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[Aeana]

Well, I'm glad they went out and said it for the sake of those who wouldn't believe me when I said Sega was done with the PSP in the west several months ago.

 

[Takao]

Miku was big enough to sell out a huge concert in Nokia Theatre, hopefully her Vita version gets a USA release.

You'd think based on the growing attendance at anime conventions (yes, I know things have cooled recently) that anime was a hot commodity, while unit sales and revenue will tell you an entire different thing. People are willing to pay for experiences, especially what is likely a once in a life time one (like seeing the Miku concert), video games don't have that kind of pull. I don't think Miku, with the amount of music licensing, and Vocaloid fanbase would on any platform be a lock for a localization. Someone might try, but it'll be hard.

The other games don't really have to deal with music licensing, and are all from proven franchises (for better or for worse).

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

Hopefully, Xseed brings us THIS game and not yet another crappy 6-7'ish game from Japan.

 

[Paracelsus]

You can't erase history, VC2 was released and it was pretty good.

I was referring to the fact it is on PSP, it was obvious it would have bombed horribly killing whatever chance VC3 had to come stateside. Even publishers with "locked" series like Trails in the Sky are having second thoughts, figures.

 

[Aeana]

Hopefully, Xseed brings us THIS game and not yet another crappy 6-7'ish game from Japan.

Sega seems to have closed the door on licensing. I don't know what happened, but that decision, when it happened killed a couple of games that were in the process of being licensed to other NA publishers such as 7th Dragon and Shining Force Feather.

 

[M-PG71C]

Hopefully, Xseed brings us THIS game and not yet another crappy 6-7'ish game from Japan.

Hey now! They brought Solatorobo and they are publishing Grand Knight History early next year. They are high up on my "Fucking awesome" list lol

That and SEGA won't let'em anyway. I knew better honestly, the PSP has been dead and I'm surprised we got as many as we did this year. If this is where it ended, I would say considering circumstances, not too shabby. Not great, but thanks to people like XSEED, we got a number of them over. But that's me though.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

I wonder how you're gonna respond if 3DS doesn't pick up in the west.

I don't understand why you'd ask this.

The PSP has been successful in the US, just not in the last three years or so, software wise.

Sony put up enough first-party content for it to be worthwhile.

Nintendo will treat the 3DS the same, whether it "picks up" or not.

 

[randomkid]

Sega seems to have closed the door on licensing. I don't know what happened, but that decision, when it happened killed a couple of games that were in the process of being licensed to other NA publishers such as 7th Dragon and Shining Force Feather.

Seems to line up with what Tom says here.

I'm the resident PSP fanboy here, so I'm thrilled to have anything new on the PSP. Have you had any tough luck situations with attempts to localize other PSP titles? Maybe dealings that have fallen through for whatever reason (retailers refusing to stock, problems getting licensing, etc.)?


Tom: Oh, absolutely. Unfortunately, none of us can really go into any detail, both for the sake of our NDAs and because we don't want to burn any bridges. But if those obstacles weren't in our way, let me tell you, we'd have endless stories of licenses that fell through for the stupidest, most asinine of reasons – not just on the PSP, but on virtually every current platform! Games that we tried really, really hard to get, but just couldn't.

It's an unfortunate truth of the industry: You can't always get what you want. But sometimes...you get what you need!

It's easy for us to just yell at XSEED to continue doing the Lord's work for us, but the industry just doesn't seem to make that very easy.

 

[Pie and Beans]

Sega skipping out on MONEY by not bringing Yakuza Black Panther and Valkyria 3 digitally to Vita and PS3 via PSP Remasters around launch.

There'd need to be a real firestorm of new management, shake ups and re-structuring if Sega was to ever become more than a limping leper of it's former self again.

 

[charlequin]

Sega seems to have closed the door on licensing. I don't know what happened

An executive happened to notice the word "SEGA" on the sign on his way into work one day.

 

[Hcoregamer00]

Maybe I just browse fan enthusiast sites but I thought VC was a popular series here in America, we even got the art books, one doesnt release art books for an unpopular series.

I guess sales and reception for the JRPG genre is just down overall, they need a revival.

Hopefully SEGA in the west does bring out the Tri Ace rpg...Resonance of Fate must have done well afterall.

They released the artbooks for Ace Attorney and Ace Attorney Investigations 2 is not getting a USA release.

Valkyria 2 is getting its artbook released, and we all know how well it sold.

 

[ShadiWulf]

I'm saddened by this news but I'm not going to let it dampen my mood about SEGA. SEGA is doing a lot of things right this year. Hopefully one day they realize it could make some money by being put on PSN.

Time to go learn Japanese. heh

It really is too bad that SEGA West sees no good in localizing the game, but can you blame them if you look at it from a business stand point?

