Poor sales in Japan?

What happened to Murrey!? A remake of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life (2004) and Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life (2005) for Nintendo Switch. [ Game Guide ] JP release = Jan 2023. NA release = June 2023. EU release = June 2023.
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Crystal Power
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So I was reading Cher's weekly update (late I know lol) and I noticed it was stated that the sales are lower than usual for the recent titles in Japan and I do recall Trio of Towns surpassing 100k if I'm not mistaken while this game currently sits at 60k.

Here is the source for the sales: https://www.famitsu.com/ranking/game-sales/

Actually found an article that confirms Trio of Towns sales and the previous 3DS games that sold over 200k and Pioneers of Olive Town sold over 200k again, so this decline is very concerning not to mention the game I prefer over the others seem to have lower sales making me feel more isolated on the games I prefer and I also LOVE the Wii games but maybe they sold not so great and we won't see a remake/rematser/port.

3DS Title first week sales: https://nintendoeverything.com/more-det ... ese-sales/

PoOT first week sales: https://www.gematsu.com/2021/03/famitsu ... 21-2-28-21
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AloneInTheDark
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I wouldn't worry too much about it, honestly! For example, the FoMT remake sold around 66k units in its first week in Japan. You might think, oof, that still doesn't measure up to the 3DS titles! And you'd be right when it comes to first week sales, but when the FoMT remake became available for purchase worldwide, the overall sales shot up to over one million in under a year.

Story of Seasons is a profitable franchise, even if they didn't release the games worldwide, I'm pretty sure those are still pretty decent numbers, but the BIG numbers start pouring in once it's not just domestic sales factoring in.

As for reasons why this has sold less as of now, I can think of a couple? There's fewer overall marriage candidates which might make fewer people interested in getting a copy, not to mention marriage isn't optional. Another reason could be that AWL is notorious for being a pretty slow paced game, even taking into account the chill atmosphere the franchise is notorious for, there's lots of time to wander around spacing out, to some that's a positive (me included) but others might be used to games that go by faster?

I'd love a remake of the Wii games also! I could see it happening, pretty sure it's got a pretty vocal fanbase in Japan, still drawing lots of fanart and writing fanfic to this day. Maybe in a couple of years? I have a hunch they'd remake HMDS first, since with the AWL remake, they already have the Forget-Me-Not assets available, though that's just me guessing!
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Crystal Power
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So the remakes seem to get much lower sales in Japan. This would make me assume they may slow down on the remakes unless the worldwide sales of the remakes are on par with the new entries, since Japan just seem to prefer new entries.

A Wonderful Life was my first game in the series and I didn't know it changed the formula so much even back then and it appears those changes still aren't popular.

I never got to play HMDS but I just know I really adore the Wii titles, just thinking of them feel so comforting lol. I wouldn't mind if they did a remake with character redesigns by the series regular artist Igusa Matsuyama as we never got another entry with the artist Mika Nunokawa they might not be available but if they are then that would be interesting to see their updated art since I can't find much from this artist.
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As I remember it, the OG AWL wasn't very popular in Japan either, and did much better in the west. I wouldn't be surprised if there was less love and nostalgia for it in Japan.
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You also have to take into account that Harvest Moon/SoS appeases to a small niche of Japan along with the rest of the world. Not a HUGE amount of time and effort goes into these games, they aren't huge AA games that take years and years to make like lets say Dark Souls, Grand Theft Auto, etc. etc. So they're still profiting greatly off of these sales regardless of region. Selling a million or two or three worldwide of these games is still insanely profitable. Japan only makes up about ~125m of the entire population of the world... so take that into consideration when looking at sales for these games. Sure, Stardew Valley and that Disney game probably introduced a whole new generation of farm sim players to the genre, but even so, it's still a niche that's clearly profitable, otherwise we wouldn't be seeing new SOS/HM games. Even Natsume is continuing the HM series despite the negativity surrounding their first few releases, clearly they're still making enough to develop new entries, enough to improve upon the last entry graphically and otherwise.
Floh
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Honestly, I loved AWL in my childhood and still think of all the moments the game had to offer (even the sad ones), but compared to other titles in the series I never really played it for a second time. Maybe because Harvest Moon DS basicly offered a similar experience and added more candidates to marry, but AWL felt more like a quiet and relaxing title some palyers would call boring. You also had to play some time to really get commited, so it was more of a long time game for me.

