Sakura Wars (PS4) has sold 300,000 copies in FY 2020

[HaremKing]

This link here (found in the article): https://www.animeherald.com/2019/12/12/sakura-wars-game-franchise-crosses-4-million-copies-shippedf/

Has the game franchise crossing 4 million units in December 2019, which is when Shin Sakura Wars launched in Japan, right?

So now, in January 2021, the game franchise has crossed 4.1 million units? So total western sales of Shin Sakura Wars had to be very low (sub 100k I'd say), right?

 

[Deleted member 17627]

What I don´t quite understand why this is news right now. This report (corresponding to April 2019-March 2020) came out more than a month ago

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I think you're correct and I'm not even sure the annual report is recent. Going by their IR schedule results for this fiscal year up until December 2020 won't be out for another month:

IR schedule｜Investor Relations｜SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS

IR schedule of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS INC. are described.

www.segasammy.co.jp

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Are you two talking about this report?

Given it talks about performance to the end of 2020 and I believe it just came out today, no?

It even talks about COVID this year.

 

[Oreiller]

That seems decent for what this game is.

 

[Eien1no1Yami]

So I contacted the person that has written the article provided by OP in order to clear up some stuff because people here seem to
include the mobile game downloads too
I asked her permission to post this so there you go.

1) The report was prepared before any concrete numbers for mobile were available.
2) The figure tracks specifically unit sales, so Kakumei wouldn't factor in the listing by default.

If so, that number would be a lot higher, given there were more than 500K downloads already

Sakura Revolution Crosses 500,000 Downloads

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[Deleted member 17627]

So I contacted the person that has written the article provided by OP in order to clear up some stuff because people here seem to
include the mobile game downloads too
I asked her permission to post this so there you go.

Click to shrink...

THANK YOU

Seriously, even if the mobage was included, I don't understand how people think it amounted to even a fraction of 300K, it's free for crying out loud.

 

[MikeProtagonist]

Not great, not horrible. But it's hardly a AAA and shouldn't need 10 million sales to be profitable. Depends on what Sega expects from it.

 

[foxuzamaki]

That's reeeaallly bad I believe, right? Cause I'm pretty sure we know it sold 200,000 in Japan alone and probably sold a bit more than that overall in Japan. That means western sells were incredibly low

 

[OtakuCoder]

Where's this whole "Nagoshi wouldn't let them put it on Switch!" narrative coming from? I know there's the interview where he felt like the Switch was best suited to family games, but Sega's let titles like P5S and Valkyria get ported so I'm not sure he cares all that much?

 

[Oregano]

Are you two talking about this report?

Given it talks about performance to the end of 2020 and I believe it just came out today, no?

It even talks about COVID this year.

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You're right, that looks pretty up to date but taking a quick look at the associated graphs and they're only dated up until the end of March 2020. If not the below actually paints an even grimmer picture:

This link here (found in the article): https://www.animeherald.com/2019/12/12/sakura-wars-game-franchise-crosses-4-million-copies-shippedf/

Has the game franchise crossing 4 million units in December 2019, which is when Shin Sakura Wars launched in Japan, right?

So now, in January 2021, the game franchise has crossed 4.1 million units? So total western sales of Shin Sakura Wars had to be very low (sub 100k I'd say), right?

Click to shrink...

 

[Eien1no1Yami]

That's reeeaallly bad I believe, right? Cause I'm pretty sure we know it sold 200,000 in Japan alone and probably sold a bit more than that overall in Japan. That means western sells were incredibly low

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If you compare them with other Sega wordwide releases they low indeed but from my understanding they kinda expected it already so they were prepared.
The budget from promoting the game was pretty tight and the game didn't have any kind of dubbing, only subs.

 

[Fisico]

Gamstat showed that the sales outside Japan mostly came from Asia long ago, it's also in line with supposed 300k sales for Shin Sakura Taisen.
So that's 100k units sold outside Japan and probably only half of that coming from NA and EMEA and half from Asia

 

[Oregano]

Where's this whole "Nagoshi wouldn't let them put it on Switch!" narrative coming from? I know there's the interview where he felt like the Switch was best suited to family games, but Sega's let titles like P5S and Valkyria get ported so I'm not sure he cares all that much?

