Retail launch of Octopath Traveler II see a 30% drop in comparison to the first one in Japan, with the Switch version dropping nearly half its sales.
Retail launch of Octopath Traveler II see a 30% drop in comparison to the first one in Japan, with the Switch version dropping nearly half its sales.
Second weakest launch of a Team Asano game, above, but not by a lot, over last year's Live A Live remake. pic.twitter.com/X319ythIOO
— Game Data Library (@GameDataLibrary) March 2, 2023
by Turbostrider27
35 Comments
I’m not an expert on this sorta thing, but I feel like marketing played a role here. At least partially.
Octopath 1 was announced in the big Switch presentation back in January 2017, and between then and its release in 2018, it was pushed really hard. Nintendo published it everywhere except Japan and it was (initially) a Switch exclusive, so Nintendo put almost as much marketing into it as they would one of their own games. It got a lot of attention as one of the Switch’s early exclusive titles, and they made sure it was known.
2 on the other hand had Square Enix taking over worldwide publishing. And their marketing department is pretty hit or miss for anything that isn’t Final Fantasy related. I was excited for 2 because I enjoyed 1, but it felt like the sequel was getting much less attention pre-release compared to Octopath 1.
Weird. I love OT2 way more than the first one. I haven’t been able to put it down since I got it. I thought it would be getting more love
This is a real shame, because I’ve heard nothing but stellar praise for this game.
wasnt the first one only available on the switch for a long time?
….ok, reading wikipedia, shows that it was released for switch on 2018 and for windows in 2019, so it had a year of switch sales in a time where there werent that many Switch games to go around, so it pretty much guaranteed sales.
nowadays the market is getting kinda saturated, the backlogs are getting larger in many gamer’s. and you dont have a pandemic to sit around in the home playing games.
Square Enix used all that ad money on forspoken
not surprised, square enix has always done a garbage job advertising their own games that arent final fantasy. nintendo pushed the first game hard since they had timed exclusivity on it
Disappointing but not surprised. February was a pretty packed month in terms of new games, and this one fell under the radar for a lot of people.
Square was too busy promoting the shit that is Forspoken to actually put any real marketing behind this amazing game. Also let’s not forget the game is now launching day and date on PS and PC so sales drop on Switch are gained elsewhere, but hey doom and gloom reddit.
I agree with others, this game had terrible marketing. It was already niche to begin with, and the lack of a marketing campaign didn’t help. I feel like the only people who purchased it are those of us who’ve been eagerly awaiting it.
We got what, a handful of YouTube videos on the official squeenix and Nintendo channels over the last year, and that’s about it.
The switch version selling less well should be obvious. OT1 was marketed as a switch exclusive whereas OT2 released on steam simultaneously. So the sales are being split between the two platforms.
I frankly did enjoy OT1 a lot until I hit a massive grind wall before the final boss, at which point I just gave up. OT2 does look great and people are singing its praises. So I’ll probably wait for a steam sale this time rather than picking it up on launch day as I did with OT1.
I wonder how many other people are just waiting for sales this time. I think it’ll be interesting to see how the lifetime sales of OT2 will match up to OT1 down the line.
I didn’t know this game existed so I think that’s the problem
I loved the first one and I’m enjoying this one even more. It’s that same great game, but feels new again. But there are so many good games coming out right now. I only played a couple dozen hours in the Tactics Ogre post-game before jumping into Fire Emblem Engage, then rushed through that even skipping some paralogues which is unlike me, so I could keep up with all the games. All the while playing Metroid Prime in the background and wanting to jump into Kirby Deluxe.
Personally, just too backlogged. Have Persona 5 Royal physical and haven’t started it yet. Xenoblade Chroncicles 3 took me like 5 months to beat, so I’m a little hesitant to just spend my years doing back to back to back 100 hour JRPGs. Metroid Prime Remastered was a really nice change of pace, but I’ve got to break my JRPGs up throughout the year. Fire Emblem Engage is still relatively new. There’s no shortage of turn-based JRPG action on the Switch at this point. It’s tough to keep up with, old and new.
I did give the soundtrack some listening though and it sounds really good so far.
OT1 was released initially only on Switch..
OT2 was released on PC, PS4 and PS5 as well. Of course the switch sales dropped?
Octopath 2 imo is a really good game and offers several improvements over the first. 🙂
It’s a shame to see the middling sales numbers.
Just a heads up, OT1 was a Switch exclusive when it originally released. OT2 is not, honestly a drop in Switch sales because of that seems like it should have been expected.
Is a shame. I am only a few characters in but story is already much more interesting than the first (and they have taken some steps to make it feel more connected).
Money, has happened.
Inflation, poorer people, tired people, busy people.
This, happened.
30% drop in overall sales seems completely normal considering the sequel is extremely similar to the first game.
Lots of people aren’t going to buy that if they didn’t love the first game. Hopefully it had a 30% less budget considering how much got reused, so it may be doing well. But this is Square so they will be disappointed.
This is a multiplatform game versus a Switch exclusive for the first so Switch sales figures are meaningless.
I’m one of the people who pre-ordered the switch version
I suspect this is the kind of game that people only buy it if they
A) got the first one
AND
B) finished the first one
The demo for the first game convinced me to buy it, but once I bought it I only put a few hours in and was kind of turned off by it. By all accounts the sequel is a huge improvement, but my experience with the first game has made me very reluctant to jump into the sequel.
I support it, bought it physical & waiting for it to arrive.
Love HD-2D games, hope they keep making them, that they remaster every Final Fantasy 1 to 6 in that staly, FF Tactics too, Chrono Trigger, and more.
For me personally I have too much of a backlog AND my cost of living is too damn high right now. It’s hard to buy new games when rent/food is so expensive these days, I’ll just work on my backlog or replay old favourites
Square also don’t do themselves any favours with alienating their fans.
Like the first game landed on Switch and Xbox (but not PlayStation) and the new one lands on Switch and PlayStation (but not Xbox)… just release these games on everything because you just piss off fans who want to invest.
The first game was helped by being an exclusive on a system with few RPGs at the time. Now Switch owners have a lot more to choose from.
For me the contributing factor was that everything Square Enix releases is garbage for the past few years.
This is also the first entry in the franchise that went multiplatform at launch so some of the people who previously only had the Switch version my have opted for the PS4 version
Square enix when they don’t market a game and it then proceeds to perform below expectations : 😱😱😱
Theres a ton of games right now. And very little promotion for this one I’ve seen.
Sequels almost always sell less…
I plan to buy it on Ps5 not surprised the drop on switch considering it’s no longer an exclusive
As someone who played through the entirety of the first one and found it just okay, seeing the same eight classes and path actions made it hard to be inspired to try it again several years later. It remains the most interesting visual style out there for me though
Isn’t the 2nd one suppose to be way better? I’m thinking of buying it for my next RPG and I didn’t play the first. I’ve only seen raving reviews about the 2nd though. What do yall think?
That’s a pretty negative spin on things. Is 78k a fall from the first, sure. But it’s hardly a failure in any way. Its debut is still on par with Live a Live. Plus remember everyone, the game has strong word of mouth, it is climbing on the eShop charts. It should continue to do well. Don’t let this discourage you. It still charted #2 on the Famitsu charts and sold best on Switch.