A Xenosaga Collection Was Scrapped Due To Profitability Concerns

i would of bought it, i know its not ideal but if that was there concern why not just release it digitallty?

Theres only 3 entries on PS2. It was supposed to be 6, but there is only 3.

The only Xenosaga games not released in the west was 1&2 for DS, and Pied Piper which was a mobile game. Apparently that game is lost to time now.

Idk why they don't just rerelease them with some HD upscaling. Or hell just put the games on PSN.

Damn it! There has to be someone or group of people who can rally a loud enough crowd to get the Xenosaga Trilogy Collection to happen!

A shame but I understand their concerns. I wonder if any of these companies would consider crowd sourcing for the more financially risky release like this? If the fans fund the game from the get go it would cut out the speculation on if it's worth it or not

Not sure why they think it wouldn't sell, the same people who bought Xenoblade Chronicles would still buy it. A remastered collection for PC and Switch would be awesome.

That's capitalism. All must bow to our lord and master: profit.

You could cure cancer, but somehow, if it wasn't profitable, you'd still be called a failure. Everything in this society is dictated by profit.

Cynicism aside, even speaking as someone who plays games literally every single day for at least a few hours a day and as someone working full time as well, I understand that there is only so much room for huge JRPGs and thus understand that people have to pick and choose. It's a crowded market and the Xenosaga games aren't Final Fantasy, they aren't nearly as well known and have a limited market as older JRPGs that likely only appeal to original fans or those curious about the precursors to Xenoblade.

@YozenFroghurt I betcha if the fans remake all of em then they'll budge and attack with a cease and desist claiming they are planning to do one all along. Companies like Namco are like this, they do nothing with the IPs they had but when the fans try to deliver what they can't they came attacking with a C and D.

Please, please! I really love Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and was hoping for a remaster of 1 and X (really looking forward playing 1 DE when it comes out). I would definitely buy this. Maybe they could do kickstarter campaign?

Nintendo should fund the remasters as a Switch exclusive, alongside the other Xeno games.
If Xenoblade Chronicles can get a remaster/remake, then the Xenosaga trilogy (there's 3 main games, not 6) can certainly get a remaster.

It just makes you wonder how many great things have been shutdown for similar reasons.

This is disappointing but isn’t too surprising. I think what’s more surprising is that a collection was considered at all.

After playing XC2 I bought a Wii U to play XC1 and XCX. Not finished either yet and thinking I might just continue with XC1 when the DE comes out next year.

I have a PSTV but being in the UK I can’t buy Xenosaga, and have no way to play the Xenosaga games either. Would love the chance but I’m happy to have all of Xenoblade.

@Expa0 I bet some OST... license music is a very hard... once they were bought and released but if they want to re-use it I bet they also have to repay for the OST... Look @ Disgaea 1 for example...some OST were completely left out because they couldn't pay for it. Gaming today is very different.. back then when we really got OST in all games. Now we have mostly silence in whole game.. look at breath of the Wild.. .did it give you the same quality as Ocarina of Time? When you entered the field you got all happy and ready to explore.. now you have to listen to wind/footsteps and once a while an OST... it doesn't capture the same magic anymore. Many many games are now like this

I just discussed the old Xenosaga / Xenogears games with a friend yesterday, and it's one of the few game/collection remasters we'd buy (next to the Mother trilogy and the Quintet trilogy). Unfortunately we won't get anything that is as awesome as those. And we don't even need remasters, simple ports would be just as good.

@Alucard83 That's not true, BotW has music almost everywhere, it has just more laid back, slow and ambient tunes. Just check out the soundtrack (not the short CD that's just a fraction of the games soundtrack), it has more and better music than most Zelda games, especially the huge amount of quality calm/chill music.

@Impaler-D Aren't there four games? Xenosaga (3 games) and Xenogears (1 game)?

@BoyfriendOfDeath why bother? lol when companies get this dense for easy sales, I got indie routes to go to. At least capcom makes endless collections lol, Master Chief just got one too. Never thought I'd say that. Remember the old gba double pack games?

This is sad news. As a Trilogy it is in my top 5 greatest games of all time. Been waiting for a remaster for a very long time. Guess I'll always have my PS2 copies.....Damn.

