[Business Journal] Sakura Wars mobile game revenue "a catastrophe", 73.5m yen in December (vs more than 3 billion yen of development budget)

[squall23]

You basically HAVE to spend insane amounts of money to have even a slight chance of succeeding in the mobile space. Or be luckier than Fortuna & Tyche combined if you don't have that kind of money to spend.

Even games that have already found success need to keep spending fucktons of money on marketing to not fade into obscurity, or at least to keep the ball rolling.

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Bang Dream is not a game that screams high budget, yet within 3 years it took over Love Live in gaming revenue.

 

[ILikeFeet]

There's that, but I do get a bit of schadenfreude in how SE could make a successful mobile game out of SaGa yet Sega & DW fell completely on their face with Sakura Wars, despite both being the same kind of semi-nostalgia driven old IP.

Maybe the regular ports of SaGa games actually did something in keeping the IP relevant?

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I doubt the mobile Saga players give much of a shit about the console games. It's probably just that SE made a game that clicked.

 

[ika]

*Insert Nagoshi joke here*

 

[ShyMel]

Looking at some gameplay footage on YouTube, the mobile game looks pretty great. Would like to see it released in the west but considering localizing it would add more money to the overall costs, I do not think it is going to happen.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

Sega always puts an obscene amount of money in the mobile sector with minimal results. At one time during 2013-2016 they made about 30 mobile games a year in Japan. Or something. A big amount anyway.

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This too. Remember Idola? I don't think is a franchise ending moment as most believe.

 

[Strings]

This too. Remember Idola? I don't think is a franchise ending moment as most believe.

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Revolve8 was another semi-recent high budget mobile game from them that completely flopped. They're not Capcom-bad in the sector, but yeah.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

I still think we will get a sequel to the recent console game, but yeah this is a massive bummer. Especially considering it just started to get a small amount of worldwide traction. I no longer see the series getting all that much support going forward...

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I think as long the next game sells decently (please be a remake, for the sake of success), we could see the franchise once every two to three years coming back with a mid-budget title a la how the Shining series was from the mid 2000s to mid 2010s.

 

[RLCC14]

Out of everyone in Japanese market that is doing this, bushiroad are trying their best with their own cross-media IPs and have had reasonable successes (though sadly their formula doesn't really click with me).

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Their card stuff plus Bang Dream and Love Live (if that counts as them) are probably whats carrying all them at this point. I'm honestly impressed that Revue has managed to survive this long despite it's hook basically being invalidated this whole year and the game being as mediocre as it is.

They're not Capcom-bad in the sector, but yeah.

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Did Monster Hunter Riders get shut down already?

 

[Garrod Ran]

i'm not sure if sakura wars was the right series for a big budget mobage but oof at those numbers

that's outstandingly low

 

[PachaelD]

Their card stuff plus Bang Dream and Love Live (if that counts as them) are probably whats carrying all them at this point. I'm honestly impressed that Revue has managed to survive this long despite it's hook basically being invalidated this whole year and the game being as mediocre as it is.

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Yeah definitely. They're rapidly expanding the first two, and churning out more new IP after Revue (D4DJ and Assualt Lily so far with I'm sure more to come with varying quality)

Even BanG Dream had the fortune of having a very good rhythm game and Roselia carrying just about everything else as the anime's first season didn't go anywhere - aka if one pillar of the cross-media enterprise succeeds it pulls the others up.

 

[Antrax]

Revenue in half of a month. Mobile games are not sold like console titles. Revenue is based on microtransaction so it may not break-even immediately after release. However, I am not saying the revenue is good either. It is indeed worrying for a big IP.

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Breaking even, sure. But MTX only work if you have a player base for them. That revenue number is a turd. No budget trimming would change that imo, unless they could swing a 90% budget cut and still make the thing

 

[Jawmuncher]

As the article has been pulled due to uncertainty, the thread has been locked. If more information comes out about this topic feel free to make a new thread.

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