The Tales of series for this generation of consoles made for quite an interesting turn of events. Each console had their one mainline title, and even two sequels. Though for reasons that were most likely done from a business perspective, Tales of Vesperia & Tales of Graces, that were originally a Xbox 360 and Wii title respectively, but had enhanced updated ports that were later released on the PlayStation 3. Then the PlayStation 3 got its own mainline title, Tales of Xillia, and more than a year later getting its sequel Tales of Xillia 2, which was also exclusive to the PlayStation 3.
Then with the recent announcement of the previously rumored HD Collection actually turning out to be true the whole time, with the announcement last Saturday, now called Tales of Symphonia Chronicles for the PlayStation 3. With both Tales of Symphonia and its sequel Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, the latter being the other sequel released this generation — and originally being a Wii tile, getting an HD makeover plus more. Let’s also not forget the enhanced port of Tales of Abyss for the 3DS, and two Vita titles, Tales of Hearts R and Tales of Innocence R, which were enhanced ports of titles that were originally DS games.
My, for series fans, this was quite a roller coaster, especially if you wanted the chance to play all of the titles, you pretty much were forced to get every major console and handheld. So besides anymore possible localizations of titles that haven’t already gotten an announcement for the West, I guess it’s time for the series to now move towards the next gen consoles… or not. In a recent interview, Tales of producer Hideo Baba, when asked about any future titles appearing on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U, he said they have no plans at this time — preferring to keep the series where console fans wants to play it on, referring to the PlayStation 3.
“Compared to the existing consoles like the Xbox 360 or PS3, the PS4 and Xbox One have much improved CPU, GPU, and memory,” Baba told us, “So I think they [have] more potential, especially with visual effects. I’m afraid I don’t have any plans to release for titles for the Xbox One or PS4, because my policy is to release Tales titles to the console which most of the fans want to play on.”
When asked about the Wii U, he says:
“Same as the Xbox One and PS4, I don’t have any plans to release titles for the Wii U.”
While disappointing to hear, it isn’t that much of a shock. The PlayStation 3 is still doing well in Japan and the sales for the PlayStation 3 ports of titles, were double the sales of the previously released version on other consoles. And that isn’t even mentioning Tales of Xillia, which went on to become one the highest selling entries in the series. Another thing to consider, is the comparison of the user base of a console with over 77 million, with a console that is about 4 million or hasn’t been released yet. You can see that would be the obvious and more comfortable answer, especially considering the strong sales on the PlayStation 3.
Another key point Joystiq highlights from the interview was when he talked about Tales of Xillia:
“The reason why Xillia was released only on PS3 was because that is the console where most of the users want to play Tales games,” then adding “When more and more users decide to buy a PS4 and want the Tales series on that platform, that will be when we re-assess things.”
So it’s not like it is never going to happen, it will just take some time; its the same story that you will hear from other developers. They’re just waiting for the install base to grow, which would make sense, and you consider the Tales of series to be niche, it actually makes sense. What do you all think?