Time for Operation Rainfall 2.0...

I don’t really see how Xenogears is directly connected to Xenosaga. Besides the “Xeno” there was very little in common. For starters, Xenogears was excellent.

Do it guys... Please!!!

I've heard such good things about these games. I definitely would have bought this.

@SKTTR "it has just more laid back, slow and ambient tunes." With absolutely no melodies worth noting. Metroid Prime 1 actually struck the balance on ambient/melodical.

"and includes six entries on the PlayStation 2"

Wasn't the plan for 6 but they only made 3?

I'm making that pic of KOS-MOS my desktop wallpaper as soon as the holidays are over. I may actually need it as a poster on my wall.

Xenosaga was a great game. Not Xenogears great, but then again the second half of the game wasn't the narrator from Mobile Fighter G Gundam sitting in a chair telling us what happened b/c they couldn't afford to finish the game. Then they made Xenosaga 2 like they couldn't afford to finish the game, no indoor shops, only locked doors etc. Xenosaga 3 was a nice enough finally.

I think they could sell a collection in all it's PS2 glory but they'd never make money going all in a on FF7R type re-imagining.

If they really want to make some money, remake Xenogears but finish disc 2 and dump the narrator.

World needs more KOS-MOS DLC in well everything. My kid played Xenoblade 2 and Torna for about 200 hours combined, we never did find KOS-MOS no matter how many times he tried.

I’m honestly happy that they tried. To me that is better than pretending that a franchise doesn’t exist.

Xenosaga is a bit of a yarn tangle anyway, either due to the story which was truncated or licensing/ownership as bamco owns it. There would have to be some serious money exchanging hands with no care for the potential profit (or failure) for this to get greenlit. The sales were also not very good for xenosaga as a whole.

I think I own most of the games that were released in the west but I would always be interested in a more convenient way to play them rather than digging out an older console.

@Trajan you obviously no nothing about porting games.And stop using Hell please as a way to start off a point your to young to adopt that slang

@BenAV "I'd "probably"buy them" is exatly the uncertainty that lead to them not doing this.

Personally I don't blame them if anything I blame those you you who use emulation or steal games should be aware that they're aware of that which decreases the profibility margins even more.

@SKTTR licened* music *licenced music reread what the person above said until you understand please.

@Ryan_Again Xenogears has nothing to do with the universe of Xeno Saga or Xen o blade.And it's not a Nintendo or Bandai property.

@retro_player_22 too many people don't buy games they just play them.

I would of gotten it because I’m a total fanboy. I played the PS 1 classic on the Vita and I didn’t finish it, but the story was on point. I just have to many games, but if it was on the Switch I know I would have finished it.

I think Nintendo should port Xenoblade X. That one was long.

As long as it would've been a collection of all 3 I most likely would've bought it. Not at $40 or more for each one.

@River3636 In a interview he said he'd consider it basicly which is definitley more than what this is.But he said an issue would be "remaking it" which I can totalyy belive since it was super designed with the Wii U hardware in mind and pusehd the Wii U to it's limits.I just hope they they don't change it's design in the procces since personally I liked it's visual design and that's the only thing I ask for.Improved techincal specs as well.And if all that's doable then DLC for a final plotline to the game or just fanservice idk whatever .That's one of my favorite games ever it's actually underrated .And the amount of voice acting and content in that game spoils the people that play it.Also unpopular opion I love the story in that game I just think it's designed to be played with the side quest of which they're alot and most people just skip them even though they're fully voiced and great I think.Also Music is great.And persoally I loved the ground combat a bit more than the skells I'm mostly the only one lol but yeah.The only thing I would change in a interchangeable way about the game is theaount of money you get from anything needs to be doubled and the "final boss level" is stupid hard and need to be reduced in difficulty .It's a huge wall that I and other players faced of which I had to come back to that 20 game hours I think later and finsih it and even then it was so hard I had to chesse it.Maybe I just didn't know what to do or something but It's a common problem.Also maybe they could create some kind of mini flying bike so that you don't just fly over everything.And get rid of half of the fast travel. not all although idk im skaky if i feel like I mean that last one.

