As you may have heard, Marvelous is leaving North America. This chart explains why. Marvelous USA, with the help of Xseed, shipped a total of 95,000 units.
Wii took the lions share with 65,000 units spread over two releases, Little King’s Story and Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga. Licensed games such as Harvest Moon and Muramasa: The Demon Blade are not included in this chart. So, Marvelous Entertainment USA only released one Nintendo DS game, Flower, Sun, and Rain. Grasshopper Manufacture’s take on Groundhog’s Day reached 11,000 copies shipped. Half-Minute Hero, one of my favorite PSP games from 2009, is the lone PSP game on the chart with 18,000 units.
Now, let’s look at Japan’s numbers.
Marvelous did not highlight sales or shipment numbers for specific titles so this is not an apples-to-apples comparison. However, it appears Marvelous’ games, especially the PSP titles, did better in Japan than North America. The lone PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 release is Deadly Premonition, which launched in Japan under the name Red Seeds Profile on March 11. From that date until the end of the month, Deadly Premonition, Marvelous’ first HD game, shipped 9,000 units.
It’s hard not to be disappointed in the news. Marvelous is behind a number of charming games… that didn’t find a market here.
