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Nihon Falcom: "...many titles enjoyed better sales volume on Steam then PlayStation."

N

Nyoro SF

Member
So a few days ago in the Gurumin thread I got notified of an interview Windows Central did with Nihon Falcom's company president Toshihiro Kondo. However I feel like the interview didn't get enough attention because it was only put in the Gurumin thread.

http://www.windowscentral.com/falcom-gurumin-interview <- Link to full interview with all 15 questions

If you're a fan of Nihon Falcom and their games this is definitely an interview worth reading. For those uninitiated to Falcom, they've developed games for a very long time and were once a prime supplier of Japanese PC games, before they shifted all their work to PS platforms to keep up with the Japanese market. Some clips:

How did you start working in the video game industry?

When the internet was just starting to get popular in Japan, I ran a Falcom fan site. Through the fan site, I met a bunch of people who were passionate about games, and little by little I started to think seriously about working in the games industry.
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Please tell us about what you do at Nihon Falcom, and what games you have worked on there.

I work as the Representative Managing Director, but I also still continue to work in development. I have some involvement with every title as a Producer. Depending on the title I may also serve as director or write the story. I also frequently work on the game system.

I'm always deeply involved with major products &#8211; the Ys series and the Legend of Heroes series. I'm currently participating in the development of our new product, Tokyo Xanadu.
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With the recent releases of Gurumin and Ys VI, six of Nihon Falcom's PC games are now available to English audiences through Steam. As a whole, how well have your English Steam games sold compared to your more recent English PlayStation releases?

To be honest, we were surprised to see that many of our titles enjoyed better sales volume on Steam then PlayStation. There are some titles that did way better than when sold in Japan as packaged goods on the PlayStation; there are some titles that are worthwhile businesses based just on their North American Steam sales. Suffice it to say, we are very aware of Steam.
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I certainly didn't expect him to bluntly admit in an interview that Steam is a big performer over Playstation in the interview though for many of their titles currently on Steam, likely including the esteemed Ys series... and perhaps Trails in the Sky had better performance on Steam as well. I'm no Falcom expert on how well their titles usually sell even way back in the past.
 
Microsoft Chad said:
I didn't see that coming at all. Falcom is small to so they may start switching priorities.
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Doubt it. The article says some titles did better as a package deal in Japan. Whether or not they feel like taking the hit on packaging those titles or if those are comparable to the singular titles is unknown.

But more PC support is always welcome.
 
What's that? A starving market for these types of games outperforms one that doesn't give a shit about them? SHOCKER!

Bring your games home Falcom.
 
Suffice it to say, we are very aware of Steam.
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This makes me so happy, god. But let's see how it goes, every Ys title that's available for PC is already out on Steam, we'd need ports of 7(I know about the Chinese one), Celceta, and 8... which would be awesome!

I can also dream of Sen no Kiseki I-II on PC.
 
Sales volume is the keyword here. Revenue might be bigger on PlayStation. But Steam revenue might be a great icnentive to them.
 
I love that traditional console-only publishers are finally figuring out the virtues and benefits of PC releases. A bright future is in store, I think.
 
It's almost like they're hinting that there are more PCs out there than PS4s or something, crazy stuff.
 
All I want is for Falcom to do in-house PC development again (multiplatform is also perfectly OK).

And while you are at it, create another amazing fast-paced best-of-breed genre-topping Ys ARPG like Ys Origin.
 
Beginning of a new Ages...Tales of and co coming to PC is just the beginning. Nothing stops this train
LLShC.gif
 
TheSpoiler said:
Doubt it. The article says some titles did better as a package deal in Japan. Whether or not they feel like taking the hit on packaging those titles or if those are comparable to the singular titles is unknown.

But more PC support is always welcome.
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That's actually not what he's saying. He's saying there are titles that did better on Steam than when they were sold as packaged goods on Playstation.
 
georly said:
I love that traditional console-only publishers are finally figuring out the virtues and benefits of PC releases. A bright future is in store, I think.
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Falcom isn't a traditional console-only publisher, though. Until the PSP, they released primarily PC exclusive software.
 
KHlover said:
As long as they continue to put Ys titles on Steam I'll continue to buy them.
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Yep! GOG too, please.
GhostTrick said:
Sales volume is the keyword here. Revenue might be bigger on PlayStation. But Steam revenue might be a great icnentive to them.
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Volume is great too. Even if they sell games at reduced prices, there's the possibility they'll get people like me who bought Oath on sale, loved it, and then went on to buy games like Origin and Ys VI at full price on release.
 
georly said:
I love that traditional console-only publishers are finally figuring out the virtues and benefits of PC releases. A bright future is in store, I think.
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That's the funny part, Falcom was mainly a PC dev until the PSP arrived.

kadotsu said:
Your move Gust, N1 and Atlus (which will find a way to region lock on Steam).
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Gust seems to be having an awful time finding a place to release their games these days, I really hope they notice that PC seems to be doing wonders for Japanese games.
 