@LoveEmpath if you read Xenogears perfect works you would see how Xenogears and Xenosaga would have been connected so it's a little much to say they're unrelated.

Next, these games are pretty hard to get these days. I own them but I bought them over 10 years ago. Emulation is one of the reasons there is such a demand for games like this. It's not like they did well when they were released so I doubt emulation cost them that many sells then and now they don't make any money off the resell market.
Also some ports have been really bad so I personally don't blame people for wanting to see a product in action before they commit. I wouldn't commit to buying a car I've never seen run.

@lordzand no your moving the goalpost.Also I've already had this conversation but what yor trying to say still doesn't make sense with information that maybe right now I don't feel like retriving but trust in doesn't plus I've already had this conversation with another like you who keeps mentioning Xenoogears as if has anything in a meaningful way to do with Xenoblade or Xeno Saga spoiler alert it doesn't Cannon can only take place when the "Holder" who has control of the I.P establishes there is allowed to be further continuity with a new story.
"Next" if you can't buy a game don't buy it but try not to steal it either sense publishers need to feed thier employees.The only time I acepet emulation is for example there's a card game that was on the IOS app store that's gone now because Apple themselves took it off.So it's literally literally got no physical equivalent and I'm going to download it one day but even then I'm currently a buyer/consumer of the company that made that game so I think this creates the fairest outcome for all parties involved. Or if a game is priced on the market above it's original retail' value and it has no digital equivelant or it's digital equivelant is not downloadable in that same scanerio.Those are examples for me at least.

Kind of disappointing, but in my opinion the Xenoblade games are a massive improvement and this project getting canned likely paved the way for Xenoblade Definitive Edition, so I'm not too upset.

I'd just love to see a Xenogears remaster or Remake, that game was great even with it's shortcomings, if they were allowed to actually flesh out the rest of what they wanted from that game it would be awesome.

Nintendo seriously needs to fund this or take the Xeno games off whoever’s hands they need taking off. Also KOS-MOS for Smash.

If they made this for Nintendo Switch it would sell because of Monolith Soft's fanbase with Nintendo. Make it a PS4 exclusive and there's not nearly as much interest.

But this is Bandai Namco we're talking about, and they love to release exclusives for just Sony. Since they own the sales rights, even if Monolith Soft wanted to…

A fine example of how copyright laws are extreme and bad for society in their current form. Companies shouldn’t be able to hold onto IPs and not use them, they should have to meaningfully use them or they enter the public domain.

Most of these rehash are nowhere in sales charts. Unless they investing and making something like RE2

Rather they just let people keep Emulating it on PC than release another overpriced console port most do not care about.

I'm guessing that .hack remaster collection underperformed.

@Impaler-D No it shouldn't be an exclusive. Also the mini game in the third one would be pretty difficult with letter buttons.

@locky-mavo Nintendo Wouldn't touch it due to religious themes probably. Xenoblade is very calm in comparison. Same reason Square wouldn't do a follow up to Xenogears.

@Ryan_Again Fei makes a guest appearance.

@Trajan because the big issue is not the actual port work but the playtesting/marketing/distribution/etc costs before and after the costs to develop the actual ports as stated in another article.

And that's for a lucky one like this where you still roughly know who who technically owns the rights to the original games, which is an extra hurdle with other franchise where there's companies who snap up forgotten IPs specifically so they can demand their cut should a studio attempt a remaster/etc.

And all that for basically very much unknown sales for anything that isn't something like Final Fantasy/etc that cram self-market themselves.

In other word, that "fun" thing known as "capitalism"

That’s disappointing. I was really excited when I heard the rumors. This would of been a day one purchase for me.

I didn’t get into the series until Operation Rainfall brought Xenoblade Chronicles over to the West. Instantly became a fan. Finally became aware of Xenosaga from the cameos of KOS-MOS and Telos in XB2. I have been wanted to play those games since but have no way of doing it.

With the Xeno series gaining popularity through the new Xenoblade games and a Smash character slot, I’m sure I’m not the only one that would love a collection but their concerns are understandable.

SIX entries on the PS2?
I believe that is double the actual number (well for Japan and North America. I've heard that for some reason PAL regions only got the SECOND Xenosaga game.)

