Stop publishing digital only games. (Corpse Party)

[Fabrizo]

Well Wyrdwad, hopefully its a runaway success and in a few years you get to release the Corpse Party compilation on Vita at retail

[Terro]

What are the chances of making super-limited printed runs, in the future? Like how DJ Max only made 5,000. Say if that number were, 1,000 at a higher price, would that be doable in a similar case? Although, I did hear that producing a small amount of games is pricey, but if you up the price a bit I think us physical copy collectors would be fine with it (especially with the limited availability!)

[Wyrdwad]

Fabrizo: We would LOVE that. (: I'm actually playing the sequel in Japanese now, and it's really awesome, so I can only hope the first game sells well enough to convince our investors that we should also do Book of Shadows in the future!

Terro: I've been barking up that tree for a while. Maybe I can convince AngrySalesMonkey to give it some more consideration, seeing how quite a few people seem really upset about the game being PSN-only... but I wouldn't hold my breath! I'm sure there's a downside we're not considering here. I don't envy sales and marketing on their jobs, that's for sure!

-Tom

[Terro]

That would be awesome if it happens! Especially if you make it an online exclusive, should cut down more costs (thus making more profit )

[Eve]

Fabrizo: We would LOVE that. (: I'm actually playing the sequel in Japanese now, and it's really awesome, so I can only hope the first game sells well enough to convince our investors that we should also do Book of Shadows in the future!

Oh you have BoS to what part are you on?

[Wyrdwad]

Only just started. Played through chapter 1, but made the wrong choices and wound up with a bad ending (#2). Currently re-playing to try for the other two chapter endings.

-Tom

[Shizuka]

A few bits of opinions I've got on another forum:

"people are ridiculous. instead of BACONBACONBACONBACONBACONing, they should be grateful we're getting the game at all. it started out as a doujin game for BACONBACONBACONBACONs sake, the audience is way too obscure to do a retail release on a platform that is virtually dead."

I completely agree with this. No one can expect a company to release such a niche game, at this point of the PSP life, and even on UMD. 90% of the games I want for the PSP, I already gave up. Corpse Party was one of them. I do not expect companies to do UMD releases from now on, and the fact that this game is the dictionary definition of niche certainly doesn't help XSEED.

"And I know a lot of people are afraid of DD only, but I think it's pretty clear that's the direction things are headed, at least for smaller titles. Between brick and mortar stores not wanting to carry risky/low-profit inventory and manufacturing costs being completely eliminated with a DD-only model, it will only make more and more financial sense for smaller titles to go download-only. Plus, the console makers themselves realize this (except maybe for Nintendo) so with the next generation of platforms you're only going to see more support for digital distribution, making it that much easier/smoother for publishers to offer content and users to get it."

And there's this one, that explains the reality of this industry. It's from a NISA employee. We've got two people from different companies saying that, plus a bunch of other guys from other companies that said that on other opportunities.

[Nephlabobo]

I'll tell you that I, myself, am not at all a fan of download-only releases. I wish everything would get a physical release, and I really hate it when companies announce that a game is getting released digital-only. But the fact of the matter is, most gamers really are OK with digital releases (a lot of gamers even prefer it!), and physical releases cost a LOT of money to make. If we released this game on UMD, maybe we'd get another... say, 1000 sales? Pure guess, and maybe even a high one. So OK, we sold more copies, great... but the amount of money we'd have to spend to MAKE those copies -- between UMD production, manual production, box production, distribution, shelf space at retailers (optional but generally recommended), etc. -- would FAR outweigh the money we'd make from those extra 1000 sales... and probably another 5000 on top of that, to boot!

In the end, we'd lose money, pure and simple. See, while we absolutely love this game, we know full well that it appeals only to a very small niche. As much as we'd like to believe it'll sell hundreds of thousands of copies and make us millionaires, and as much as it arguably DESERVES to sell that much, the chances of it happening are pretty darned infinitesimal... whereas the chances of us losing SO MUCH MONEY on it due to production costs that we end up in great, great debt are, sadly, pretty darned high.

So in the end, it really does come down to one question: Is it worth releasing Corpse Party at all, knowing that it'll be digital distribution only? And the answer we came up with was yes. The game is amazing, and deserves to be played by English-speakers. And as much as we wish we could give you the UMD version you so desire... it just isn't possible. I'm really sorry.

-Tom

I appreciate the response, but I am still angry. As I am with all digital only releases.

At least it's money I can spend on something else.

I'm guessing none. Although I'm pretty disappointed with it, I can still understand why they did it. Comsumers that feel self-entitled to things really need to understand things like how retail and businesses work.

Please explain to me how wanting something in a particular format is self-entitlement?

If you go into a bookstore wanting a paperback, and the book store says: "You can only buy it in a more expensive hardcover version forever", even though you just wanted a paperback, is that self-entitlement?

If you want to buy a car in a particular colour, say red, and the car salesman says, "You're only allowed to buy it in green, no matter how many actual cars we make" - is that self-entitlement?

If you go into a restaurant and order a steak, and the waiter says "You're only allowed to have fish or chicken", even though you really want a steak, is that self-entitlement?

The answer to all of these is no. Different consumers have different tastes. Cutting out a whole section of your consumerbase is just stupid. If you can't satisfy them, then you aren't doing your job properly.

[Eve]

good for you be glad you are part of the problem why most JP games never make it to the states.

[Peytral]

All of those "examples" you listed don't really work at all in this sense. You still seem to be oblivious to the fact that XSEED can't afford to cater to your needs. Even though this has been mentioned multiple times.