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[Kresnik258]

OT: They weren't my favourite developer, but I've enjoyed various games they've put out over the years.

While I don't own a 3DS yet, games like Stella Glow are what I'd want to be picking it up for, should it ever get localized.

I'd be sad to see them go under. I hope this isn't true.

 

[AcademicSaucer]

JRPGs had a good run

 

[pastrami]

That's right, but those are the only 2 titles on PSP which didn't break 100K. Still, Final Promise Story did 91K, and Sol Trigger did 51K. Toushin Toshi did 22K, and Sonipro did 6K. I'm sure you can tell which are worse.


I may be mistaken but I believe their best selling title on DS was 7th Dragon which sold 137K copies. Not sure if 1 million is possible.

That's the joke. Niche games sell like niche games, regardless of the platform they are on, so it's stupid to point to the PSP as the reason for their demise.

 

[duckroll]

Imageepoch's sales history (Famitsu) broken down into years of release and platforms, self-published titles in bold:

2007:
Luminous Arc (DS) - 63,315

2008:
Luminous Arc 2 (DS) - 60,621
World Destruction (DS) - 93,104

2009:
7th Dragon (DS) - 137,857
Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii) - 44,863
Luminous Arc 3 (DS) - 38,535

2010:
Last Ranker (PSP) - 129,334
Fate/Extra (PSP) - 102,390
Criminal Girls (PSP) - 37,383

2011:
Final Promise Story (PSP) - 91,376
Black Rock Shooter (PSP) - 135,951
7th Dragon 2020 (PSP) - 153,752

2012:
Sol Trigger (PSP) - 61,320
Tokitowa (PS3) - 34,190

2013:
Fate/Extra CCC (PSP) - 98,105
7th Dragon 2020-II (PSP) - 114,353

2014:
Toshin Toshi (3DS) - 22,423
SoniPro (3DS) - 6,032

 

[Oregano]

Is it notable at all that both their 3DS games are other publishers IP's?(They both did more terrible than I thought too)

 

[ULTROS!]

I'm curious, though I'm not sure if it's banned to discuss the development regarding Criminal Girls Vita... Did IE develop CG Vita? What are its differences with the PSP version?

 

[Oregano]

I'm curious, though I'm not sure if it's banned to discuss the development regarding Criminal Girls Vita... Did IE develop CG Vita? What are its differences with the PSP version?

No, I don't think they did. They are also not developing the new Luminous Arc.

Kinda suggests to me that they burnt some bridges.

 

[duckroll]

Is it notable at all that both their 3DS games are other publishers IP's?(They both did more terrible than I thought too)

Well Black Rock Shooter isn't their IP either, and that's their best selling self-published title.

 

[Oregano]

Well Black Rock Shooter isn't their IP either, and that's their best selling self-published title.

Good point. I wasn't suggesting that was the reason they did bad, just that it might tell us something about their circumstances.

 

[duckroll]

Good point. I wasn't suggesting that was the reason they did bad, just that it might tell us something about their circumstances.

I don't think there's that much to it. Imageepoch has always been an opportunistic company imo, where they try to prey on existing trends and popular brands instead of coming up with something original and new on their own. World Destruction was "LOOK AT ALL THESE PEOPLE WHO WORKED ON XENOGEARS!", 7th Dragon was "THIS IS TOTALLY NOT ETRIAN ODYSSEY!", and then they had collaborations with Fate, Miku on the 2020 games, BRS, they went after the otaku market with stuff like Criminal Girls and Tokitowa, etc. So trying to make a buck off whatever they can even if they don't own it seems to fit fine with their MO.

Edit: Whoops, I forgot ARF in the chart above, just added it.

 

[Defuser]

Sucks that last ranker never got localised. I always wanted to play it.

 

[Oregano]

I don't think there's that much to it. Imageepoch has always been an opportunistic company imo, where they try to prey on existing trends and popular brands instead of coming up with something original and new on their own. World Destruction was "LOOK AT ALL THESE PEOPLE WHO WORKED ON XENOGEARS!", 7th Dragon was "THIS IS TOTALLY NOT ETRIAN ODYSSEY!", and then they had collaborations with Fate, Miku on the 2020 games, BRS, they went after the otaku market with stuff like Criminal Girls and Tokitowa, etc. So trying to make a buck off whatever they can even if they don't own it seems to fit fine with their MO.

