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Did NEO: The World Ends With You bomb?

Chumunga64

Chumunga64

Member
Jun 22, 2018
14,238
I've noticed that a bunch of threads about new Japanese games have had posts that said "hope it doesn't bomb as badly as NEO TWEWY" and variations of that statement and I never really paid any mind to the sales

I remember hype on twitter (though I'm biased since I follow a bunch of people who loved the first game) and it had a good deal of promotional hype from square what with the animated trailers and such. I also remember it getting decent reviews and it was sold on the switch and PS4, two widely available consoles so I'm shocked that it apparently did badly

granted, waiting more than a decade two make a sequel was probably a bad idea
 
KillstealWolf

KillstealWolf

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
16,072
Think the sales pointed to it selling about as much as the original TWEWY did. So make your own call on that.

I don't think we ever figured out digital sales for the game though...
 
DarkLordMalik

DarkLordMalik

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,626
Honestly, my two cents is that the game bombed. Still, fans should be happy they got one more game out of it.
 
FluxWaveZ

FluxWaveZ

Persona Central
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
10,887
Chumunga64 said:
and it had a good deal of promotional hype from square what with the animated trailers and such
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I really don't think this is the case. NTWEWY promotion seemed to be pretty bad, and very lacking.

I believe it sold about as much as the original game, which isn't great, but perhaps in line with their expectations, anyways.
 
mrmickfran

mrmickfran

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
26,728
Gongaga
Yes unfortunately

It barely made top 20 NPD in its launch and fell the fuck off the next month. In Japan its week one sales weren't so good either.

Can't believe it wasn't shown at their E3 conference
 
TheCed

TheCed

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,417
It's hard to say if it bombed.

Game is great, but doesn't have many cutscenes and most of the dialog is not voice acted.
I'm no game developper but this game may have been made with a smaller budget so most likely had smaller sale expectations.
 
onpoint

onpoint

Neon Deity Games
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
14,931
716
Feels like it had a ton of hype here before release then quickly disappeared.
 
Kalor

Kalor

Resettlement Advisor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,625
We have no real way of knowing how it sold and what Square expected. It was definitely on the quieter side but might have been in line with expectations for all we know, and post release I've definitely seen more people picking it up after the fact so the tail might be okay.
 
diakyu

diakyu

Member
Dec 15, 2018
17,525
Yeah it definitely did sadly.

But the mobile release in five years will save us/s
 
dsosarod

dsosarod

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,353
Yes, it made about as much money as the first game's sales on DS and SEnix saw that game as a game that sold very little, to a niche audience. That's why the waited for so long to make a sequel, after it had a cameo in Dream Drop Distance and ports to make it worthy now that more people got access to it and new about it.

They tried to make it more popular by licensing the IP for an Anime, but the dropped the ball at actually promoting the game and of course it did not sell well. I hope that when it goes to Steam it can have a second life.

People here where being hard on the ones that where saying it was going to bomb, but I always said that thinking otherwise was setting up for disappointment and we all needed to be happy that this games exists at all and forget about the series completely.

The first one of my favorite DS game alongside Elite Beat Agents and I was so happy with the result of the sequel, it was really well made and it concluded very nicely, but yeah, Innever expected it to be a success even when in two platforms, one of them being Switch.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,016
Square Enix really did a horrible job with marketing it. Especially since anime is cool and mainstream these days.
 
Viale

Viale

ā–² Legend ā–²
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,615
Game is awesome and my current easy goty, but it doesn't seem like it sold that well unfortunately. Sad, but I am glad to have actually gotten a sequel though.
 
SunshinePuppies

SunshinePuppies

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 14, 2020
3,342
actually curious if EGS payout was worth it for square and if they made more money than they would have releasing it on steam
 

Deleted member 34949

Account closed at user request
Banned
Nov 30, 2017
19,101
Pretty sure it bombed, yeah. Damn shame too, it's one of the best games Square's put out in the last decade and one of the most well executed sequels I've ever played.

I guess they got EGS money from the PC release, though?
 

Deleted member 36578

Dec 21, 2017
26,561
Well I loved it. I guess it's just that niche.
 
dsosarod

dsosarod

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,353
astro said:
gamingbolt.com

NEO: The World Ends with You Sees Tepid Japanese Debut with Less Than 30,000 Units Sold

gamingbolt.com gamingbolt.com

Stuff like that doesn't make it look good...

I love TwewY, but I haven't bought it yet. I wish I could have afforded to grab a game I can't play for a while, but I just couldn't.
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the good thing is that it already started having sales digitally and physically, so be on the lookout for it and you can maybe got it at $30 or $20 when you actually will be able to play it down the line.
 
TheWill

TheWill

Member
Sep 24, 2018
124
Yeah, it bombed. I decided to buy it just now to show support, but yeah... Bit worried for revivals on Square's other JRPGs, now. I always thought a Valkyrie Profile sequel would do extremely well (given, it has a more "mainstream" graphical style compared to TWEWY's), but maybe I'm a terrible a decision maker for businesses after all lol! Star Ocean looks like it's next, so let's hope...

Bit disappointing since every JRPG I've played this year has been very poorly written and I've heard only praise for TWEWY's (and the original was great, so here's hoping!)
 