@KingBowser86 I don't need melodical songs for every scene, I like zen-style / atmosphere / meditation music without a melody as well. It's just a matter of taste, and you don't seem to be able to appreciate that particular style in BotW, or maybe at all? You expected/wanted something more melodical, I understand that. But if you were into real ambient stuff, you'd acknowledge that BoTW is a real gem in the music department. Other than that it has plenty of catchy melodies as well.

@LoveEmpath I have no idea why you messaged me.

Awww man, wish I didnt know so I could have used in hope

Damn, I would have bought them no questions asked.

I'd have paid to play that card game in the first one again...

sounds like a bad excuse from namco more like it.

@LoveEmpath you're free to your opinion but the person who holds the rights and the person who created the work doesn't have to be the same. Canon just means that a work is considered part of a universe officially. Officially could mean the Creator and not the person who owns the rights. It's really a rather silly thing to even discuss.

But just for giggles Kos-Mos is in Xenoblade 2 as a driver officially so there's your Canon.

@SKTTR Exactly the kind of thought process that made it stray too far from what makes Zelda, Zelda. Insert case study of "Genesis" by Justice not having enough melody lines here. That's okay — all the more chance for BotW2 to strike a balance between the approaches and knock it all out of the park.

OMG!!! My jaw literally dropped till I read "cancelled." I've been wanting to play the PS2 trilogy for the longest time, but never wanted to shell the exorbitant price of 3s on eBay. I finished 1 and started 2, but never got to do the hat trick. Maybe in the future?!

@Heavyarms55 Sure capitalism has its pros and cons. But I think capitalism helps the United States greatly because I gets many people jobs or possibly more if they put effort into it, boast the states economy, and business prosper and that is the American Dream. Socialism on the other hand is the direct opposite it's simply government having too much control over business and people what they can and cannot do. Take a look at happen to the countries like Cuba and Venezuela for example the people there are suffering under these tyrant leaderships and that is sad. This is why I agree with the majority that say, "Capitalism creates jobs but Socialism kills jobs."

@LoveEmpath Sorry, I tried reading your point, but after the first sentence, there is literally no period for a whole paragraph so I was a bit confused on where it was going.

Their profitable market analysis was wrong. The series has a very strong following. That’s why Xenoblade Chronicles continues to exist.

@bert0503 A moniker like "From the makers/studio that brought you Xenoblade Chronicles" would probably be enough to at least get the XC crowd to pitch in and check those games out. Even just mentioning that fact in a Nintendo Direct could get enough of them to go check it out.

@suikoden You still have to pay people to HD up those games, check it runs perfectly on all the systems they plan to release it on, possibly a whole new translation if the old translation was a bit iffy, if you do extras like interviews you have to pay to get those people in especially if they have busy schedules as well as pay someone to scan all that concept art and other artwork in as best quality as you can, pay ratings boards to age rate your game and of course market it as best you can to tell buyers your game exists, please buy it.

Eliminating the disc manufacturing is only 1 cost to cut out of plenty more and even then you also eliminate whatever disc sales you would have gotten from those that swear by physical. A lazy remaster job would only put said company in a negative light.

I'd love to try out all 3 games, love XC1+2 TO BITS, but I also understand why it might never happen.

I assume this is why it was such a struggle to get it translated. They knew it would struggle to make profit.

@LaytonPuzzle27 I pity you. Someday when you learn more, you'll have a better understanding of how things really are. But let me clear one thing up - the problems in Venezuela and Cuba have nothing to do with socialism. Those countries are socialist in name alone.

@Trajan Yes, it SHOULD be an exclusive if Nintendo pays for the development; similar to Bayonetta 2, another game that wouldn't exist without Nintendo's funding.
Not to mention, the "Xeno" meta-series, with the recent popular entries, and it's developers are pretty synonymous with Nintendo at this point.
And button inputs would be tailored to the Switch, obviously.
What kind of argument is that?

@SKTTR The article mentions Xenosaga remasters, not Xenogears.
The Xenosaga series is a spiritual successor to Xenogears, just like the Xenoblade series is a spiritual successor to Xenosaga.
They only share very loose connections to each other, as a sort of "meta-series" from the developers.