Edit: Whoops, I forgot ARF in the chart above, just added it.

Well that is pretty brutal but fair. ARF was the same with Tales. Toshin Toshi is a very odd one though, don't think anyone saw that coming.

 

[mao2]

That's the joke. Niche games sell like niche games, regardless of the platform they are on, so it's stupid to point to the PSP as the reason for their demise.

Ah sorry about that.

Imageepoch's sales history (Famitsu) broken down into years of release and platforms, self-published titles in bold:

Thanks for the list duckroll. Looks like I got some numbers wrong, my bad.

 

[koutoru]

I'm not a legal expert but for games that were developed and published my Imageepoch like Sol Trigger, what would happen to the IP if they went under?

Would they sell it? (presuming anyone wants it) And what would happen if they weren't able to sell those IP?

 

[encephalon]

duckroll and I were debating making a thread about this about 2 hours ago, but we decided we were gonna wait until there was official notice since we didn't think anybody really cared about the company anymore. I guess some people care.

Frankly, this is probably the most disappointing fall from grace I've ever seen from a dev. Luminous Arc to World Destruction to 7th Dragon and Last Ranker and Arc Rise Fantasia... and then it just gets worse and worse and worse. So sad. They were not the savior of 'JRPG' like they were trying so hard to be.

Did they, though?

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

It makes me sad that Sol Trigger came out too late in the PSP's life to be localized.

There's a fan translation patch in the works at least.

 

[Durante]

Not even close. I think those who are actually familiar with their output would mostly agree that was the game which first soured expectations of what the company was. Overhyping and building expectations based on contracted art/music/scenario staff with good portfolios, only to deliver a shittastic game with no balance or proper game design. It was a poorly managed project which got really bad word of mouth.

I would say the games people consider better are the 7th Dragon series and Last Ranker, which sold the most and actually has positive post-release buzz, but Arc Rise Fantasia has fans too, if anyone bothered to play it.

I played Arc Rise Fantasia. It was much better than World Destruction, but still not particularly good. I also played Fate/Extra, and the only good things I can say about that game is that it's innovative.

Imageepoch's sales history (Famitsu) broken down into years of release and platforms, self-published titles in bold:

What seems really obvious there is that their last 2 titles underperformed horribly compared to their average.

Probably doesn't help that both are self-published.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

If this be an obituary, I'll be positive and say what's-his-face did do good in giving some income to shed-off developers from other developers shrinking staff, and that is very commendable.

 

[fertygo]

I want more Fate/Extra :/

I thought Nasu saying he already write the sequel.

 

[casiopao]

Mannn, this is such a sad news.T_T

Their output is also not bad at all which ironically many of their great game end up only in JP.

7th Dragon series is probably their best output for my taste here. Mikuuuu banzaiiiii.

Luminous Arc series is also a stellar series where it had fanservice but also good battle system unlike Compile heart.

The Last Ranker and Fate Extra is also good game with their own flaw.
Last Ranker with great gameplay but a bit just okay story and Extra with great story but sadly jankenpon battle system.

Sol Trigger and Toshin Toshi is also suprisingly great game + Arc Rise Fantasia except for Ignition super crazy bad VA screw up, is good jrpg.

Sadly, their recent Toki Towa is the worst jrpg I had ever played.T_T

 

[djplaeskool]

I'll be legit upset if this is indeed the end of the 7th Dragon games.

 

[Demonfang]

I just wanna say i loved arc rise fantasia ... It was like a tales game with an amazing turn based battle system. I enjoyed that boss fights were actually a challenge. There were talks of a sequel but hey don't think thats gunna happen.

Also the voice acting kinda grew on me?

Sands of destruction was decent except the battle system got kinda spammy.

 

[FlyingSaucer]

Those 7th Dragon sales didn't seem all that bad. And they are still closing down ? Damn :/

 

[Pennywise83]

The games published by Sega and Capcom were also the games where they put their best staff, and had the most buzz. ARF and their Fate games were also published by Marvelous. As a publisher, Imageepoch was never really successful, but as a small developer they had a pretty decent run in the first few years of developing their own titles.

