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and i kind of reconciled that they do exclusivity because sometimes they let a Multiplatform game out to die and is surprised by the low sales when they don't market it properly.
Square Enix confirms NEO: The World Ends With You underperformed
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It was especially noticeable with the 3DS exclusives published by Nintendo for SE and the ones they handled themselves. BD:FF had tv spots and tons of youtube ads and contests and stuff, DQ VII and DQ VIII had a ton of promotion, then stuff like Heroes of Ruin, DDD, FF Explorers and Theatrerythm were just dropped onto the scene with barely a mention.
With the Switch being such a big deal in comparison to the 3DS Nintendo turned Octopath Traveler into a legitimate top tier sales RPG and BD2 started getting sequel rumblings right after release while all other localizations and sequels had to be begged for.
With the Switch being such a big deal in comparison to the 3DS Nintendo turned Octopath Traveler into a legitimate top tier sales RPG and BD2 started getting sequel rumblings right after release while all other localizations and sequels had to be begged for.
When they go multiplat but did less promotion than when first party market their game.
What's next? Game bomba because no one know it exist lol?
What's next? Game bomba because no one know it exist lol?
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I didn't know about this. I would think they would do more with the anime and give it more depth and episodes. Also feel like if it was a Switch exclusive, Nintendo would have done the heavy lifting since they had done so with other games. Just don't understand what spooked them in the decisions they made.
It is interesting because you can see the shift happening during the Final Mix development.
The game was originally going to have a more bespoke control scheme with joycons but they eventually ditched the idea iirc
Nintendo dropped marketing support when they decided to go multiplat which hurt the game overall.
The L5 symptoms. Chasing multiplat dream success but end up failing on both front.
I saw people on ERA either A) Dodnt know the game existed and B) thought NEO was just a TWEWY 1 port
If era of all places, a forum obsessed with rpgs, Didn't know much about your rpg and you are a big company, you know you messed up with promotion.
Said it on discord, but even if marketing would have helped a little bit, it's still a sequel of a niche game that was a surprise to even exist in the first place.
People that wanted it got it, those that didn't won't. It's another W101 situation, it's just only appealing to a very small playerbase.
People that wanted it got it, those that didn't won't. It's another W101 situation, it's just only appealing to a very small playerbase.
I do wonder if the game actually did just do poorly or if multiplatform significantly raised their expectations?
If NEO had been Switch exclusive would their expectations had been different (like we've seen with Octopath and Bravely Default that were horribly underestimated?). A sequel to a game over 10 years old was always going to have a ceiling. Didn't help that there were no ports to PS or PC.
Their marketing of course was pretty poor and I don't know why they thought a subbed only anime was enough of a push for this game (it did receive a dub but two months later). Naming didn't help as some people did believe it was some kind of remaster, even though the characters are completely different lol.
If NEO had been Switch exclusive would their expectations had been different (like we've seen with Octopath and Bravely Default that were horribly underestimated?). A sequel to a game over 10 years old was always going to have a ceiling. Didn't help that there were no ports to PS or PC.
Their marketing of course was pretty poor and I don't know why they thought a subbed only anime was enough of a push for this game (it did receive a dub but two months later). Naming didn't help as some people did believe it was some kind of remaster, even though the characters are completely different lol.
Actually, I brought up Trails of Mana as a good comparable multiplat million seller earlier but Nintendo had a decent marketing push on that (multiple Directs coverage, Treehouse E3 demo, Collection promo tie-in, etc). It wouldn't surprise me at all if SE had expected a similar roll out for that on Neo from Nintendo even with PS4/PC versions.
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Which begs the question - why did Trials of Mana, which was also multiplatform, get better marketing support from Nintendo than NEO did?
Someone at Nintendo marketing in Japan has a Mana series shrine in their closet.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was as simple as the last few Mana games being PS releases(Rise of Mana, Adventures of Mana, Secret of Mana) making it a win for Nintendo to get Trials and incentivising a push accordingly.
It was slightly earlier on in Switch's cycle (so differing priorities) and Nintendo did get the Collection as a bonus exclusive tied in. I do wonder how much of a difference Nintendo's push helped?
Timing probably? Mana released in April 2020 and RPG wise last year was a bit light if you exclude late ports (The only ones that really stick out to me are Xenoblade DE and TMS and I guess Paper Mario that I can think of off the top of my head). They also had the exclusive mana collection.
This year was a much busier year for JRPGs on switch like Pokemon, MH Stories 2, P5 Strikers, SMT V, Bravely Default 2 games from more well known or regular Nintendo series (and 3 that are console exclusive). Hell even the demo of Triangle Strategy got more marketing so I guess there wasn't much of a need to really prop up NEO as much as they might have done if it released last year or in 2019. It just wasn't a stand out offering they felt the need to highlight. Even if you add in niche jrpg fans they still had Ys IX, Atelier games. It was a really busy year for JRPGs on all platforms if you aren't very picky about only playing certain series.
Simple : Because Square Enix payed for that.
Yeah, this is the correct answer.
This also. A similar reverse situation could be said for why Octopath Traveler is now on everything (even Stadia) and not PS4. Because Sony won't pay for it.
If the game was supposed to be exclusive and Square came back saying they would go multiplat at launch, it is no surprise that Nintendo would drop their end of the bargain too.
I'm probably in the minority on this one but I was never a fan of the DS game(and the DS was probably my favorite system of all time). I do agree with the general sentiment that if there was a time to release a sequel, it should have been on the 3DS when there was still some hype around the game.
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Lol then they have good taste
Perhaps, but at the same time I would almost assume they would want to highlight franchises that have built in fanbases on Nintendo systems too?