That's a shame. I still remember reading about Xenosaga in a games magazine when it came out and was so sad I didn't have money to buy a PS2. Would have totally bought this remaster.

@Heavyarms55 It sounds like you're the one who needs a "better understanding of how things really are".
No matter the political system, the only successful economic system that would produce these kinds of luxuries would still have to be populist in nature.
People would not be motivated to produce a large-scale commercial entertainment product such as video games without profit as a central factor.
Now, there's certainly arguments to be made when it comes to a degree of government control over essential industries, utilities, regulations, protectionism, etc. but that would really have little to no effect on the current means and motivations for producing high-budget luxury entertainment products.
Oh and nice "bUt iT wAsn'T REaL sOciALisM!" argument.
I'm not even necessarily against forms of government control over industry, etc. but I feel like I just timewarped back to 2013 with that level of cringe, the "I pity you" comment especially brought to mind the classic image of a very obese acne-ridden man with an anime avatar staining the brim of his fedora with Doritos dust over black-rimmed glasses.
I'm going to miss this decade.

@Impaler-D Yes if nintendo did that. But they won't.

The games dont need remade. They just need to be rerelease in 1080p with widescreen support similar to Shenmue 1 and 2. That's pretty easy to do.

The cheaper route is releasing them as is on PSN.

@Impaler-D Someday you'll come to understand that the current system only benefits those at the top and stomps on the rest. If you summarily dismiss the truth of those countries not being socialist you are just being willfully blind. You look at successful socialist countries like those in northern Europe like Norway for example, and you see that a hybrid democratic socialist system leads to one of the happiest, safest and wealthiest nations on Earth. And it's a nation where the wealth is much more evenly distributed.

If you think Cuba and Venezeula are communist just because they declare themselves to be, then I am Dark Lord of the Sith and am going to use force lightning on you until you submit. If you need more examples, almost every other dictatorship calls itself a "people's Republic" or some such nonsense. Doesn't make it true.

The pure capitalist system makes us all slaves to profit and nothing but profitability is valued. But a hybrid system allows people to be taken care of and value to be placed on more things than just raw, unrestrained, greed.

Oh! the days of playing xenogears on ps1 endlessly after school and on the weeks ends, sigh.

If the prices I saw on eBay for the Xenosaga games on PS2 are any indication, there is definitely a market out there for these. I would pre-order the moment a collection was announced even though I already own Xenogears and the first Xenosaga.

Hopefully it still happens someday. Might be interesting.

@Heavyarms55 Cool story.
And what does that have to do with the production of high-end luxury entertainment products?

Furthermore, you may not believe Venezuela is Socialist but many of your own Marxist figureheads like Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn certainly did, as well as a number of popular Marxist commentators and pundits who praised Chavez and his successor.
(Not to mention, Cuba essentially having been a satellite nation of the Soviet Union, or do you not consider them to have been "true" Socialism/Communism either?)
And I'm not even saying all of Venezuela's issues are primarily due to Socialism, but the "It wasn't real Communism/Socialism" argument is cringe, it's literally a meme, and a "No true Scotsman fallacy", to put it in the parlance of earlier in this waning decade, and that certainly doesn't help your argument.
Conversely, there's many who don't consider Norway to be a "true" Socialist nation, due to it's more populist economic leanings. (Also, the kind of government utilized by Norway is far more likely to succeed in a more culturally/ethnically homogeneous society and certainly wouldn't work in America, for example, but that's a different discussion)
Yes, a more balanced "mixed" system is preferable, as unfettered Capitalism places nearly all wealth into the hands of a few and the unrestrained opposite also places nearly all wealth into the hands of a few by different means; this is why I'm a Nationalist first and foremost, advocating for systems that explicitly place the well-being of a nation's PEOPLE above all else, rather than Marxism, which will always be easily subverted, leading to a system adverse to the well-being of it's own people.
But again, you're moving the goal post, as I said, an economic system would still need a populist component to produce such high-end luxuries as big-budget video games like this.
The mixed system you're advocating for would have little or absolutely NO effect on this situation, of this game.
Or were you just using this article as a vague excuse to speak out against "profit" and unrestrained Capitalism in general, off topic?