g-value on 10 April 2009
Xbox 360 Holding Onto English Tales of Vesperia
The PlayStation 3 version of Tales of Vesperia was recently announced for a Fall 2009 release in Japan. This is more than a simple port of the game to another console with a few new extra features and characters. It will include a brand new character, voices in scenes where there previously were none (due to the expanded space on a Blu-ray disc), more Mystic Artes, cutscenes, and side quests, plus brand-new scenes that tie into the upcoming Tales of Vesperia ~The First Strike~ anime movie. However, these additions are a double-edge sword that is now killing Vesperia's chances of being released outside of Japan on the PS3.
These are the recent sales figures for the series in Japan. For the first five weeks, the Xbox 360 version was the worst-selling game. It even did worse compared to Tales of Symphonia (GCN), which had almost no RPG's.
In the last generation of consoles in Japan and North America, the PlayStation 2 was the king of RPG's, and that held true for Tales of. It makes perfect sense that Namco-Bandai would be porting the game over to the PlayStation 3, since many of their fans would have upgraded to that console. The Xbox 360 is notorious for being behind both the PlayStation 3 and the Wii there, so the PlayStation 3 would easily recoup any losses they might have incurred from the Xbox 360 release.
These are the sales figures for North America (only the two most recent games were included due to a lack of sales data). Excluding the first week, Vesperia consistently sold worse than Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (a spin-off). It only beat the Japanese sales figures during Week 3.
In North America, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are essentially tied --- there's not a huge following of PlayStation 3 owners to sell to like in Japan. The series is niche at best, comparable to a small but loyal Atlus-like following. It never surpasses the Japanese sales, except for Tales of Symphonia (GCN), which was due to Nintendo funding the localization and massive advertising campaign.
Look at the Japanese and North American boxart. Only the North American version includes the ONLY ON XBOX 360 logo. Even Star Ocean: The Last Hope's North American boxart doesn't have the logo, so Microsoft might have funded the localization of the game outside of Japan, which would explain why the logo was only on the North American version, and why it was released so quickly after the Japanese version.
Long-time fans of the series will remember that Tales of Symphonia (PS2) couldn't be brought over to North America because Nintendo funded the localization, thus the script could not be used outside of that console. This would require a complete retranslation of the script.
In a recent Famitsu article, Namco-Bandai stated that the PlayStation 3 version was in the works ever since the Xbox 360 version was released. The North American and Japanese branches must have been working together to have a near-simultaneous release on the Xbox 360 --- it would be odd that they would include that logo considering they knew it would be ported eventually. It could be considered false advertising, which could hurt them later on.
The additions in Vesperia for PS3 push doubts even further. Considering the amount of new voiced material needed, these additions wouldn't be a quick job in the recording studio. As the PS3 is region-free, with so much dialogue, if the English voice actors weren't available to reprise their roles a delay is possible, encouraging import sales. Considering this version could be considered by some fans as a Director's Cut, they would be unlikely to pay again just to have the English version. This could also cause an situation where the original voice actor for any given character might not be available, leaving them to either forgo voicing the extra scenes for that character, or replacing them entirely, causing even more voice work to have to be done.
These are the recent sales figures for the series in Japan. For the first five weeks, the Xbox 360 version was the worst-selling game. It even did worse compared to Tales of Symphonia (GCN), which had almost no RPG's. In the last generation of consoles in Japan and North America, the PlayStation 2 was the king of RPG's, and that held true for Tales of. It makes perfect sense that Namco-Bandai would be porting the game over to the PlayStation 3, since many of their fans would have upgraded to that console. The Xbox 360 is notorious for being behind both the PlayStation 3 and the Wii there, so the PlayStation 3 would easily recoup any losses they might have incurred from the Xbox 360 release.
These are the sales figures for North America (only the two most recent games were included due to a lack of sales data). Excluding the first week, Vesperia consistently sold worse than Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (a spin-off). It only beat the Japanese sales figures during Week 3. In North America, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are essentially tied --- there's not a huge following of PlayStation 3 owners to sell to like in Japan. The series is niche at best, comparable to a small but loyal Atlus-like following. It never surpasses the Japanese sales, except for Tales of Symphonia (GCN), which was due to Nintendo funding the localization and massive advertising campaign.
Look at the Japanese and North American boxart. Only the North American version includes the ONLY ON XBOX 360 logo. Even Star Ocean: The Last Hope's North American boxart doesn't have the logo, so Microsoft might have funded the localization of the game outside of Japan, which would explain why the logo was only on the North American version, and why it was released so quickly after the Japanese version. Long-time fans of the series will remember that Tales of Symphonia (PS2) couldn't be brought over to North America because Nintendo funded the localization, thus the script could not be used outside of that console. This would require a complete retranslation of the script.
In a recent Famitsu article, Namco-Bandai stated that the PlayStation 3 version was in the works ever since the Xbox 360 version was released. The North American and Japanese branches must have been working together to have a near-simultaneous release on the Xbox 360 --- it would be odd that they would include that logo considering they knew it would be ported eventually. It could be considered false advertising, which could hurt them later on.
The additions in Vesperia for PS3 push doubts even further. Considering the amount of new voiced material needed, these additions wouldn't be a quick job in the recording studio. As the PS3 is region-free, with so much dialogue, if the English voice actors weren't available to reprise their roles a delay is possible, encouraging import sales. Considering this version could be considered by some fans as a Director's Cut, they would be unlikely to pay again just to have the English version. This could also cause an situation where the original voice actor for any given character might not be available, leaving them to either forgo voicing the extra scenes for that character, or replacing them entirely, causing even more voice work to have to be done.
the Xbox 360 version will be released in Europe this summer. If the PlayStation 3 version was announced for North America in the next few months, how would the people who felt they got suckered into buying an "incomplete" version? Like the possibly voice actor delay, to maximize the sales of the European version, they would need to delay a North America version of the PlayStation 3 version, causing sales to go to the import version.
Namco-Bandai could pull a Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology and surprise us, but their attention would be better spent with either Tales of Graces or Tales of VS., both of which are trademarked in North America.
http://www.talesunion.com/news/articles/xbox-360-holding-onto-english-tales-of-vesperia
This was from Talesunion.com
What are your thoughts?
