Falcom Titles on Steam

[Chestnut Bowl]

I found this blurb in Siliconera's interview with Ken Berry:

You have to keep in mind that Falcom originally started on PC so they are PC experts. We’ve talked to them numerous times about looking at Steam and numerous platforms. That is something Falcom is open to. Hopefully, if their resources open up we can have more serious discussions about – maybe this franchise won’t be able to recoup the investment on this platform, but if we can spread that out on a couple platforms maybe that would be a safer bet for both of us.

I'm brimming with hope that this will happen, someday. I am, however, curious: what would it take for both Falcom and Xseed to get titles onto the Steam service, or some other popular digital distribution platform? What are the obstacles? Is it worth the effort?

[Wyrdwad]

That's kind of what WE'RE asking, actually. Steam would be a new frontier for us, and for Falcom as well. We have no idea what exactly is involved... just that we intend to find out, and see how feasible it really is.

(SpaceDrake response in 3... 2...)

-Tom

[Peytral]

Ys Origin on Steam gogogogogogogogogogogo

[Chaosblade]

Steam is awesome and as I've said numerous times, there's little reason why you shouldn't have quite a bit of success there, certainly more so than the PSP in the coming years. It's a lot more community oriented than the PSP, or any console for that matter, and word of good games spreads fast. Take advantage of summer and holiday sales and put the games up for 50-66% off for a day and people will buy it in droves (SpaceDrake can attest to this I'm sure), and hopefully recommend it to their friends.

This is on the extreme end of anecdotal evidence, but most of my friends take Steam a lot more seriously than the PSP. I've tried to make some sales pitches for TitS and the Ys games, but I have a hard time because so many people just write them off for being PSP games. Steam also has the benefit of being able to gift games, and honestly I'd probably gift Trails out to several people just to try to get them into the series (or Falcom games in general).

Unfortunately I can't really comment from the publisher angle. Most of that is probably under NDA so I doubt even SpaceDrake could say too much. I really hope you seriously look into this though

[Lumina]

One thing I have always loved about XSEED is that they filled the void that Working Designs left for me, by showing a lot of extra effort in each release with awesome Limited Editions and standard releases with nice extras like inlay art and full color instruction manuals.

Maybe I'm in the minority here, and I would personally still be an XSEED fan and pick up the releases that were distributed on physical media, but I don't think I will ever fully adopt digital distribution save for a few $0.99 games for my iPad 2.

[nunuu]

I'm frothing already~!. :@

I really do hope it happens! *___*

[Lumina]

I just wanted to add for the record that I do understand that I'm paying for more than a physical product when I buy a game, and that the money I fork over goes to pay for things like staff salaries, marketing, etc etc and in general keeps the company afloat to bring more games over. It's just that in addition to being a bit of a collector and enjoying my physical products, I personally feel that the current price for most digitally distributed games doesn't fall in line with that I feel is a fair price for the product.

I think Wizardry was a very fair price point, but let's be honest and look at PSN for a moment as an example. On the release date most games are discounted by what, maybe $5 off of the standard retail price? How much does a company save distributing a game without having to go through the manufacturing process? I don’t have the answer to that second question but I truly don’t think those two numbers are totally in line with each another in today’s world.

Would I be happy if XSEED sold games over Steam, in addition to over PSN and standard physical releases? Hell yea, more power to them, because I want XSEED to do well. I would just personally be very sad if Steam (or other digital distribution systems) became the main way XSEED releases niche titles in the future.

[Chaosblade]

I doubt XSEED would move exclusively (or even close to exclusively) to Steam. If they try it and it works out for them it would probably just be another platform available to them for publishing. And for games like Trails that have PSP and PC versions, I think Steam is a much better solution at this point (but that leaves FC owners who have issues with PC gaming in the cold, not really fair especially considering the trilogy was announced for PSP).

Besides, they could still do retail releases of Steam games for PC if they really wanted to. That's kind of a waste of money to manufacture IMO, but some companies do that to get retail presence for their games. You basically just get a disc with the Steam client and a download code if I'm not mistaken.

[WoottWinds]

I'd be more than all for this idea. I still think it might be a great way to continue the LoH series if it turns out to be too much trouble to make work for the PSP or Vita, and I would have no problem whatsoever re-buying the PC versions of all the Ys games you guys have already done for the PSP, as well as TitS. Plus there's a bunch of other awesome Falcom games on PC that would be awesome to have the chance of getting brought over. (Zweii II, Zweii II, Zweii II, Zwei II, Zweii II, Zweii II, Zweii II, Zwei II, Zweii II, Zweii II, Zweii II, Zwei II...)

That said, I absolutely love my retail and LE releases, and while I don't have an issue with digital distribution I would be really sad to see any possible PC release not come with a super fancy box option. The more options and platforms the better!

[Terro]

One thing I have always loved about XSEED is that they filled the void that Working Designs left for me, by showing a lot of extra effort in each release with awesome Limited Editions and standard releases with nice extras like inlay art and full color instruction manuals.

Maybe I'm in the minority here, and I would personally still be an XSEED fan and pick up the releases that were distributed on physical media, but I don't think I will ever fully adopt digital distribution save for a few $0.99 games for my iPad 2.

Trust me, you aren't the only one. I think one big reason for many JRPG sales, IS the fancy packaging! I know many that are not fans of DD, and the only ones I do are some small games on PSN and DLC. The packaging is awesome, and many of us fans LOVE it! For me, I have a tight budget when it comes to buying things like games. HOWEVER, LEs get priority because of all the fancy stuff (plus, there's no way to tell which will be hard to find later on!)

I think Steam-ONLY is a bad idea... I know there's many issues right now with the second title, but I'm only up for getting a physical copy... I hope something gets figured out though!