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Atlus output strategy | Discussion thread

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There is no reason why this game should sell less than Xenoblade 3 or SMTV now.

People should set their expectations higher, because Atlus certainly brought their A game here.
 
Leica said:
This won't sell nearly as much as XBC3.
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It will outsell XB3 by the number of platforms it has alone.

I always feel the need to downplay how SH2 will sell a kind of preemptive damage control by supporters in case it doesn't sell, or bitterness arising from Nintendo fans hoping it will fail because it missed their platforms.

There is no logical reason why it will sell less than any Switch-locked RPG.
 
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Soul Hackers 2 will sell more than Xenoblade 3 because it's on more platforms, at what alternative universe this will happen.
 
Fiendslayer said:
It will outsell XB3 by the number of platforms it has alone.

I always feel the need to downplay how SH2 will sell a kind of preemptive damage control by supporters in case it doesn't sell, or bitterness arising from Nintendo fans hoping it will fail because it missed their platforms.

There is no logical reason why it will sell less than any Switch-locked RPG.
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Considering no turn-based Switch-excluding RPGs besides Persona have outsold Xenoblade 2 this gen, there's the very logical expectations that the audience simply isn't there. The PC market could be there but they aren't starving for RPGs to buy over 1 million copies
 
Fiendslayer said:
It will outsell XB3 by the number of platforms it has alone.

I always feel the need to downplay how SH2 will sell a kind of preemptive damage control by supporters in case it doesn't sell, or bitterness arising from Nintendo fans hoping it will fail because it missed their platforms.

There is no logical reason why it will sell less than any Switch-locked RPG.
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I'm excited to play the game, look at my avatar. Has nothing to do with being a fan of any sort of platform, it's just common sense. I'd go a step further and argue that even if it came out on Switch it'd still not be guaranteed to outsell XBC3 by any means.
 
Astrogamer said:
Considering no turn-based Switch-excluding RPGs besides Persona have outsold Xenoblade 2 this gen, there's the very logical expectations that the audience simply isn't there. The PC market could be there but they aren't starving for RPGs to buy over 1 million copies
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Well, then is it not fortunate that the "Persona company" is making this game, and the game might outscore all these other turn-based RPGs on the Switch?

Regardless of whether it beats XB3 (which itself is also not a yurn-based RPG anyway), I just feel there is unwarranted pessimism on expected the performance of this game. Atlus certainly didn't send it to die, but people (for their own reasons) seems to think Atlus is doing so.

Yes, it is on multiple platforms so it naturally has more avenues to sell to different audiences than a Switch-locked game, but also...it is basically the first major Atlus game to hit PCs day one. This alone will help it sell more. We have a well-documented trend where "firsts on PC by a Japanese IP" games overperform.
 
Leica said:
I'm excited to play the game, look at my avatar. Has nothing to do with being a fan of any sort of platform, it's just common sense. I'd go a step further and argue that even if it came out on Switch it'd still not be guaranteed to outsell XBC3 by any means.
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if it came out on Switch, it'd still have a hard time as Persona 5 wouldn't be long after
 
Leica said:
I'm excited to play the game, look at my avatar. Has nothing to do with being a fan of any sort of platform, it's just common sense. I'd go a step further and argue that even if it came out on Switch it'd still not be guaranteed to outsell XBC3 by any means.
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When you expect Soul Hackers 2 to go above Persona 5 and Tales of Arise and still might not be enough to outsell Xenoblade 3 you realise you've gone to wishful thinking territory.
 
Chris1964 said:
When you expect Soul Hackers 2 to go above Persona 5 and Tales of Arise and still might not be enough to outsell Xenoblade 3 you realise you've gone to wishful thinking territory.
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Is Persona 5 (base) not already at 3.5-4.5 milion (or higher) range by now?

Xenoblade 2 might be closing in, but it should certainly around the is in the 2.5-3 million range right now?

I don't expect SH2 to beat Persona 5, but I am only expecting modest growth of XB3 over XB2 (or no growth) when LTD is concerned (by which I mean the sales of the total game sales 5 years after release). I have been pretty consistently with my view of how XB3 will perform, and can show the receipts.

I can see SH2 doing XB2 or better, Atlus put serious effort behind the creation of this game.
 
Looks like is going to be a great game, still, I forget about the game until I log in to IB, so i going to wait to be at least 20 usd.
 
Vikadozs said:
Looks like is going to be a great game, still, I forget about the game until I log in to IB, so i going to wait to be at least 20 usd.
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I would wait for the 20 usd bundle with the DLC, it will take a bit longer but is worth it :p
 
This game isn’t going to score well enough or generate WoM positive enough to have a long tail like P5 did, guys. Expect sales trends to be closer to SMTV than P5.
 
Phantom Thief said:
This game isn’t going to score well enough or generate WoM positive enough to have a long tail like P5 did, guys. Expect sales trends to be closer to SMTV than P5.
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Everything points around this game having great WoM I don’t know why you doubt it, this seems a case of Altus marketing being a failure as usual lol
 
Blue Monty said:
Everything points around this game having great WoM I don’t know why you doubt it, this seems a case of Altus marketing being a failure as usual lol
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because I have had it for the last two weeks for review purposes and I know exactly how good (or not) it is lol. It’s very good, but it’s not P5 or even SMTV level

Of course it’s possible the broader market/consensus disagrees with me.
 
