Tales of Bombia (sales thread)

[Kiko]

It doesn't help that the PS2 has tons of other RPGs with bigger fanbases and bigger marketing campaigns than Abyss ever will have or any other Tales in the US will ever get. It gets little to no exposure, and then it's released at the worst possible time (Which, well, they didn't really have much control over if they were waiting on ToL's sales to gauge actually bringing Abyss here. Or even if not, Abyss has tons of dialogue..so the process should take a while even if they started right after ToL was whipped out here), after VP2, before FFXII, and a month before next-gen arrives. If you're tight on money and aren't a big Tales fan you're probably going to buy XII, OR you're going to save up for next-gen stuff.

Abyss has alot of stuff going against it, I would have been surprised if it did better than Symphonia, even if it's a really good Tales, that's not saving it if you're the general public and haven't heard of it before.

[Cless Aileron]

It doesn't help that the PS2 has tons of other RPGs with bigger fanbases and bigger marketing campaigns than Abyss ever will have or any other Tales in the US will ever get. It gets little to no exposure, and then it's released at the worst possible time (Which, well, they didn't really have much control over if they were waiting on ToL's sales to gauge actually bringing Abyss here. Or even if not, Abyss has tons of dialogue..so the process should take a while even if they started right after ToL was whipped out here), after VP2, before FFXII, and a month before next-gen arrives. If you're tight on money and aren't a big Tales fan you're probably going to buy XII, OR you're going to save up for next-gen stuff.

Abyss has alot of stuff going against it, I would have been surprised if it did better than Symphonia, even if it's a really good Tales, that's not saving it if you're the general public and haven't heard of it before.

That's definately what I was going to say.  Abyss has things going against it, especially next gen and of course, Final Fantasy.  Tales is pretty much an obscure series still (well, except Symphonia) and Final Fantasy is still the mainstream RPG series and the one that's part of pop culture.  I pictured people going, "Tales of the Abyss?  Well, there's Final Fantasy XII coming later, so I rather wait for that one."  Abyss came around at a bad time so it's bound to have trouble.

[Cless]

If it makes you feel better Atlus' Devil Summoner didn't even reach 15k.

Even Rockstar's Bully game barely only moved 124k units. And you'd think that would've appealed to a huge audience... kind of puts things into perspective.

I really think the biggest problem is market saturation.

[throughhim413]

I agree with you on the market saturation comment.  Most gamers seem overwhelmed by the games coming out this season, and that isn't even mentioning those who are looking to put money towards next gen systems.  Like everyone has said, it was really just a bad time to put Abyss out.  If Tales were higher profile here in the states, it might have had a fighting chance, but sadly Tales doesn't have all that much of a name for itself outside of Symphonia.

[Dimentionalist]

I don't recall anything really "hot" coming out the summer Symphonia came out, save Zelda: FSA and the Madden games. I don't recall any other RPG competition at the time (Correct me if my memory serves me wrong as it often does), compared to ToA being released near some anticipated titles such as GTA: Vice City Stories, Final Fantasy XII, Bully, and the next-gen systems a month later. It really was a bad time to be released, but it was either release it in October, rush it and do a hack-job, or continue working on it to even out the bugs (ugh @ Mystic Arte glitch) and release it after PS3 and Wii hit the market. It's sad that games like this get overlooked. People should try something different every now and again. But still if it hit around 50,000 in a crowded market, it didn't do as bad as I was worried it would do (you don't wann know...), but I still wish it could've done better. I just hope that when the FFXII hype dies down, people will give this game a chance. I REALLY hope it hits at least 150,000 in its lifetime in the US.

Also, what did ToL hit its first month? Wasn't it  around 40,000?

I'm also with throughhim413 on Tales games continually flopping. I don't think this series deserves this.

[Cyllya]

Hmm, was some other major game coming out in NA around the same time as ToP-GBA? I think that's the case with all the others except ToS (sold well) and maybe ToE (released the day before a major event that probably made people not worry about buying games for a while).

Timing just seems to be against this series.

[Kiko]

Yeah, it's hard to judge wether Symphonia did really well due to the GC's lack of alternative RPGs (Which I so totally bet on), or if it was because nothing else really hot came out at the time..