I am happy, that they decided to remake older entries in the series and I'm going to play it at release, but I also understand, that the hype is not as big as it would be for a new game, where you start do discover all marriage candidates and everything feels new. Just look at this board right now, the last post was 2 weeks ago. People speaking japanese already play it and others wait for the western release.

I really hope, that AWL will be succesfull or at least earn enough money to consider more remakes filling the gaps inbetween new releases, because I would love to see some older games remade.
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Post  Posted:

Remakes in general tend to get lower sales in Japan
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Anonymous Fish

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I can see why.
I prefer a new entry too.Discovering new things and more modern feature is kind of fun.
All the remake (awl/fomt) so far haven't been a hit for me.
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JustABeautifulGuy
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I wonder how this remake actually performed. FoMT remake and PoOT both sold 1 million units which was really remarkable. They really haven't posted any sales milestone for this one which makes me think this one did a little over 100K in Japan and roughly about the same in the West. This game was pretty niche within a niche so I kinda expected this remake to not pull off strong figures. The original one did about 200K in Japan which was far better than the current figures for sure. I wonder how the Animal Parade remake will do because AP did even worse numbers in Japan than AWL but weirdly it seems to be a fan fave so I'm somewhat still betting on it to cross the 1 million mark too.

Something tells me AWL underperforming will make them focus on more original titles rather than just relying on the remakes.
A wonderful like Fan
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I wonder if any DLC or updates that's not just outfits will happen then, I hope so
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Murasaki
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I never played the original AWL so this Switch remake is pretty entertaining. It is a little "small" compared to the other SoS or HM titles. Seems pretty limited in scope. I just started chapter 2 and the only thing I see to do is make all the hybrids and make money for all the buildings. I guess raising this child that appeared suddenly from the sudden marriage cut-scene is a goal (not really interesting to me). Being quickly railroaded into story continuation was a little disconcerting.

There doesn't seem to be much replay value or reason to keep playing this game beyond the basics. One of the great things about this genre is the "play long time" aspect. Farming area is limited, the 10 day seasons are too short, there's no mines to dig up gems for money, no monsters to fight like in Rune Factory. And they had the gall to charge the same price.

Maybe the lower sales are reflecting this "not much value for your money" game. I'm going to buy any and all games of these franchises regardless but other people may be hesitating.
A wonderful like Fan
Anonymous Fish

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I actually like the child raising part of the game, I'm going to aim for each ending, plus I love the challenge of trying to get the kids to like and get skilled on something thats not in their base 3 likely careers.

What I also used to love about the original gamecube verson was the weather system, its like weather IRL which is epic,
in every other HM or SOS game (before twin towns since that was the next to have changing weather) it was always just rain all day or sun all day....... Boring
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JustABeautifulGuy
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This game does many things right such as the cool hybrids, realistic weather system, animal breeding, child growth, shop keeping, balancing both happy and sad themes for the characters, and so on. Back then and even now, it's the most "realistic" farming sim to date imo which is why AWL is so good for its own reasons. But in the modern age, these remakes really do suffer a lot from lack of content. Thank « Harvest Goddess » they added some more QOL features to this remake otherwise an exact replica of the original game would've been even more lackluster. I think Marvelous needs to change their strategy of faithful remakes and try modernizing the games somehow without sacrificing the old content. I think they really need to expand on the games by adding more content to pre-existing features. For example, I think the candidates definitely deserved way more new romance events before the marriage and even more candidates like Flora, Daryl, Skye and so on.

Imo, Marvelous' marketing has been really weak for this game as well. They haven't been highlighting this game's unique features at all which is why not many are interested, to many who haven't played the original it's just "another farming sim". It really feels like a game they've released for fans to play while they wait for another new mainline title.
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iloverainbow
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Post  Posted:

Tbh I really like how this game looks and I think they did a really good job with this remake.

That being said, sales of remakes are generally lower than mainline game - If you compared Mineral Town remake to Pioneer of Olive Town, Pioneer opened with much bigger sales in Japan. I think both games met or exceeded their expectations as they posted the sales figures of these games after a few months of their releases.

I sure hope A Wonderful Life met their expectations because I want them to make more remakes (at least for Animal Parade). I also think the initial poor receptions of Pioneer of Olive Town hurt the series a bit, hopefully they are able to bounce back.

Story of Seasons / Harvest Moon always has a special place in my heart even though we have tons of farm sim game these days. I just want the series to continue for another a few more decades or so.
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