Square Enix Not Impressed by CTDS Sales

[FaustWolf]

True. All told, Chrono Trigger alone has sold a grand total of 3.19 million, and that's excluding Final Fantasy Chronicles on the PSX -- for which VGChartz lacks numbers entirely. That's 3.19 million for the exact same material, plus some very small bonuses added each iteration.

Compare that with 2.32 million sold in the entire Front Mission franchise. 8 full games plus one re-release. Oh, obviously the thing to do is make another Front Mission game and forego the much more profitable Chrono. What great business acumen you have, Mr. Hashimoto. (Actually, sales numbers are missing entirely for Front Mission outside Japan; this point may not hold if Front Mission; Front Mission 3; and Front Mission 4 sold well outside Japan, since those were all localized at least in the US).

If Square Enix hates Chrono that much, the clear thing to do is sell the property to Sega, which has demonstrated the capability to get Masato Kato and Yasunori Mitsuda in the same room and pay them to create stuff. Those two are the spirit of Chrono IMO, and it's not that hard to get them together considering they seem to enjoy collaborating majorly.

[Radical_Dreamer]

VGChartz is not necessarily entirely accurate.

[FaustWolf]

Anyone know if Square Enix releases its internal sales numbers, and where?

EDIT: Just realized that Front Mission 3 and 4 don't even have sales numbers for outside Japan on VGChartz. That would bump up Front Mission numbers, though I'm not sure by how much. In any case, data's certainly missing.

[Chrono'99]

Also present there was a translator and two employees from
Double Helix, the guys working on Front Mission Evolved.

Saw this on the official Front Mission blog:

http://blog.square-enix.com/fmpi/2009/06/e3_2009_report_-_2.html



This is Hashimoto (right) with two guys from Double Helix. Michael "Sax" Persson (center) is the vice president of Double Helix rather than a simple employee, but this pretty much confirms that the interview did happen.

EDIT: The two most recent Front Missions (FM 2089 and a DS remake of FM1) still sold like shit though according to most gaming news sites. They didn't even bother releasing them outside of Japan.

[nightmare975]

Hashimoto can suck my dick.

Fuckin' douchebag.

Why does every like Chrono Trigger? BECAUSE IT WAS AN ENJOYABLE GAME! NOT A FUCKING REHASH OF THE SAME MECHANICS OVER AND OVER AND OVER!

[Toan]

If this gives any consolation; when I visit Japanese pages such as Nico Nico or Pixiv, I see new Chrono videos or artwork submitted almost daily by various people. To me, it shows that it is still quite loved by the Japanese youth.
 

[neo-fusion]

That does give insight.

I think for now we should call Crimson Echoes the new chrono game despite the inability to play it.

[KebreI]

This has actually given me new hope in the Series. I am surprised no one else is excited. If SE really thinks this then this now opens up a WHOLE NEW POSSIBILITY, Some one buying it off them! Newer developer are always trying to get a foot in the door, a very common way to do that is to buy a well known IP and use it.

In fact they couldn't have come to their conclusion recently. They saw the numbers they knew that it wasn't working. If they are intending to make the IP sellable the deal must be presentable. In which case the C&D can be seen in a very different light.

[palmertech]

I whipped up this pic with Hashimoto in it to express the situation:

[FaustWolf]

palmer, that's a great one for the Chrono Comix thread. Might have to do a forum search to find it.

[palmertech]

Thanks!

I accidentally saved it as a jpeg halfway through rather than PNG, at first, I thought I would revert it.  Then I realized the artifacts made the Lucca and Chrono faces blend in better!

Oh, and I threw in an easter egg for the observant viewer right above the topmost hundred dollar bill.

[Brink-of-Time]

I saw that. It's hard to see, but you can make it out.

[OverlordMikey]

I'm gonna pretned it was said sarcasticly (seriously it's possible) and it was taken out of context. I mean would anyone REALLY act that dumb and say that infront of people who buy your games.

[mav]

I interpreted his comments as an advertisement for the CT:DS remake. It's a pretty basic talking point tactic. His ambiguous answer on the state of the Chrono franchise made it sound like we'd be much likelier to get a new game if we bought more copies of the latest game.

That was my immediate impression. And is he just pimping out the series for more money, or do his views truly reflect how a good majority of SE feels? What were the sales figures for CTDS? .88 million, according to the possibly unreliable VGChartz.com. In comparison the FFIV DS release reportedly had .98 million, and has its sequel planned for a Wii release, right? I don't understand SE, but I'm not surprised that they're more interested in the sales than anything else.

[Schala Zeal]

With a little imagination, good writing or coding skills, a graphics maker, and a music composer, just fight fire with fire.