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Before I start, it is remotely safe to say Tierkreis is going to have an important role in the future of Suikoden.
Not necessarily the quality of the game, but the sales.
If Tierkreis is selling well, Konami can see the bright light at the long dark tunnel again.
Ever since the release of Suikoden III, the franchise has been declining. Although the fans keep Suikoden as strong within the RPG community as ever, its failure to become mainstream and compete with Square-Enix releases has been hitting really low.
Despite the praise from the fans on Suikoden V, the sales were the worst yet, Suikoden IV sold quite well.
Due to this, Konami is uncertain whether to continue with its beloved franchise and grand universe it created, or to throw in the towel. This is just my speculation, but I think we can assume this is pretty accurate.
So, with the release of Tierkreis in Japan, it seems the game is doing quite well. Some say the game, despite being a spin-off, does give the Suikoden feeling the predecessors did. I have also heard the game sold 40000 copies in its first week, which is a nice start.
However, with the obscurity that is Suikoden, how many people will pick this game up? Konami failed to deliver Suikoden on the PSP, a combo pack with the 2 most wanted Suikoden games, to the Western market and therefore potentially stabbing themselves in the head.
Suikoden I and II are the money babies of the franchise and people will always revert back to these two titles. On E-bay these two games sell like hot buns and Konami does not earn any money on this, as they're second hand sales.
If they would release Suikoden I and II to the Western market, many people would be able to get introduced into the series, or finally get to play the much hyped games. The games would sell great, amongst RPG fans, thus Konami would earn money from it.
Aside from the financial situation, Konami would also be able to get a bigger name for itself, a name that has been declining since Suikoden III, where they saw the team split up, before the actual release of the game.
Tierkreis has two major flaws, which might potentially hurt its sales. Most of the fans of the franchise are used to games being released on Sony related consoles. Suikoden Card Stories was released on the GBA, but never outside Japan and Suikoden I was ported to the Sega Saturn, but only Japan. Apart from these games, all games have been released on Sony related products (PSX x4, PS2 x4, PSP x1) and therefore one should not expect them to have other brands of gaming consoles.
Secondly, despite the large amount of people owning a NDS, how many are aware of the release of Suikoden Tierkreis? How many people are willing to pick it up from the shelves and most importantly, how many people are willing to buy the game? Suikoden lacks a good foundation. All it has are the fans of the franchise.
Square-Enix only has to hint at a new Final Fantasy games and there are rumours to be found on the internet the next day. Suikoden doesn't have this. The only sources I found on Tierkreis when it was first announced were Suikoden websites. Commercially, the games are a big failure.
There is only 1 finger to point in this situation, Konami. The games have good quality, with V being one of the better games in the franchise, but the lack of any promotion nuked any potential sales.
Konami fails at advertising the games, which is strange. One of the most successful franchises ever is owned by Konami and Hideo Kojima. Yet, whenever Konami has to promote other games, they remain very silent.
Castlevania and Bomberman still get decent promotion, but Suikoden tends to get none.
Another factor for the commercial failure is the poor releasedates. Suikoden V was released around the time Kingdom Hearts was released, which took a huge chunk out of the potential sales.
Suikoden Tierkreis has been released 2 weeks ago in Japan, but in the Western worlds it won't come until next year, March.
This is a quick port, but it is past the Christmas holidays. The holidays could helped the sales a lot, as the NDS games are not that expensive and many people buy each other games.
With not a lot of competition this month, surprisingly (Gensou Suikoden Tierkreis, Ragnarok Online DS, Tales of Hearts and Phantasy Star Zero), this could have been a great move by Konami.
All that aside, Tierkreis could even damage the trust of the Suikoden fans. No doubt that most fans are pleased to see that Konami is still working on the franchise, the fact that it took them 2 years to announce a spin-off came with mixed replies.
Although it is a new Suikoden game, some fans felt they were being done by, because they waited for 2 years for not even a direct game.
Konami let the fans down by announcing this so extremely late.
Aside from that, fans can safely expect certain things from new Suikoden games, such as reappearing characters, music and references to previously released games.
It has already been stated that many of the key aspects of the franchise have been removed, such as certain characters (Jeane, Viki), 6 party members and True Runes, just to name a few.
Konami clearly took a different approach to the franchise, but it took them too long to announce. Why did it took so long? Why couldn't they announce they were working on a spin-off last year? What on Earth have they done since the release of Suikoden V and the time they announced Suikoden Tierkreis?
I am now coming to the end of my rant and the start of the discussion.
With all this in mind, will there be a future for Suikoden? If Tierkreis fails to hit the big crowd, or make some profit in any way, how do you think this will affect the future of Suikoden?
Will you bother purchasing the game, even if you hate it, just to contribute to the sales of Tierkreis?
What do you think of this move by Konami? Do you think Tierkreis will save Suikoden?
