In the January 3rd issue of Famitsu magazine that was published on December 20th features multiple pages of comments from game creators, developers, and many more in the industry. Here, I’ve just picked out the comments by Yoko Taro and Matsuyama Hiroshi to translate. Enjoy!
Update: 2020.11.21
We were told earlier this month that sales for .hack//G.U. Last Recode have progressed well, but Bandai Namco hasn’t released any detailed information since breaking the golden 300k units sold. Here’s some more recent info:
The 1st Anniversary of .hack//G.U. Last Recode (GULR) is quickly approaching on November 1 in Japan with the International 1st year anniversary comes two days later on November 3!
Plus, the title exceeded 300,000 units sold!! Congratulations!!
To celebrate, the talented artists at CyberConnect2 will be sharing some awesome shikishi with us over the coming days. To kick off this celebration, Matsuyama Hiroshi illustrated this sweet shikishi of Haseo! Here’s a translation for what he wrote:
That’s right!!
It’s already been a year!!
Worldwide sales have exceeded 300,000 copies!!
It’s all thanks to the fans, thank you!!
So…
We’re gonna start a giveaway!
Congratulations! “.hack//G.U. Last Recode”
1 Year Anniversary & 300,000 sales!
CyberConnect2 Representative Director Matsuyama Hiroshi
CC2 will be holding a giveaway contest for the shikishi, so be sure to like and retweet the following to enter!
I’m also planning on streaming a bit more of GULR on November 1st. Be sure to check my Twitter or follow me on Twitch to see when I’m playing!
CC2 screened the .hack//G.U. TRILOGY movie recently for fans. Many members from CC2 were present, including president Matsuyama Hiroshi, Niizato Hiroto, and Isobe Takayuki as MCs during the film.
We heard several interesting anecdotes about the production of the film as well as some additional details that have remained undisclosed until now.
Here are a couple notes from the event:
Regarding .hack//G.U. TRILOGY and the Game
Regarding the Up-coming LieN 10th Anniversary Concert & Live Event
Haseo & Atoli’s Embrase
※ I’m going from memory regarding these lines, so please keep that in mind.
Haseo: We are the same, you and I. Afraid of being hurt, frightened of sorrow. Even within our own minds, we avoid our true selves. It’s no wonder no one else really understands us.
Atoli: Yeah…
Haseo: Other people can’t determine our place in life–that’s for us to decide.
Atoli: But, by doing that, we might hurt others… even ourselves.
Haseo: Yeah. But, we’ll never find where we belong if we’re always afraid of being hurt.
Atoli: Haseo-san.
Haseo: Yeah?
Atoli: I’m here.
Haseo: Yeah.
Atoli: I’ll always be here, seeing you for who you truly are.
▲ It was really nice hearing this dialogue, but I have to side with deleting it. The audience doesn’t need to know the details of what’s being said there–we can infer that on our own pretty well. I think it’s more emotional to let the vocals in the song take the spotlight and direct the emotion of the scene. Thoughts and emotions are just as easily conveyed in music as they are in words.
They also gave away a bunch if shikishi as lottery prizes. I got a cool one of Bordeaux by Oiji!
This is my translation of a recent article from the Famitsu website discussing the fundraiser campaign for a new anime TV series “Mecha Ude” aka “Mechanical Arms” supervised by CC2.
▶︎ Listen to some key people behind the birth of “Mecha Ude” as they discuss why they’ve teamed up with CC2, future development, and more.
The CEO of CyberConnect 2, Matsuyama Hiroshi, held a really interesting seminar for game creators and those interested in the topic. Although, I am hardly part of the industry, the interest and passion has always been there. I was able to attend this event, although I arrived a little after it had begun.
There was also time for a book signing and a brief discussion gathering after the event where we were treated to some small drinks and snacks.
Matsuyama was completely in the game tonight and it was clear he was enjoying giving the seminar. I had a blast just listening to him tell the handful of anecdotes throughout the evening.
We were told that we were free to take photos, but to just be mindful of when it was appropriate to take photos. 🙂
▲ Quick company stats with photos from the Fukuoka, Tokyo, and maybe Montreal offices?
Company Size
▲ Slide for 『.hack//G.U. Last Recode』!!
▲ Naruto is one of the main titles that CC2 releases. This is Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 “Road to Boruto”.
▲ Another one of their series would have to be Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. This is the PS3 release of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle and the PS3/PS4 release of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven.
▲ Here’s one of the few smartphone applications that they produced, Full Bokko Heroes X for both iOS and Android.
▲ The offices are literally littered with more than 60 different magazines every month for employees to browse!
▲ There are also all kinds of movie and anime DVD/Blu-rays, individual manga books, and various video game titles freely available to employees.
▲ The company also provides many opportunities for employees to “skill up” their abilities in various areas such as C++, UnrealEngine4, Python scripts, and more.
▲ With the basic introduction out of the way, this was the “meat” of the seminar:
“The Game Creator Seminar”!!!
▲ First, we were asked to think of the average number of games sold in a single year. Numbers ranged from 200 to 1000.
▲ This chart breaks down the number of game titles released every year.
My photography was bad in the moment, so I don’t have the exact numbers for 2015-2017, but the main point was that 2017 signaled in a slight rebound from the downward trend of releases since 2007.
▲ Next, we were asked to think how many games a person buys in the course of a year.
▲ Generally speaking, the average number of games a “game fan” purchases in a year is 8.8. A soft-core gamer buys about 4 games a year.
▲ Next, we were asked to think of what titles sold over 1,000,000 copies in 2017. I was stupid with the numbers (Japanese “man” is a bit difficult to calculate in your brain) and suggested NieR:Automata did…even though I knew it only sold a bit over 300,000 copies. lol
▲ And this was our answer, a list of top selling titles in 2017!
▲ Basically, if titles don’t sell over 100,000 copies, they’re losing money…
▲ If we imagine the sales of the top 40 games are positive, then anything 41 to 424 is losing money. 1/10 is in positive figures, whereas 9/10 is in the red.
▲ Among the gaming industry, 1/5 of titles is in positive numbers whereas 4/5s are in the red; which means, 20% have to be MASSIVE HITS!
▲ So it’s very important to know what sort of interesting things will sell. It’s best to avoid talking with people who cannot answer this question.
▲ It’s also vitally important for copies to connect with fans to hear their opinions on a multitude of topics. How/what do people play, read, watch, experience.
▲ This shows the trends of various platforms. The top represents smartphone and PC online games, the middle represents home gaming games, and the last represents home gaming hardware.
December 27, 2015
▲ Global Market Size: 5,400,000,000,000yen; Japan is just 1/14 of this figure.
▲ Global sales for the PS4 is around 60,000,000 units, where as within Japan alone, it’s around 5,000,000.
▲ Titles that sold well overseas:
▲ The market for home gaming is WORLDWIDE, with a focus on gamers all over the world.
▲ The very last bit of Matsuyama’s talk touched briefly on his non-fiction novel, detailing the true events that occurred with “Hiroshi-kun” just prior to the release of 『.hack//G.U. Vol.3』in 2009.
▶︎ Famitsu was also present for the seminar, so here is their recap of the talk!