Persona 4 was a victory for RPG fans in a variety of ways -- innovative gameplay and setting, engaging story, vivid character depictions and best of all, fun to play. You'd easily think that it sold quite well, but with the presentation of some new numbers from Atlus, we see that it did in fact fall short of what it should have. Via Siliconera:
North America
Persona 4 (PS2) – 110,000 (150,000 expected)
Devil Survivor (DS) – 40,000 (25,000 expected)
Japan
Persona 4 (PS2) – 300,000 (180,000 expected)
Devil Summoner 2 (PS2) – 180,000 (120,000 expected)
Devil Survivor (DS) – 110,000 (100,000 expected)
Persona (PSP) – 160,000 (50,000 expected)
Growlanser (PSP) – 50,000 (40,000 expected)
It's great to see that goals are being surpassed in Japan, but man, Americans only bought 110,000 copies of Persona 4? REALLY? Are there that few people in the gaming universe interested in an RPG like this? I mean, this financial report covers August 2008 to July 2009, so it could be that more have sold since July ... but I can't imagine that number has jumped too significantly.
Bottom line,its obvious from these numbers that more people are interested in the HD, generic RPG than they are in a truly stellar one with the balls to be unique, and that makes me sad.If you're interested but still waffling about buying it, please do yourself a favor -- you're missing one of the best RPGs on the PS2.
Contest:
6:20 PM on 10.06.2009
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I mean, they're all great games, but don't tell me this news surprised you Colette. No matter how good a game like this is, it's only going to sell to a certain audience: the same audience that bought the first 3 and the various spin-offs. It's a niche product that only caters to a small group of gamers, no matter how hardcore they are.
I really need to balls up and get them. I promise I'll do it before I sell my PS2.
....oops.
Still kinda sad Persona 4 hasn't met their goals. I can kinda see why Altus is focusing their SMT games on PSP and DS now, as their charms on console games eeem to have been wasted on Sony gamers.
Kazuma Kaneko recently confirmed that SMT Strange Journey was in fact SMT IV. So now main series MegaTen is on DS and Persona stuff for PSP. I can't say I blame them for the move since SE and Sega seem to be following a similar pattern with some of their RPG franchies, which also unsurprisingly went unappreciated by Sony gamers. And Valkyria Chronicles was HD.
Yeah, really. I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it.
I never said the news surprised me. I said the news sucks. Read before you come in the comments and bitch next time.
It's a sad point, but I wonder how much the lack of time(and enthusiasim) of the core demographic of JRPG's at the time factor into those numbers.
Eh, I'm glad I got it when I did, and even more glad I preordered Devil Summoner 2.
But yeah, not really surprising since Giant Bomb is a better marketing team for them than what they've got. Only now that Giant Bomb's Endurance Run is so popular do I see all this rampant love for Persona games.
In an as non-gay way as possible.
This is the game that really got me interested in not only Atlus but the Shin Megami Tensei games. The price is very fair for 70+ hrs. of one of the best games ever.
And while I mean that hyperbolic statement in the least offensive way possible (Atlus is good people), I'm planted firmly in the position that Persona 4 receives much more praise than it actually deserves. I'll spare my list of complaints for another time, but I'm not surprised by these numbers. If Atlus made a profit off of this game, then I'd say that's pretty successful, and they should be happy with that. Lord knows nobody bought 101-in-1 Explosive Megamix.
I think this just goes to show nothing much has changed from what happened with Ico and Beyond Good and Evil. Even with the wider awareness of these niche titles and coverage at gaming conventions I doubt the sales will ever increase drastically. Maybe I am being a pessimist but I think the biggest change the expanded coverage will be a slight increase in sales and a larger increase in used traffic of it. Sure it arouses more of an interest but I feel like people just like to stick with genres they know they'll enjoy. Nothing wrong with that, especially when you may be on a tight budget.
I've been pre-ordering SMT games since Nocturne/DDS but that is primarily because I am a huge JRPG whore. Here's to hoping I am eventually proved wrong and they start selling like hot cakes.
Really though, PS3 (and maybe 360?) next time?
They're connected in tangential ways. There's no continuity between any of them.
There's still time.
Can't stand Devil Survivor though, WAY too hard.