 

[Nocturnowl]

While this news isn't unexpected you can put me down as very disappointed.
Despite all the complaints I thought VC2 was a great game, the gameplay was still there and the limited unit numbers and leaping between map areas put a nice alternative spin on things.
The grinding and map repetition on the other hand were indeed negative points.

 

[Durante]

It really is too bad that SEGA West sees no good in localizing the game, but can you blame them if you look at it from a business stand point?

I blame them for moving the series to PSP in the first place. And I blame them for not considering alternative means of getting 3 to the west (eg. HD remaster, PSN release or Vita up-port). i don't particularly blame them for not doing a retail release on PSP.

For the record, I'm not generally "hating on" Sega, they've done some good things as a developer and particularly as a publisher over the last few years.

 

[Wilsongt]

Sega seems to have closed the door on licensing. I don't know what happened, but that decision, when it happened killed a couple of games that were in the process of being licensed to other NA publishers such as 7th Dragon and Shining Force Feather.

This one hurts because SFF was a really great game and honestly deserved a lot of love out of Japan...

Poor Flight Plan... ._.

 

[AleeN634]

I'm disappointed but not surprised. I hope someone else picks it up or Sega does a HD remaster for Vita/PS3 or something though. Valkyria Chronicles is one of the few jrpgs I really enjoyed this gen and the gameplay is still top notch in VC2.

 

[ShadiWulf]

I blame them for moving the series to PSP in the first place. And I blame them for not considering alternative means of getting 3 to the west (eg. HD remaster, PSN release or Vita up-port). i don't particularly blame them for not doing a retail release on PSP.

For the record, I'm not generally "hating on" Sega, they've done some good things as a developer and particularly as a publisher over the last few years.

Yeah, I agree it should of stayed on PS3, but well.. I guess SEGA Japan didn't plan on it being a worldwide franchise. SEGA Japan doesn't care what we want anyways, so it's no surprise they decided to do such a move. The only reason we get non-Sonic games localized in the first place is because of passionate SEGA fans working in SEGA West that bother SEGA Japan about it.

 

[Hcoregamer00]

I'm saddened by this news but I'm not going to let it dampen my mood about SEGA. SEGA is doing a lot of things right this year. Hopefully one day they realize it could make some money by being put on PSN.

Time to go learn Japanese. heh

It really is too bad that SEGA West sees no good in localizing the game, but can you blame them if you look at it from a business stand point?

Going to grad school for a Master's Degree in Business I can see where they are coming from, but this is not a lose-lose situation. SEGA actually had some viable potential ways to build brand equity while not losing money.

SEGA has plenty of options, it is a matter of using it.

 

[charlequin]

PSP Games SEGA is leaving to Japan that stood a shot

Between them, Sega, Nintendo, and Namco-Bandai make up something like 70% of the plausible localizations from the past generation that wound up not happening.

 

[-PXG-]

Even if they were to distribute it digitally, do you really think they'd make up for the cost of localization/ licensing and manage to make a profit? Yeah...I doubt it.

Sure, ya'll are pissed but it was probably a smart decision.

 

[7threst]

Why the VC II hate in this topic? Fuck that, I thought that game was great. The first VC game was better, but to call the second game horrible is just stupid. Also, this serie is made for handhelds. I rather play VC on a handheld instead of a console. Strategy RPG's work really well on handhelds.
And do people really believe Valkyria Chronicles II would've sold well if it was a PS3 release? Really? It was a smart move of Sega NOT to release that game on PS3. They should have gone multi-platform.

 

[Giolon]

Going to grad school for a Master's Degree in Business I can see where they are coming from, but this is not a lose-lose situation. SEGA actually had some viable potential ways to build brand equity while not losing money.

SEGA has plenty of options, it is a matter of using it.

Somehow Atlus, XSEED, and NISA can figure out how to make niche PSP-title releases work out for them, but SEGA can't? What's wrong with this picture.

Why the VC II hate in this topic? Fuck that, I thought that game was great. The first VC game was better, but to call the second game horrible is just stupid. Also, this serie is made for handhelds. I rather play VC on a handheld instead of a console. Strategy RPG's work really well on handhelds.
And do people really believe Valkyria Chronicles II would've sold well if it was a PS3 release? Really? It was a smart move of Sega NOT to release that game on PS3. They should have gone multi-platform.

I do believe VC2 would have sold better on PS3. After all the great word of mouth on VC1 and the positive sales over time, VC2 would have stood a better chance over here. It wouldn't have fixed the structural problems with the game nor the generic characters, but go look into the game announcement threads and see the VC1 fans disappointed at the move to PSP b/c they didn't own and didn't plan to own the system.

I agree with you though that if SEGA were indeed smart they'd have gone multi-platform. But this is SEGA we're talking about after all.