Aniki

Aniki

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,793
It deserved so much more but yeah i don't think it sold that well. But it gave me closure so if we don't get another one i'm not too sad.
 
chronos4590

chronos4590

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,356
Sadly didn't feel like the new game didn't get exposure where it could've used it the most, so many people probably didn't even know about it outside of the fanbase. Which is sad and weird considering this release coincided with the anime too.

But The game was fantastic, was the sequel I wanted for the last what 14 years? And if the series unfortunately ended here, I think fans would be sad yet also satisfied with how things ended.

The ending felt pretty definitive if they don't want to go any further. Tied up the main story and a few things from the original and Another day.
. Only thing id say is I wouldn't be opposed to another remake of the original in the same vein as the second game. Wouldn't be the same of course but I wouldn't mind to see them give it a go.
 
.exe

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,219
SunshinePuppies said:
actually curious if EGS payout was worth it for square and if they made more money than they would have releasing it on steam
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It's amazing how they didn't even try for the PC release. No extra coverage, no info pre-release about what sets the version apart, no demo like on consoles, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if they also skimped on achievements and cloud saves. (I don't think you can find out beforehand on Epic's store pages?)
 
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HardRojo

HardRojo

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,102
Peru
Probably, but at least we got the sequel we thought we wouldn't get. I've been playing it these days, only stopped because Dread came out and I'll resume once I'm done with it.
 
HylianSeven

HylianSeven

Shin Megami TC - Community Resetter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,036
Unfortunately it bombed, yeah. I'm glad we got it and I'm glad the series has closure at this point, but yeah, it bombed. It's my personal GotY.

They really dropped the ball on marketing with some bizarre own goals. No E3, Nintendo Direct, or Sony State of Play presence was really weird. They commissioned an anime of the first game, which did NOT cover the events from Final Remix that lead into NEO. The anime was decent I felt.

I feel like the best marketing this game actually got was the demo and the overwhelmingly positive reception when the game accidentally released early on Switch. One of those things wasn't even intended to happen.
 
gardfish

gardfish

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,627
It was a miracle that we even got the sequel in the first place, tbh. I never thought that it was going to light the sales world on fire, but I'd hoped it would've done decently. At least we got some closure.
 
Ctrl Alt Del

Ctrl Alt Del

Banned
Jun 10, 2018
4,312
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
If it did, it's a damn shame. I haven't bought it yet despite being a huge fan of the original because this is clearly a budget title and Squeenix is charging a full $60 for it. I want to support the series that I like but not if it's that clear the publisher is taking advantage of it to charge more than they should, IMO.
 
LAA

LAA

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,324
Sadly wouldn't be too surprised if it did. Not much of a marketting push behind it. Hopefully PC sales could push it more, but not too hopeful if I'm honest.
 
werezompire

werezompire

Zeboyd Games
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
11,324
Media Create sales were low (under 30k at launch across 2 platforms) & it didn't set the NA sales charts on fire. It got a 30% sale on the NA PSN just under 2 months after launch. We don't know how much it cost to make, but it almost definitely underperformed. The chance of getting any more sequels is basically nil at this point.
 
SunshinePuppies

SunshinePuppies

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 14, 2020
3,342
Silfer said:
Don't they just pay the equivalent of dev costs or do they not do that anymore?
Steam release would've been better in the long run
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was under the impression they pay an x number of guaranteed sales rev

.exe said:
It's amazing how they didn't even try for the PC release. No extra coverage, no info pre-release about what sets the version apart, no demo like on consoles, etc.
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i honestly did not remember it was on PC until someone in this thread mentioned it. don't really know what their gameplan was for the PC release
 
Quinton

Quinton

Specialist at TheGamer / Reviewer at RPG Site
Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,256
Midgar, With Love
The one reason I won't say "definitely" is that Square's stated that games like Trials of Mana have significantly exceeded expectations. Whereas I would have thought, without clarification, that that game met expectations and perhaps went a bit past them.

So, if Square's internals were low enough then maybe NEO TWEWY was a success after all. Just... a modest one.

It's a good game regardless. I didn't review it at a site that does things numerically, but (I hope) my review reads like an 8.
 
RayCharlizard

RayCharlizard

Member
Nov 2, 2017
2,951
idk, always wanted to play this series and was really excited when the remaster was announced only for it to not come to PlayStation... but then the sequel does? How to shoot yourself in the foot 101.
 
KillstealWolf

KillstealWolf

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
16,072
Unless we know sale expectations it's tricky to say if it was successful or not.

Take something like Anthem for example. 5th best selling game of 2019 believe it or not, but it's seen as a commercial failure as it didn't reach the 6 Million Units EA Expected it to reach.

If NEO:TWEWY only needed to sell say, Half a Million copies, and it reached that many sales, then you can't say the game bombed.

That said, from the sales we did say, I wouldn't say it "Exceeded expectations"...
 
CielTynave

CielTynave

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,222
bananaramma said:
Playing through it a second time on PC. It's one of my all time favorites. I just am happy that it exists to begin with. Hopefully the characters continue to cameo in Kingdom Hearts.
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Is Bluetooth controller support completely fucked like it was for KH3? I was thinking of getting it but after how KH3 went for me i immediately decided against it.
 
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