As everyone is aware by now, following Double Fine Production’s massive success with Kickstarter there has been a deluge of other developers and publishers hoping to crowdsource their own projects.
I doubt anyone is expecting a recreation of Double Fine’s success, but at the same time I have to express great disappointment about one of the most exciting projects. It’s struggling and at this stage looking like it’s not going to hit that threshold. That project is MonkeyPaw’s bid to localise and release the Japan-only JRPG classic Class of Heroes 2.
MonkeyPaw should have been feeling confident about the bid to raise a relatively low $500,000 to localise the game. They were offering a copy of the game at a reasonable, market-price bid-in point, meaning that people would get something substantial in return. The prizes at higher price points are even more spectacular and include some things that JRPG fans would consider desirable collectibles.
Most importantly, though, MonkeyPaw should have been able to bet on the support of the JRPG community. When Nintendo wasn’t going to release Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower on the Wii in America, there was a community uproar. There was a campaign. Remember Operation Rainfall?
Well, guys, now you know why Nintendo was reluctant. For whatever reason there is clearly not a huge community out there in the US for JRPGs. Even the smaller projects (and the Operation Rainfall games would be far more expensive to localise) can’t raise a paltry sum by asking the fans directly for the money to do it.
Either the vocal minority isn’t willing to put their money where their mouths are, or the vocal minority is supporting these JRPG projects and that’s far too few. Either way, that whole philosophy of “if it’s a good game people will buy it,” is way off. As much as the likes of NIS America, XSeed and Atlus do an amazing job, we need to recognise the fact that the market for these games is very, very small these days.
I’m really disappointed for MonkeyPaw, and I hope they end up scraping through. If you’re a JRPG fan then please, pledge something to the project and prove that there is a market for JRPGs out there.
Otherwise, remember the saying “if you don’t vote, you don’t have a right to complain,” the next time a really great looking JRPG isn’t localised by Nintendo or Sony or whoever else.
Well, trouble is most of the JRPG fan community know that there's a better version of the series out there.
Which version is that, godmars? Everything I've seen says Class of Heroes 2 is a Japan-exclusive game at the moment.
Which additionally means you'd need to know Japanese and have played it to know its flaws. Can you tell me what those are? How difficult do you think it will be to translate?
I think the problem is they've chosen a game that most people are not interested in. Seriously, how many people care about CoH? If they chose some other game like Valkyria Chronicles 3 or 7th Dragon 2020, I think they'd have already reached the required amount.
False
operation rainfall games sold amazingly in japan…………
That being said the article is a piece of trash……….
"MonkeyPaw should have been feeling confident about the bid to raise a relatively low $500,000 to localise the game."
THAT AMOUNT IS RIDICULOUSLY HIGH for not new games, but for special editions, the game is getting localized either way………THATS A BIG DIFFERENCE FOR PEOPLE
"When Nintendo wasn’t going to release Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower on the Wii in America, there was a community uproar. There was a campaign. Remember Operation Rainfall? "
Who said they were never going to release it? They never said that. This revisionist history is BS, they were always going to localize it as they announced it at E3
"As much as the likes of NIS America, XSeed and Atlus do an amazing job, we need to recognise the fact that the market for these games is very, very small these days. "
Yeah thats why pokemon black and white doubled up on skyrim and ff 13 outsold mass effect 1 and 2 combined
This site really needs to learn a thing or 2 about kickstarter and why this one is different from all the others because it is………..
There is a huge market for japanese rpgs as most companies this gen have localized more than any other time
Banto, if you're going to criticise me (and feel free to, that's cool), make sure your facts are right.
1) You don't know how expensive it is to localise a game. $500,000 for a game as heavy on the text as a JRPG, plus manufacturing, distribution and the like is not much at all, relatively speaking.
Where's your source to say the game is being localised either way? I haven't seen that anywhere. I must have missed it.
2) The entire Operation Rainfall was over the fact that Nintendo of America came out and said "we have no plans to localise games X, Y, and Z"
3) Pokemon is an aberration. As is Final Fantasy XIII. Look at the sales figures for anything but the top four or five JRPGs and it's a different story entirely.
Dont patronize me, I donated 1k to this cause and I am happy to do so.
1) I know exactly how expensive it is, and 7k does not equal 500k
Its been known since the beginning that the psn psp and p3 versions of the game will be available no matter what happens.