Really hope they start using Steam within Japan. Really sucks to see all of these Japanese titles come out on the platform but only in English or other languages and not be available for sale in Japan.
 
TheSpoiler said:
Doubt it. The article says some titles did better as a package deal in Japan. Whether or not they feel like taking the hit on packaging those titles or if those are comparable to the singular titles is unknown.

But more PC support is always welcome.
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Read that line again. "Did better than when sold as a packaged product. As in, the steam release did better than the retail release.

He still says "some" titles rather than "all of them", but every sentence in that answer is praising the steam results.
 
It's also worth noting that all of the Falcom games released on Steam so far by XSEED have been great PC versions. Since they were originally for the platform they have no arbitrary FPS or resolution limitations (I run Ys Origin at 120 FPS in 5k) and Sara did a fantastic job bringing them up to modern standards and including Steam features.

I'd hope that when other Japanese developers look at this success they also see that aspect of it.
 
Kintaro said:
lol Not at all. Falcom was a PC dev until the PSP. I'm just telling them to come back home. The sales (or volume, w/e) back that up.
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Do they? Give me those numbers, in Falcom's own country. Show me that their PC games sell better compared to their PSP, Vita and PS3 games.

In the West, the title might hold true, but Falcom is developing games for Japan and the japanese PC market is still a far cry compared to the western market. In fact, one could say that it's the reverse of your previous statement, japanese PC gamers are the ones that don't give a damn instead.
 
Zefah said:
Really hope they start using Steam within Japan. Really sucks to see all of these Japanese titles come out on the platform but only in English or other languages and not be available for sale in Japan.
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From what I hear Japanese publishers go out of their way to make life hell for Japanese Steam users. Language support as paid DLC, obscene prices and regions locks are common.
 
Well PC gaming isn't too hot in Japan so I doubt if Falcom would ever go back to PC as the main platform (and I don't think steam would take off in Japan either). But still they'll keep porting games to Steam more I guess.

Edit: Maybe I should have written that PC market as a whole is becoming less and less relevant in Japan :(
 
Wow, a dev that was primarily known for making pc games is finding success putting their pc games on a pc platform. :p
 
They don't have to focus on PC, but if Compile Heart can port Neptunia Rebirth to PC then I don't see why Falcom(and everyone else) can't do the same.

Durante said:
It's also worth noting that all of the Falcom games released on Steam so far by XSEED have been great PC versions. Since they were originally for the platform they have no arbitrary FPS or resolution limitations (I run Ys Origin at 120 FPS in 5k) and Sara did a fantastic job bringing them up to modern standards and including Steam features.

I'd hope that when other Japanese developers look at this success they also see that aspect of it.
Click to expand...

We basically have the best version of Ys I-II, Ys VI, and TitS, which is awesome.

Thank you so much, Sara ;-;
 
I'm not all that surprised. PC is the space where niche markets can actively thrive, and several other Japanese developers have already discovered this. Weren't Treasure developing a PC exclusive game?
 
Release games like Oath on PS4 and you'll have sales.

Focusing on PSP, while awesome, isn't the best business plan ever.
 
lazygecko said:
I'm not all that surprised. PC is the space where niche markets can actively thrive, and several other Japanese developers have already discovered this. Weren't Treasure developing a PC exclusive game?
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They said they were considering it... I thought. They've been dead silent since Ikaruga launched on PC.
 
Oneself said:
Release games like Oath on PS4 and you'll have sales.

Focusing on PSP, while awesome, isn't the best business plan ever.
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It was the right choice back then, Falcom would probably be dead if they hadn't done that.

We're getting Ys 8 on PS4 so it's all great, and because it's a Vita port I expect it to be 1080p/60fps.
 
This would be awesome, as long as they don't "target" what they believe to be westerners tastes when developing games as other companies have in the past.
 
Make some in-house ports of the PSP/Vita games to Steam please :D. I'd love to have Tokyo Xanadu on PC

kadotsu said:
Your move Gust, N1 and Atlus (which will find a way to region lock on Steam).
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Plenty of Steam titles have region locks already
 
Sir_Crocodile said:
This would be awesome, as long as they don't "target" what they believe to be westerners tastes when developing games as other companies have in the past.
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If that prevents them from going down the skeevy path that other devs are going down and Falcom is beginning to skirt, then I’d be fine with that.
 
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