Tales developer tidbits

[Kevassa]

Well I am going to say something that might offend someone, or many someones (but I dont want to, at all)
From my point of view, and to be truly honest, I am not really interested about how the company, or how the series sales are going.
Why?
Because I only honestly care about the game´s fun value, what will I enjoy from it.
I mean, as long as they sell enjoyable games, and their production doesnt go crap, their sales is the less I should care, its their problem, not ours (gamers).

MOST game series standing more than 10 years are milked, specially true for RPGs (But Sonic and Megaman and on my top ten "most milked series ever" though)

[Datschge]

Uh people, why are you all getting hung up about the large amount of Tales games? It's nothing new! You could complain about this anytime since the formation of Tales Studio (and many actually already have done so). I'm ready to call that one of the series' many staples. =P

Tales release history in numbers (fiscal years may make more sense though):
1995: 1 (ToP)
1997: 1 (ToD)
1998: 1 (ToP PS1)
2000: 2 (ToP: ND, ToE)
2002: 3 (ToF Vol.1, TotW: ND2, ToD2)
2003: 3 (TotW: SL, ToP GBA, ToS)
2004: 2 (ToS PS2, ToR)
2005: 4 (TotW: ND3, ToE PSP, ToL, TotA) + 1 mobile RPG
2006: 4 (ToP PSP, TotT, ToD PS2, TotW: RM) + 3 mobile RPGs + 1 online RPG
2007: 3 (ToD2 PSP, ToF Vol.2, ToI)
2008: 5 (ToD: DC, ToR PSP, ToS-R, ToV, ToH) + 1 mobile RPG
2009: >2 (TotW: RM2, To10, ...)

Also regarding sales: while it's true they are falling per release relatively within the series, they are still rather reliably high compared to sales of other Namco games (which usually seem to have a higher budget).

[jajaswipo]

who cares if bamco wants to screw with their money thats their problem.
their not screwing with mine anymore thats for sure. tales games these days cater to tales fans mainly. thats not a problem except for the fact that their is no advertising to actually increase the fanbase like final fantasy had in the past. there i said it . have your way with me now

[Joseph]

I don't know. I'd love to see a Tales with the budget of a Final Fantasy, but I'm also just glad a company like Namco is even sparing resources to make something like Vesperia, or even hastily-produced-but-decent DS games. Look at Breath of Fire -- Capcom is unwilling to spare ONE team to make ONE freaking new game for that franchise*, big-budget or otherwise.

*One that isn't cell-phone fodder, that is.

[Lanyn]

Do you own Bamco stock or something?

I wasn't aware that I had to own stock in order to grasp basic economic principles. Not to mention that I know a little about how Japanese companies work, so I don't think that the assumptions that I'm making are too far from the truth.

I personally don't care. If Namco thinks they can release six new games with one on each major platform, then I say go for it. As a Western consumer, the "brand saturation" going on in Japan doesn't effect me, because I'm only likely to see a couple of those games released in my territory anyways.

You're talking about a company who thinks that they can release a game in another country (one that considers RPGs to be a niche group, to boot) without any significant advertising and expect it to sell as well as it does in Japan. And it appears that they've yet to figure out what the problem is even after 10 years. In other words, Bamco doesn't always have the brightest ideas when it comes to business decisions.

I don't know. I'd love to see a Tales with the budget of a Final Fantasy, but I'm also just glad a company like Namco is even sparing resources to make something like Vesperia, or even hastily-produced-but-decent DS games. Look at Breath of Fire -- Capcom is unwilling to spare ONE team to make ONE freaking new game for that franchise*, big-budget or otherwise.

Personally, I'd rather have a game that I can tell that they had spent a lot of time developing rather than one with sparkly graphics or a bunch of games that got no love, but that's just me. Plus, I had heard that there was a reason why Capcom hadn't released a now BoF game though...didn't the director of the series pass away or something?

[Nae]

time developing rather than one with sparkly graphics or a bunch of games that got no love, but that's just me.

Like Final Fantasy?

[Joseph]

You're talking about a company who thinks that they can release a game in another country (one that considers RPGs to be a niche group, to boot) without any significant advertising and expect it to sell as well as it does in Japan. And it appears that they've yet to figure out what the problem is even after 10 years. In other words, Bamco doesn't always have the brightest ideas when it comes to business decisions.

It's not just Namco. Very few JRPGs get a hefty marketing budget in America. It's a reality of the genre.

Personally, I'd rather have a game that I can tell that they had spent a lot of time developing rather than one with sparkly graphics or a bunch of games that got no love, but that's just me. Plus, I had heard that there was a reason why Capcom hadn't released a now BoF game though...didn't the director of the series pass away or something?

Wasn't Vesperia in development since 2005/06? I recall one of the producers saying that the 360 was the only HD console on the market when they started development. That's a solid amount of time to work on a game.

Off-Topic:
I don't know about the BoF director passing away, but even if he did that has nothing to do with the franchise being in stasis. Keiji Inafune recently said that Capcom simply doesn't have the staff to spare on a new Breath of Fire. Apparently, they have only half the staff that SquEnix and Namco do. (And yet Namco can apparently develop like six Tales games at once with 1,200 staff members.)

[Lanyn]

Like Final Fantasy?

Any resemblance or suggestion of everyone's favorite RPG series is merely coincidental. 

It's not just Namco. Very few JRPGs get a hefty marketing budget in America. It's a reality of the genre.

That's true, but there are many smaller companies which are releasing JRPGs in NA (e.g. Atlus, NIS) that are arguably more obscure than the Tales series (e.g. Disgaea, Shin MegaTen, Odin Sphere, Persona, etc) and yet they have higher sales. For every example that I listed (and I know I missed some too), there was either a reprint or the game made it to the Greatest Hits list (although I'm aware of the debate surrounding this) to keep up with the demand. So far, the only Tales game that has come even close to that over here is ToS, and it just happened to be the one Tales game that got some decent advertising (plus it wasn't released the same day/week as a Final Fantasy and it was on an RPG-starved platform, but you get the point about how marketing strategies can greatly affect sales, yes?).

Wasn't Vesperia in development since 2005/06? I recall one of the producers saying that the 360 was the only HD console on the market when they started development. That's a solid amount of time to work on a game.

I believe you're right and from what I've heard (I happen to be 360-less), Vesperia is a solid game all around. That's why I'm concerned that Bamco could potentially be trying to produce a large number of new Tales games at once since time spent developing the game usually has a direct correlation with the quality of the product (and I don't want to hear about how correlation does not equal causation ). If you increase the number of games in production by 2 or 3 fold and cut the amount of time spent in development by 1/3 or 1/2 on top of that, the chances of all of those games being solid releases is painfully low.

[Panda_Samurai]

If only Bamco would let Xseed or Atlus localize them.  From a monetary standpoint, could it actually hurt them?