So, we have to separate the two business models: self-publishing, and development for other companies. Self-publishing has generally been terrible: BRS sold well, but all the other games failed to crack the 100k mark, which is not bad per se, of course, but it might be bad if the company invested quite a lot of resources in those games. I remember that Final Promise Story and Sol Trigger where pushed quite a lot, and I'm quite confident they sort of bombed. After that, it was a downward spiral. As for those games published by other companies, well, most of them sold ok, but the last ones not so good. On the one hand, imageepoch was unable to break out as an independent publisher (too much risk involved and the inability to go on the niche route?); on the other hand, it seems that no publisher right now wants to fund their games (because of disappointing results?).

Ehh, their titles didn't fare much better on the more popular DS at that time. It's funny how you consider over 100K on PSP to be disappointing, especially without any source, yet totally ignoring the bombs on PS3 and 3DS which are more likely to be the cause of their situation right now.

That's right, but those are the only 2 titles on PSP which didn't break 100K. Still, Final Promise Story did 91K, and Sol Trigger did 51K. Toushin Toshi did 22K, and Sonipro did 6K. I'm sure you can tell which are worse.

208 PSP Final Promise Story 57,023 / 91,376 Imageepoch 2011-04-28

132 PSP Black Rock Shooter: The Game 108,716 / 135,951 Imageepoch 2011-08-25

274 PSP Sol Trigger 38,69 / 61,320 Imageepoch 2012-10-04

200 3DS Toushin Toshi 22,423 / 23,684 Imageepoch 2014-01-30

280 3DS SoniPro 6,032 / 6,032 Imageepoch 2014-07-31

Are we really singling out their PSP output as the culprit here? Especially considering the date we're hearing this news.

I'm sure there are a range of factors which have led to this, not least a general decline in sales of their stuff beginning on the PSP, but still...

I assume any losses from publisher-led titles like 7th Dragon or Time & Eternity would've been eaten by the publisher rather than Imageepoch.

And I'd guess that's been more of the problem for them. Less publisher-led titles for them in general these days unless you get in good with Bamco and make licenced stuff for them. The kind of output that helped them on PSP (bigger publisher original IP's) doesn't seem to be getting made anymore.

So much damage control.

We already talked a lot about 3DS imageepoch titles. I never said they sold well, but:
1. SoniPro was based on an idol of a music festival, and the PS3 games by Kadokawa sold abysmally as well (10,791)... Hardly imageepoch was expecting a lot.
2. Girls Gift RPG had an expectation of 50k; it sold 22k the first week, it might have crawled towards 30-35k, which is not that far.

My feeling is that imageepoch invested A LOT OF MORE in those PSP games, which haven't sold that well outside BRS.

 

[Kresnik258]

So much damage control.

I never said they sold well, but:

My feeling is that

it might have crawled towards 30-35k, which is not that far.

Are you joking with this post?

"So much damage control"

*launches into damage control*

The fact that your whole argument is based on that you "feel" this and another game "might have" that... I'm sure you can see the problem.

And you've got a point in amongst all of this, the PSP stuff may have had vast expectations that we didn't know about and that caused the early damage to them (as I said in the post you quoted).

There's a weird unwillingness to admit any fault from their recent 3DS performances here though, despite the fact that they've continued developing for a full 2 years after their supposed PSP under performances suggests something else is at hand here, and we've recently had two self-published games from them sell very poorly on 3DS. No matter how you spin it, they're definitely still a factor here.

Or this could all just be a load of hot air and they're just moving offices, in which case none of this really matters.

 

[Kouriozan]

Genuinely loved Arc Rise Fantasia, felt like a Sky of Arcadia spiritual succesor gameplay-wise.
Imported the JP and NA version (never released in EU iirc)
But then very few people know this game even existed.
So yeah, sad news

 

[duckroll]

Yeah Pennywise, I think you're off your rocker here. If they had a low 50k expectation for the only significant title they were releasing in all of 2014, and it couldn't even reach that, then it's an absolute failure. On the other hand, Mikage was pretty upbeat about the sales of pretty much all the PSP titles, so the only suggestion that they might have not exceeded expectations is... a "feeling", lol. This really isn't about platforms, and trying to frame it as "their PSP games might not have sold well" (when they did), and "their 3DS games didn't do that badly" (which they did) is laughable.

