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Nihon Falcom FY 2021 Results (Falcom Now Developing for Switch In-House)

I actually thought they'd keep avoiding that for one more year.

Well, it's going to be a very interesting thing to watch.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but Falcom still hasn't confirmed anything in terms of PS5 development yet?
I think just that Kondo was interested in bringing The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki to PS5 (to Switch as well). Nothing official, though.
 
I have some serious doubts that Falcom will somehow manage to incorporate Switch development in time for a simultaneous launch. I'm guessing they mean they will be commissioning a port and publishing it themselves. Happy to be proven wrong, though.
baby steps
 
They really should have made this decision a year earlier, so that Kuro could have been PS4/Switch multi-plat on day one. Starting the new arc on Switch would seem like a easier marketing effort than having their first new game on the system be part two of a story. Assuming the next game is Kuro II, that is.
 
So this is how they intended to counter negative news of Kuro under-performing.

Well, they made the right decision, but they are 3-4 years late. lets see if they will succeed to establish a fanbase on Switch or the next system.
 
I'm just surprised by the sales numbers, didn't realize these companies are so small. 40% net income percentage is also crazy, I know they capitalize the dev costs but never expected gaming software companies to be that profitable.
 
I'm just surprised by the sales numbers, didn't realize these companies are so small. 40% net income percentage is also crazy, I know they capitalize the dev costs but never expected gaming software companies to be that profitable.
I know, right? Falcom just announced in the FY results that the Trails series has now sold 6 million copies since its debut in 2004.

Sales of one single Nintendo game can easily dwarf Falcom's nearly 20 years of dedicated development.

I think it truly is a testament to Falcom's uncanny ability to produce high-quality, robust 100+ hour JRPGs while keeping costs as minimal as possible.

Falcom is even projecting that Kuro no Kiseki's flop won't significantly hurt their profitability for the next fiscal year. Toshihiro Kondo seems to run the company in a sustainable, pragmatic fashion that doesn't gamble with Falcom's future. He's a great CEO in my opinion who seems to genuinely care about Falcom's well-being instead of short-term revenue maximization above all logic and reason.
 
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I know, right? Falcom just announced in the FY results that the Trails series has now sold 6 million copies since its debut in 2004.

Sales of one single Nintendo game can easily dwarf Falcom's nearly 20 years of dedicated development.

I think it truly is a testament to Falcom's uncanny ability to produce high-quality, robust 100+ hour JRPGs while keeping costs as minimal as possible.

Falcom is even projecting that Kuro no Kiseki's flop won't significantly hurt their profitability for the next fiscal year. Toshihiro Kondo seems to run the company in a sustainable, pragmatic fashion that doesn't gamble with Falcom's future. He's a great CEO in my opinion who seems to genuinely care about Falcom's well-being instead of short-term revenue maximization above all logic and reason.
Falcom is a really productive and cost effective company, but the notable decline in Japan shows that they could have done a better job. This decline was balanced by US/European market, which was handled, by other publishers, that insistently tried to convince Kondo to support Switch, especially NIS. Kondo caved in, which was the right move, but looking at interviews, it wasn't out of forsight, but more out of how insistent NIS was for years.
 
Very interesting news to wake up to.

The line about them prioritizing the worldwide market made me think they might ignore the Switch completely and focus on the worldwide market in the PS/XBX/PC universe, but then they go and announce an in-house Switch title.

We thinking the in-house Switch game will be exclusive or multi-platform?

But I wouldn't worry about the release timing of the game. I'm assuming the OG Switch will co-exist with the "Switch 2" for a few years with it being able to play the lesser demanding titles. Falcom will be able to sell the title to both OG and Switch 2 owners.

I mean from Falcom mouth themselves Switch is big machine seller for their game in Asia which is part of worldwide market. So they literally had to do more on Switch if they want to survive there.
 
Falcom is a really productive and cost effective company, but the notable decline in Japan shows that they could have done a better job. This decline was balanced by US/European market, which was handled, by other publishers, that insistently tried to convince Kondo to support Switch, especially NIS. Kondo caved in, which was the right move, but looking at interviews, it wasn't out of forsight, but more out of how insistent NIS was for years.

I agree. Kondo's biggest mistake for this fiscal year was his dogmatic adherence to exclusively launch on PS4 for the 2021 Kiseki title, when he should have proactively invested the resources for a multiplat Switch / PS4 release at launch. I believe then Kuro would have had more of a chance at reaching 100K physical.

The development shift to Switch is one fiscal year too late, and Falcom will suffer for it with a projected YOY decline in revenue and profit. Not enough to destabilize the company, of course.
 
If you wonder how much Kuro no Kiseki performance affect Falcom financials and why Kondo suddenly decided that there is a market for Falcom games in Japan besides PlayStation:

Nihon Falcom Q4 2021 (millions of Yen)
Net sales - 1.073 (-19,99%)
Operating income - 630 (-26,32%)
Ordinary income - 631 (-26,29%)
Net income - 420 (-20,00%)
 
I wouldn't be surprised if part of the pressure to take things internal(even if it just means Falcom is the one outsourcing) is because for CLE and NISA the share of sales were increasingly leaning Switch and Falcom was getting lower licensing fees from those versions in comparison to PS4.
 
