Tower's releases. I will admit that if I were only able to pick one of these games to be released here, it'd be Xenoblade in a heartbeat, but I will and am still doing my part in the campaign. I will be sending out letters soon and have already pre-ordered Monado on Amazon.

[Macstorm]

As far as localization histories go, not hearing anything about The Last Story and Pandora's Tower shouldn't be shocking. Both came out this year in Japan. It's Xenoblade that just seems unlikely at this point and is the main reason I'm thrilled to see this movement.

[shoptroll]

Didn't Last Story crash and burn on the Japanese market? As in well under 1 million in sales?

I'll probably shift Xenoblade off my wishlist and onto an actual pre-order. Had no idea people were doing this, and if this is what it takes, I hope we see more endeavors like this. "Patronware" has been fairly successful with indie games, would be interesting to see the bigger companies follow suit.

[DarkRPGMaster]

Didn't Last Story crash and burn on the Japanese market? As in well under 1 million in sales?

I'll probably shift Xenoblade off my wishlist and onto an actual pre-order. Had no idea people were doing this, and if this is what it takes, I hope we see more endeavors like this. "Patronware" has been fairly successful with indie games, would be interesting to see the bigger companies follow suit.

If I remember correctly, Last Story also had some WRPG staples in there, so that may be why.

[Macstorm]

It likely didn't tear up the Japanese charts, but it did TOP the Media Create chart at launch with 114,722 sales. I don't think anyone ever expected it to hit 1 million.

[Severin Mira]

Maybe a good comparison would be Tales of Graces on the Wii, which has about 220k*. The Last Story is currently sitting with about 175k*. Pass on if that means anything though.

*VGChartz - no idea how accurate these are.

[shoptroll]

I don't think anyone ever expected it to hit 1 million.

For a game scoring 38/40 on Famitsu that's really weird.

[HJ+]

Maybe a good comparison would be Tales of Graces on the Wii, which has about 220k*. The Last Story is currently sitting with about 175k*. Pass on if that means anything though.

*VGChartz - no idea how accurate these are.

lol vgchartz

[Macstorm]

For a game scoring 38/40 on Famitsu that's really weird.

Thankfully, Japan is not NA where all games are expected to get a 90%+ and sale over a million or be considered a huge failure.

[Clix]

For a game scoring 38/40 on Famitsu that's really weird.

Not really... only a few series hit 1 million in Japan, and those are major franchises that have been around for 10-20 years like Pokemon, Dragon Quest, etc.

[shoptroll]

Thankfully, Japan is not NA where all games are expected to get a 90%+ and sale over a million or be considered a huge failure.

True, but I thought the sales performance was the reason why we didn't hear much about it over here. Although, looking at Blue Dragon's page, the game is tracking to beat that game's first year sales of 200,000, but that was the 360 in Japan. I thought the Wii was a lot more popular than that in Japan?

I guess I'm thinking the gaming population in Japan is bigger than it really is?

[Drav]

The Last Story was in development for four years. I would think that they were aiming a bit higher than lifetimes sales of 200,000-odd.

[TheBranca18]

True, but I thought the sales performance was the reason why we didn't hear much about it over here. Although, looking at Blue Dragon's page, the game is tracking to beat that game's first year sales of 200,000, but that was the 360 in Japan. I thought the Wii was a lot more popular than that in Japan?

I guess I'm thinking the gaming population in Japan is bigger than it really is?

The Japanese market is much smaller than you think obviously. There are only four series that hit over a million consistently in Japan as I recall. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter and Pokemon. And I'm not sure Monster Hunter can even be considered an RPG, not sure about that.

I think the 200,000 plus sales is a success for Monolith Soft. I believe the Japan market is smaller than the UK at this point so keep that in mind.

Besides Dragon Quest I don't think many jRPGs can/have been successful on the Wii, not that it's gotten many anyway.

[SiliconNooB]

The Last Story was in development for four years. I would think that they were aiming a bit higher than lifetimes sales of 200,000-odd.

I tend to think that any non-FF/DQ JRPG which sells over 300,000 world wide is doing pretty good. Since LS has almost hit 200,000 in its domestic market alone, that's probably not too bad. Now consider that it achieved these sales on the Wii which isn't as much of a core gaming console as the PS3. Now further consider that Wii games tend to have much smaller budgets than PS3 titles, so it doesn't have to sell as many copies to recoup costs.

[sabin1001]

I tend to think that any non-FF/DQ JRPG which sells over 300,000 world wide is doing pretty good. Since LS has almost hit 200,000 in its domestic market alone, that's probably not too bad. Now consider that it achieved these sales on the Wii which isn't as much of a core gaming console as the PS3. Now further consider that Wii games tend to have much smaller budgets than PS3 titles, so it doesn't have to sell as many copies to recoup costs.

Well let's say they sold it for $70 in Japan, that's like 14 million dollars. And they probably only get 5-10% of that after marketing, packaging, publishing, and retail cuts, right? That's not very much at all for a four year game budget.

[Macstorm]

On that note, Xenoblade only did 82,952 on its launch day before topping out around 161,161 and still got a localization (in EU at least).

[flamethrower]

Localization costs far less than actually developing a game though. Is that a myth or is it fact?
Once a game is already localized, releasing it in a different region is even cheaper than localizing. Is that a myth too!? It seems like a license to print money to me.

[SiliconNooB]

Well let's say they sold it for $70 in Japan, that's like 14 million dollars. And they probably only get 5-10% of that after marketing, packaging, publishing, and retail cuts, right? That's not very much at all for a four year game budget.

Honestly, I don't know how the economics work out either - but JRPGs continue selling in these quantities, and new JRPG projects continue to receive the 'go ahead', so I can only assume that they are at least finding a way to break even ... :/

[shoptroll]

Localization costs far less than actually developing a game though. Is that a myth or is it fact?

Presumably yes. You don't need an army of developers to do the translation work.

Once a game is already localized, releasing it in a different region is even cheaper than localizing. Is that a myth too!? It seems like a license to print money to me.

I'm not sure either. You have to pay for shipping and manufacturing costs for discs/cartridges. Also, promotional costs which can vary depending on how big a campaign you need.