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.Correct me if I'm wrong but Falcom still hasn't confirmed anything in terms of PS5 development yet?
baby stepsI 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.
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.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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.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.
NISA isn't exactly "slow." It's just a different situation.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.
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.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?
Tbf isn’t it mostly Nisa hiring third party devs to port those games right now than NIS doing it itself? Might be wrong thoughI'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
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%)
YesSorry for the silly question but I'm confused a bit, which quarter is this? the quarter that ended last Sep?