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IAmCrimsonLegion on 04 June 2015
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DerNebel said:
Xxain said:
RolStoppable said:
Very doubtful. The series has yet to eclipse the 0.5m mark in Japan and that's where a good chunk of the sales are going to come from. You basically expect the rest of the world to add another 1.5m to the total, but Persona is too Japanese in its design to gain such traction.

When you have something like the Tales series (also features decidedly Japanese looks) not gaining much ground in the West in over a decade despite its more appealing combat, then Persona is pretty much a lost cause. The pace is too slow and the systems are too convoluted.


This but lets take it further.

STAR OCEAN is a Million selling franchise. It will at least sell a Million copies. That is not the case for TALES or PERSONA. I expect STAR OCEAN to sell comparable or slightly better than SO3 which is it at 1.79mill.

 Now if you expect P5, a less popular franchise then SO, to sell 2mill then you expect SO5 to sell like 4mill... I loooove SO, but it aint selling 4mill. 

Franchise popularity is not something that's static and with the outcome of the last games in both series (SO4 supposedly being extremely disappointing, while Persona 4 was hugely popular among its fanbase) it seems easy to imagine both games moving in opposite directions popularity wise in the last years. Just think about how much people talked about Star Ocean prior to 5s announcement? I only ever heard people say that 4 was terrible, not much Star Ocean talk was had outside of that. Now think about Persona. Atlus did a terrific job keeping that game in peoples minds over the years and actually expanding the game into other mediums to help its popularity.

In short: In 2015 Star Ocean is in no way a more popular franchise than Persona.


This is a great point. As far as franchise awareness, Persona has the ball right now. Star Ocean has been gone for a good six years or so and we will not see 5 for another year or so. The last entry was billed a disappointment relative to the previous entries. Contrast that with Persona, which has had multiple games over the past few years released to critical acclaim and moderately successful sales, with P4G reaching a million or so on a handheld that is not that popular. Persona right now is in a better place than Star Ocean is and has more franchise visibility. Sometimes, being fresh in the public's mind is all it takes.