Or this could all just be a load of hot air and they're just moving offices, in which case none of this really matters.

Well, it's not just the lack of activity in the office location which made people wonder. Previously the company has had annual recruitment drives like any other growing developer/publisher. It seems they haven't updated their business site since 2013. No recruitment drive in 2014, none slated for 2015. There's also the ex-employee who said that last year they reduced their active development teams from two to one. Definitely a sign of poor health and decline.

 

[Pennywise83]

Are you joking with this post?

"So much damage control"

*launches into damage control*

The fact that your whole argument is based on that you "feel" this and another game "might have" that... I'm sure you can see the problem.

And you've got a point in amongst all of this, the PSP stuff may have had vast expectations that we didn't know about and that caused the early damage to them (as I said in the post you quoted).

There's a weird unwillingness to admit any fault from their recent 3DS performances here though, despite the fact that they've continued developing for a full 2 years after their supposed PSP under performances suggests something else is at hand here, and we've recently had two self-published games from them sell very poorly on 3DS. No matter how you spin it, they're definitely still a factor here.

Or this could all just be a load of hot air and they're just moving offices, in which case none of this really matters.

We don't know much about publisher's expectations, so almost every discussion must be based on how we realisitically think things have been. So, when saying that "my feeling was that" PSP self-published games had much higher expectations that, say, SoniPro is not because I'm unwilling to blabla, but because it seemed much larger projects in scope; I mean, it was imageepoch to self-proclaim to be the saviour of jRPGs. I guess they invested quite a lot (relative to the size of the company) in those projects with respect to games like SoniPro and Girls Gift RPG which, to me, seemed really low-budget.

Also, I didn't say 3DS games weren't a factor in all the debacle; they were, though, only the last straw in an already-complicated situation. Furthermore, I didn't even talk about the platforms themselves as the reason of the failure of those games. SoniPro was a bomb on both 3DS and PS3 (though different games), a sign that this IP is not able to attract gamers in any meaningful way.

In sum, it seems naif to write that "there's a weird unwillingness to admit any fault from their recent 3DS performances" because: 1. I said that those game underperformed (heck, it was me to post the 50k goal for Girls Gift RPG); 2. I said that in my opinion it might be that PSP games didn't perform that great.

Yeah Pennywise, I think you're off your rocker here. If they had a low 50k expectation for the only significant title they were releasing in all of 2014, and it couldn't even reach that, then it's an absolute failure. On the other hand, Mikage was pretty upbeat about the sales of pretty much all the PSP titles, so the only suggestion that they might have not exceeded expectations is... a "feeling", lol. This really isn't about platforms, and trying to frame it as "their PSP games might not have sold well" (when they did), and "their 3DS games didn't do that badly" (which they did) is laughable.

I'm not a native english speaker. When I said "my feeling is" I was meaning that "my opinion on the matter is", according to the data and information I read.

Mikage was so pretty upbeat about the sales of PSP titles (I'd like to read the source, btw) that all the subsequent self-published games were... A 2D sRPG based off an hentai game and a music-sim using a virtual idol created for a musical festival.

To sum up, in my opinion self-publishing didn't go well to begin with because of higher expectations on those titles, and then it was a downward spiral with other companies games bombing as well as the subsequent independent projects.

 

[mao2]

So much damage control.

We already talked a lot about 3DS imageepoch titles. I never said they sold well, but:
1. SoniPro was based on an idol of a music festival, and the PS3 games by Kadokawa sold abysmally as well (10,791)... Hardly imageepoch was expecting a lot.
2. Girls Gift RPG had an expectation of 50k; it sold 22k the first week, it might have crawled towards 30-35k, which is not that far.

My feeling is that imageepoch invested A LOT OF MORE in those PSP games, which haven't sold that well outside BRS.

OK.

 

[duckroll]

I'm not a native english speaker. When I said "my feeling is" I was meaning that "my opinion on the matter is", according to the data and information I read.

