| Samus Aran said:
It is. Good sales increase chances of localisation. |
Not really. It doesn't hurt anything, but it isn't a particular factor in play.
Perceived market and potential profits are what will affect any localization decision.
How many resources is it going to take to localize a title? How big a market is it likely to hit in the west? What's the availablity of the licence to a third-party localization house?
If sales meant titles were getting localized, then many of 3DS' bigger titles in Japan would've come across by now (i.e. Puzzles & Dragons Z; Dragon Quest VII; Taiko no Tatsujin).
And just for comparison, here's 3 games localized by the same Japanese developers of the above: Ragnarok Odyssey; Theatrhythm; Project X Zone)
Note the Japanese sales of each of those games. None of them are anywhere close to the first 3, but they all got localized. Why? Easy titles without a whole lot of text. Worldwide appeal. International history for the latter two titles. Certainly not their sales in Japan.