I definitely think Nintendo's push helped a lot (didn't the developer say that the Switch version overperform? Or am I confusing it with SaGa?). But yes, being earlier in the life of the system probably helped as well.
Yeah, I think I agree with you and fiendcode here, NEO comes out well after the Switch has already established itself as a base for RPGs, and so maybe Nintendo doesn't feel the need to really market every single one of them. It's just, I would have expected some marketing. (The funny thing is even in spite of Nintendo mostly giving it the cold shoulder, they seem to have marketed it the most out of all the stakeholders involved - more than Sony, more than Epic, and definitely more than Square).
But then why not for NEO?
I wonder if there was any reneging of a contract (or an unspoken deal) involved? That seems like it would cause some bad blood between the two companies.
Devs didn't comment but the Switch version sold most in the US, UK and Spain via trackers iirc. I recall the UK being heavily in favor of Switch (like over 60% iirc) which is telling when it's competitively Nintendo's weakest major market.
I think it was indeed the SaGa Frontier devs who commented on the Switch version selling most.
At this point it seems like it will be a hidden gem people reference in years.
Trials of Mana also had a much stronger IP and a bigger nostalgia pull than TWEWY ever had, multiple things made it bigger than TWEWY ever was
- Collection of Mana was released not long prior on Switch worldwide
- Secret of Mana was a big title from the SNES era (>1M in Japan) and also had a big push in Europe (where it was basically Square biggest game localized there on SNES, though its sales were probably only a hundred thousands at most)
- Secret of Mana 2 / Trials of Mana has been for 15-20y on Internet as (one of) the major unreleased game you could play on emulator
- Although lacking, a Secret of Mana remake was released prior on PSV/PS4 (Adventures of Mana on PSV as well, but as you can guess it was a smaller scale release)
- Back on DS Children of Mana sold 300k copies in Japan (vs <200k for TWEWY)
- Even if irregular and with up and down the IP still maintained relevance since it started 30y ago, especially in Japan who got your usuals gacha games
- The game appeal is rather straightforward, these are action-rpg with a colourful art direction inspired by medieval fantasy
Meanwhile TWEWY had what
- One game on DS that sold okayish in Japan, well in America, negligible elsewhere (it wasn't translated)
- Appearance of cameo in KH3D which happened to be the "main" title from the series that sold worse
- A mobile port which changed the gameplay which was tailored made for DS
- Said mobile port was then ported to NSW 3-4y before the sequel released (this time in EFIGS),
- One late night anime adaptation of the first entry, also on some streaming platforms worldwide
- From what we've learned it turned out that instead of being tailored made for NSW as originally envisionned they changed/compromised (ymmv on this one) the gameplay to have a PS4 SKU, the end result is a hard to convey battle system (and as much as I like it and how original it is I can see how it would look ultra confusing for anyone unaware)
- Hello there PS4 owners, here's a game, if you want to know what happened before through a game in an easy to access way this is on... NSW
- I hope you like Shibuya, because otherwise you're out of luck
These two games/IP were never comparable in the first place, one finding success doesn't stop the other from doing so but the range of sales they should be expected to hit were never close from the start to begin with.
- Collection of Mana was released not long prior on Switch worldwide
- Secret of Mana was a big title from the SNES era (>1M in Japan) and also had a big push in Europe (where it was basically Square biggest game localized there on SNES, though its sales were probably only a hundred thousands at most)
- Secret of Mana 2 / Trials of Mana has been for 15-20y on Internet as (one of) the major unreleased game you could play on emulator
- Although lacking, a Secret of Mana remake was released prior on PSV/PS4 (Adventures of Mana on PSV as well, but as you can guess it was a smaller scale release)
- Back on DS Children of Mana sold 300k copies in Japan (vs <200k for TWEWY)
- Even if irregular and with up and down the IP still maintained relevance since it started 30y ago, especially in Japan who got your usuals gacha games
- The game appeal is rather straightforward, these are action-rpg with a colourful art direction inspired by medieval fantasy
Meanwhile TWEWY had what
- One game on DS that sold okayish in Japan, well in America, negligible elsewhere (it wasn't translated)
- Appearance of cameo in KH3D which happened to be the "main" title from the series that sold worse
- A mobile port which changed the gameplay which was tailored made for DS
- Said mobile port was then ported to NSW 3-4y before the sequel released (this time in EFIGS),
- One late night anime adaptation of the first entry, also on some streaming platforms worldwide
- From what we've learned it turned out that instead of being tailored made for NSW as originally envisionned they changed/compromised (ymmv on this one) the gameplay to have a PS4 SKU, the end result is a hard to convey battle system (and as much as I like it and how original it is I can see how it would look ultra confusing for anyone unaware)
- Hello there PS4 owners, here's a game, if you want to know what happened before through a game in an easy to access way this is on... NSW
- I hope you like Shibuya, because otherwise you're out of luck
These two games/IP were never comparable in the first place, one finding success doesn't stop the other from doing so but the range of sales they should be expected to hit were never close from the start to begin with.
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If anything they should have announced this game when they announced the Final Mix port for the Switch. Instead of trying to throw out the "if it sales" bait. Then they at least could have ridden a little cult hype off its back like Bayonetta 3/No More Heroes did being announced the same time as the 1+2 port. It also would have cut down on the "is this a remaster?" confusion. The delay between the first game port and this one definitely feels like someone went back and decided to add PC/PS4 versions.
They think that NEO does not need huge marketing wich was a big mistake.
And since the two games did not have the same target sales marketing budget was different.