I don't really see it crazy, Nocturne focused on the atmosphere much more than SMTIV. The crazy thing would be if the atmosphere was better or rivaled that of Nocturne.
Like Strange Journey or SMT2
?
You may want to read Victor Ireland's post in the Summon Night 5 thread about the EU publishing red tape. It sounds pretty complicated.
Will do, thanks. Might be interesting even if it's nothing new.
A lot worse? The Atlus situation is far from ideal in Europe, but these days it usually takes around 3 to 6 months for an Atlus-published game to come over (most of the via NISA). If Apocalypse releases in September/October in the US, then a EU release in February 2017 would be par of the course. I wouldn't call that
a lot worse than November, but, hey, maybe my judgement is clouded by the utterly awful situation Europeans had a couple years ago. Compared to the past, we're living in heaven right now.
Atlus USA-published games of the last year with US and EU dates:
- Odin Sphere: June 7th (US), June 24th (EU)
- Stella Glow: Nov 17th 2015 (US), Mar 11th 2016 (EU)
- Legend of Legacy: Oct 13th 2015 (US), Feb 5th 2016 (EU)
- Etrian Untold 2: Aug 4th (US), Feb 12th (EU)
- Lost Dimension: July 28th (US), August 28th (EU)
- Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker: May 5th (US), Oct 30th (EU)
- Etrian Dungeon: Apr 7th (US), Sep 11th (EU)
Of course, there's SMTIV which took an eternity to get a European release, but that's the one big exception of the rule, which shouldn't be used as a generalization for future releases. Especially since signs point to there being a publishing deal that eventually fell through.
As a bonus: Persona release dates. I list them separately, though, since these days they get released much quicker in Europe, because - duh - it's Persona. These games sell pretty well. So, I wouldn't base an estimate on Apocalypse's release on those games, but it's possible.
- Persona Q: Nov 25th 2014 (US), Nov 28th 2014 (EU)
- Persona Dancing: Sep 29th 2015 (US), Nov 9th (EU)
- Persona Arena Ultimax: Sep 30th 2014 (US), Nov 21th 2014 (EU)
Eh. NISA and Koei Tecmo show that it's easily possible to release JRPGs in Europe and the US at roughly the same time (as in: a couple days later). Atlus doesn't have a proper presence in Europe, though, and thus is dependent on whatever free spot other publishers (usually NISA) can/want to give them. Among other things.
We could talk about Persona 4 Arena, the only PS3 game region locked and that took a year-long delay to come here, or SMT
SO, that took nearly two years.
Obviously, while it's not as bad as the DS generation, 3-6 months (if you look at recent games, it's closer to 6 than 3, and by far) is still pretty bad in this age.
Nobody is really asking or expecting a week delay for western releases (only NA/PAL here) like nearly every big publisher around. At this point when it's a month delay, like most niche publishers (which SegAtlus isn't), it sounds like an excellent surprise!
Seriously, even a two month delay would look reasonable compared to the current schedule.
With a publisher as big as them, it's hard to find an excuse for:
- Not having any presence in Europe
- Being unable to deal with european publishers, big or small, making every release look as if it was the first time they were working together
- Not even translating the game in more languages when the delay is longer (would make sense to have english only releases if it was the same month)
- Not even confirming in press releases that it's coming to Europe later. Not to say "it'll come in 6 months", but not able to say if it'll be released at all, be it for their niche games or their big ones.
- Saying the situation is improving for Europe and they are working on it, but unable to show anything to prove it, or to talk about it apart from a "I swear!" comment here and there, amongst other jokes.
Seriously, I'm not shooting the messenger either, but if it looks like it, it's because this company really deserves it after all those years. It's hard to work on this, absolutely, but it's also ridiculous to see that happen time and time again in this age from something that is not similar to Nis, Xseed/Marvelous, Koei-Tecmo and countless others.
If an Atlus representative has some explanation or good excuse about it, sure, do it. Just stop saying something on the side and trying to get some pity, before having to repeat it every 6 months.
edit: to be clear, I'm not mad about this situation, just extremely disappointed and actually surprised this keeps happening. But hey, Atlus USA and Sega getting together was supposed to bring some good news? We're still waiting on the other side of the Atlantic.