These are great news.
In time Switch /Switch 2 could become their main platform just like the audience moved to PSP. Now if only they could release the games faster outside of Japan...
 
What's interesting is that the Asian localizations through companies like Clouded Leopard have sped up drastically. XSeed and NISA have said they can't work on localizations until after a Falcom game is released in Japan, but clearly Clouded Leopard is able to. The Chinese translation of Kuro is coming only five months after the Japanese release. It seems like either Falcom gives Clouded Leopard preferential treatment, or NISA is incredibly slow.
 
What's interesting is that the Asian localizations through companies like Clouded Leopard have sped up drastically. XSeed and NISA have said they can't work on localizations until after a Falcom game is released in Japan, but clearly Clouded Leopard is able to. The Chinese translation of Kuro is coming only five months after the Japanese release. It seems like either Falcom gives Clouded Leopard preferential treatment, or NISA is incredibly slow.

Do Clouded Leopard provide Chinese dub or just text translation?

Because that probably makes a big difference.
 
Do Clouded Leopard provide Chinese dub or just text translation?

Because that probably makes a big difference.
Good point! Looking at their press release (https://www.cloudedleopardent.com/en/news/detail/9) it seems like it is a sub-only release with Traditional Chinese and Korean text, but no dub. That could be a big factor. Not sure if it explains the full gap from ~5 months for CL to ~24 months for NISA, but it could be a large part of it.
 
Good point! Looking at their press release (https://www.cloudedleopardent.com/en/news/detail/9) it seems like it is a sub-only release with Traditional Chinese and Korean text, but no dub. That could be a big factor. Not sure if it explains the full gap from ~5 months for CL to ~24 months for NISA, but it could be a large part of it.

Well NISA are playing catch up(especially now with the addition of the Crossbell games) and if dubbing takes longer that's going to compound the issue. The Asian releases are up to date as far as I'm aware.
 
What's interesting is that the Asian localizations through companies like Clouded Leopard have sped up drastically. XSeed and NISA have said they can't work on localizations until after a Falcom game is released in Japan, but clearly Clouded Leopard is able to. The Chinese translation of Kuro is coming only five months after the Japanese release. It seems like either Falcom gives Clouded Leopard preferential treatment, or NISA is incredibly slow.
NISA isn't exactly "slow." It's just a different situation.

(1)
Clouded Leopard established a dev team for Falcom games in addition to their localization team. This development team works closely with Falcom who shares the scripts with them immediately after the game goes gold.

Clouded Leopard has previously stated that Falcom also doesn't send them the text until the game has finished development just like NIS America, because Falcom works on the script right up until they manufacture the discs. They're not like other companies who finalize their scripts months / years in advance.

In comparison, NIS America just has a localization team to work on the games, so they have less manpower and are slower by default.


(2)
There's less of a localization barrier for Japanese -> Chinese than for Japanese -> English. It's easier to translate, edit text, and push out releases quickly.

(3)
Dubbing, as said above, which takes extra time. NISA records English dubs whereas Clouded Leopard is content to release sub-only.
 
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That is some really great background information! I wasn't aware of the dedicated development team in CL committed to Falcom projects. All of this information definitely explains the situation.
 
With Nihon Falcom finally developing Switch games in-house, is this good news for NIS? I know NIS America publishes Nihon’s Falcom’s games in the west but who publishes their switch ports in Japan?
 
With Nihon Falcom finally developing Switch games in-house, is this good news for NIS? I know NIS America publishes Nihon’s Falcom’s games in the west but who publishes their switch ports in Japan?
I'm sure NIS would prefer to lose the publishing license in Japan than having to do the entire porting job of Falcom games on Switch.
 
I'm sure NIS would prefer to lose the publishing license in Japan than having to do the entire porting job of Falcom games on Switch.
Tbf isn’t it mostly Nisa hiring third party devs to port those games right now than NIS doing it itself? Might be wrong though
 
Tbf isn’t it mostly Nisa hiring third party devs to port those games right now than NIS doing it itself? Might be wrong though

They've been hiring Engine software, but it still means NISA has had to have the games ported during localisation which is why the PS4 versions have been releasing first.
 
If you wonder how much Kuro no Kiseki performance affect Falcom financials and why Kondo suddenly decided that there is a market for Falcom games in Japan besides PlayStation:

Nihon Falcom Q4 2021 (millions of Yen)
Net sales - 1.073 (-19,99%)
Operating income - 630 (-26,32%)
Ordinary income - 631 (-26,29%)
Net income - 420 (-20,00%)

Sorry for the silly question but I'm confused a bit, which quarter is this? the quarter that ended last Sep?
 
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