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The ""Tales" battle for localization continues...


Blood_Runs_Cold

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Tales still isn’t here. It’s flourishing over there in Japan, though. Namco Bandai has still yet to announce any sort of localization for the franchise in the western hemisphere. Not even after our last article. But then again, we’re probably not important enough to change their minds.

So a second piece is in order. This time, rather than provide factual evidence about how many fans want to see the series have a future overseas, we’ll instead look at the games Namco Bandai has brought out globally — games that performed poorly.

 

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

PlayStation 3

Americas: 51,483

EMEAA: 80,820

Japan: 6,589

Total: 138,892 Xbox 360

Americas: 131,041

EMEAA: 71,211

Japan: 2,818

Total: 205,070

 

Overall Total: 341,962 units

Enslaved, a game that I personally enjoyed, didn’t quite meet Namco Bandai’s expectations. Especially considering the company called it the “symbol of the future of [Namco Bandai]” and their “equivalent of Gran Turismo 5 or Uncharted.”

 

It’s a shame that it only sold nearly 342k worldwide, but the fact remains that it did. Though, could a Tales game have done any better?

 

Tales of Vesperia

PlayStation 3

Americas: N/A

EMEAA: N/A

Japan: 349,925

Total: 349,925 Xbox 360

Americas: 251,449

EMEAA: 106,852

Japan: 186,539

Total: 544,840

 

Overall Total: 894,765 units

Excluding the PlayStation 3 version of Tales of Vesperia, the game vastly outsold Enslaved. With the PlayStation 3 version included, it more than doubles the sales of Enslaved. We’re not going to go into why Namco Bandai should bring the PlayStation 3 version of Vesperia stateside; there’s tons of extra content — enough to make playing the game a completely different experience.

 

Numbers don’t lie, and it’s clear that people want to see the game release in the west, particularly when a one-platform release in one country outsells a multiplatform release throughout the world (match up Vesperia for PS3 against Enslaved‘s total sales).

 

Splatterhouse

PlayStation 3

Americas: 40,719

EMEAA: N/A (for some reason, VGChartz doesn’t have this data)

Japan: N/A

Total: 40,719 Xbox 360

Americas: 58,363

EMEAA: 3,358

Japan: N/A

Total: 61,721

 

Overall Total: 102,440 units

I haven’t played Splatterhouse. I can’t tell you if it’s good or bad, but general consensus says it’s alright. The game’s been released in both North America and Europe, at the moment, and has only moved 102k worldwide — excluding the PlayStation 3 data for the game in Europe (its data is missing, for some reason). Let’s be frank, though, even with the data for both the PlayStation 3 version in Europe and the game’s eventual sales in Japan (upon release), I don’t see Splatterhouse moving anywhere past 150k.

 

Namco Bandai intended on selling a million units of Splatterhouse — which is 10 times what it did sell. If you think that’s ridiculous, the company predicted 700k sales for Dead to Rights: Retribution, which only sold 276,132 copies worldwide!

 

Tales of Graces

PlayStation 3

Americas: N/A

EMEAA: N/A

Japan: 281,210

Total: 281,210 Nintendo Wii

Americas: N/A

EMEAA: N/A

Japan: 219,914

Total: 219,914

 

Overall Total: 501,124 units

I don’t think I need to break it down for you. 500k is a higher number than both 102k (Splatterhouse) and 276k (Dead to Rights), combined. And these sales are only for Japan! Imagine how much more they’d sell if they release the game for the rest of the world. It’s a big world, you know. Vesperia did more in America than it did in Japan, meaning these numbers could jump to great extents.

 

Conclusion

 

Namco Bandai needs to change their ways. Where they once said that “to be one of the key publishers in the future, [they] need to develop Western, non-Japanese games,” they are now saying they found “the quality and development speed of titles made for [them] by the [western] studios to be lacking.”

 

I’m in no way “trashing” the underperformed titles mentioned in this article. Ninja Theory did a great job with Enslaved and I can’t voice a fair opinion on Splatterhouse. I’m instead trying to bring to light what the fans desire. Apparently the fans aren’t making it clear enough (this is sarcastic — check their Facebook wall, this poll, or this PlayStation.Blog.Share idea). Tales of Vesperia for PlayStation 3, Tales of Graces F, and Tales of Xillia would likely outperform what Namco Bandai is currently putting out. So bring them.

 

NIS America, XSeed, and Atlus put out niche role-playing games on a regular basis. Tales, on the other hand, can be considered above niche. It’s one of Namco Bandai’s largest franchises, up there with Soul Calibur and Tekken. With that, I close: if NIS America can localize games like Hyperdimension Neptunia and Ar Tonelico, then there’s no reason Namco Bandai can’t localize Tales.

 

Link:

The battle for Tales localization, part two

Edited by Blood_Runs_Cold
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Namco Bandai, one of the worst Western Publishers.

 

Ever.

 

EDIT: Damn I just looked at their Facebook wall, and boy is this saddening. THAT much attention from the fans and Bamco still doesn't know how to get their priorities straight? Wow. Just wow...

Edited by BreadSkin
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