..it was probably just the cuddly anime characters on the cover! THIS IS THE SECRE--*maimed*

[throughhim413]

To address what Cyllya said above:

I think ToP-GBA's problem was just that nobody knew about it.  I almost didn't know that it was coming out.  Actually, I don't think I even found out about it until after the fact.  I think it was pretty under the radar for the most part, at least that was my sense.  Also, ToP GBA certainly didn't get the kind of word of mouth praise that Symphonia did.  I'm convinced that Symphonia's success was based almost entirely in the facts that 1) it was basically the only good RPG option for NGC owners and 2) it got rather uniform and widespread praise by word of mouth.

But still, I'll agree with you that timing (and basically everything else) does not seem to be on Tales' side when it comes to the US market...  It's the sad and strange reality.

[supersonic1453]

Yeah, ToP-GBA was definitely under the radar.  My friend told me about it a couple weeks before it came out.  Before that, I didn't even know that there was a GBA version. 

I believe that Symphonia only really sold well because it was the only good GCN rpg.  Baten Kaitos might have been out, but I'm sure the cards thing made a lot of people stay away.  Since ToS was the only good rpg, it got overhyped to FF7 levels, and now people refuse to acknowledge other Tales games (people actually say that Symphonia is better than Abyss, I  just don't see how they can claim that other than the load times of course).

Well, one thing I've been wondering, why did they add Sacred Penance/Blame to Philia in TotA?  I mean to take a move from an upcoming remake is just wrong if they don't plan to release it here.

[Azu]

From GFs, 27k......

[Phren]

Under the radar? I just about called a freind a liar when he told me he saw ToP GBA in english. N had said basically not no-way, not no-how. And poof, is was on shelves.

Whereas Shmphonia, BEING a decent RPG for the GC, got a lot of publicity. it was on every other GC display setup I saw for the longest time.

[bungiefan]

To address what Cyllya said above:

I think ToP-GBA's problem was just that nobody knew about it.  I almost didn't know that it was coming out.  Actually, I don't think I even found out about it until after the fact.  I think it was pretty under the radar for the most part, at least that was my sense.  Also, ToP GBA certainly didn't get the kind of word of mouth praise that Symphonia did.  I'm convinced that Symphonia's success was based almost entirely in the facts that 1) it was basically the only good RPG option for NGC owners and 2) it got rather uniform and widespread praise by word of mouth.

Um... Wasn't the game in Nintendo Power's upcoming releases list for like 2 years...? I knew about it, but I also knew I didn't want the GBA version with all of the problems reported from the Japanese version, and preview information on the Tales forum hinting at a buggy or bad translation. Now if they had brought over the PS1 version, on a PS2 disc like Capcom did with the PS1 Rockman games, I would have gone for it. Just when it comes to the GBA version, I'd rather have the SFC version than that.

[throughhim413]

Nintendo Power?  Like, as in Nintendo's magazine?  I don't go out of my way to read literature on games to be honest.  So under the radar to me might not be the same as it is to other people.  But I'm usually pretty well informed when it comes to games I care about, so I was a bit surprised that ToP went without me noticing for a few months.  I mean, in any case, it wasn't like with with more recent localization where I felt like word of mouth and banner ads scattered around various sites where occasionally present.

[Cless]

An advertisement for ToP GBA was included with every copy of Final Fantasy IV advance. An effort to advertise the game was made...

[throughhim413]

Where do you think it failed then?  Just in the game itself and a lack of interest in it?

[Cyllya]

Um... Wasn't the game in Nintendo Power's upcoming releases list for like 2 years...?

Why would being on that list for two years give anyone anyone reason to think it was coming out here? XD As I recall, in one issue, they even said it wasn't coming out in the US but still had it on the list in that same issue. o_O

Nintendo Power?  Like, as in Nintendo's magazine?  I don't go out of my way to read literature on games to be honest.  So under the radar to me might not be the same as it is to other people.  But I'm usually pretty well informed when it comes to games I care about, so I was a bit surprised that ToP went without me noticing for a few months.  I mean, in any case, it wasn't like with with more recent localization where I felt like word of mouth and banner ads scattered around various sites where occasionally present.

If you're excluding Nintendo Power, I don't think ToS got that much more advirtising than the others...