Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness' Western Release Announced for PS4 and PS Vita; Skipping Xbox One

NIS America announced today with a press release that the visual novel by Mages. and 5pb. Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness will be released in Europe and the United States at the end of 2016 on PS4 and PS Vita.

[Herbalistic]

The majority of Xbox owners wouldn't support the game anyway.There is no need for the studio to waste extra resources porting

[Abriael]

The funny thing is that they wouldn't need to. Xbox One was the original platform for the game in Japan.

[Eiyuuou]

So they released it for Xbox One in Japan of all places... And not USA/EU?

I wonder why...?

[Yetter]

@Eiyuuou MS's attempt to get some traction in the Japanese market. Didn't work too well unfortunately

[Relientk77]

Yea definitely not worth the resources to put this on Xbox. It won't sell well.

[retrogamer09]

Most of these games don't sell well period. One piece blood did 10k copies first week on PS4.

[Dark_Crow]

It's already been released on the Xbox one in Japan.

Most Xbox one owners aren't in Japan so how could they support it exactly?

[AizenSosuke]

Ok sadly I agree with Herbalistic most Xbox owners wouldn't support these type of games anyway:(

[Pancit_Canton]

NIS America has always had a good relationship with Sony. So, I'm not really suprised there.

[tigertron]

Great news, I was planning on getting it for my Xbox, but I'll happily get the PS4 version.

Strange that the game won't feature the English voices. I think the dubbing is great in Psycho Pass.

[LAWSON72]

All this talk about how it will not sell that well on Xbone, yet visual novels are not going to be some huge hit on PS4 and Vita either in the West, but yeah lets pretend Xbox is the only one with a small audience for such a game.

[MCTJim]

and this is old news anyways back from December 2015 submitted by dualshockers: http://www.dualshockers.com...

[kmeck518]

That's an article for the release in japan for ps4 and vita. This is about the Western release of the game for ps4 and vita.

[Kal-V3]

"visual novels are not going to be some huge hit on PS4 and Vita either in the West"

I suggest you do your research on that. Cuz Danganronpa and Stiens Gate weren't hits on the Vita? relatively speaking of course. Anyone that knows would bet that Xbox versions of VN's wouldn't even sell well enough to meet the porting cost.

More VN's like Psycho-Pass should come out in the West. It's a great Anime and even "Otome" VN's sell relatively well in the west and that's a sub-genre of VN's.

[Taero]

Virtues last reward would like a word.

[Kal-V3]

@Taero VLR hasn't sold that well but well enough for a 3rd game (1st being 999, VLR being 2nd) and it sells better in the west than in Japan. The creator said it himself. VN's cost less to make than most games so you don't have to sell much to make money. Like i said, relatively

[rainslacker]

NISA and Atlus have done well for themselves on releasing games like this for Sony consoles. They have a fan base, and while that fan base doesn't rival things like COD or AC, it's still enough to warrant support with a game almost every month or two.

AFAIK, there isn't much of an audience for it on Xbox, however, since there aren't that many of these kinds of games on XBox, maybe the audience just isn't buying Xboxes for them.

That being said, things like Danganronpa(Vita), Zero Escape(vita/3DS), Xblaze(PS3/VIta), Steins Gate(Vita), and Phoenix Wright(3DS), even Telltale games which are pretty much the same principal, all seem to have pretty big followings in the Otaku and PS gamer sectors. Not good to assume just because they aren't AAA, and not on Xbox, that few people care about them, because NISA is quite happy with their market position.

[MegaRay]

Yeah, because publishers keep localizing games that no one buysbecause why not? SMH

One word . Google Danganronpa .

[tanukisuit]

It may also go to PC, too (eventually). NISA has been dabbling in PC ports (Disgaea 1 being the most recent), and I believe Visual Novels are extremely popular on STEAM. I think I've even seem some advertised on the front page store.

[retrogamer09]

Don't really care to be honest. Won't be picking it up. One more reason MS to get the Xbox out of Japan and don't selling it there. Those people don't like you so screw them. Do deals with the really talented Japanese developers like Kamiya and Inafune, and just drop that market. If Japanese gamers didn't want an Xbox when masterpieces like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey hit then they're never gonna want it.

[djplonker]

Uhh it was those games poor sales in the west that killed them or they would have had sequels in japan only... Also I still hate that ms bought the rights to tales of vesperia in the west so we can never play the extended ps3 version.

