Tales of Bombia (sales thread)

[Joan-Michele]

It's prolly because the US localization of the ToP GBA game is absolutely horrid. I'm not just talking poor translation horrid, there's the voice acting, the messed up item menu, the bugs reported uniquely on the US localization.

Makes me glad I imported the Jap version.

[Kikujiro]

Please open your eyes. I've never seen any game failing so hard just because it's localisation was horrid.

[Joan-Michele]

How can you say that when the figure is right there before your very eyes?  Compare the US ToP GBA sales to the ToP Jap GBA sales figures.

[Kikujiro]

You're kidding, right?

You CAN'T compare US and JP sales, especially with a series like Tales of, which is very popular in Japan but supported by a limited fanbase in the US.

[Joan-Michele]

Then you compare the sales ratio, simple as that. ^_^

[Cyllya]

Comparing the ratio? The ratio of what to what, exactly? What number would you use for US Tales sales in general? (Or even Japanese Tales in general?)

ToP-GBA sold sold 30k here.... Excluding it, the average (arithmetic mean) sales for US Tales is about 148k--not a very representative number. ToP US sold about 20% of that, which is bad. If you take the median instead, it's 60k, or if you exclude ToS from the mean as a fluke (since, unlike the rest of the series, it's actually popular over here) the average is more like 50k, and either of those two numbers more accurately represents the popularity of the series as a whole in the US. ToP-GBA sold 50% and 60% of those, respectively, which is still bad but considerably more normal.

In Japan, ToP-GBA sold 145k. Japanese sales for the series average about 370k, so ToP-GBA sold 40% of that. But the portables typically go for less, and the average for just them is 136k, and ToP sold 106% of that. I'm not sure if Tales portables all sell less for the same reasons though, so that might not be a fair distinction. If you only look at the "main" Tales games (as defined by both popular opinion and by Namco in a Tales of Tempest magazine add), the average is 507k, which ToP-GBA sold only 29% of.

50% and 60% is better than 40% and 29%, so depending on how you want to chop it... ToP-GBA actually sold relatively better in the US than in Japan. ^_^;

I'm using out-dated numbers though (US sales from this thread, Japanese numbers from here), but if anything, using updated numbers would only improve the US version's ratio, right?

Please open your eyes. I've never seen any game failing so hard just because it's localisation was horrid.

Most other games have some redeeming features left after the localization though....

[Joan-Michele]

Statistics abuse, desu!11

30k/148k  in the US vs 145k/370k in Japan, clearly the US localization bombed.

If you want to compare things, you'll have to at least compare them on the same level. Don't just take away factors from the figures just because YOU don't like them, capische?

Even if you compare just the handheld portion of the Tales series, it would be 100% in the US (Since it's the ONLY handheld Tales game in the US AFAIK) vs 106% in Japan.

[Magicpaint]

Makes me glad I imported the Jap version.

The Japanese version has an even slower battle system AFAIK.

I thought the ToP GBA localisation was fine, and I enjoyed it enough to put in 50 hrs or so. I've seen worse localisations in the past, so the flaws here weren't anything groundbreakingly bad, they were tolerable.

[Cless]

Statistics abuse, desu!11

30k/148k  in the US vs 145k/370k in Japan, clearly the US localization bombed.

If you want to compare things, you'll have to at least compare them on the same level. Don't just take away factors from the figures just because YOU don't like them, capische?

Even if you compare just the handheld portion of the Tales series, it would be 100% in the US (Since it's the ONLY handheld Tales game in the US AFAIK) vs 106% in Japan.

If you throw out the exception to the rule (ToS), that all falls apart.

[Joan-Michele]

If you throw out the exception to the rule (ToS), that all falls apart.

True, but if there is any justification in removing that factor, I don't see it.

[Cyllya]

You seriously can't see it? Well, read about it here then.

Not to mention you should be able to look at the resulting number and tell what's wrong with it. In regards to Tales US sales, 148,000 is a totally nonsense number. There has not been a single Tales game selling anywhere remotely close to that number; like I said, it's not representative of Tales sales.

Like Cless said, ToS is "the exception to the rule." (The "rule" being that the Tales series is unpopular in the US compared to Japan, since that was the whole reason you said to compare ratios in the first place.)

And like I said, you don't have to exclude anything if you simply use a more logical form of average. The median of Tales US sales is 60,000. I didn't check the median of Japanese sales because both (a) I'm lazy (b) it's probably about the same as the mean. Feel free to check it yourself if comparing a median to a mean seems unfair.

[Magicpaint]

Well, to be fair on ToP GBA, it's a "remake" of a remake, so directly comparing its sales against an average of what main Tales games in Japan have shifted would be hugely disadvantageous to it. It couldn't have sold anything near what a new Tales game is capable of (in Japan).

I'm pretty sure that 190K figure it managed to shift is nothing to scoff at.

[Joan-Michele]

I'll refer you to what I said earlier...

Even if you compare just the handheld portion of the Tales series, it would be 100% in the US (Since it's the ONLY handheld Tales game in the US AFAIK) vs 106% in Japan.

[Carnivol]

Good thing is that sales atleast seems to cover the localization costs, unless there's mysteriously over 50 people actively involved in the localization process and localization has been going on for over 6 months.

Though, ofcourse, most companies wants to make sure they also earn some extra money on the side too, so they can expand and actually fund new projects.
But oh well, as long as it seems localization costs atleast has been covered by the sales, I guess it's a good start.

[Cless]

Tales of the Abyss moved somewhere between 25,000 and 50,000 units in October. Exact numbers haven't been given... at least yet.

Games in general sold like crap. Abyss' sales were in the average range for the month.

[throughhim413]

I can imagine that most people weren't really interested in buying games (especially RPGs) around mid-end of October.  I think there was probably a general sense of I-don't-need-games-because-FFXII-is-coming.  I have a feeling that once word about Abyss starts getting around, it might get a boost in sales.  I think the obvious 'It's like Symphonia' element will probably draw a good number of people in.  At least I hope so.  I'd hate to see Tales games continually flopping.  Even if it gets to the point of over-hype like with Symphonia, I'll take anything that keeps games coming our way.