Latest Octopath Traveler Restock In Japan Sells Out Again

I want to get it, but I'm holding out for dark souls

Still, fantastic news for a new IP to do so well, and even better that its Switch exclusive.

20 hours in and it’s great so far. JRPGs have never clicked for me, but I don’t know what it is about this one. It’s very charming, and I love how every battle is a little puzzle to try and work out how to defeat enemies without them even getting a hit in.

I haven’t even bothered looking for a physical copy yet with how quickly it sells out... I’ll wait a little longer and see if I can get notifications if anymore shipments arrive

All I can think about is that scene from South Park where the BP Oil director repeatedly goes "We're sorry~"

i feel bad now for those who want it, especially since i have 2 copies. my original order from amazon of the wayfare edition didnt come on time as they promised, so i bought it at my local store on july 13th.

Sorry guys, here in Japan I bought 2 copies. So the shortage is my fault. Seeing as Square only made a total of 4 physical copies.

@aznable Dark Souls probably wont be out for a few months still. If you can afford both games, I'd highly encourage you to pick up Octopath too.

And people say physical media is dead?

And yet it had low numbers last week. Makes you wonder if the shortages are local and how many units SE ships in a given week.

The winds of fortune are howling!

@IronMan30 It had low numbers because there weren't more units available. It sold out.

40 hours in now.really loving it.hope we get more like this in the future.im pretty sure square likes money a lot so yeah

God I wish I had the time and patience to commit to a game like this, Xenoblade etc. 20-25 years ago I would have been all over them. Now, I'd play it for a bit, enjoy it, and then just never find the time to sit there and play it properly again, which would in turn just end up with me trading it back in after 12 months lol.

So odd, and yet fixture are full and overflowing here in the UK

I talked with several friends who work in different stores, guess what ?
Here in France, it's out of stock too since the launch basically.
They explained me that they're unhappy because when they receive a restock, it's always by 1 or 2 copies.

They're all cleared about the situation, they experience with Octopath Traveler the same as what they experienced with the amiibos some years ago. Basically, Nintendo and Squix create a "fake hype" around the title to be sure to sell every cartridge on the market.

And those friends of mine, they confirmed that when they get their 1 or 2 copies, it's sold instantly because the games are already reserved. Another thing happend too, due to the shortage, there were people who reserved even more than 2 copies. Easy for them to sell on Ebay and make extra money because of the situation.

Well Switch goty :3

@aznable yeah unfortunately we just don't know what Dark Souls will be released, many were expecting July but that's been and gone, it was meant to be summer 2018 though so we either get it this month or it gets delayed.

@Bunkerneath The problem is cost of manufacturing physical media is a lot more... there is distribution costs, reseller costs, actual manufacturing, its something the technology world is desperate to move away from but consumers cling to it as the cost then falls on them to cover the cost of data for digital media.

It's really a battle between the makers and the consumers. Microsoft drew first blood but the subject is by no means dead, other big tech companies have followed through where Microsoft backed out, that trend will only continue.

Plus with the global politics becoming more isolationist, tech companies are ever more desperate to move away from physical media to get their product out... there's no trade embargo's on digital media.

@Heavyarms55 Well, Dark Souls was supposed to be a summer release and we really only have one month of that left and still no word on it. Honestly, might as well be holiday at this point. So, you're probably right.

@Razer I hate digital media as you don't really own the game, you have just downloaded it.
If you ever delete it (for space etc) and then they turn off the server, you can't re-download it.
Whilest with a physical cartridge, there it is ready to play and you own it. Even 20 years down the line (As I often do with my NES games)

I have yet to see this game in any retail store. Granted, I haven’t been into Gamestop to check (I loathe that store), but Walmart and Target don’t seem to carry it. I might have picked it up as an impulse if i saw it but so far, it’s a no-show.

@Bunkerneath Yeah i'm same as you and to be frank, living in the UK (one of the lowest internet speeds in the world), downloading anything over 5 gigs is a headache.

i would much rather physical copies but looking outside of my own point of view, putting myself in their shoes, i can see why tech companies want to move away from physical media. For them, it costs more to manufacturer, more to distribute and their profits are lower as a result.

Also there is another topic on this site about slavery and using cheap resources from poor nations to save overheads on manufacturing costs. No company is forced into such questionable practices, but many do anyway, the demise of physical media would mean this practice will eventually end.

Unfortunately as much as i hate it... whether we like it or not, physical media will die off. All my above mentioned reasons do not even go into "the war on plastic" which is being waged globally... this war will reach us, very soon in fact. When it does... lets just put it this way, grab as much physical media while you have a chance.

Weather you like this game or not, this is great news. I can only hope it encourages Square Enix and other companies to make more RPGs for Switch.

@Razer My only problem with digital is how they keep it at full price. If they really wanted to push digital sales, they could easily afford to cut down the price by 10 -15 dollars and still have a massively better margin than physical. This is pretty much what a lot of Indies do already.

Instead, they're trying to slowly kill off the physical market and maintain the 60 dollar average, despite the fact that multiple middlemen were cut out of the distribution process and s/h or manufacturing are no longer factors.

