Topic: Persona 5 Strikers

@TheFrenchiestFry In fairness eshop charts aren't a good representation of Switch games sales since alot of people buy physical retail copies and the Persona RRP is actually more on the eshop than Skyward Sword, Mario Kart, Pokemon Sw/Sh and most of the other big hitters.

@Ralizah If Atlus were waiting on Strikers sales to decide if P5R was coming to Switch or not then it was never likely to happen in the first place. I think SMT3 did slightly better on Switch than PS4 in Japan but it was pretty much almost identical sales.

I plan on getting Strikers Switch version but in a few weeks as it didn't feel like a day one purchase to me, I wasn't as enthusiastic about Hyrule Warriors AoC as everyone else was so I can do a break from the hack and slash genre and I know I can get it for under £30 in a few weeks. That being said if Persona 5 Royal got a Switch port (or Persona 3 as that's the one I really want to play) it's an instant day one buy.

Do we have precise sales figures for Strikers on PC and Switch? I agree with @jump and generally don't think it's really fair to compare rankings on their respective stores, as the eShop and Steam are two fairly different markets and it wouldn't be a great indicator of volume of sales. Plus ranking has as much to do with other games as the game itself. Also - I'm not sure the performance of a Musou-type spin-off is necessarily the best predictor of an RPG's demand on a particular platform.

Urm, what? Cloud appeared in Smash at the end of 2015, and FFVII wasn't released until a console later in 2019. There's still time for these things to happen (although I do agree that the longer it takes, the less likely it seems it will happen!)

Thing is Warrior games aren't that big aside from Hyrule Warriors, like would this many people be fussed if it was Samurai Warriors 5 or One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 talk. Whilst the PC and PS version might be over preforming it could be the Switch version is preforming as expected. Who knows as stuff like forecasts and budgets are with the company not the fans who can only really speculate rather than know.

@jump Yeah tbh as much as people like to find rhyme and reason within this industry, it's usually a futile effort. You even get industry analysts who seem way off the mark a lot of the time.

@TheFrenchiestFry
I can think of several reasons why the switch port of strikers was never going to fare well.

Install/Fanbase: Sony has this so it’s no surprise. Switch has no Persona 5 ports so theres not much reason for a switch owner to buy it same with PC but that also goes to the next point as though there may be some crossover if you own multiple consoles (many don’t).........

Performance: PS4/5 has no problems optimally playing this game. PC is a wild card depending on its settings but PC has a great modding community. Switch on the other hand struggles (slower load times, graphically not as good and FPS purists are certain to crucify it).

Gaming the system eshop sales: The top billing games on switch topping the charts week after week? Heavily discounted shovelware!

Genre: While I love Musou style games, the general consensus is less than flattering.

@GameOtaku @TheFrenchiestFry I honestly have no problems with loading times or frame-rate drops, so if I'm able to buy P5S on Switch I'll absolutely do it. Reason being that PS consoles install the whole damn game onto the hard drive. I'd rather play off the cart.

Yeah I'm not sure what the problem is with loading times...I feel like I'm maybe playing a different version to other people? At most I've noticed the game loading for a few seconds.

I do agree that maybe Switch isn't the most appealing platform for this type of game though. As a die-hard Switch fan who sees it as his first choice for pretty much every game...even I was considering PC in this instance, for higher resolution and framerate. Plus with lockdown I have less opportunity to play on the go. But happy I went with the Switch version in the end - the performance isn't really that bad at all, and I'm probably getting more playtime out of it than I would if I had to start up my PC each time.

@timleon
I’m not over sensitive to loading times or noticing slight performance drops or FPS but lots of gamers do so what incentive do most have for buying the switch version over the other two? Portability? You also have that to a degree on PC since you can log in using Steam and play across multiple PCs that have Steam installed or on a laptop. Switch is missing out on its full potential for sales of strikers simply because Atlus hasn’t ported P5.

You may try to spin it as a Kingdom Hearts situation where Sony has the main games and Nintendo has the side story canon spinoffs. But it was the way they went about it made sense seeing as how dominant PS2 was and Nintendo dominated the handheld market that there was much more crossover. Most everyone I knew in my gaming circles at the time had at least a PS2 and a Nintendo handheld. But even then Sony remedied that with Re:Chain of Memories on PS2 and BBS on PSP. Realistically you really only need to play the main 3 numbered titles while though the others add more depth it’s not necessary (Roxas and Namine were explained in 2 but you could have a one up on those details by playing CoM for example) and it cut into the narrative to be confused as Sora was in game by wondering what had happened.

