matty said:
Ah, okay. I only asked because if you're subscribed to Play Asia's newsletter, each week there seems to be about a couple new VN-esque games for the 360, but I never seem to notice any for the PS3 - probably why other boards I go to never seem to mention about them either. Heck, even the DS and PS2 get a few games in the same vain.
I wonder why there isn't a publisher taking advantage of that; localizing VNs that are still being released on the PS2, you know? NISA is coming out with Sakura Wars pretty soon and that game is friggin' close to what I'd consider to be a VN. They should totally bank on that market.
If you read this article you'll see there's a small crowd growing in this genre (note how localized VNs and the fan-translated ones are split even)
http://www.siliconera.com/2010/02/28/what-games-are-selling-best-on-erogeshop/
That is an interesting article. I think a lot are shying away from PS2 VNs for a couple reasons, one is that getting any PS2 title let alone a VN on retail shelves these days is very difficult. The other being, the amount and difficulty of translation required is exponentially greater due to sheer volume of text. It is probably difficult to justify in most publishers production schedule w/o hiring more translation and editing staff, but incurring extra cost for an unproven market is probably considered risky. No inside info or anything, just conjecture on my part.
That being said, NISA is not only doing Sakura Wars but Disgaea Infinite on PSP, and Disgaea VN will be out a mere month after the JP release. That strongly indicates it is being localized concurrently with game production.....
NISA fans have been asking for VNs for some time, given these 2 releases it sounds like NISA is currently the most likely company to take up VN publishing on western consoles. My guess is that it all depends on how well Sakura Wars and Disgaea Infinite do. If both those titles make healthy profit , and either one exceeds expectations, my money is on NISA at least bringing over parts of their JP VN catalog.
That being said, I like Aksys and would happily plunk down for anything along these lines they brought over - though in Aksys case I have a hunch we are far more likely to see VN inspired fighting game, than an actual VN. Which is fine with me, I like fighting games and trust Aksys to have good taste in picking what to bring over.
