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Post by Sarge on May 14, 2020 21:53:17 GMT -5
Their chance was Dragon Quest VIII. They definitely blew it. Now, Dragon Quest was still struggling mightily to catch on here, and a lot of it had to do with perceptions (Dragon Warrior was pretty grindy and quickly or already surpassed here in the States), missing a giant gap on SNES, and coming out with a quite ugly Dragon Warrior VII near the end of the PSX era.
Then they decided, after a solid shot with DQVIII, to go with the DS as the next platform. Definitely focused on their home market and not the West. Apparently that entry's combined sales in NA/EU were just over a million, but combined sales of the previous one with NA/"Other" were actually slightly higher. So another iffy move.
Then they went MMORPG. Blargh. And we didn't even see it, not that I would have cared. But that means another massive gap of eight years before getting a truly new entry.
Yeah, I'd say they screwed up. Hopefully they can get some momentum off of DQXI.
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Post by Xeogred on May 14, 2020 21:57:57 GMT -5
Yeah, it just seems like it should be super marketable globally. Who doesn't want a Slime plushy? That should be on all store shelves.
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Post by Sarge on May 14, 2020 22:01:46 GMT -5
You would think. You would think.
I won't say I've given up trying to predict what will be successful and what won't, but it certainly doesn't surprise me anymore when something I thought would be great (or is great!) doesn't get market traction, and other iffy products (or better marketed) gain a foothold. But that's the market for you - people spend their lives doing this stuff and still get it wrong. It's tough!
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Post by Xeogred on May 14, 2020 22:05:33 GMT -5
Yeah, especially with Japanese IP's kind of having a resurgence lately. I would think that today's market would be more open to appreciating Dragon Quest for being what it is.
Instead, it seems like Persona's kind of taken over. But even other series' like Yakuza have finally found more mass success too.
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Post by Sarge on May 14, 2020 22:12:14 GMT -5
I'm honestly pretty iffy on modern Persona. It appealed for a little bit, but I kinda figured out it really isn't for me.
I'm definitely happy to see the Japanese developers find their footing. For a while there, it looked like they were in really bad shape. I'm also glad to see Western devs put out quality titles. The industry does best when both are killing it.
Now if we could get Konami to stop being terrible...
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