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.
Last Friday we reported on Namco Bandai posting a statement on their Facebook wall responding to the comments for a localization of Tales games outside Japan. What followed was over 100 posts to the company's Facebook wall and over 1,000 votes on a petition on Sony's PlayStation.Blog share for Sony to help localize PlayStation titles in the series, among other things. The company responded yet again, but this time things happened quite differently.
The original statement, which was posted less than an hour ago, read: To all Tales fans! We are ecstatic to see all of your responses. Thanks for your loyalty and passion towards the game. Unfortunately we do not have any plans to localize the series at this time. We’ll be sure to let you know if there are any changes to the plans. Thanks again for your support.
For those who closely looked at the comment, it was oddly noticeable that "series" was used instead of Tales of Graces, as in the previous statement. Just the comment alone sparked quite a few negative posts, as was to be expected. But unlike the previous statement, which still can be seen on the company's wall, this new statement, along with its 30+ comments, is now completely removed.
One has to wonder why the company would remove this comment, as it stated almost the exact statement as the previous comment, save the replacing of the game for the series. Namco Bandai has yet to comment on the removal.
Since the release of Tales of Vesperia on the Xbox 360, which was followed by a Japan-only release of a Director's Cut version of the game on the PS3 which appeared to have been in the works from the beginning, as well as a plethora of Japan-only titles in the series, many have wondered if the company still cared about the series in North America and Europe. Namco Bandai has just made a statement on their official Facebook page about just that.
Earlier today, after receiving numerous fan posts on their Facebook page, as well on other social media websites such as Twitter and YouTube, the latter of which was likely the cause of their comments section being disabled, the company finally responded to their fans with the following statement:
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 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.
Dengeki has just revealed news about a new Mutsumi Inomata-themed costume for Malik Caesars in Tales of Graces. Tales of Graces is the first mothership (the official series term for non-spin off games) for the Wii. The previous Wii Tales of title was Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, which was classified as a spin-off sequel.
Like the previous Mutsumi Inomata costumes, including Pascal, Cheria Barnes and Asbel Lhant, Malik's costume is very unique, a samurai design with some animal printed on the front of it.
According to Dengeki, the DLC will be 400 Nintendo Points and will be released on March 31st starting at 1pm JST (Japanese Standard Time). The only character yet to have received a custom costume is Richard.
Dengeki has just revealed news about a new Mutsumi Inomata-themed costume for Asbel Lhant in Tales of Graces. Tales of Graces is the first mothership (the official series term for non-spin off games) for the Wii. The previous Wii Tales of title was Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, which was classified as a spin-off sequel.
Like the Mutsumi Inomata costumes for Pascal and Cheria Barnes, as well as the costume for Hubert Ozwell, Asbel's costume is very unique, appearing to mesh the ideas of a samurai and a aircraft pilot. According to Dengeki, the DLC will be 400 Nintendo Points and will be released on March 10th starting at 1pm JST (Japanese Standard Time). No information has been given on costumes for Richard or Malik Caesars.
After reports earlier this month that Namco Bandai was working on a bug fix for the various issues in Tales of Graces, the company has announced publicly on their corporate website that they will be issuing a recall. Tales of Graces was released last December and was the first official main entry in the series on the Wii.
The original version of Tales of Graces was ridden with numerous bugs, most of which only appeared when a player went through the game a second time. Due to most of the games in the series requiring a second playthrough, it's not unexpected that the company issued a formal recall.
The website lists ten bugs in total, all of which had been discovered by fans shortly after the game's release in Japan. The specifics on the program weren't announced today, but Namco Bandai did state that the recall would not take place through retailers, instead using a delivery serviced called Hikitoribin, where a delivery person delivers the fixed version and takes the old disc in exchange. In the statement, Namco Bandai apologized for the problems and promised to increase their quality control in the future.
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