Don't see why that would be happening. Level-5 was never a "one franchise" company, they constantly had a lot of stuff in the works apart of their successful "main games" like Layton or Inazuma.
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Media Create Sales: Week 28, 2014 (Jul 07 - Jul 13)
- Thread starter Chris1964
- Start date
Don't see why that would be happening. Level-5 was never a "one franchise" company, they constantly had a lot of stuff in the works apart of their successful "main games" like Layton or Inazuma.
I'm fairly curious to see Level 5 Vision this year given the stuff we know about will mostly be out and only stuff that looked super ultra early (like Layton 7) or stuff that seemed to perhaps not even exist (like Majin Station) remains.
Hellraider
Member
Do you really expect Level-5 to become the Youkai-Watch Company?It's not happening.
Nintendojitsu
Banned
Level 5's success with the 3DS should be the wake up call to 3rd party Japanese publishers still on the fence with the platform.
That line of reasoning doesn't make sense. The PSP was vastly more successful than the Vita is or ever will be, it was of course a much safer bet to develop titles for the PSP compared to the Vita. Especially so since companies like SE or Konami need all of their resources for developing the new mainline games of the respective series on consoles. Both companies aren't really doing a lot of smaller-scale handheld games these days. Even the much more successful 3DS is only getting a bone every now and then.
Speaking of which, do we know if SE is developing FF Explorers internally?
they still don't have announced any L5 Vision event for 2014...let's see what will happen.
confused yokai watch 2 buyers
It's a big part of their transmedia announcements these days and they also have an event where kids can come in, so I feel pretty confident they will hold one even if they have basically nothing to announce.
I don't believe Majin Station is an internal Level-5 game.
That1BlackGuy
Member
Damn at those YW numbers, congrats are due to L5 on that. Those 3DS and Vita numbers look good, shame can't see those kind of numbers more often.
Hero of Legend
Member
Yeah I wonder what they'll follow up with at L5V 2014.
Calling it now (and hoping): Ushiro revival for 3DS.
Calling it now (and hoping): Ushiro revival for 3DS.
I really hope so!
I laughed. lol
PhantomOfTheKnight
Member
Guild 03? I dunno.
As much as I'd like it to be, I don't think we'll be seeing Ushiro again soon either, despite what they've said. Not sure it'd be wise to have two ghost-related franchises confusing people either.
Spieler Eins
Member
Parents making their kids sad with false videogame presents, even in Japan.
It doesn't matter if it's "internal" or not though. It was billed as one of their big smartphone flagship titles, and it's being directed by a major talent in Level-5. The fact is the game fell off the map, missed the 2013 release, has a vague 2014 date, and we still have zero screenshots of the actual game. Something definitely went very wrong there.
And_Gignac
Member
Level 5 should release Yokai watch 3 next year just to solidify the franchise's status.
Then they can wait 2-2.5 years to release YW4.
Then they can wait 2-2.5 years to release YW4.
IMHO that is the Yokai Watch indeed...
MasterSheen
Member
1.3m in a week. Not too shabby.
Yokai Watch will probably still sell a million for the year.
Yokai Watch will probably still sell a million for the year.
Hero of Legend
Member
Doubt it, I recall Hino I think pondering of a revival just a short while ago.
It doesn't matter if it's "internal" or not though. It was billed as one of their big smartphone flagship titles, and it's being directed by a major talent in Level-5. The fact is the game fell off the map, missed the 2013 release, has a vague 2014 date, and we still have zero screenshots of the actual game. Something definitely went very wrong there.
i dunno, that sounds pretty par for the course with level-5
Hino just recently said this:
If it gets revived, part of me expects them to go after Persona and age the kids up a bit.
Nintendojitsu
Banned
Humor from the most unlikeliest of places.
It doesn't matter if it's "internal" or not though. It was billed as one of their big smartphone flagship titles, and it's being directed by a major talent in Level-5. The fact is the game fell off the map, missed the 2013 release, has a vague 2014 date, and we still have zero screenshots of the actual game. Something definitely went very wrong there.
BTW how was Layton Brothers: Mystery Room for mobiles?
Well even after TFLO disaster he right out stated he'd like to make MMORPG for PS4 (that I'm thinking just a PR BS), so I'm not putting too much credibility over whatever he must say.
However if Famitsu had to quote him then there might be something going on, but who knows.
Metallix87
Member
I actually think the success of Level-5 on the platform may be what convinces Falcom and NIS to dip their toes into the Nintendo handheld pool again at some point.