 

[NervousXtian]

I don't get the VC2 hate.. I actually enjoyed it more than 1. It was meant for the portable system.. I didn't like how small the levels were, but the game itself was a great experience.

 

[TGMIII]

I wouldn't be surprised if this comes out on Vita.

In the mean time is anyone working on a translation for VC3?

 

[Durante]

Even if they were to distribute it digitally, do you really think they'd make up for the cost of localization/ licensing and manage to make a profit? Yeah...I doubt it.

I don't know, NISA and XSEED can do it with games that I would expect to sell even less.

And do people really believe Valkyria Chronicles II would've sold well if it was a PS3 release? Really?

In the west? Abso-fucking-lutely. I'm not even sure if it wouldn't have done better than on PSP even in Japan. It would have been close either way, VC2 didn't exactly set Media-Create on fire.

 

[Giolon]

I don't get the VC2 hate.. I actually enjoyed it more than 1. It was meant for the portable system.. I didn't like how small the levels were, but the game itself was a great experience.

The randomized Credit system was a very, very poor experience.

 

[Takao]

I don't know, NISA and XSEED can do it with games that I would expect to sell even less.

Those PSN-only localized games are lower key releases that are usually text-only, or retain their Japanese audio and don't have an English dub.

 

[RurouniZel]

I wouldn't be surprised if this comes out on Vita.

In the mean time is anyone working on a translation for VC3?

Not currently. These efforts usually don't start unless there's reason to believe it's never, ever happening.

So probably in about 3-4 years time.

 

[charlequin]

In the west? Abso-fucking-lutely. I'm not even sure if it wouldn't have done better than on PSP even in Japan. It would have been close either way, VC2 didn't exactly set Media-Create on fire.

Yeah, I think the idea that VC2 was going to see a noticeable uptick from being on PSP was somewhat plausible at the time, but in practice it didn't work out that way. My guess is that the market for this series is basically saturated in Japan, but 150k in Japan + 200+k in the US would've been noticeably better than what they actually did.

 

[Seik]

I liked VC for what I've played, I never managed to go through that giant tank level :/ I almost had it one time and that girl with the blue hair came out and raped all my party. AFTER that someone said to me I had to flee, but man, the time I killed trying that mission over and over...I'm quite curious about what's next.

It's sad we're not getting the third one since we have 1 and 2. :S

 

[Eusis]

Sega seems to have closed the door on licensing. I don't know what happened, but that decision, when it happened killed a couple of games that were in the process of being licensed to other NA publishers such as 7th Dragon and Shining Force Feather.

Now THIS is the most disheartening part about this, Sega used to be pretty good at letting that be a way for letting those that fell through the cracks be catched in prior generations. When it comes to niche Japanese games this generation has undoubtedly been the most disappointing, even if we're probably still better off than in the 8-bit, 16-bit, and maybe 32-bit generations. At least then the situation was gradually improving, the top console was generally the same globally, and more often than not the cream of the crop DID get brought out. That, and we didn't have the internet (or at least in its current state) pouring salt on the wounds.

 

[RurouniZel]

Yeah, I think the idea that VC2 was going to see a noticeable uptick from being on PSP was somewhat plausible at the time, but in practice it didn't work out that way. My guess is that the market for this series is basically saturated in Japan, but 150k in Japan + 200+k in the US would've been noticeably better than what they actually did.

The real problem (and one that others have fallen prey to) is that they established the audience on one system, and then moved it to another. Making the 1st game on PS3 and then moving it to PSP was a horrible decision, because the VC audience was waiting on PS3.

The Tales of series only recently figured this out and suddenly it's like they've got lots of sales again. The beginning of this gen they were hopping between the DS, 360, Wii and PS3 in Japan for their "mothership" games, and once they announced they were sticking to PS3 for their future mothership games, BAM! Sales!

 

[Woo-Fu]

Whose bright idea was it to move the sequels to a dying platform?

The proper answer isn't that VC3 won't show up in North America/Europe, it is that it won't show up on PSP, SEGA!

 

[Emitan]

I wonder how you're gonna respond if 3DS doesn't pick up in the west.

Nintendo: No US/EU Release for Fire Emblem 3

Oh wait this happened.

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

I'm glad i never took time to really play into vc1 (only got past the 1 part where u defend the bridge) otherwise these bullshit would really be pissing me off. Shame because VC1 felt like what an xcom for the "hd generation of gamers" should play like.

 

[Hellsing321]

Why don't they just do what everyone else is doing and do an "HD Classics" for PS3?

 

[Eusis]

Whose bright idea was it to move the sequels to a dying platform?