Mikage was so pretty upbeat about the sales of PSP titles (I'd like to read the source, btw) that all the subsequent self-published games were... A 2D sRPG based off an hentai game and a music-sim using a virtual idol created for a musical festival.

To sum up, in my opinion self-publishing didn't go well to begin with because of higher expectations on those titles, and then it was a downward spiral with other companies games bombing as well as the subsequent independent projects.

Do you really think they shifted from PSP to 3DS because of poor PSP sales? They made PSP games from 2010 to 2013. Four full years of support, with most of them selling over 100k. Wouldn't the more reasonable explanation be that having reached the end of the PSP lifespan, they were looking to jump on a new platform, and picked the 3DS over the Vita because it was closer to the PSP in spec and had a much larger userbase?

Toshin Toshi isn't a cheap low budget game by any means. I'm not sure what you mean by "3D SRPG based off an hentai game", because the game itself is in full 3D, just like 7th Dragon 2020. It's not a SRPG either. It's a normal RPG with dungeon exploration and battles. The battles are in 2D, and are a little cheap, but the game also has tons of voice. The production values seem higher than Criminal Girls.

It's really strange to point to the PSP line-up as Imageepoch's weak point when it was clearly their strong point business wise. If anything, what probably tanked the company was the sales of Tokitowa and the 3DS titles, along with what might have been an ongoing talent exodus when people realized the company had no future. You need talented staff to make games which can sell, and after Niinou left, it just didn't seem like they were able to create new hits anymore.

As for sources, I think most of his comments were made on Twitter, and what I specifically remember are those around the time after the release of Last Ranker and after the release of Black Rock Shooter. Those were big milestones for Mikage and he believed that the studio was on the up and up because it looked like they were climbing from sub-100k to >100k, and crawling towards being able to ship almost 200k for big new title. Of course, after that Niinou left, and that was that.

 

[Pennywise83]

Do you really think they shifted from PSP to 3DS because of poor PSP sales?

I never said that. Of course they had to shift from PSP to somewhere else; PSP was starting to die in late 2011, software-wise. Given their size, 3DS seems the logical place where to go, maybe along with PSV.

They made PSP games from 2010 to 2013. Four full years of support, with most of them selling over 100k. Wouldn't the more reasonable explanation be that having reached the end of the PSP lifespan, they were looking to jump on a new platform, and picked the 3DS over the Vita because it was closer to the PSP in spec and had a much larger userbase?

If we're talking about independent PSP projects (since the platform choice is mainly done by the publisher, so I don't think it was really imageepoch to choose PSP for the 7th Dragon reboot), imageepoch announced basically all of them in Nov. 2010 (Final Promise Story and BRS, and 4 mystery titles among which there was probably Sol Trigger). The decision to stick with PSP was made before all of those games were released, hence even if they have underperformed, the publisher had somewhat to stick to that very platform.

As for what you're saying, of course at some time imageepoch had to shift. This has nothing to do with how PSP games performed.

Toshin Toshi isn't a cheap low budget game by any means. I'm not sure what you mean by "3D SRPG based off an hentai game", because the game itself is in full 3D, just like 7th Dragon 2020. It's not a SRPG either. It's a normal RPG with dungeon exploration and battles. The battles are in 2D, and are a little cheap, but the game also has tons of voice. The production values seem higher than Criminal Girls.

Ok, I thought it was a 2D sRPG; it's not that cheap, but if their expectations were 50k units, I doubt it was a mid-budget project.

It's really strange to point to the PSP line-up as Imageepoch's weak point when it was clearly their strong point business wise. If anything, what probably tanked the company was the sales of Tokitowa and the 3DS titles, along with what might have been an ongoing talent exodus when people realized the company had no future. You need talented staff to make games which can sell, and after Niinou left, it just didn't seem like they were able to create new hits anymore.

I just said that probably also their PSP titles didn't sell "that well". imageepoch seems to have invested a lot more in them than in all subsequent independent games.

As for sources, I think most of his comments were made on Twitter, and what I specifically remember are those around the time after the release of Last Ranker and after the release of Black Rock Shooter. Those were big milestones for Mikage and he believed that the studio was on the up and up because it looked like they were climbing from sub-100k to >100k, and crawling towards being able to ship almost 200k for big new title. Of course, after that Niinou left, and that was that.

