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Persona 5 Japan sales. Best selling entry in the series for first week sales
- Thread starter Jimmyfenix
- Start date
We do have to consider that FFVII, a game loved by many in the west, also looks and got a story very anime-like.
Altho FF always has been an anomaly
I literally haven't seen anyone argue this. It's a strawman. Because people are saying—reasonably, I should add—that the Souls series has a more inherent appeal to the Western market than Persona 5's aesthetic doesn't mean any of what you're saying. It's not a black or white argument. Anime aesthetics do not prevent a game from being a success in the West.
Most of your statements have not been sensible.
The way people approach this topic, you'd think public consumption of anime is outlawed in North Anerica or something.
Hello Pot, I'm Kettle.
FF is FF, generally speaking, games like Fire emblem and other franchises in that sphere are all anomalies due to where they have existed for the most part for years
For clarification, i'm not arguing that guy's point for him against you guys. I'm arguing for the general sentiment that a game with an anime aesthetic has great chance of success with the right parameters. It would not have mattered what Souls looked like if the game sucked. So by definition, if a game is good, it doesn't matter what the art style looks like.
True as that may be, there's a reason games like Persona 5, Gravity Rush 2, Guilty Gear Xrd or what have you won't be touted on the big stages at an E3 conference outside of first significant reveals (ala Ni No Kuni II).
Whether the mass market would be receptive to those games or not, it's a perception issue. That's part of where the comparison to the Souls games comes up: that series' look is more conducive to the type of large-scale marketing games usually get in the West, while Persona's certainly isn't.
Trauma Team and Trauma Center were in house.
This isn't very far off from what I'm saying though.
This idea that an anime art style is automatically some sort of Achilles heel that Atlus will need to overcome is stupid. Period. There isn't much more to say there.
The game has had good word of mouth for months before launch and it's even better now that it's out. That'll entice people and that's before even factoring in whatever marketing efforts come and critical reception.
Either way, none of it is going to try to compensate for the game having anime art since that's just not something that's going to inherently bother most people. This specific art style, especially. It's not like the game bares any resemblance whatsoever to something like Neptunia or what have you and you don't need an interest in anime at all to see the game has a style of its own that it's dedicated to.
This is nonsense. That's your evidence of a perception issue? Not being in press conferences? Really?
That and overall marketing, yes. You're overestimating the audience for Persona 5 in the West as of now, when the game has actually barely had any proper English promotional materials as of yet. You call something like the Dark Souls games niche while comparing Persona 5 to it. How many copies do you actually think the game will sell in the U.S.?
The fact that you can't see that realistic art styles take precedence over cartoony ones in the West in terms of promotion, renown and sales is bewildering to me, but whatever.
Pancake Mix
Copied someone else's pancake recipe
There are exceptions to the norm, Final Fantasy from VII on being a lasting example. It's been so long since a new offline (sorry Kagari) main series entry that we will have to wait and see for XV, but on name power alone it could outdo Souls, an anime aesthetic or not. It will certainly outdo Bloodborne.
There's no clear line in the sand, really. While I don't expect Persona 5 to outdo Bloodborne in the West, it could be the #10 NPD revenue slot (as Bloodborne was the equivalent #10 sales slot) in the US it's first month. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems possible.
Because of a self fulfilling prophecy that has never been actually tested?
I can tell you why Gravity rush 2 is going to bomb: Cause nobody knows it exists. Cause Sony doesn't bother to even market it in a competent fashion, where people in the US have to wait months before they put old ass trailers up on their youtube channel at all. Cause Gravity Rush HD isn't even available in stores and you can only buy a physical edition from Amazon. Because they don't bother to even have their games hosted on E3 panels at all, as opposed to playing third party big games that can be at anyone else's show including the developer of the game.
Its the same for Guilty Gear. WIth Killer instinct getting big trailer at E3, it would have been great to see Guilty Gear on E3 at Sony's stage, letting people know it exists. I know huge amounts of people apparently were gobsmacked at the graphics on the show floor.
And that's a problem is what i'm saying. A lot of these issue are not because of the inherent trueness of them,but being something that has just been assumed and thus just is.
They dont invest in selling these games, games dont sell, they make up something in their heads about how that proves those games just dont sell in general, continue to treat them worse and worse.
