quite a long time since i posted here g
well if a certain someone from Sega of America had not intervened Orta had been released three months earlier with a total hack of a story. Iâm sure Abbad has commented on this before.
AV/Smilebit have a great history in arcade and action titles, but as SK pointed out, it takes more than that to produce a good and selling RPG.
and an RPG is what would bring the PD franchise really back. going âback to the rootsâ is not necessarily a bad thing. but who can expect a shooter to become a triple A title nowadays? they provide much to short gameplay experience for the casual gamer (and there is where the mony is, not the few hundred hardcore PD fans).
AFAIK Orta sold about 210 thousand units worldwide with 70 thousand in Japan, 110 thousand in the US and 30 thousand in europe. considering europe is about 10 percent of the world xbox market (10% of 210 is 21 =) orta sold considerably well in europe (these figures sound reasonable to me, B.B. from atari told me they ordered two palettes wich contain 12 thousand units or so)
these sales are not bad for a shooter! itâs just that the expectations in Japan were much higher. they even had TV spots wich are extremely rare for an action title. Orta was supposed to mark the big return of the PD series.
well first of all, Japanese business people are unbelievable strange.
in Japan the PD franchise is poisonous. âit never sold well (in japan and on the saturn!) and it never will sell on any other platform in japan, lets make something new and original like⌠uh⌠âletâs make a sonic waterski party team 5â !â
playing orta it is obvious the team spend hours and hours reviewing the old saturn games, and combine the experience into something ânewâ and bring it to the next level. wich worked, in my opinion Orta is better than Zwei (if you took orta back to the standard of the saturn that is).
I personally think a kickass PD RPG developed for the XBOX 2 as a launch title would work.
first it wouldnât have much competition on the same platform, maybe a true fantasy live online 2 or something. the xbox lacks RPGs now wich is a major flaw on the japanese market (the PS2 has TONS of RPGs) it is likely the XBOX2 could face the same problem.
second the PD franchise can absolutely work on the US (and of course the slowly growing european) market. have you seen how much references to star wars are in orta? mobo is practically Hand Solo himself =)
the PD world gives so much room for a nice steampunk/fantasy/science fiction setting just like the star wars universe, and as you know KOTOR is a kickass title and shows that even a SW (compared to the value of the brand SW games never sold that well) game can be successful.
third (pointing a little in the direction of first) PDS was brought out in very limited numbers on an already dead platform and got hardly any media attention (apart from the Segata Sanchiro spot in Japan it had practically no advertising abroad). If PDS had been launched on the XBOX instaed of orta it would have certainly sold MUCH better. as i said Japanese business men only see that PDS sold bad, not why it sold bad. it canât be the failure of terrible timing and catastrophical marketing, so it must be a bad game, right? On the other hand if AV/Smilebit can produce one thing for sure than itâs âgraphic dazzlersâ like Orta. Combining superb graphics with a good RPG storyline would get a lot of media responce (as did orta) and would therefor sell a lot better.
whatever, i highly doubt weâll see another PD title ever. And if it would be another hack like Orta Iâm not too depressed about it seriously. Iâm looking forward to âletâs make a sonice waterski team party 5â.