This kickstarter is only for those 7k collectors packs ( wrong part 1)
2) Do you understand the game industry? Saying we have no plans is like saying I dont want to tell you anything…………..nintendo has localized the most rpgs this gen in its illustrious history, and they always had plans to bring those games in english as all 3 are.
3) So when ff 13 outsold both mass effect 1 and 2 what does that say about western rpgs? only elderscrolls sells anythingthing half way decent……..
oh is dragon quest an aberration? is monster hunter an abberation? is tales an abberation?
Last I checked nis america is making a bundle selling neptunia which has sold over 300k worldwide, atlus has megaten, and xseed sold over 10k copies of legend of heroes
Also, just to clarify a point for you: I'm aware that this is for the physical copy of the game. That's why I wrote "
The prizes at higher price points are even more spectacular and include some things that JRPG fans would consider desirable collectibles. "
ie. a physical copy of the game. I see it all the time on forums and the like a preference for a physical copy of a game. Hence the "collectible part."
There will be no physical copies of the game if this money isn't raised. That was the point I was making.
1) Have you spoken with the company? I have, and alot of the money is goign towards funding the trips at the higher levels
2) The fact that they even released in europe at all is the most telling thing at all…………………
3) ff 13-2 sold very very well in japan, its already a platinum title…………..and in the west it started at number 1 higher than kingdom of A did…………
Dragon quest's sales in the west have skyrocketed since nintendo got involved……………
monster hunter is an action rpg, and also does well in the west…………300k is a megahit if it makes profit and it did………….
la noire sold 4 million but didnt make any profit hence, how little unit sales matter
According to them they will make goal in 20 or so days…………..and if they do it will be unlike any kickstarter which is only for 7k physical boxes, not a game localization which is happening anyway
Of course a significant amount of the money is going into the rewards. That's a consequence of Kickstarter – it does cost the successful project owner some money in the end. MonkeyPaw has to calculate that in the overall profitability of the project.
The project doesn't apply to Europe because the Kickstarter project can't extend into Europe. Only US (and possibly Canadian?) citizens can participate.
As for the sales information, you're still not providing any sources. The numbers I've seen don't back up what you're saying at all. Most of these games are marginal successes, at best, outside of Japan.
I hate to tell you this, but you're the one being patrionising. If you want to have a discussion, then great, but be respectful please. There's no need for the aggression whatsoever.
1) I have no idea where you pulled the idea that you can localise and distribute a limited release game cheaply, but yes it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. For MonkeyPaw to turn a profit when it will be giving away a massive number of the physical games as a consequence of this project then yes, it needs to raise $500,000.
2) I'm sorry but you deciding to interprete Nintendo's comments one way =/= a fact at all. That's your interpretation. If Xenoblade and The Last Story had have bombed in Europe Nintendo was quite clearly prepared to let the games die quietly and not release them in the US. As it is the only reason The Last Story is getting a US release is because XSEED is fronting up some of the publishing responsibility.
3) I want to see these sales figures before I believe them. Final Fantasy XIII-2 has not been selling well in Japan, let alone the west from the numbers I've seen, and Dragon Quest is underrepresented in the West. That's why Nintendo published. IX, to try and push it out better. Monster Hunter isn't even an RPG, but also underperforms in the West. 300K sales worldwide isn't exactly a megahit, and 10K would barely break even given then localisation costs involved.
I am looking at the same sales numbers you are and they completely back up what I am saying……….
You keep back tracking and trying to cover up your lack of knoweledge on this subject…………..
As I said before this is unlike ANY other kickstarter done……….
The thing I don't understand about this is that they have clearly stated that they will be localizing the game regardless of whether or not it's successful – the fundraising is purely for limited, collector's editions and production of physical copies of the game.
I'm all for forking over money to support JRPGs being localized, but I think asking fans for cash to make hard copies and offer silly bonuses like watches and what have you is kind of a case of misplaced enthusiasm. I would much rather have more variety of games localized, even if it only is digitally, than have companies put money into something that's just going to sit on people's shelves. Though I will happily buy Class of Heroes 2 when it comes out (to support its localization, I'm honestly not that interested in it as a title), I just don't feel the need to support this kind of Kickstarter.
More like Class of Heroes is a tough sell. The first game wasn't well recieved, so I dought there was much demand for the second game here.
The two problems this Kickstarter had was 1) not many people are interested in the game, and 2) it's being released as a UMD, which not as many people are interested in, especially if they got rid of their PSP to get a Vita instead.
THEY ARE NOT A TOUGH SELL
more jrpgs have been localized than ever this gen
you should research more if you dont know what hes talking about