Fiendslayer said:
There is no reason why this game should sell less than Xenoblade 3 or SMTV now.

People should set their expectations higher, because Atlus certainly brought their A game here.
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Fiendslayer said:
It will outsell XB3 by the number of platforms it has alone.

I always feel the need to downplay how SH2 will sell a kind of preemptive damage control by supporters in case it doesn't sell, or bitterness arising from Nintendo fans hoping it will fail because it missed their platforms.

There is no logical reason why it will sell less than any Switch-locked RPG.
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Man, can we first try to get this to exceed SMTV/BD2, then ToA/MHS2, and maybe then we can move to the Octopath/Xenoblade tier?

Where the optimism for this game overperforming to this degree is coming from is unknown to me. It’s available on more platforms, yes, but Stranger of Paradise was available on more platforms than Triangle Strategy, do you want to know which one sold more? Scarlet Nexus was available on more platforms than Monster Hunter Stories 2, and they both even scored similarly; do you want to know which sold more?

This isn’t just about SH2 skipping Switch either btw, I’ve maintained for months now that even if this was on Switch it’s sales wouldn’t get much if a boost (some lift of course, but its ultimate fate wouldn’t change).

You seem to think being high quality (in itself a debatable and nebulous metric) and multiplatform is enough to achieve high sales. That’s not how the market works.
 
I think at best the game might outperform SMTV and that’s only if the game is reviewed extremely well and there’s stellar word of mouth. There really isn’t much in terms of marketing going on with this game (did we forget about Neo TWEWY already?). In Japan, the place where most of the marketing has been, it’s preorders are still tracking significantly lower than SMTV.

Persona 5 IMO was more or less a perfect storm of events that led to it breaking into the mainstream landscape, and I just don’t think Soul Hackers 2 has that going for it. For that reason SH2 is not gonna outsell Xenoblade 3, either. And as for the whole number of platforms thing, let’s be honest, the Xbox One and Series are not gonna have much relevance here.

That being said, let’s not just a needless argument about Xenonlade 3 vs Soul Hackers 2 just because someone doesn’t like how the latter is being reviewed. Xeno 3 vs Xeno 2 and FETH were already tiring enough.
 
brutaka3 said:
I can't judge the game because I haven't played it, but this game has strike from the beginning as one that will get good reviews anyways (even if it isn't that great), mostly because of riding the Persona 5 good will.
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If that were true that would have happened for SMTV as well (particularly given the whole console exclusivity angle also thrown into the mix).

It’s not like Persona. It’s more dungeon crawler than any other big budget game in memory. Dungeon crawling is all you do in the game. There’s not going to be an upswell of Persona fans taking to it because it doesn’t have what made Persona popular to begin with, beyond initial superficial similarities.
 
Phantom Thief said:
If that were true that would have happened for SMTV as well (particularly given the whole console exclusivity angle also thrown into the mix).

It’s not like Persona. It’s more dungeon crawler than any other big budget game in memory. Dungeon crawling is all you do in the game. There’s not going to be an upswell of Persona fans taking to it because it doesn’t have what made Persona popular to begin with, beyond initial superficial similarities.
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Like I said, I haven't played it and I was exactly talking about superficial similarities, something that SMT V didn't have because the tone was really different, while the trailers for SH2 make it look more light and friendly. BUT, now that you say that is mostly a dungeon crawler, well, that makes me wonder how general public will receive it.
 
brutaka3 said:
Like I said, I haven't played it and I was exactly talking about superficial similarities, something that SMT V didn't have because the tone was really different, while the trailers for SH2 make it look more light and friendly. BUT, now that you say that is mostly a dungeon crawler, well, that makes me wonder how general public will receive it.
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While I agree that SMTV didn't have the "Persona-like" angle, it did have something, unfortunately, arguably as potent if not more so: the console exclusivity angle ("this is the Switch's Persona 5 equivalent" and all that bullshit).
 
brutaka3 said:
I can't judge the game because I haven't played it, but this game has strike from the beginning as one that will get good reviews anyways (even if it isn't that great), mostly because of riding the Persona 5 good will.
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P5 won't have anything to do with it. it'll score well because it's good and that's what's gonna surprise people. because Atlus sure as shit weren't trying to convince people of this
 
Vikadozs said:
SH2 vs Xeno3 is console wars in disguise
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Ya should be here when you see me demolish Sony fanboys here, so much so the moderation seems to have hated me for it.

I am saying there is unwarranted negativity surround SH2 for reasons (both sides are downplaying the sales, Ninty fans for platform bitterness reasons, PS Fans for setting low expectations so any final number can be spun as "good").

I personally think this can sell 50-60% of Persona 5 OG, given its pedigree (the Persona company), supposed quality, its novelty (first Altus game to hit PC/Xbox day one) and its unusually wide release (so many platforms).
 
