The Axis of Bozz A blog that is all over the place about all sorts of things

Valkyria Chronicles 2 trumps the original in opening sales

According to Media Create, a Japanese company that focuses on analyzing data on the digital entertainment industry, sales for the PSP-exclusive sequel to 2008's Valkyria Chronicles have exceeded the original by nearly 20, 000 sales for first week sales.

When the original game came out in April 2008 it managed to sell 77,267 copies in its first week in Japan. When the game was released in North America it only managed a meagre 23, 803 first week sales which was pretty good considering that it was still fairly early in the PS3's life cycle and one of the few RPGs available for the console at the time. The PSP sequel, on the other hand, managed 94,444 copies sold in the very first week. This is a promising figure considering that first week sales of the original game was around 110, 000.

Hopefully the game will sell well after the first week in Japan and when it launches in North America sometime this summer. My only worry relates to the whole decision to make the sequel on the PSP and its potential ramifications. Now I don't have too much of a problem with the setting being a high school of sorts, but I am worried that the developers might forgo their promise of exploring further titles in the series for the PS3 should the sales for the PSP be a lot better than the PS3 game. The other thing that bugs me is the Kojima-esque rationale at why they decided to release the game on the PSP. Apparently, according to the producer for Valkyria Chronicles 2, Shuntaro Tanaka, some surveys were done to explore what the fan-base was like and they discovered that 95% of the fan-base was male and at ages that were higher than expected (well considering the price of the PS3 prior to the Slim, that is no surprise). The team decided that they wanted to expand that fan-base, although it seems kind of risky to try to aim a game at 5% of the people who bought the original in the first place, rather than just cater to the audience you are starting to build up, doesn't it?

Credit/Sources: Examiner, Media Create, Sega of Japan (日本語), WOW's Overworks (Sega Studio), VGChartz, Siliconera