@GameOtaku But the thing is you're still using the "x platform doesn't have the other game" argument when that still applies to PC

Switch has its own unique values like portability and the versatility of the platform just like PC has stuff like mod support. Hell PC is somewhat disadvantaged due to the implementation of Denuvo which has a chance of bottlenecking performance, especially in an action game, but both platforms are in the same exact predicament, and it's ironic that Switch is the platform where the games aren't selling as well when Atlus has supported Nintendo since their inception while before Catherine they only had like 2 PC games that were both Japan exclusive

At this point the "Switch doesn't have Persona 5" argument doesn't even matter because PC got a completely different mainline game as well as Catherine with no sign of Persona 5 anywhere and it's selling way better there than on the platform where supposedly there's a larger demand for Persona. This is on top of Catherine Full Body not selling that well on Switch and Tokyo Mirage Sessions seemingly not doing that much better than the original Wii U release. The only time a Switch version of an Atlus game so far has outsold another platform is SMT Nocturne, and even then the gap between PS4 and Switch is way smaller compared to how much worse the Switch numbers were in Japan compared to PS4 for Strikers

@TheFrenchiestFry
It’s as I said though most everyone has a PC though but not everyone has a Sony and Nintendo console. Of course I don’t approve nor understand why they want to split their customer/fanbase up so much when releases like this would do better with more context being given to the players? Why would a PS4 owner buy the switch version? They have really no incentive to do so and that also applies to pc. I’d argue most of the sales on pc are more to fuel demand for mainline games that’s why I bought my copy on switch though I’ve no bite of playing it until I at play 5 on my console I own. True I could also buy it on my decade old laptop but I know it will not run on mine but if it causes the mainline to come to switch sure I’d support it just line I am supporting them by buying SMT3 and 5.

@GameOtaku But not everyone has a GAMING PC or a PC capable of running games

Persona 4 Golden could run on literally any potato PC out there because it's an 8 year old game that was already designed with a much less powerful handheld in mind. Strikers is a current gen action RPG, and a Koei Tecmo one at that which means it also has its fair share of technical problems. It's not just going to run that well on a consumer-grade PC that is more commonplace compared to something designed with gaming/performance in mind

And as for the "why would a PS4 owner buy the Switch version?" The same reason people who played Persona 4 may have bought Arena or Ultimax on 360. Switch is currently the most consistently selling of the "last-gen" consoles so it's clearly being put on Switch to just further maximize the reach of the game, the same way P4A and P4AU were put on PS3, as well as the at the time more successful Xbox 360 despite the fact the latter doesn't have either Persona 4 or Persona 3, the games Arena follows up on

There are plenty of Persona fans who have bought Persona games on non-Sony hardware. Hell the Persona Q games are Nintendo exclusives and they're literally fanservice games for those who played the numbered entries. Plus considering how well Persona 4 Golden sold on PC there's no way you can tell me that people who already played the game on Vita (including me) weren't among those who bought the re-release given it already broke half a million in like a single week. It isn't just to fuel demand for more main entries on a particular platform. It's because the games themselves are actually good and resonated with people lol. Unlike the Switch folk the PC people are actually buying literally anything from Atlus regardless of if it's exactly what they want which is why I bet Catherine Full Body suffered on Switch due to how much bickering there was it that it wasn't Persona 5.

@GameOtaku Interesting to hear you arguing so hard against portability as a killer feature for the Switch version.

I own all the platforms this game has come to, but, frankly, the ability to play it off the TV is quite appealing for me, which is why I opted for that version. I guess technically a laptop is portable, but it's not the same. A Switch is smaller and more intimate, like a phone or a book. If I'm going to play on something as unwieldy as a laptop, I'd rather just play it on my TV.

@jump I don't think Atlus is waiting for P5S sales numbers to decide on whether to port P5R or not. I don't think they plan on porting P5R at all. I'm just saying that these companies WILL be looking at sales data, and SEGA is highly interested in getting games they publish out on more platforms. If there was a chance of a late P5 port to other platforms, I think this would have nailed the coffin shut on that front. PC is just a better market for Atlus ports, it seems.

@TheFrenchiestFry I don't get the impression that Full Body did particularly well on PS4, either. Kinda funny how the group of people most hungry for Atlus support got a lazy port of the PS3/360 version.