Blue Monty said:
This is a lot worse than expected 75 in Open Critic right now, in any case outside of it becoming a cult hit the WoM will only hurt the game
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The primary issue with the game is that it is a dungeon crawler with sone pretty significant missteps in the dungeon crawling
 
70s.

I wonder if these scores include the weird bonus 🤔

But anyway, can't say I'm surprised. I always though this game looked awful in terms of art direction, and the gameplay never looked enticing. Nowhere near the level of a P5 or even SMTV. And to think people had meltdowns over this lol
 
Kinda expected, with the way they were trying to hide the gameplay and dungeon crawler passages from the western media. They were trying to sell something you would traditionally find on portables, as this next big PS/Xbox/PC JRPG experience and used the Bamco anime game approach, of fake it till you make it.

Its a bummer but lets just hope they have a post launch GamePass deal in place.
 
Phantom Thief said:
The primary issue with the game is that it is a dungeon crawler with sone pretty significant missteps in the dungeon crawling
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It's a megaten game. Hence why I rolled my eyes at the Famitsu score (much harder than you rolled your eyes at my posting). The megaten games ARE dungeon crawlers with some social elements, with different focus between SMT, Persona and now SH2.

Looking forward to sales, anyway. At least in Japan we might see higher sales than else in the world. Although wait, it's PS5-exclusive, eh? :>
 
Tokuiten said:
It's a megaten game. Hence why I rolled my eyes at the Famitsu score (much harder than you rolled your eyes at my posting). The megaten games ARE dungeon crawlers with some social elements, with different focus between SMT, Persona and now SH2.

Looking forward to sales, anyway. At least in Japan we might see higher sales than else in the world. Although wait, it's PS5-exclusive, eh? :>
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The idea that it was an Atlus boost is still absurd because Famitsu gave it a higher score than SMTV and P5R.
 
Tokuiten said:
It's a megaten game. Hence why I rolled my eyes at the Famitsu score (much harder than you rolled your eyes at my posting). The megaten games ARE dungeon crawlers with some social elements, with different focus between SMT, Persona and now SH2.

Looking forward to sales, anyway. At least in Japan we might see higher sales than else in the world. Although wait, it's PS5-exclusive, eh? :>
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The issue isn’t that it’s a dungeon crawler, the issue is it’s a dungeon crawler with significant missteps in the dungeon crawling, and no strengths elsewhere to compensate for that (unlike Persona or SMT).

I rolled my eyes at your implication that Atlus games don’t deserve the scores they get and that there’s some weird bonus involved (especially hilarious when you were posting about Atlus getting a lift over Nintendo, at that).

Famitsu reviews are always trash and unrepresentative. That’s not exclusive to this instance either.
 
Ok, I was wrong lol. I don't even read reviews, but someone I follow said it feels like a PS2 Atlus game, which actually just made me want to play the game more. Sadly I only play JRPGs on Switch...
 
It’s sad that the only ‘high budget’ pure dungeon crawler in recent times has been considered just good, I will buy it just to support the genre and because is still probably a fun experience but disappointing . Only game that could get such budget in the near future would be a new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game but even then is really different style almost a different genre
 
Oregano said:
The idea that it was an Atlus boost is still absurd because Famitsu gave it a higher score than SMTV and P5R.
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That makes it worse, actually, lol.
Phantom Thief said:
Famitsu reviews are always trash and unrepresentative. That’s not exclusive to this instance either.
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We can agree on that.

Still, I remember those NDS-era SMT spinoffs and SH2 seems to fall just in line with these, so I'm not surprised by the western scores. Repeating myself her, but I wish I got to observe sales from a parallel universe where Soul Hackers 2 is called "Soul Hackers: Subtitle", removing the "2" from its title. I still believe it's massively hindering sales, in the West at least.
 
After watching in-game footage, this game seems way lower budget than SMTV. I don’t think it has to outperform SMTV or XC3 for Atlus to consider it a success. Maybe Atlus is using SH2 as worldwide release practice. The next Persona will benefit greatly from a simultaneous worldwide release.
 
Blue Monty said:
It’s sad that the only ‘high budget’ pure dungeon crawler in recent times has been considered just good, I will buy it just to support the genre and because is still probably a fun experience but disappointing . Only game that could get such budget in the near future would be a new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game but even then is really different style almost a different genre
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EO Next is gonna revive the genre.
 
The famitsu celebration 😂. The posts are so funny now. I watched a bit of footage and wow the VA isn’t particularly great. It’s weird because it’s the same team that did Three Houses.

Well, the scores seem more than fair let just put it that way.
 
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Multiverse said:
The famitsu celebration 😂. The posts are so funny now. I watched a bit of footage and wow the VA isn’t particularly great. It’s weird because it’s the same team that did Three Houses.

Well, the scores seem more than fair let just put it that way.
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You mean Tokyo Mirage Sessions? Three Houses was done by Koei Tecmo's Kou Shibusawa team
 
Oh the VA. When considering Persona 5's original dub, it wouldn't be farfetched to say it's probably Atlus's fault.
 
The VA in this game is pretty great. One of the things I have zero complaints with.
 
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