About localizing the PSP games at this point of the console generation

[haven9270]

So we "kinda" know that XSeed is doing their best, chipping away at SC little by little to finally give us the epic conclusion to TiTs - first of all, we're cheering for you, and my wallet is ready. I have a Japanese PSN account, and found that SC is not in their PS Store, even though the 3rd, Ao no Kiseki, and Zero no Kiseki are listed (I believe they have the Zero no Kiseki Evolution demo, and it was great!), so now XSeed is my only hope of playing SC through legal means

But anyway, besides SC, Ao and Zero are not localized. But what's a real concern for me is Nayuta no Kiseki, a PSP game that looks DAMN good that I believe it SHOULD be localized. But unfortunately, it IS a PSP game, and with SC, Ao, and Zero coming before it, it may take YEARS for us to get to Nayuta if XSeed was to localize them all.

Of course that would be impractical. They're taking long enough with SC, and to localize them all or in release order would be suicide. So I had a personal theory on how XSeed might do it:

- Finish SC which ends that story (I heard the 3rd is just a standalone game with the cast of FC and SC as supporting cast)
- Work on either Nayuta OR Zero no Kiseki Evolution (which is a Vita game)

And I won't be surprised if they do it like this, since they DID release Ys Seven first, then Felghana, THEN Chronicles - making sure we are hooked by the then latest game in the series before we invest on the games that came before.

Another problem is I'm not sure how XSeed feels about going full DD for these titles if they'll ever localize at least Nayuta, since we all know the UMD is pretty much dead. But hey, it worked for Corpse Party. And the money they'll save from not producing UMDs, they can spend on advertising, which they did very well with for the Ys series (that hair band trailer man).

Zero no Kiseki costs 5200 Yen on Japanese PSN, and I expect Nayuta to cost at least that much. The cheapest 5000 yen PSN card I could find costs at least $72. So that will be spending around 70-80 bucks for a single PSP game. The PSP Ys and LoH games cost around 2950 Yen, which are pretty cheap, but not $15 XSeed cheap. So being Japanese litterate or no, money is money.

So what's the point? The point is as much as I love XSeed for all their hard work, we all know the UMD is dead, people are getting the Vita that doesn't support it, and there are Falcom PSP games that still need localizing - how will XSeed handle this problem (plus of course, they need to survive as a business too)?

[321jassman]

Well, you see thing about the Ys series is they are all standalone games but the LoH series are rather deeply connected and the Ys games doesn't have a lot of text like the LoH series.

[Wyrdwad]

We still don't know how connected Nayuta no Kiseki will be to the rest of the series, nor how much text will be in it, so it's possible that one could jump to the front of the line. We'll just have to wait and see, really.

But if you're concerned about the platform, I'd say don't be. We still have a PSP game on the way (Unchained Blades) and we're still plenty willing to evaluate and publish PSP games after that as well. Gamers and major publishers seem to have concluded that the PSP market is dead in North America right now, but we niche publishers are still finding plenty of success with it -- and thanks to the Vita's backwards compatibility with most digital PSP titles, I don't see that stopping anytime soon.

-Tom

[haven9270]

Thanks Tom.

Just making sure, because you guys still need to survive as a business, and not even Growlanser could save Working Design (seen WD from early life till death - so sad).

[Chaosblade]

XSEED seems to be sane enough to not do something crazy and commit suicide, so they do have that benefit over Working Designs.

I mean, I don't think we'll be seeing a Trails SC + 3rd combo pack come out of nowhere for PSP or something. (I could see them bundling the trilogy on Steam for a slightly discounted price though)

[Savin877]

Although naturally I would love to see SC on PSP in its enhanced glory if at all possible, I wouldn't mind an alternative if it came to that. As for the rest of the games we will just have to wait and see. It is good to see that XSEED still wants to hang on to the PSP for a while longer.

[Fabrizo]

we all know the UMD is pretty much dead...we all know the UMD is dead

Atlus disagrees with you, as do a lot of PSP fans (myself included). GajinWorks recent kickstarter was for a UMD release of a game no one cared about, and even it managed to get over $100k. So yes, there's a market, albeit not a huge one, but large enough to support companies with less overhead like XSeed. Also keep in mind UMD is extremely cheap to produce, much more so then DS/3DS/Vita/PS3 media.

As for Nayuta, the previews would suggest it's text light and has no direct connection to the other titles in the Kiseki series. Unless the previews end up being extremely misleading, its probably got about the same chance at localization as Corpse Party: Book of Shadows.

There's still plenty of titles worth localizing on the platform, and I'd like to think that past Unchained Blades we can still look forward to 4-6 more releases by XSeed before they move onto other platforms (TitS SC, Nayuta, Book of Shadows, and 1 to 3 more mystery titles).

[Shizuka]

There's still plenty of titles worth localizing on the platform, and I'd like to think that past Unchained Blades we can still look forward to 4-6 more releases by XSeed before they move onto other platforms (TitS SC, Nayuta, Book of Shadows, and 1 to 3 more mystery titles).

And all of those, I can bet they'll be DD-only. I have nothing against it at this point, but that sure proves that the PSP UMD market isn't strong enough for a company like XSEED to gamble.

[Fabrizo]

Atlus disagrees with you, as do a lot of PSP fans (myself included). GajinWorks recent kickstarter was for a UMD release of a game no one cared about, and even it managed to get over $100k. So yes, there's a market, albeit not a huge one, but large enough to support companies with less overhead like XSeed. Also keep in mind UMD is extremely cheap to produce, much more so then DS/3DS/Vita/PS3 media.

And all of those, I can bet they'll be DD-only. I have nothing against it at this point, but that sure proves that the PSP UMD market isn't strong enough for a company like XSEED to gamble.

What proves it? My opinion is Falcom games (and if they get any jrpgs like OMDB, 7th Dragon 2020, etc.) will get physical releases, but everything else will be DD only. But that's just an opinion, doesn't prove anything.

[Dice]

I have an issue with the PSP being "dead" in general. Even IF the games are still circulating or people are still playing it... not many systems are being made, and those things don't have the best life cycle. At the very least, its hard to find replacement batteries/chargers.