They got the blues.

Fact: The world economy is in dire straits. Do you have any money? I don't have any money. Marvelous Entertainment, publishers of the upcoming Little King's Story and Muramasa: The Demon Blade as well as the Harvest Moon series, No More Heroes and Rune Factory Frontier, could use some more money, too.

A post over at Marvelous' staff blog for Little King's Story (via GameSetWatch) has the writer, presumed to be managing director and Harvest Moon-creator Yasuhiro Wada, spilling their guts on the state of their games' sales in Japan.

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I truly have teary eyes. I feel like crying.

The post also mentions that their games that are selling are doing so quite well, and points out that marketing could be to blame for underperforming titles. While otaku-centric, cel-shaded, Feudal Japan-focused or farm-simulator games have their fair share of fun, you'd be hard-pressed to call them mainstream in the West (although Harvest Moon seems to flirt with that line, and No More Heroes does its damnedest to), where the company is also seeing blows to sales.

We have not seen much of the effects of the economic downturn in Japan, but we have been affected greatly overseas. Especially in Europe, where the retailers drop prices without informing the maker. And they would claim the price difference from the maker later, almost as if that is the way that everything is supposed work. We’re already charging extra to cover costs for the price protection, but past late last year the prices have dropped below what can be covered by the amount, badly affecting the profits for our subsidiary in Britain. For the current financial year, we’re starting to take more money to compensate for price protection.

Sounds like someone could use a great big pre-order hug.

[source gamesetwatch.com]