@TheFrenchiestFry
That’s the key though. Persona fans meaning Sony players that happen to have Nintendo handhelds for the fan service Q games. The vita was a flop (I love mine though but still) so Golden was confined to a very small base. So it makes sense for this game to sell well on PC. Yes lots don’t having good gaming PCs but they are still asking for it. Switch continues to sell well month after month so it’d make sense a port would sell and cause holdouts in strikers to eventually buy it when they finish P5.

@Ralizah
I never said portability wasn’t a killer feature but the pros out weigh the cons when it comes to multiplat games when you own multiple consoles.

If they would actually put a mainline Persona game like 4G or 5/R on switch and then base their decision on those numbers rather than on a sequel spin-off of a totally different genre we would have it in no time. But no we just do as asked and beg and continue to do surveys. Demand is there, no doubt about it, they just have the most bizarre business sense I’ve ever seen.

@TheLightSpirit That's been mentioned already in the ongoing looping argument that the PC sales are doing well (I am not really sure it's doing well or not, it's just hight on the Steam lists apparently) which just like Switch doesn't have Persona 5 and has less connection to Persona 5 than the Switch does with Joker being in Smash and spin offs hitting the 3DS.

With the argueing about it's sales I've just bought it, I was gonna get it anyway with and I found a fair enough price for a copy.

At least the PC got Persona 4 Golden.

The closest the Switch previously got to a Persona game was Tokyo Mirage Sessions!

@Matt_Barber In fariness there's more to Atlus than just Persona. I'd love to get Switch ports of 3-5 but I'd love Devil Survivor and 13 Sentinels to get new games or ports on Switch just as much plus there's two Shin Megami Tensei games coming to Switch this year.

Saying that the best way of Atlus ensuring success of their games on Switch is to cultivate their audience, the easiest way to do that is to release their biggest games on the console so they can then go from that lot who made Persona everytime they release something else. I reckon that's why Level 5 went tits up in the West, by the time started releasing things themselves no one cared about Yo Kai Watch and Inazuma Eleven, Professor Layton was over and there wasn't a string of modest hits like Fantasy Life, Little Battlers eXperience etc for them to ger people on board with their games.

There are so many more, actually hard to get Atlus games that deserve ports than Persona 5 does. P5 is literally on the 8th gen console with the highest install base and most units sold worldwide of the big three. It's probably gone out to a crap ton of people at this point

Where's the localizations for Shin Megami Tensei I and II that don't require me to find an out of date smartphone to play? Where's the original Devil Summoner that preceded Soul Hackers? Where are the Raidou games? Even Persona 3 is still technically only available on PlayStation 2 and PSP, with the additions to each version locked to a specific console like Direct Commands, Guarding, Maniac Difficulty and FeMC in P3P and the Answer in FES. Where are the original Digital Devil Story games that preceded SMT and were remade once for the Super Famicom? Maybe Microsoft could reach out to SEGA about remastering SMT Nine with online support? What about Trauma Center, or the other PS2 era SMT games like Digital Devil Saga? On the topic of Persona, the remakes of Persona and Persona 2 Innocent Sin are still only on PSP/Vita, and Eternal Punishment's remake never even got localized

Persona 5 can wait lol

@TheFrenchiestFry
I’d love for them to port more games too. But right now P5 is a safe bet for them to port which would take the least amount of work. Seriously now they keep asking over and over if we want Persona on Switch and time and again we respond with a resounding yes. Then they are silent and ask again which really makes me question their business sense.

Tbh as someone who started with Persona 4 Golden on the Vita, its just a shame not to have a portable version of 5.

Being able to pick up and play any time really makes an 100 hour game feel like less of an investment...

@GameOtaku This is absolutely not the time for an P5 port nor would it be a safe bet considering it would potentially take attention away from the other Switch titles Atlus already has planned like Nocturne HD and SMT V given Persona as an IP is way larger and more popular than all of MegaTen combined and there's still a clear divide between SMT and Persona's core fanbases with only slight overlap

If the Switch people want to prove that they will support Atlus no matter what or that they deserve a port of that game they need to buy SMT III and SMT V to show that they also care about more outside Persona and that they aren't just fixated on that particular game. The PC people did that exact thing with P4G and P5S but their Switch output has not sold nearly as well as other platforms for whatever reason. Maybe their "business sense" really isn't as misplaced as you think. Maybe they're genuinely convinced that the Switch playerbase won't just support them in general regardless of what they put out because those other games did badly without the Persona name attached to them, and even when they put out a Persona game it still did worse than other platforms