The people who live in a country where that's anything BUT the case. Hopefully this generational shift for handhelds irons this stuff out so things can pick back up, while the ideal situation for localization would be the same platform dominating in each region it seems like it's ENOUGH for there to not be the sharp difference in success we see with stuff like the PSP and 360, or at least not without a similarly power console for the games to be ported to instead as we're seeing with 360/PS3 games, and back in the 32-bit era with quite a few Saturn games coming to PS1.

Why don't they just do what everyone else is doing and do an "HD Classics" for PS3?

Because, annoyingly enough, SCEA seems to be undermining the best way to get some of these games over here.

 

[Hcoregamer00]

The problem is not the fact that they released it on a portable console, the problem is that they released it on the wrong portable console. They should have released it on the 3DS, or at least released it simultaneously on the 3DS.

When the console came out in Japan and the West, it had a lackluster lineup. SEGA would have gained mindshare and built a "Valkyria Chronicles"-like situation for the 3DS where word of mouth would have sustained great sales in the EU and North America. A game on the quality of VC3 released for the Software-starved 3DS would have made it a very popular product among the core gamers/early adopters.

Hindsight is 20/20, but even a person with no business experience would have thought that it was common sense to release the game on a console that is the successor to the highest selling hardware of all time rather than on a console whose software ecosystem has been dead in the west since late 2006.

Somehow Atlus, XSEED, and NISA can figure out how to make niche PSP-title releases work out for them, but SEGA can't? What's wrong with this picture.

I pointed it out earlier

 

[DarkPanda]

It was pretty obvious this wasn't getting an English localization, but I was still holding out some hope because of how much I enjoyed VC2. I had a lot of fun with that game since it was one of the few non-shooter PSP games that had co-op story mode.

The randomized Credit system was a very, very poor experience.

That was the only part about VC2 that I didn't like, but it was no worse than the loot/synthesize system in games like MH.

 

[BoilersFan23]

PSP games hardly sell in the west, let alone games like VC2. That VC2 killed VC in the west does not surprise me at all. That game was never destined to move copies over here.

So Sega built this Ps3 canvas engine for yak shit or something? Come on.

The developers themselves actually stated why VC moved to PSP. I remember the story well when VC3 was announced:

The latest issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has once played spoiler for a number of upcoming Tokyo Game Show announcements. The revelation that has whipped many forum mongers into a furor is the announcement of Valkyria Chronicles 3 for the PlayStation Portable, after many speculated the game would be for the PlayStation 3.

Shinji Motoyama, director of Valkyria Chronicles 3, offers PS3 owners some words of encouragement, though. He is still interested in bringing the franchise back to its home console in the future, but he thinks a new PS3 entry would need to be a radical departure from the first title. This means the team has to come up with new ideas, which he explains to Famitsu will take time.

Until then, Sega is working on Valkyria Chronicles 3 for the PSP. Because the platform is much easier to develop for, they can produce full games in much smaller time frames, which Motoyoma hopes will tide fans over in the meanwhile.

http://www.play.tm/news/31835/valkyria-chronicles-3-is-for-psp-but-ps3-entry-may-happen-later/

 

[Eusis]

Too bad that rationale's backfiring catastrophically outside of Japan. :/

 

[Nekofrog]

Such a shame that they went into the generic "high school anime" direction with VC2. So UNLIKE the first game.

 

[Defuser]

Fuuuuuuuuuck you SEGA! WHY can they pull a yakuza and just subbed it?It's cheaper than dubbing.

 

[angelfly]

Doesn't really surprise me coming from Sega. I personally wasn't planning on picking it up since I lost all interest in the series after they decided to continue it on PSP.

 

[Huff]

Wasn't there some rumor about the PS3 VC game's system/style/whatever going to be used in another game/sequel/new IP?

And if putting the game on a physical media would cost them money, what about making it download only on the PSN? They should at least break even on that, right? Possibly make a profit?

 

[Erethian]

Wasn't there some rumor about the PS3 VC game's system/style/whatever going to be used in another game/sequel/new IP?

And if putting the game on a physical media would cost them money, what about making it download only on the PSN? They should at least break even on that, right? Possibly make a profit?

The rumour was for a Shining game using gameplay systems similar to Valkyria.

For PSP.

 

[PhantomOfTheKnight]

Wasn't there some rumor about the PS3 VC game's system/style/whatever going to be used in another game/sequel/new IP?

It was back before TGS where it was rumoured they'd use the BLiTZ system in a Shining game.

EDIT: Beaten. I'd rather they make a new IP, though.

And if putting the game on a physical media would cost them money, what about making it download only on the PSN? They should at least break even on that, right? Possibly make a profit?

They're looking into it, but have to talk with SONY first.

 

[abstract alien]

Learning all the wrong things from Nintendo

 

[ezekial45]

Bastards.

 

[powersurge]

So no Yakuza spin offs in the US and now no VC3 either? Because all western gamers just want more Call of Duty right?