@Regpuppy 10000%

I couldn't even mention this because it boils my blood too much.

this game is superb, its totally worth waiting for. Ive clocked 30 hours and starting the chapter 2's now, I've found some special areas too! this game is huge, I still have huge amounts of the map to uncover!

Awaiting the third apology...

Err. but the Japan numbers for last week are out. They've made a grand total of 145K. They need to get cracking. By the looks of it they could have sold twice that on week one of available 🤔

1. [PS4] Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1+2 - 29,270 (New)
2. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! - 28,265 (98,249)
3. [NSW] Splatoon 2 20,344 (2,490,039)
4. [NSW] Mario Tennis Aces – 18,067 (265,228)
5. [NSW] Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1+2 – 16,207 (New)
6. [NSW] Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition – 16,067 (154,118)
7. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 13,887 (1,654,996)
8. [NSW] Octopath Traveler – 13,238 (145,788)
9. [NSW] Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker – 8,966 (71,365)
10. [PSV] Collar x Malice: Unlimited – 7,695 (New)

So right around now, with two physical reprints sold out, they probably have enough of a profit secured that they don't need to be as conservative when ordering the next batch.

@Pod I think they're just overcautious. SE is probably treating this like it's a small niche project to begin with. (It technically is a new ip) So they didn't prepare as much as they would've for Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.

@Liam_Doolan '...SquareEnix has had to issue two apologies...'
(I am always unsure if this is frowned upon, but I don't mean anything snarky with it.)

@Regpuppy
Oh I believe you're absolutely right.
They wanted to be safe with this one.

Though the extra small batches make me think Nintendo might really be charging quite a lot for the cartridges.

@Pod Maybe so, and if this the case, I really hope Nintendo finds a way to drop the cost. Even if it means eating some of the cartridge costs to help some of these games get out there.

@Regpuppy
That would be lovely. With the great success the Switch is enjoying so far, Nintendo is not exactly in NEED of more people that want to go physical though. With the cartridge format being their patent, I believe they're shaving off a pretty penny from 3rd party orders.

They might have needed to do this back when they had to secure a return to sustainable profits, but as the price Nintendo themselves have to pay the Chinese production facilities for these cartridges enevitably goes down, it'd only be proper of them to let everyone else in on a bigger profit margin as well.

Too many medium size AA games are being marked up and extra ten dollars on Switch these days, which isn't sustainable going forward.

I'm so happy that somebody pre-ordered a Wayfarer's Edition at my local EB Games and then decided to go with a standard version on release day. I went in early and it was sitting on the counter and asked if I could trade my standard pre-order in for it and voila, it's mine! The pop-up book case was really beautifully done as was the coin. My only wish was that it had included a steelbook like the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Special Edition did. Otherwise, the Wayfarer Edition is a MUST for JRPG collectors, if you can find one.

This really astounds me that Square would underestimate this game so much, especially after the demo response, on what is the most popular console in Japan. I can't tell if they underestimated or if it's social engineering to try to convince people to adopt digital with unavailability of a hyped game. Good luck in Japan. Highest internet speed, lowest digital adoption. They're not budging.

@Regpuppy Agreed, then again look at the new pricing they want
to push for both physical and digital. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (digital) is $60 or the base game, $80 for the full base game, $100 for the actual full base game, and $120 with swag bonuses. DIGITAL swag bonuses. All this from the company that thinks streaming subs are the future.

@Pod ?

My physical copy of Octopath Traveler (as all my other physical Switch copies of games) says "Made in Japan." (I'm in the USA, if that matters. I heard distribution is different in regions of the world.)

Love this game. I'm about 25 hours in. Have all 8 travelers. I keep pulling myself every which way. ("Should I do Oberic's Chapter 2 next?" "No, wait! What's this? Oooo, it's another shrine!")

@NEStalgia My only hope is that the Japanese market holds out, until I'm in the ground. Then, at the very least, I could import Japanese games like I sometimes do already. I'm genuinely considering taking time to learn Japanese because of this. Lol

As for THOSE games and publishers you're referring to. I actively avoid them because of this nonsense, on principle. Especially since these are the same people who expect full price tag for a " physical version" even though most of the game has to be downloaded. Whether or not there is a bigger available cart for it. As a collector, who likes to play his games, this means these carts will be plastic paper weights in the future.

@maruse obviously there weren't more units available, but that couldn't have been a big shipment.

@IronMan30 No, it wasn't big. I don't think they're making more than 20000~25000 each week. They're being cautious or they just can't produce more than that anyway.

@maruse you'd think in their own country they would have a better idea of how well a game would be received. Then again, I guess nobody really can predict sales of just about anything.

@aznable I was going to get it until I saw Salt and Sanctuary so I know the feeling. I'll eventually get it.

@Iacobus
I absolutely could be wrong about where Nintendo gets the cartridges manufactured. LABO was noted for being made entirely in Japan.

Maybe it's only the systems themselves that are made at Foxconn.

I'd assume they got the memory chips for the cartridges from a Chinese factory, but assembly might well be in Japan.

@Razer The UK has one of the lowest internet speeds? We're 15th in the world apparently, right near the top!