Last week saw the release of Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave in Japan. It grabbed the #1 spot on the software sales chart with 85,000 copies sold.
Media-Create say that’s about 69.47% of all copies that were shipped to retailers. It’s also a far cry from the 122,889 copies that Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology sold in its first week in 2006, and the 133,076 copies Tales of Vs. sold in 2009.
The reason for this, Media-Create speculate, is that the game has less story than the mainline Tales games. Furthermore, character interaction is reduced compared to other crossover titles like Tales of the World and Tales of Vs., which is another factor fans take into account. Additionally, some retailers have reported less interest in the game from women than usual.
ASCII Media Works’ own report on Tales of the Heroes is rather different from Media-Create’s. Their tracker estimates sales of 67,979 copies (as opposed to M-C’s 85,000) and ASCII say that Tales of the Heroes only sold through 50% of its shipment. Note that these numbers from both trackers are estimates, so neither one is 100% “correct”.
Media-Create also provide details on Harvest Moon: The Land of Origin. With its 81,000 debut, The Land of Origin sold through 74.23% of its stock. Since Harvest Moon games typically sell for long periods of time, we’d imagine it won’t have any trouble selling through those remaining 28,000 (approx.) copies before a new shipment is required.
Media-Create attribute its success to effective TV commercials. The game is seeing a high level of interest from women aged 20-30, and Media-Create speculate that the game has succeeded in drawing in players who weren’t originally fans of Harvest Moon.