I don't see the logic in this. Level-5 makes kids games. Neither NIS, nor Falcom do. Level-5 does existence cross-media campaigns that I'm not sure either could afford. They'll wind up on Nintendo handhelds because there won't be a Sony successor to launch on.
Metallix87
Member
Level-5 was mocked for years for launching failed IP after failed IP, and now their struggles have finally paid off. I could see those studios jumping on in search of similar success.
As for your latter statement, I could've seen them going mobile-only before, but I think this success will tempt them to give Nintendo another chance.
Sammy Samusu
Member
NIS and Falcom couldn't care less about Nintendo platforms, they are not after a big install base or broader appeal. Their games will always sell the same 100k regardless of install base.
I wish they did tho ;_;
IIRC there aren't too many failed IP by Level 5.
Magicpaint
Member
Yeah, I remember when they jumped hard on the DS train after all those successes. Falcom, NIS, Gust etc are really niche developers that can't be swayed by mainstream success such as Yokai Watch. I don't know why this argument keeps coming up. They don't need a big userbase or success from big publishers to determine their platform and market strategy.
They have faithful fans on Sony platforms. Unless 3DS/Vita multiplatform development costs became negligible enough, I don't see any reason expanding to an audience they're unfamiliar with, much less if we're using Youkai Watch as an example.
I won't be surprised if they will release games on 4DS in the future, other than that success of L5 in no way will affect business decisions of NIS or Falcom. Everyone already knows that you can sell lots of software on the platform. Of course, for that you need the right software... hardware is secondary.
Who do you consider to be on the fence on the platform?
People seem pretty much on one side or the other at this point.
Well there most likely won't be a PSP3, so if you want to release games on a dedicated handheld, the 4DS is on track to be the only option.
Nightengale
Member
Even more so for Falcom's who's moving their internal game development over to Sony's PyreEngine, so that their games can run multiplatform on PSP/V/3/4.
Metallix87
Member
They did: Atelier Annie, A Witch's Tale, Legacy of Ys, and Disgaea DS all came out later in the DS's life, after it was a success for other publishers. They didn't jump in hard, they dipped their toes in the water, much like I expect them to do again.
At this point, they must be at least considering what to do in a post-Sony handheld world.
While I agree with this, I don't think that impacts the 3DS's situation in particular.
Even from a basic technology perspective it's easier to dump an OpenGL ES 2.0 engine onto the next platform than the 3DS.
The Vita is also active enough that I don't think people with generally low sales goals are sweating out hitting them in the immediate future.
Outside of Time Travellers, most of Level-5's flop IPs seemed to be of the low budget variety. Many of their brands died, but that's more mishandling than outright failure. Their new success story came from targeting children with a large cross-media campaign. NIS and Falcom haven't shown interest in that audience, and once again, probably can't afford the media barrage.
Falcom didn't develop or publish Legacy of Ys. It was a licensed port, which they probably aren't against someone doing for 3DS. IIRC, they even said as much about the Kiseki games in the past but nothing has happened.
The failures of the other titles will probably only keep these studios on the same path.
A good PES on Vita would definitely be huge by Vita standards but I think there are easier ways for Konami to try and reverse the decline. Fixing the bugs and horrid framerate introduced in the PS360 versions of the PES2014 would help and there's of course the PS4 and XB1 versions coming this year.
http://winningelevenblog.com/blog/pes-year-on-year-sales-down-by-1-8-million-units/
FIFA is growing every year while PES is shrinking massively. You're right that the majority of sales don't come from Japan, but they're still a pretty big part of the pie.
I have no source for this, but I'd guess that FIFA is one of the biggest sellers for Vita in football-crazy territories such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and South American countries. If Konami took the effort to release a good version PES on it, people would probably migrate to that instead of buying FIFA 11 again and thus could have one of the biggest sellers on the platform (not that it means much).
Magicpaint
Member
They tested the waters on the DS with halfhearted, outsourced efforts, ports, and spinoffs. If that's the best they could do for the DS (which performed better than the 3DS on every level), I'm surprised you think they'd try at it again, especially given how poorly most of those performed on the market.
Nightengale
Member
The thing about the 3DS is despite its monstrous install base lead over Vita... that doesn't always translate to proportionality better 3rd-party software sales in Japan.
Your average 3DS game isn't somehow selling 5x more software compared to the Vita. The only ones that push that kind of gap are the monstrous IPs like one million+ chart toppers, which are... well, the popular IPs.
Your average 3DS game isn't somehow selling 5x more software compared to the Vita. The only ones that push that kind of gap are the monstrous IPs like one million+ chart toppers, which are... well, the popular IPs.