I guess I'm just trying to reiterate the fact that it's pretty frustrating to watch them put in minimal (if any) effort into advertising and then wonder why the games tank when they release 'em outside of Japan. Bamco's marketing guy: "Hmm, maybe [insert nationality here] just don't like Tales games?"...riiiiiiight.
Ahah, oh yes.
To top that one off, you can look at how some Namco Man went all "Really want Tales to sell in Europe!", and then shortly after Tales of Vesperia is announced for Europe, the Japanese go out and announce the updated PS3 version, even before the 360 version has come out in Europe.
Now THAT is a real marketing failure. My guess is that they probably tried to work out a deal with a European publisher for the game, and the moment that deal was sealed and somehow paid for, they went out and announced the PS3 version as Europe + 360 = Out of their hands.
Really sucks when a company isn't really "one" company, or have to depend on various third parties to handle international releases... not to mention how it seems like "home base" quite frankly doesn't give a damn about their international image.
It also wouldn't be the first game where something like this has happened (Kingdom Hearts 1-2 says hi w/Final Mix being announced right before EU. SquareSoft/Square-Enix' lack of follow up on their re-releases is really awkward too, not just in the case of Final Mix, but how stuff like the PSP port of Valkyrie Profile uses the Japanese version of VP as its base game and not the US version which had a few interface enhancements and stuff. Tales of Symphonia finally made it over here in time for the PS2 port to be knocking on the door in Japan with additional content too. Not that many, if any, care about the PS2 port of Symphonia.. but still, people are easily tempted by "additional content")
But, yeah, Namco's marketing wizards are weird. It really is a bit of a sales killer that the EU 360 version, which will come out right before the Japanese PS3 version, most certainly doesn't contain any additional content or anything, and will most likely just be a full priced release of a nearly a year old game (by the time of release). Not to mention how Star Ocean 4 for some odd reason got pushed back in Europe from a previously April time-frame to now be launching side-by-side with Tales of Vesperia.
Author