I think I can guess what killed Cing (aside from supposed delays).
Last Window (DS) sold only 40k or so after 7 weeks in Japan while Hotel Dusk sold about 170k+ during that same period in Japan.
Again (DS) was a total bomb in Japan. 1k sales week 1. Worse than Last Rebellion levels of fail sales-wise
And Little King's Story (Wii) might have lost them some money. Depends on their development costs. It sold 170k worldwide. It particularly bombed in Japan (20k... ouch). That's what you get for getting Marvelous Entertainment to publish your work. I like Marvelous and the quirky games they publish. They have some really bizarre weird games (Suda51 games immediately come to mind. And Deadly Premonition has become a hit with the 360 crowd. They've expanded their audience beyond the DS and Wii) and they also have their niche Japanese-oriented stuff (Muramasa, Rune Factory, etc.) But Marvelous doesn't know shit about marketing and getting your game out there. And they've been losing lots of money. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that Little King's Story sold poorly. Especially when there is a lot of oversaturation of niche Japanese games on the Wii.
Another Code: R (Wii) only sold 30k in Japan, much less than Trace Memory (DS)'s 120k. And Nintendo didn't do the sequel any favors by choosing not to localize it to the North American market. Trace Memory sold a bit more in NA than it did in Japan so that boggles my mind.
The sad thing is, The Little King's Story is often referred to as a bomb but it was actually Cing's most successful game in the last year.
Cing was part of the point-and-click adventure resurgence that happened on the DS and Little King's Story had it's base and was critically acclaimed so it sucks they are gonna fold.
If Nintendo of America chooses not to localize Last Window (I wouldn't put it past them. They ignored Another Code: R), Again (DS) may very well be the last english-language Cing game we get. It's coming out March 30th. So go play it. That might be the last we see of Cing. I'll be checking that one out. Hopefully NoA does localize Last Window though.
With Marvelous and NIS on the ropes and Cing going down for the count, you have to really wonder about the viability of producing niche games in Japan no matter what platform you are on. Even if money weren't a consideration (though obviously it IS a consideration), there's only so much time gamers have to devote to gaming. And when you flood the market with a bunch of niche games, you're gonna get lost in the shuffle. A bunch of these small Japanese studios can't survive. That's just the reality. In the west alone, it seems like there's a niche Japanese DS game (often more than 1) being released every bloody week. How are these games supposed to sell? Especially in Japan where the oversaturation is even more severe and the market pales in comparison to the west?