Weird, because no self-published titles shipped "almost 200k", and all the others didn't even crack the 100k mark. Maybe Mikage was not so informed about the business side of the company.

 

[crinale]

As for sources, I think most of his comments were made on Twitter, and what I specifically remember are those around the time after the release of Last Ranker and after the release of Black Rock Shooter. Those were big milestones for Mikage and he believed that the studio was on the up and up because it looked like they were climbing from sub-100k to >100k, and crawling towards being able to ship almost 200k for big new title. Of course, after that Niinou left, and that was that.

That was when ImageEpoch was on the rise, and they could rent and work the nice building. (You can see how their office used to look like at their official website.) Then later (IIRC it was like mid-2013) it was found they moved to the current location which is like 1/3 of their previous office space, so people started to wonder what's going on. The thing is they never updated their front page of official website so people never new they moved until later..

 

[Xenocthul]

That's pretty sad. I really like the Luminous Arc games and F/E.

 

[duckroll]

If we're talking about independent PSP projects (since the platform choice is mainly done by the publisher, so I don't think it was really imageepoch to choose PSP for the 7th Dragon reboot)

This is absolutely untrue. Depending on the nature of projects, it is perfectly normal for the developer and the publisher to decide where to put a game together. Publishers don't make decisions in a vacuum.

Weird, because no self-published titles shipped "almost 200k", and all the others didn't even crack the 100k mark. Maybe Mikage was not so informed about the business side of the company.

Mikage was talking about how their games now sell over 100k and how they continue to ship small increments weeks after launch. BRS very likely shipped 150k or more eventually. His forecast was that if it keeps increasing this way, they could have a 200k milestone eventually. Obviously that didn't happen.

He wasn't talking about just self-published games, but how the Imageepoch brand can sell titles in general. I think it's really funny that you think you know more about the company's shipments and their business operations than the guy who owns the company.

 

[R_thanatos]

i FINISHED TIME AND ETERNITY TWICE

i ...need to do a third run ...

The funny thing is that i totally understand the complains about this game but ..i still managed to enjoy it.

As for imageepoch i'm kinda sad..luminous arc was quite great ...

and that franchise will be missed.

PS: loved fate/extra , played that game twice , awesome.

AS for blackrock shooter as much as i wanted to love this game it didn't click.

 

[Takao]

I'll be legit upset if this is indeed the end of the 7th Dragon games.

I want more Fate/Extra :/

I thought Nasu saying he already write the sequel.

If Luminous Arc can outlive Imageepoch, who's to say these won't, too?

Sad, but Marvelous will buy the rights for Arc Rise Fantasia and release a sequel for the 3DS.

I'm certain Marvelous owns ARF. There was a time when I was convinced that game was going to get a Vita port. Muramasa Rebirth had sold very well and there was some seemingly random ARF movement with the 5th Anniversary.

 

[Shizuka]

That means we're never getting CCC.

 

[ohlawd]

I keep forgetting these guys were responsible for Fate/Extra. Loved that.

RIP

 

[Shizuka]

I keep forgetting these guys were responsible for Fate/Extra. Loved that.

RIP

F/E and BRS, two of my favorite PSP titles.

 

[mao2]

i FINISHED TIME AND ETERNITY TWICE

i ...need to do a third run ...

The funny thing is that i totally understand the complains about this game but ..i still managed to enjoy it.

As for imageepoch i'm kinda sad..luminous arc was quite great ...

and that franchise will be missed.

PS: loved fate/extra , played that game twice , awesome.

AS for blackrock shooter as much as i wanted to love this game it didn't click.

That's perfectly understandable. I personally enjoyed Langrisser Millennium even though everyone hates it.

I've yet to play Time and Eternity though. Bought the limited edition from Amazon Japan since it was heavily discounted, and even managed to get it signed by VOFAN when he came to Comic Fiesta, but haven't touched it since.

