Square Enix Not Impressed by CTDS Sales

[KitsuneSefam]

KitsuneSefam Not Impressed by Square-Enix Attitudes.

Has it ever came to mind that a CT sequel might cost more to produce than a FF/DQ game due to the scenario and the series being based on innovation and not constant rehashing?

[V_Translanka]

They'd also have to hire out freelancers Kato and Mitsuda...

[Schala Zeal]

Kato and Mitsuda shouldn't be the only ones. I mean, they're human and won't be around forever.

[FaustWolf]

Agh, should have posted this yesterday! Alex Donaldson sent me this followup and I just now saw it in my inbox:

To clarify one last thing for some of your readers: If you look at the
Chrono Trigger numbers, it's done well overall yes and has far
out-performed Front Mission. (Yes, I glanced at your thread!)

This is true. However, if you look at the sales in detail, the vast
majority of the Chrono Trigger sales were in Japan - it's been doing
fantastically in Japan, merely ok in the US and EU. Off the top of my head
it's around 200,000 in the EU - pathetic numbers - and 600,000 in the US.

Square's reasoning behind doing Front Mission - and Hashimoto went into
detail about this - is that only a few (three, I think) Front Mission
games have been released outside of Japan, and only one in Europe. Unlike
Chrono Trigger, they believe Front Mission hasn't had a 'chance' to go
big, whereas Chrono Trigger has.

That's why they're handing Front Mission - a franchise with guns,
explosions etc - off to a company more experienced in making those kinds
of games to try to make it big.

Huge thanks to Alex for not only traveling a zillion miles to interview Hashimoto (I think rpgsite.net is based in the UK) and land other exclusive interviews, but for taking the time out to give us some insight into how Square Enix interprets the market trends we've been armchair analyzing here.

Sometimes in business it's all about growth. Japan is one set of islands amongst an assortments of huge markets that Square Enix has set its eyes on, and people like Hashimoto feel that Front Mission has greater growth potential than Chrono. I'd still say that Hashimoto's interpretation of Chrono sales is flawed (there's a fair likelihood CT:DS sales were down in comparison to Chrono Trigger SNES because the market for that specific game had already become saturated), but it is what it is.

I'm looking forward to the full interview once it's transcribed. We might be able to get a general sense of Square Enix's psychology (or at least that of Hashimoto), and from that get a better handle on the likelihood of new Chrono games within the foreseeable future.

But I'll say this -- giant robots and Chrono are certainly not mutually exclusive, right?

[neo-fusion]

Yes, he knows there was also a PS release as well right...?

And they think its cool to shut down fan-games and such, but it's okay to just keep the series stagnant.

Eventually people will forget and when they do try to do another chapter in 2041, not many of us will still be playing video games...

[Agent 12]

Wow that was really cool of him FW! Make sure you send him our thanks.

Hopefully he saw some of the CE videos too

--JP

[Dialga_Palkia]

that is just bullcrap squareenix. you're just being babies with your final fantasies if that is what you are for your fans. give us what we chrono fans want. we bought your products for nothing and this is how you repay us?

[Onikage725]

I get the "growth" thing, but a few things still don't add up to me. According to the site we're pulling the overall CT:DS numbers, Final Fantasy IV Advance only sold about a quarter of that. Yet FFIV goes on to recieve a full 3D remake with voice acting, and now a full sequal on WiiWare. I know FF is there baby, but why test the waters with one game, see results like that, and greenlight the royal treatment... and then be so condescending about a series you gave a similar kickstart to and had much better sales with? I mean, CT was once considered such a success that (for the US market) they packaged it WITH Final Fantasy IV.

If this is the new attitude, why not just throw it on Virtual Console, like they did with Mario RPG? The FF ports all sell fairly low, but they keep putting those out, re-releasing, remaking, and now adding sequels too (serialzied even! FF IV's sequal is coming out in installments, two at 800 points and a few at 300 points). CT:DS is about as intensive a release as any of those (those got graphical touch ups, new dungeon(s), a bestiary- does Square think they're monster battling sim and item glossary are *that* spiffy?). The Chrystal Chronicles series sells weaker than CT:DS, aside from the first game (which sold weaker than the original CT release). Ditto the Tactics series.

So, seriously, what the hell?

[Radical_Dreamer]

Yet FFIV goes on to recieve a full 3D remake with voice acting, and now a full sequal on WiiWare.

The WiiWare sequel is a port of a Japan only cell phone game that's at least a year old, if not more, at this point.

[Onikage725]

Yet FFIV goes on to recieve a full 3D remake with voice acting, and now a full sequal on WiiWare.

The WiiWare sequel is a port of a Japan only cell phone game that's at least a year old, if not more, at this point.

Looking deeper, I see the mobile phone release sold extremely well (though I don't know if the numbers I'm seeing indicate the whole game or individual chapter downloads, or reflect the subscription-based micro-transactions vs paying for a whole game on the spot), but even referring to the original Japanese release I still stand by my point. Why? Because FFIVA came out 3 and a half yrs ago and didn't exactly fly off shelves. And knowing this, that means the sequal was greenlit before the DS remake of IV had time to make a huge impact on such a decision (they were only a few months apart, so some simultaneous development must have occurred).

[mav]

The mobile phone version had 3 million downloads, from what I understand. That excludes the free prologue chapter, but I'm not sure how that figure relates to the various chapters...

[The Black Wind]

Of course the sales were unimpressive. It was a re-re-release of the same fucking game we've been playing for almost fifteen years with minuscule differences. They give Final Fantasy IV a remake from the ground up even though no one wanted one, yet after shutting down Chrono Trigger Resurrection they give us another fucking port.

New ending? Great, but what the hell does it even mean?

I guess now, we'll never know.

[V_Translanka]

The FFIV remake was after 3 previous ports though, I believe...I wanted a remake and was glad we got one. FFIV DS rules and FFVI DS will kick even more ass if they actually get around to it...and besides that, FFIV DS was handed off to Matrix Software, so there's always hope they could do the same with CT sometime down the line...Maybe if it was called Final Fantasy: Chrono Trigger...

[ZeaLitY]

Kickass work getting those comments from Alex Donaldson! 

[FaustWolf]

Yeah, Alex was pretty awesome about it. He gave me those sizable answers while suffering from jet lag I'm sure. He still hasn't finished transcribing his full interview with Hashimoto, or at least it's not up on RPGsite.net; there may be some more insight into Hashimoto's mindset in the full thing.