I really hope they build a publishing relationship with Nintendo/Sony.

The reason people don't buy Marvelous games is because XSEED/Rising Star cannot afford to promote/advertise them. It honestly makes me said to hear they are losing money because they make good, solid games. They just have to know that they cannot continue at this point without help from a "higher-up".

AND PLEASE DO NOT THINK I MEAN UBISOFT!

O_O

*Ordering 1m copies of Muramasa*

As much as I like Xseed for the games they published, they really did suck at both distributing and advertising those games.

Four Wii games this half year.

One poorly received series (Eldar Saga)
One not yet released out of Japan (Arc)
One niche (Muramasa)
One bungled cover art (LKS).

That sums up the problems on the Wii.

Mike from Morgantown

People need to stop blaming the sales of games based on excuses such as a game being 'niche' or 'bungled Cover Art'.  Muramasa falls under the same genre as Metroid and Castlevania, its not niche.  And the concept art for Little Kings Story is no different or obscure than something such as Katamari Damacy or Disgaea.  The simple reason these games didn't sell is because they didn't have good marketing (IE: any aside from limited online advertising) and were poorly distributed (were only available in limited venues such as Game Stop and certain department stores, but not found in most Best Buys, Wal Marts, Toys r Us, etc).

The simple fact is, hardly anyone is buying Marvelous games because hardly anyone knows about them.  Not because of things like 'niche genre' or 'bad cover art'.

This is very true, they don't get their money directly from consumers they get their money from retailers and retailers restocking, if you can't convince the retailer that you've got a good game that will sell, they'll buy a couple of copies for each store and be done with it, if you can't even convince them to stock it, then you've got some issues, cause they'll even stock rubbish games in the masses (there was this Christmas Minigame collection on Wii that was recalled due to not a single copy being sold locally and they seriously had 20 copies)

Show this to Ford, GM and any other freakin country that wants a bailout. Honestly for years those companies gave a big middle Finger to its American employees by shipping jobs overseas and no they want help from the very people they abandoned?

Jackasses


Good Job Marvelous

I agree that 'good cover art' is a lame excuse, I'd say LKS didn't sell because it's not as good as people on this site say it is. I bought it and didn't enjoy it, but more importantly it has some pretty big flaws that kept it from being both accessible, and from being what a mainstream audience would want from the game.

However it's not innacurate to call some games niche. Well loved by a small group, but with some big barrier to enjoyment for the rest. Being of the same genre as Metroid or Castlevania doesn't mean the game isn't niche (both of those series are somewhat niche themselves though, they're certainly not 'mainstream'). The content and appeal of the games are dramatically different, and 'appeal' is what decides if a game is niche or not. Both Halo and XIII are the same genre, but one is clearly more niche and limited in appeal than the other.

It's not only nice of them. it's also the most optimal way to go about it. Think about this. If they lay off large parts of their work force, they'll be able to produce less which in terms mean that they have to create games that makes more money for them.... Which then would be slower to make... And with a new series, you can never know how successful they are going to be.

So. Optimal solution.

By most accounts, Muramasa actually is doing well in the west. LKS seems to have turned around in Europe too at least.

ARF is going to do better than most expect I think. Ignition did a fantastic job promoting the shit out of Muramasa.