Considering the low sales of P5R on Steam, what are the chances of the sequel being sold on Steam?

[Shin_Hell]

According to SteamDB, after one month this game has sold only a little over 200 thousand copies. When Persona 4 was released on Steam, I remember that after one month they had already exceeded half a million copies sold.

This makes the copies sold by Persona 5 Royal less than half of the copies sold by Persona 4 (a 14-year-old game) in the same time period, so I think it can be called a disappointing result considering that Persona 5 is a newer title that offers many additional features, including subtitles in multiple languages. And this point of view is also reinforced by the fact that after one month the game is already on discount.

In light of this, what do you think the chances are that a sequel will also be released on Steam, and if so, what are the chances that the game will be translated into multiple languages like this one?

[Fyuun]

"low sales"
P5R is a 2019 game that was released on literally every modern platform simultaniously with a $1 Gamepass option. Also P5R is $60 and most people already bought P5 and P5R once on Playstation.

This is not P4G where most people haven't bought it because it was exclusively on a niche handheld. Also, you are missing the point of comparing the PC sales with the Playstation and Switch sales, including the deal Sega/Atlus has with Microsoft.

It could even be that Microsoft gave Sega/Atlus more money than all other copies combined. Without knowing exactly the numbers, everything in regards to "low sales" is just a worthless subjective personal assumption.

It's very complicated to explain the difference between "copies sold" and "profit" for people who have no idea about how businesses work. Steam is literally just "slap your game on our servers and we do the rest for you". No other stupid expenses consoles have like physical waste, licence requirements, and other costs like paying for every patch. On Steam you can just be in the Antarctic and upload the game files on the Steam servers and that's it. You won't pay one penny for anything else. Everything on Steam from the forum to the marketing and payment processing is free of charge (outside the cut per sale) and Sega/Atlus can even resell keys on third party websites without paying Steam a penny for it.

You can sell one trillion copies of a game. It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is profit and Steam is the only platform which is pretty much like an ATM. Every copy you sell is just printing money with no meaningful costs other than one cut per sold copy.

[TotemMX]

Originally posted by Fyuun:

It's very complicated to explain the difference between "copies sold" and "profit" for people who have no idea about how businesses work.

Fact.


Game sold well on Switch and Steam. On Gamepass was the second most played game in debut week.

Even when Persona 5R is a popular game, the jrpg genre is still a niche genre. The numbers are great and the ports will profitable in few months.

But haters gonna hate.

[Radiosity]

P4G was a third the price of P5R, it's hardly a fair comparison.

[Kevfactor]

I bet it did Unchartedish. It probably did okay but didn't meet expectations. They probably don't see it was a bad port with DRM though :)

[Steel]

The game isn't made specifically for PC, it's made for console and sells there, then comes to PC and sells to, considering the low effort of porting the game, a very profitable audience.
It's money on the table, there's no reason not to port the game to Steam, the audience is more than large enough to profit from. It's as simple as that.

[Killance]

The hell? Atlus saying they are extremely pleased with the numbers Game Pass, Switch and Steam pulled for P5R. It did fantastic on these platforms.

Oh troll post history. That explains a few things.

[MizarAce]

Soul Hackers 2 had a simultaneous release with all consoles. So there is reason to believe we may have the same for future games.

Or maybe catch up with an old game? Full Body when Atlus?

[Arifufu]

i don't care about their sales, just give me SMT V on Steam already. I don't want Soul Hackers 2 or Persona 3 Portable (i prefer Persona 3 Festival), so simply put Shin Megami Tensei V on Steam.

[Rank Zero]

14 years is long enough that some people might not even have the console they once played P4 on anymore, so a newer and cheaper release would be very welcome for long time fans, whereas P5, specifically P5R, only came out a few years ago.
200,000 copies at basically no cost and at a much higher price per unit that P4G is a steal for Atlus. They could probably have sold more by lowering the price at least a little bit, but it's still practically an infinite money cheat.

[archonsod]

Originally posted by Shin_Hell:

According to SteamDB, after one month this game has sold only a little over 200 thousand copies. When Persona 4 was released on Steam, I remember that after one month they had already exceeded half a million copies sold.

Sales are kind of irrelevant - the game made it's money back on the consoles, anything they make off it now is pretty much pure profit. One of the reasons we see so many ports these days is that developers have twigged the fact you can stick the game on a platform like Steam (porting these days is so easy it's pretty cheap cost-wise) and still make money from it five years later with zero effort or costs involved. It's almost as good as being able to print your own money.

And this point of view is also reinforced by the fact that after one month the game is already on discount.

It's the Steam Autumn sale. Generally speaking it's quicker to list the titles which aren't discounted than those which are; Valve subsidise the discounts.

In light of this, what do you think the chances are that a sequel will also be released on Steam, and if so, what are the chances that the game will be translated into multiple languages like this one?

Pretty much a certainty. With ports being so easy to produce these days not going multi-format is seen as leaving money on the table, unless of course you can persuade someone to cough up for timed exclusivity. Combine that with Sega (and indeed most Japanese publishers) being incredibly keen to expand their global market, throw in a somewhat spotty release of the new console generation and a global pandemic that's reminded developers how relatively little effort is required to mine the back catalogue versus producing a new game.
Or in short, there's a reason we're currently seeing a boom in console ports and remasters. I can't see that changing in the short to medium term.

[Terra]

Originally posted by Rank Zero:

14 years is long enough that some people might not even have the console they once played P4 on anymore

P4 also has the dubious distinction of being a game released on a dead system TWICE.

It released on the PS2 2 years AFTER the PS3 came out - and after the PS3 had discontinued backwards compatability - and its re-release was on the Vita, which got shredded by the 3DS so bad that Sony refuses to say its name.