As bad as those 'tests' Japanese game companies used to do, putting out entirely different games to 'gauge interest' in sequels, and if that fails, "whelp i guess nobody wanted a sequel to begin with!"
True. But DS was quite the sales beast, far and away the sales beast of the generation, and Wii was also relatively cheap; more comparable to PS2 than PS3. I think both these facts work against PS4 being the natural home.
That is, Wii was an SD console alternative with big base but handheld was still more appealing. 3DS isn't as big as DS, but PS4 is nowhere near its size and the cost gulf is bigger.
And that's what I've been saying since the start as well. And that's not going to stop just because the game is "Persona 5." This matter will also affect it—in the context of the Souls titles—and that's putting aside other titles that will have Sony's focus like Horizon.
Isn't this exactly what he's saying? He's saying it's a perception issue.
Man, this is one stupid ass argument. Professor Layton and Fire Emblem are anime as fuck. They sell a shitload outside of Japan too. Layton is above the Souls series, Fire Emblem is on par or a little lower. Persona isn't going to be anywhere near that anytime soon because Atlus isn't as big a publisher as Nintendo or Bandai Namco, and hence can't move stuff as easily in the retail channel. Even though Demon's Souls remains one of Atlus' most successful games in the US, it took a major publishing partnership for Dark Souls to really take off worldwide. That's the real bottleneck.
Well put. Atlus wouldn't have this issue if they were owned by early 90's Sega.
So...if Persona 5 is pretty successful in the west despite said adversity, do you think it will be treated as an anomaly, or a sign of a heart beat?
I guess so. I was sneaking around to my main point to intersect with his. My view is that being anime based isnt an issue, but the reluctance of marketing and other avenues to give these games the proper platform to sell themselves
I think they still would. As long as Atlus operates as an independent publisher, even if they are owned by a larger publisher they are publishing using their own brand strength and retail connections. This has a benefit in Japan, but it is a weakness outside of it. Atlus USA doesn't have the muscle Sega does, and Atlus doesn't have the resources to expand into Europe. Maybe this will change in the future though.
Related to what's being stated above, I think—unlike those who say it wouldn't have any effect—if Persona 5 were to be marketed significantly and efficiently for the English audience, it would have the potential to be a huge success. P5 will likely be pretty successful whether this would occur or not, but the fact is that it hasn't had that kind of promotion yet. I do think the fact that it's anime stylized has something to do with it not having a notable presence compared to other games in English Sony demo reels or stages and such, compared to games like "Days Gone." Same with Gravity Rush 2.
Like P4G, word of mouth will easily support P5 because it's, by all accounts, yet another quality game by Atlus, and this time it's one with their largest budget yet and on the PS4.
Hopefully you didn't bet much, lol.
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
He'll be rocking a new avatar very soon
ULTROS!
People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Is the Persona series the only Japanese series to have an upward trend consistently? From what I've seen, almost all JP franchises go down at several points
Its been on the up and up because we have had 3 numbered games where the improvements are very tangible for players, yet are still familiar
...The first three games in the series? Then again when those three games were remade?
Trails is also on an upward trend, but it might have reached the limit with Cold Steel. We'll see if it continues to grow with Cold Steel 3.
Well, it's more of a U shape, with Persona 2: Eternal Punishment being the low point.
This is sad because Persona 1 is shit compare to everything that came after it.
Well, it's more of a U shape, with Persona 2: Eternal Punishment being the low point.
So first week heavy; not a very heavy tail at all
.It's not super useful to treat Persona as one ongoing series with the same fanbase though. Just like how it wouldn't be very useful to take the overall Legend of Heroes franchise to chart the growrh of the Trails series.
Both Persona 3 and Trails in the Sky represented respective franchise reboots which turned into a new franchise replacing the original.
I'd say gameplay-wise, Persona 1 is better than both entries in Persona 2.
revelations: persona has the best story, setting, atmosphere, music, dungeons, negotiation system, battles, game structure, and portrait art in the entire series.
still on blackout for p5 though so maybe a couple of those category rankings will change!
That's fair. You can definitely see that the changes in 3 lead to increased awareness for 4.
