News: Sakura Wars Now Has A US Release Date
Posted on : 15-12-2009 | By : Tollmaster | In : News
Hardware: Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2
2
Nippon Ichi America sent out a release giving the release date for Sakura Wars in the US as March 23rd, 2010. There seems to have been a bit of confusion early on, as some sites were reporting February, but the March date is the more recent one and straight from the horse’s mouth. I’m actually glad for the delay, as I think it’s wise to give Sakura Wars a bit of space from the other January and February releases, which given the amount and quality of the games coming out after Christmas, I’d be worried an already niche title like Sakura Wars could get crowded out.
Unfortunately, it seems that the previously announced Special Edition will be PS2 only, and that the Wii version will only have a standard edition available. The Special Edition comes with a bonus artbook, poster, and special outer cover, along with both the English and Japanese voices, while the regular edition will only feature the English dub. To try to compensate for the lack of a special edition for Wii owners, however, Nippon Ichi America is saying they’ll offer the Wii version at an “attractive price point.”
Damn it, now I have to lug my PS2 back to Canada. It bugs me that there’s so many games being released in March.
Yay for Sakura Taisen though. Maybe if this does well, they’ll do the first one too?
I’m not sure if they could get the first–Sega is probably a lot more protective of the earlier games, and then there’s the issue of releasing an older PS2 title even later in the PS2′s lifespan, in a time where people keep expecting the PS2 to die but it keeps on ticking regardless. I don’t have any hard or soft evidence for this, but I’m guessing that the Wii port, which doesn’t make much sense otherwise, is both to see what kind of sales Nippon Ichi America can rack up on that popular but demographically strange system, and to test the viability of porting a PS2 title to the Wii successfully.
Nippon Ichi in Japan seems to be spending the lion’s share of their effort on the Playstation 3 and PSP, but both of those enjoy a lot less popularity in American than they do in Japan, so having their foot in the Wii’s door, at least in America, would make a lot of sense for them. As someone who has powerlevel files in every Nippon Ichi game released by their American branch but Disgaea 3 because I don’t own a PS3, I understand firsthand what their current situation is up against.