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People are laying it on a bit thick but there was a (different) interview in Japanese where Nagoshi went on a weird tangent about Sakura Wars being for people who have "graduated" from handhelds and then he said handhelds were going away, citing the Switch Lite's "poor" sales.

 

[chivibowie]

Are you two talking about this report?

Given it talks about performance to the end of 2020 and I believe it just came out today, no?

It even talks about COVID this year.

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Nope, it came out in November of last year. Normally, these sales data are up to March of the year the report is published.
In fact a thread was created at the time
https://www.resetera.com/threads/se...13-1m-units-total-war-34-3m-units-etc.334328/

 

[Zephy]

I was excited to play it thanks to the action combat, but then I read here that it was 90% dialogue and had like 5 actual battle sequences or something. I can only suffer through so much waifu shenanigans before I get to pilot a cool mech.

Almost pulled the trigger the other day as I wanted to play a mech RPG and it was (slightly) doscounted, but I ended up starting a new playthrough of Xenoblade Chron8cles X on emulator instead.

 

[Deleted member 10629]

Did my part and bought a copy but 300k WW is terrible.

Not releasing on Switch and PC is just baffling.

 

[Tohsaka]

I was excited to play it thanks to the action combat, but then I read here that it was 90% dialogue and had like 5 actual battle sequences or something. I can only suffer through so much waifu shenanigans before I get to pilot a cool mech.

Almost pulled the trigger the other day as I wanted to play a mech RPG and it was (slightly) doscounted, but I ended up starting a new playthrough of Xenoblade Chron8cles X on emulator instead.

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Sakura Wars isn't an RPG at all, so you shouldn't get it if you were looking for one. The dialogue and interacting with the girls is the main focus of the game and the combat is pretty mediocre IMO.

 

[Fisico]

I was excited to play it thanks to the action combat, but then I read here that it was 90% dialogue and had like 5 actual battle sequences or something.

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To be fair that's what the series has always been about

 

[RROCKMAN]

Nagoshi went on a weird tangent about Sakura Wars being for people who have "graduated" from handhelds and then he said handhelds were going away, citing the Switch Lite's "poor" sales.

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It seems like with every interview this man does I like him less and less

 

[Philippo]

One has to wonder if sticking to the SRPG route would have led to higher sales.

 

[ILikeFeet]

One has to wonder if sticking to the SRPG route would have led to higher sales.

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I doubt it. is there a corellation between being SRPG/Action and sales? because I figure the platform, quality/word of mouth/advertising would make more of dent than the genre

 

[Firima]

300k sounds offensively bad, considering I had to put up with that grating music in the lobbies for 3 weeks during PSO2's Sakura Taisen collab.

 

[Dave1988]

Was hoping for higher numbers :/ Oh well, did my part and bought it a long time ago.

 

[Philippo]

I doubt it. is there a corellation between being SRPG/Action and sales? because I figure the platform, quality/word of mouth/advertising would make more of dent than the genre

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No but maybe it would have been received better (I remember quite a bit of people complaining about the genre shift) and have had better word of mouth?

 

[OtakuCoder]

People are laying it on a bit thick but there was a (different) interview in Japanese where Nagoshi went on a weird tangent about Sakura Wars being for people who have "graduated" from handhelds and then he said handhelds were going away, citing the Switch Lite's "poor" sales.

Click to shrink...

Hmm. Nagoshi's only involvement with SW is as an exec, right? That quote strikes me as something he came up with to spin the fact that there is no Switch version on offer rather than the internal business justification. If the developers felt it was feasible and profitable to port the game I can not for the life of me see any executive going "NO! SAKURA WARS IS A MANLY GAME FOR MANLY CONSOLES! FUCK YOUR FINANCES, NO HANDHELD KIDDIES ALLOWED".

 

[ILikeFeet]

No but maybe it would have been received better (I remember quite a bit of people complaining about the genre shift) and have had better word of mouth?

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they probably could achieve the same just by having a better action combat system. I remember reading some impressions that the combat itself wasn't the best and was serviceable. I think there were patches that gave the game some QoL improvements?

 

[Deleted member 63122]

Hmm. Nagoshi's only involvement with SW is as an exec, right? That quote strikes me as something he came up with to spin the fact that there is no Switch version on offer rather than the internal business justification. If the developers felt it was feasible and profitable to port the game I can not for the life of me see any executive going "NO! SAKURA WARS IS A MANLY GAME FOR MANLY CONSOLES! FUCK YOUR FINANCES, NO HANDHELD KIDDIES ALLOWED".

