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Disgaea 5 Complete (Switch) hits 110K pre-orders in the West versus 20K sold in Japan

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Thanks to AniHawk for noticing this.

NIS America looks west for success as Disgaea 5 Complete hits 110k pre-orders in US and Europe

Disgaea 5 Complete is set to sell over 110,000 units in the US and Europe when it launches on Switch on May 26th, but publisher NIS America has said it needs to work harder to improve the franchise's standing in the UK.

So far, the game has reached 36,000 pre-orders in Europe and 78,000 pre-orders in the US, NIS America president Takuro Yamashita told MCV, but the UK has slipped behind France as the most profitable country in Europe for the publisher's tactical role-playing series.

"The UK has been historically the biggest market in Europe for the Disgaea series," Yamashita stated. "However, talking about Disgaea 5 Complete, the UK is not the biggest one [any more]. I am not sure why this happened. We really need to improve the UK situation for Disgaea 5 Complete.

"The best country in Europe is France because the country has been booming up with the Japanese culture for over last decade," Yamashita continued. "Another key factor of performing well in France is Disgaea 5 Complete's support for French text."

The US, of course, still remains the biggest market for Disgaea outside of Japan, with Yamashita saying it has "a larger JRPG fan base than any other country" besides its native homeland. He also says Disgaea is "one of the well-recognised JRPGs among such US communities."

Indeed, the western market is becoming increasingly important for NIS America: "The era is over for [Japanese games companies] to just rely on the Japanese market," says Yamashita.
"In order to make the NIS Group's consolidated figures better, our western sales is very important. While the Western pre-order units of Disgaea 5 Switch exceeded 110,000 units, the Japanese sell-in number on the game was unfortunately less than 20,000 units. We had predicted this would happen to some extent. However, we were surprised that the gap was much bigger than we thought."
Source: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/nis-...hits-110k-pre-orders-in-us-and-europe/0182373
 

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
Imagine how much better the sales would have been if it was one of Western Launch Titles, they had an English Version ready two months ago.
 
I haven't been following Disgaea lately, but this seems crazy good? It's hard to tell because it's global sales, not just U.S., but I though prior titles didn't do anywhere near six-digit sales according to NPD, especially not at launch?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I haven't been following Disgaea lately, but this seems crazy good? It's hard to tell because it's global sales, not just U.S., but I though prior titles didn't do anywhere near six-digit sales according to NPD, especially not at launch?

This is an astonishingly good result for them, yes, and tremendously stacked toward the West.
 
That's quite a drastic difference. Surprised it still isn't out despite being readily playable since it was fully localised already for the JP release.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Congrats and well done.

Does this mean the Disgaea discussion in media create threads about it's bombing mean the end of switch 3rd party support from smaller japanese publishers can end? I hope so.
 

Nyoro SF

Member
Is this the first time that a Japanese company has openly stated and compared multi region preorder numbers? That's quite the stark difference.
 

jonno394

Member
Will be interesting to see how the preorders relate to day 1 sales.

Looking good though. Didn't think this would make any mark at all if I'm being honest.
 

Soph

Member
So we can cross "Disgaea bombing" from the Switch chalkboard leading to no Japanese third party support according to some sceptics
 

dan2026

Member
It's good that more Japanese developers acknowledge the importance of the international market.
But also sad how dead game sales are in Japan these days.
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
Impressive - they have the market for themselves for a while and offer something diffrent than Nintendo with MK/Arms/Splatoon this Summer.

So...Oregano.

lol,

my first reaction.
 

18-Volt

Member
As I said before, this is indeed the best time for third parties to release games for Switch. Even a late port like Disgaea 5 is surprisingly successful, I can't imagine what a more contemporary and mainstream game would do.
 

Kouriozan

Member
but the UK has slipped behind France as the most profitable country in Europe for the publisher's tactical role-playing series.

Good, this mean more game will be translated in French (hopefully), it's why I skipped Grand Kingdom as it was English only.
 

inner-G

Banned
I can't wait 'till we get more JRPGs on here

This is a good start I guess, but I don't like SRPGs. Hopefully other developers/publishers will get on board soon.
 

Sterok

Member
Make that 110,001 pre-orders. Just put in mine. Heard lots of good things about this, and I do want a meaty RPG on my Switch.
 

Gestault

Member
Obviously this isn't true of every release, but Japan is a rubbish market, by so many metrics. The sooner publishers there take the time and effort to thread connections to facilitate getting a bigger cut of their own international sales (and actually leverage them as opposed to their being a begrudging afterthought), the better.

They have a challenging balance of maintaining their own distinct styles (which is still their livelihood) without being totally bone-headed about catering some aspects of their games to other regions. They need to attempt it on the publishing side (in terms of market strategy and streamlining localization) without forcing unwanted changes on the development side. Steam is making this so much easier than it used to be.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Oregano about to hold an L or something? What's he said?

We've had weeks and weeks of discussion about how Disgaea bombing on the switch means the switch won't get smaller niche Japanese games.

Why on Earth Disgaea was deemed as the primary factor I'll never know.
 
Good for it. My understanding was the game was pretty stacked to the west for the PS4 release as well. Guess us gaijin are just more down with the insanity that is Disgaea.
 

AniHawk

Member
I haven't been following Disgaea lately, but this seems crazy good? It's hard to tell because it's global sales, not just U.S., but I though prior titles didn't do anywhere near six-digit sales according to NPD, especially not at launch?

it's only sell-in, but as far as physical sales go it actually beats ps4 numbers in the us.
 

TheMoon

Member
yo, gaming company president. let me tell you a little something about France and Nintendo and then you'll maybe understand why the weight shifted for your game there ... (why do I need to tell you this, though?)
 

iiicon

Member
Imagine how much better the sales would have been if it was one of Western Launch Titles, they had an English Version ready two months ago.

Yep. I bought it the day I bought my Switch, because I wanted a game to complement Zelda and it was so simple to buy from Japan. Still, this is a good return, and I hope the future Disgaea games in the west (particularly their PC ports) see similar success.
 

t26

Member
Imagine how much better the sales would have been if it was one of Western Launch Titles, they had an English Version ready two months ago.

I don't see how it would do that much better. By May people are done with Zelda and looking for the next RPG.
 

jonno394

Member
Bomberman R and D5 looking good. D5 should have been a worldwide launch title.

Bodes well for USF2.

Nah this is the best time for Disgaea imo. People are finished our finishing up with Zelda and looking for a meaty single player game for switch now. Would have been drowned by Zelda at launch for most imo.
 
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