Not necessarily the quality of the game, but the sales.
If Tierkreis is selling well, Konami can see the bright light at the long dark tunnel again.
Ever since the release of Suikoden III, the franchise has been declining. Although the fans keep Suikoden as strong within the RPG community as ever, its failure to become mainstream and compete with Square-Enix releases has been hitting really low.
Despite the praise from the fans on Suikoden V, the sales were the worst yet, Suikoden IV sold quite well.
Due to this, Konami is uncertain whether to continue with its beloved franchise and grand universe it created, or to throw in the towel. This is just my speculation, but I think we can assume this is pretty accurate.
So, with the release of Tierkreis in Japan, it seems the game is doing quite well. Some say the game, despite being a spin-off, does give the Suikoden feeling the predecessors did. I have also heard the game sold 40000 copies in its first week, which is a nice start.
However, with the obscurity that is Suikoden, how many people will pick this game up? Konami failed to deliver Suikoden on the PSP, a combo pack with the 2 most wanted Suikoden games, to the Western market and therefore potentially stabbing themselves in the head.
Suikoden I and II are the money babies of the franchise and people will always revert back to these two titles. On E-bay these two games sell like hot buns and Konami does not earn any money on this, as they're second hand sales.
If they would release Suikoden I and II to the Western market, many people would be able to get introduced into the series, or finally get to play the much hyped games. The games would sell great, amongst RPG fans, thus Konami would earn money from it.
Aside from the financial situation, Konami would also be able to get a bigger name for itself, a name that has been declining since Suikoden III, where they saw the team split up, before the actual release of the game.
Tierkreis has two major flaws, which might potentially hurt its sales. Most of the fans of the franchise are used to games being released on Sony related consoles. Suikoden Card Stories was released on the GBA, but never outside Japan and Suikoden I was ported to the Sega Saturn, but only Japan. Apart from these games, all games have been released on Sony related products (PSX x4, PS2 x4, PSP x1) and therefore one should not expect them to have other brands of gaming consoles.
Secondly, despite the large amount of people owning a NDS, how many are aware of the release of Suikoden Tierkreis? How many people are willing to pick it up from the shelves and most importantly, how many people are willing to buy the game? Suikoden lacks a good foundation. All it has are the fans of the franchise.
Square-Enix only has to hint at a new Final Fantasy games and there are rumours to be found on the internet the next day. Suikoden doesn't have this. The only sources I found on Tierkreis when it was first announced were Suikoden websites. Commercially, the games are a big failure.
There is only 1 finger to point in this situation, Konami. The games have good quality, with V being one of the better games in the franchise, but the lack of any promotion nuked any potential sales.
Konami fails at advertising the games, which is strange. One of the most successful franchises ever is owned by Konami and Hideo Kojima. Yet, whenever Konami has to promote other games, they remain very silent.
Castlevania and Bomberman still get decent promotion, but Suikoden tends to get none.
Another factor for the commercial failure is the poor releasedates. Suikoden V was released around the time Kingdom Hearts was released, which took a huge chunk out of the potential sales.
Suikoden Tierkreis has been released 2 weeks ago in Japan, but in the Western worlds it won't come until next year, March.
This is a quick port, but it is past the Christmas holidays. The holidays could helped the sales a lot, as the NDS games are not that expensive and many people buy each other games.
With not a lot of competition this month, surprisingly (Gensou Suikoden Tierkreis, Ragnarok Online DS, Tales of Hearts and Phantasy Star Zero), this could have been a great move by Konami.
All that aside, Tierkreis could even damage the trust of the Suikoden fans. No doubt that most fans are pleased to see that Konami is still working on the franchise, the fact that it took them 2 years to announce a spin-off came with mixed replies.
Although it is a new Suikoden game, some fans felt they were being done by, because they waited for 2 years for not even a direct game.
Konami let the fans down by announcing this so extremely late.
Aside from that, fans can safely expect certain things from new Suikoden games, such as reappearing characters, music and references to previously released games.
It has already been stated that many of the key aspects of the franchise have been removed, such as certain characters (Jeane, Viki), 6 party members and True Runes, just to name a few.
Konami clearly took a different approach to the franchise, but it took them too long to announce. Why did it took so long? Why couldn't they announce they were working on a spin-off last year? What on Earth have they done since the release of Suikoden V and the time they announced Suikoden Tierkreis?
I am now coming to the end of my rant and the start of the discussion.
With all this in mind, will there be a future for Suikoden? If Tierkreis fails to hit the big crowd, or make some profit in any way, how do you think this will affect the future of Suikoden?
Will you bother purchasing the game, even if you hate it, just to contribute to the sales of Tierkreis?
What do you think of this move by Konami? Do you think Tierkreis will save Suikoden?
Thoughts? Comments?