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That's basically the thinking of a few bosses in Japan. They are still on the Nintendo vs Playstation era, and it's hurting their companies deeply.

 

[Raigor]

They made a game no one wanted in Japan and WW. Their loss.

 

[daCuk]

Call me when / if it is released on Switch

 

[Virtua Sanus]

Honestly this is better than I expected. It is relatively comparable to some of the PlayStation 3 era Yakuza titles both in Asia and English speaking regions.

Depending on how easily the team can transition into an asset reuse heavy sequel (which both Yakuza and Sakura Taisen fans are used to) I think they can make this work out and move on forward. I have my fingers crossed for that, at least.

A PC, Xbox or Nintendo Switch port is not a magic bullet, and I am sure if the latter was feasible they would have done it. They probably were not terribly happy with the returns Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Shining Resonance Refrain had on any of those platforms.

 

[asmith906]

I did my part by getting it during the Black Friday sales. Haven't started it yet though.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Call me when / if it is released on Switch

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if it still happens, I guess they'll make some new content for it

 

[Oregano]

Hmm. Nagoshi's only involvement with SW is as an exec, right? That quote strikes me as something he came up with to spin the fact that there is no Switch version on offer rather than the internal business justification. If the developers felt it was feasible and profitable to port the game I can not for the life of me see any executive going "NO! SAKURA WARS IS A MANLY GAME FOR MANLY CONSOLES! FUCK YOUR FINANCES, NO HANDHELD KIDDIES ALLOWED".

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You would hope but there is definitely weird tribalistic decision making going on in the Japanese industry.

 

[Gold Arsene]

They made a game no one wanted in Japan and WW. Their loss.

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Who's "no one?"

 

[Glio]

SEGA continues to make "interesting" decisions with its IPs.

 

[Roliq]

A PC, Xbox or Nintendo Switch port is not a magic bullet, and I am sure if the latter was feasible they would have done it. They probably were not terribly happy with the returns Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Shining Resonance Refrain had on any of those platforms.

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That is still dumb considering the ridiculous amount of success stories on the Switch and PC

 

[Ouroboros]

I wish I could get into visual novels. This game, visually, jives with me.

if I found a genie and I had three wishes, one of those would legit be "make me like Visual Novel games".

 

[chivibowie]

I repeat again lol, these data are from before the release in the Western markets. According to sega right now they are in fiscal year 2021.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

I repeat again lol, these data are from before the release in the Western markets. According to sega right now they are in fiscal year 2021.

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Ugh, this is annoying. Guess we won't have full confirmation until March then.

 

[Deleted member 15360]

You should wait for FY reports King of Dreamland

 

[Hybrid Rainbow]

I repeat again lol, these data are from before the release in the Western markets. According to sega right now they are in fiscal year 2021.

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This makes sense because the released here in America in what? April? This makes more sense. I did my part buying it at launch.

 

[Expy]

I did my part, platinumed the game.

Good sales considering the series has seen a drop in interest... Even the mobile game has been coined a financial failure.

Sakura Wars mobile game has reportedly been an expensive disaster

Bad news for the Flower Division 2020 saw Sega hit the reset button on its long-running RPG franchise, Sakura Wars....

www.destructoid.com

 

[Deleted member 17627]

I did my part, platinumed the game.

Good sales considering the series has seen a drop in interest... Even the mobile game has been coined a financial failure.

Sakura Wars mobile game has reportedly been an expensive disaster

Bad news for the Flower Division 2020 saw Sega hit the reset button on its long-running RPG franchise, Sakura Wars....

www.destructoid.com

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At least that whole "financial disaster" thing was unfounded. The mobage probably took a loss, but I don't think it took THAT much of a loss.

 

[Expy]

At least that whole "financial disaster" thing was unfounded. The mobage probably took a loss, but I don't think it took THAT much of a loss.

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A loss is a loss. You don't create a mobile game to lose money.

 

[Squarealex]

Only Japan and Asia are buying it.

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More Belgium than France ? Sound like a mistake...

 

[Shantom]

More Belgium than France ? Sound like a mistake...

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That graph adjusts for population size.

 

[The Bear]

Thread closed due to request of OP.