Ever since Namco Bandai announced their Tales of Graces f localization two months ago, fans have been wondering what Namco Bandai's plans are for promoting the game. Thanks to a short interview with OXM, we might have gotten some news on that front.
OXM's article, which mainly detailed Namco Bandai's digital Xbox 360 Games on Demand release of Tales of Vesperia in Europe, did have some words from Lee Kirton, marketing director for Namco Bandai UK. Some of the snippets from the article can be found below:
Keep on reading to hear what Namco Bandai's European branch had to say about the Tales series.
In 2008 Namco Bandai released Tales of Vesperia on the Xbox 360 and release the game a year later in Europe in 2009. The company has just announced that the game is now available on Microsoft's Games on Demand service for the Xbox 360 in both North America and Europe.
Tales of Vesperia was the first next-gen HD entry in the long-running Tales series and brought Tales of the Abyss's battle system into the next-gen consoles with numerous enhancements, including new Artes called Burst Artes which dealt more damage than any normal attack. In Japan, there was a PS3 port of the game with additional content, but that version hasn't been announced for a North American release.
The game has been out-of-print after an initial reprinting a year or so back, making this a great deal for any JRPG fan needing their next fix. The game is available for $29.99 in North America and 29.99 € in Europe.
In yesterday's first part of this article, we detailed the recent events surrounding Namco Bandai's postings on Namco Games's Facebook wall and the misconceptions surrounding comments that it would be incredibly easy for the company to release the PS3 port of Tales of Vesperia. This second part details what both sides can do to help release more Tales games in the west.
What Namco Bandai needs to realize with the Tales series is that while it might not be as big of a juggernaut as other RPGs such as Final Fantasy or the company's very own Tekken franchise, there is a very passionate fan base, much like the fan bases for Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei and NIS America's Disgaea franchises.
The company also needs to realize that part of the lackluster sales can be attributed to two factors: release dates and fan outreach. One such example of the former would be Tales of the Abyss's release in North America. Namco Bandai released the title mere weeks before Final Fantasy XII and had little-to-no advertising, with only a few websites having advertisements for the game, compared to Square Enix's mammoth advertising for the their title. With Square Enix pushing out a limited edition version of Final Fantasy XII, many gamers were forced to pick one of the two and many forgoed picking up Tales of the Abyss if they happened to noticed it. The lackluster sales that followed only helped to push the game to the back of the store, furthering hampering its sales.
Keep on reading for more of the second part of the article.
Late last month Namco Bandai's Japanese branch revealed a series of new Tales games, one of which being Tales of Graces f, a PS3 port of the original Wii version which includes a plethora of new additions and updates. After a small number of fans posted on Namco Games, the branch of the company responsible for causal mobile and PC releases, the company posted the following response on their wall:
Firstly, thank you all for your excitement around the series. We also love the series here at Namco of America and are working with our Japan counterparts to determine if we'll see US releases for these games. Unfortunately, we don't currently have any plans to bring Tales of Graces to the US. If this changes, we'll let you know as soon as we can!
For those who follow the series and the company, Namco Bandai has normally disregarded fan responses to the Tales series, so to have the company acknowledge the fans, let alone comment on talking to their Japanese branch, which has control over what titles the North American branch can and cannot publish, was a welcome sign indeed. Shortly after this announcement, a petition on PlayStation.Blog Share for Sony to help localize both the PS3 and PSP Tales titles was posted, along with a plethora of wall posts on the Facebook wall which totaled over 300 in just a few days time.
Keep on reading for more information, as well as details for how to let Namco Bandai hear your voice on the matter.
For those who have been following the Tales news as of late, you likely already know that Namco Tales Studio is in severe debt, barely covering their short-term debts and with long term debts almost four times their current reserves. With all this uncertainty, one question naturally comes to mind --- how will this affect the series from here on out?
According to their balance sheets, Namco Tales Studio's current assets plus their fixed assets are around 6.6 million, with their current liabilities just barely below that amount at 6.5 million Yen. While this might not sound all that bad considering the current lackluster state of RPGs in this next-gen era, the long-term liabilities and the shareholder stakes in the company are around 22-23 million --- almost 400% of what Namco Tales Studio could pay. In effect, if the shareholders were to all cash out at this moment, it would effectively "kill" the developer four times over. While this kind of debt can be expected from a start-up company, it is quite shocking for a long-running company to amass this amount of debt.
It is important to note that after 2006 Namco Bandai fully owns the studio after buying the remaining shares from Telnet Japan, so some of these debts could have been passed on from Namco Bandai to hide some of their own debt, which was widely reported when the publisher announced they would be restructuring the company as well as decreasing its workforce.
Remember the new Mystic Artes being added to the PlayStation 3 version, such as Rita Mordio's Indignation (one of the staples of the series)? It appears they were initially planned in the Xbox 360 version.
The port includes numerous extras and changes, such as a brand new character, Patty Fleur, the addition of new bosses like the Sword Dancer, Flynn being playable for more that just one battle, among other changes. The game will also be fully voiced and will include new and altered scenes, such as Yuri fighting Don Whitehorse when the party visits Keiv Moc.
It is unknown if these Mystic Artes were cut due to time constraints or cut to include in the PlayStation 3 version (which seems to have started production shortly after the Xbox 360 version went to retail). It is currently unknown if these voice clips exist in a English form. Those wanting to here the voice clips can check out this video on Youtube, which has the three voice clips in a video format.
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