Level 5 : JRPG's LOOSING Momentum in Japan, FF13 can HELP JRPG's in west!

[outlawauron]

loves2splooge said:

The PS3 has been starved of big jrpg IPs up until this point, that is true. They either went to another console (first in the case of ToV and SO4), went to handhelds or dissappeared. This probably explains why Famitsu predicts low figures for FFXIII (1.5m while FF13 did 2.42m in Japan). But it doesn't look like the situation is going to get a whole lot better in terms of getting big name jrpg IPs (aside from Final Fantasy and a late port of SO4 which won't sell much better than ToV did). The NIS and Dust jrpgs are starting to flood in but they were never more than niche even on the PS2.

A list of PS2 franchises that sold more than White Knight Chronicles (I think it's an appropriate cut-off to use since it's the top selling PS3 jrpg in Japan):

Dragon Quest - Nintendo exclusive
Final Fantasy - upcoming releases (FFXIII, Versus). Famitsu estimates sales to be much lower than FFXII in Japan. 1.5m vs. 2.42m
Kingdom Hearts - DS, no console plans?
Tales - the late port hurt sales potential (sold less than WKC).
Star Ocean - the late port will hurt sales potential (probably won't sell much more than ToV. Maybe less even)
Monster Hunter - PSP/Wii
Saga Series - ?
Xenosaga - ?
Valkyrie Profile - DS. No console plans?
Suikoden - DS. No console plans?

The rest of the IPs are too small to really make a difference so I'm not going to bother naming them. ie. Persona 4 sold less than White Knight Chronicles in Japan.

Resonance of Fate won't play much of a factor. Unless Famitsu is horribly, horribly wrong (their estimates were very low). And honestly I trust a Japanese publication's evaluation of the Japanese market more than the evaluations of gaijins who don't live there.

With the PS3 being starved of big IPs for the most part (excluding Final Fantasy), Nintendo home consoles being unable to sell jrpgs all that well since the N64, and the 360 having an uphill battle to face in the Japanese market, the console jrpg market isn't in a healthy state.

I wouldn't count WKC out for outselling some of those franchises.

It'll likely outsell Suikoden III (only needs 20k).

It won't touch Xenosaga Epi. 1, but it has already outsold II and III.

That isn't too bad for new ip. If WKC 2 is better, then I can see it doing even better than the first.