Son Of Sparda
Member
I think that has more to do with the series being a relatively smaller/less appealing to general public Japanese game than having anime style visuals. They didn't do anything with Yakuza 0 either, even though that game has realistic visuals with more mature tone.
I have to admit that I was wrong when I thought it's Atlus's fault for not giving Sony Persona 5 materials to show in their conferences. Sony in general doesn't seem to have much desire to advertise their Japanese third party offerings, unless they are carrying big names like Resident Evil.
Perhaps, but with comments above alluding to games like Fire Emblem and its success, I think that is still part of a perception issue then. The "anime" qualifier perhaps expands into "flashy Japanese game" qualifier, unless it's a big name (as you say) like Final Fantasy?
And I don't know about the second one. We know very well how absolutely restrained Atlus was to show any P5 media before they opened the flood gates. Not having anything to provide Sony on the English side when they could have been willing to show the game off could have been a factor. I guess I'm thinking about how the logo was shown off at the PlayStation Experience and then how the game was never featured again on-stage.
I'd assume Days Gone and Gravity Rush 2 get focus because they're created by Sony owned studios.
You have to be an extremely well known name to get in there as a third party focus.
No, I'm saying Gravity Rush 2 doesn't get that focus.
ShirAhava
Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
Man has it really been twenty years since I first played Revelations: Persona ahhh!!! those are some great first week sales I hope this game lives up to the hype. Persona 3 and 4 were great for the time but disappointing compared to the original. Either way its amazing how this series has kept going all these years.
I'm tired and can't read.
But yeah, it's probably dictated on what they believe will push consoles. People who are interested in anime style games likely already have a PS4. Someone who would be interested in a big budget Zombie game might not have a console, or they might have an Xbox One.
Sony's marketing team tends to focus on "AAA Gamers". This would be someone who falls just slightly under the "hardcore" definition of a gamer but play more games than a mainstream consumer. They play big budget "tentpole" releases, don't view gaming as a hobby, but they're relatively well versed in gaming. They know what the big games are and generally go for those. It's hard to put P5 in that bracket. This group pushes the needle for console sales, as opposed to the actual hardcore, who already bought the console on day one.
The question for Sony is, is there a significant portion of the population who do not own PS4 consoles that they'd be able to attract to the system with a game like P5? I'm personally not saying there's not, but I'm just saying that Sony's thought process with third party (and to a degree, first party) games is that they want to show off what will sell the system.
Son Of Sparda
Member
I agree that it's a perception issue. The "anime" and "flashy Japanese game" are broad terms that people usually attribute to these kind of less known Japanese titles in order to dismiss them when they don't have much of an idea about what the title actually is. The "anime" in particular is used a lot when it comes to JRPGs, even when they don't have anime style visuals.
I think in that point PS4 was still solidifying its footing so Sony was much more open to smaller stuff like Persona 5 to get the attention of both Japanese devs and us, fans of their games. But right now with PS4 being as big as it is, I believe Sony doesn't see any reason to try to win our attention anymore since most of the Japanese devs have already moved on to PS4 and their fans have done the same.
In short, I think Sony was a lot more open about these stuff back then than it is now.
Trigonometrize.
Member
So Persona team's new IP, Catherine, can sell 260,000 in Japan starring a 30-something-year-old deadbeat set in America, but bump the ages up a couple of years in Persona and it'll kill the franchise? I don't agree that it's that crazy of a move.
Don't know if you've heard, but console gaming is going through a bit of a slump in Japan compared to the PS1/PS2 days.
Isn't Vita the anime game machine according to GAF? Anyway, anime seems too broad a word to use. I'd say the Otaku pandering is what may prevent it from mainstream. Waifu is a double-edge sword.
kunonabi
Member
Gameplay wise: P2: EP > Persona 1 > everything else.
Lord of Ostia
Member
I doubt it would kill the franchise, but the high school setting seems to be working for them, with both the Japanese audience and the Western audience for Japanese games. I doubt changing the setting and having the characters be older would appeal more to JRPG fans than the current high school setting does.
BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO
Junior Member
Just ask for a new IP with this stuff, the persona series was designed to expand the audience of megaten games, setting is really marketable in Japan. It will remain. Your best bet is to hope that the persona team does a non persona megaten game.