 

[L~A]

Imageepoch's sales history (Famitsu) broken down into years of release and platforms, self-published titles in bold:

2007:
Luminous Arc (DS) - 63,315

2008:
Luminous Arc 2 (DS) - 60,621
World Destruction (DS) - 93,104

2009:
7th Dragon (DS) - 137,857
Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii) - 44,863
Luminous Arc 3 (DS) - 38,535

2010:
Last Ranker (PSP) - 129,334
Fate/Extra (PSP) - 102,390
Criminal Girls (PSP) - 37,383

2011:
Final Promise Story (PSP) - 91,376
Black Rock Shooter (PSP) - 135,951
7th Dragon 2020 (PSP) - 153,752

2012:
Sol Trigger (PSP) - 61,320
Tokitowa (PS3) - 34,190

2013:
Fate/Extra CCC (PSP) - 98,105
7th Dragon 2020-II (PSP) - 114,353

2014:
Toshin Toshi (3DS) - 22,423
SoniPro (3DS) - 6,032

Not as bad as I thought (based on previous messages about IE game sales), actually. But damn those 3DS games sure "bombed" hard. Super Sonico sure ain't no Hatsune Miku.

 

[djtiesto]

Always sad to see a small, non-mobile Japanese publisher close their doors. Even if I have never gotten around to playing any of their games (7th Dragon really interests me, and I own copies of Luminous Arc, Fate Extra, Arc Rise Fantasia and Sands of Destruction). Hopefully this is nothing but just a rumor.

 

[Pennywise83]

This is absolutely untrue. Depending on the nature of projects, it is perfectly normal for the developer and the publisher to decide where to put a game together. Publishers don't make decisions in a vacuum.

I wrote "mainly". 7th Dragon on PSP fitted well the strategy of heavily supporting the platform Sega had back then (see Valkyria Chronicles, Shining). As for Fate games, well, it was either PSP or PS3, so the publishers surely had a word.

Mikage was talking about how their games now sell over 100k and how they continue to ship small increments weeks after launch. BRS very likely shipped 150k or more eventually. His forecast was that if it keeps increasing this way, they could have a 200k milestone eventually. Obviously that didn't happen.

He wasn't talking about just self-published games, but how the Imageepoch brand can sell titles in general. I think it's really funny that you think you know more about the company's shipments and their business operations than the guy who owns the company.

Ok, summing up: Mikage said that a self-published game found some success and games published by other companies succeeded as well. This does not say that Final Promise Story and Sol Trigger were successful.

I don't say I know more about company's shipments that the president, but at least I'm not as delusional.

 

[Takao]

I remember Imageepoch announcing a few non-Time & Eternity PS3 games. What happened to those?

 

[Aeana]

Always sad to see a small, non-mobile Japanese publisher close their doors. Even if I have never gotten around to playing any of their games (7th Dragon really interests me, and I own copies of Luminous Arc, Fate Extra, Arc Rise Fantasia and Sands of Destruction). Hopefully this is nothing but just a rumor.

7th Dragon has a completed fan translation these days, so I recommend checking it out. It's the best game Imageepoch ever put out as far as I'm concerned, but I'm sure duckroll will argue for Last Ranker.

 

[Zafir]

Did Last Ranker ever get a fan-translation? I'd imagine not, which is a shame as I always wanted to try it.

Genuinely loved Arc Rise Fantasia, felt like a Sky of Arcadia spiritual succesor gameplay-wise.
Imported the JP and NA version (never released in EU iirc)
But then very few people know this game even existed.
So yeah, sad news

Yeah, I rather liked it, the combat was very reminiscent of Skies of Arcadia. Unfortunately, the voices were absolutely awful, so I bet that put a lot of people off.

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

Always sad to see how one bad year can wreck a developer.

 

[Caineghis]

Its such a shame that IE is closing down, i loved luminous arc both games, i never had a wii so i never played arc rise fantasia though.

 

[-Oath]

I mean, I really didnt see them going far but its an incredible shame the company that put out greats like Luminous Arc, 7th Dragon and Last Ranker aswell as good attempts like Arc Rise and Sands of Destruction put so much money and effort into crap like Time and Eternity and Sol Trigger. Really wanted a Last Ranker sequel too. Fuck.
Hope they dont close down and actually get it together but lets be realistic here.

 

[hongcha]

its an incredible shame the company that put so much money and effort into crap like Sol Trigger.

Wat.