[ScorpiusX]

Seeing how I have no knowledge of such item missing it will not be a tough task. But good luck

[CaptainSheep]

When this was announced for Japan, I was pretty interested in it. But I thought it'd never make it to NA. Anyone know whether it's any good?

EDIT: I love JRPGs, especially Persona so if this can hold me off until P5, that'd be ideal.

[Eiyuuou]

This isn't a JRPG though. It's a Visual Novel. It's good if you're into reading, but don't expect too much interaction.

Unless you don't have a lot of free time I don't think it will keep you busy till july.

Regardless, the story was planned and supervised by Gen Urobuchi (the original writer) so if you like VNs, it'll be worth your time.

[rainslacker]

It's sort of along the lines of Zero escape or Danganronpa. It's not a JRPG though. The one's from 5pb(like this one) are typically very well done, and even have replay value with numerous endings and changes within the actual story. Art style is always top notch, however probably wouldn't appeal to the non-otaku types as much.

These games tend to be cheaper than other games, so might be worth checking out. If you want to get a good feel for what it's like, I'd try Zero Escape, since that'd be the closest overall, even though the story is much different. If you don't have a Vita, you could try XBlaze, although it's not as dark, but is available on PS3.

Whether you like it or not is going to be on what you feel about digital novels. If you like things like Telltale games and anime art style production, you'd probably enjoy these types of games. You can probably expect to take about 7-8 hours for a single play through, less if you skip a lot of the dialogue. Subsequent play throughs will probably go quicker, but I doubt a single game like this would hold you over for more than a week unless you are rather casual.

[DigitalRaptor]

Should have been on these platforms from the start.

Every time I recall a Japanese developer deciding to make games exclusively for Xbox One (there are a few of them), I'm left gobsmacked. Like.... why... just why? What did they have to gain? What did they honestly think was going to happen?

It's like they didn't learn from the completely straightforward history lesson of the Xbox 360 in Japan, and I have to question the publishers who's thought crossed their mind that it would have been a good idea. Well the only explanation is that they were paid, because nothing else makes sense. And as such, that is exactly why Microsoft flops in the gaming scene of Japan. Other companies care about branching out globally and expanding their acumen, and they succeed because their commitment is tangible. MS really just doesn't have enough care. They don't care to curate that content themselves internally. They don't have the trust or admiration of the Japanese audience because they don't bother investing into a respectful level of Japanese or Asian first-party. You get out of something that which you put in, and you gotta make the effort.

[TheColbertinator]

Vita version it is

[tulholdren]

Nice I like reading so this is a buy for me. Sony over loading Me with games just need more time oh well I can make it happen.

[Dark_Crow]

Neither consoles are gonna support these games extraordinarily well.

What baffles me is this talk of how Xbox players don't support these kinds of games..when the reality is Xbox players can't support these kinds of games when they're not on the Xbox. And the Xbox players who do want to support these kinds of games already got a vita or ps4 to do so...therefore the argument is silly.

[rainslacker]

PS and VIta see a lot of games like this, and they do well enough to warrant their localization.

Most of the lack of the games on Xbox comes down to the fact that most are never made for it to begin with, so it would cost significantly more to make a port. Localizing them is rather minuscule in the costs department compared to a port. Games like this existed on the 360 early on in the US, and they didn't do well.

However, you are correct, as of now, there is no telling how well they'd do on XBox, because the Xbox doesn't have enough releases to really judge if the fan base would want to play these kinds of games.

I'd assume though, that since the people who tend to like these games will buy the system where they are likely to release, then they wouldn't be going to xbox anyways, because Xbox doesn't get a lot of the anime style games which some people really enjoy. Catch 22 I guess.

[Dark_Crow]

That's exactly what I mean. Xbox cant really get Japanese support because it already existed somewhere else before. So even Xbox gamers who would support games like this already support them by getting a vita or ps4.

That is why I think it's silly to say Xbox gamers don't support these games as I'm sure many of the hardcore in fact so support them just not on the Xbox console.

Xbox would need to make a huge and costly push to create new Japanese ip in order to get the kind of support ps4 gets simply by being PlayStation without needing to do anything.

[rainslacker]

Fair point. But I also see a lot of xbox gamers on here tend to dismiss anything that has any kind of anime influence as nothing worthwhile. JRPG's for instance seem to be nothing to many who would prefer to take a console war stance because it helps bolster a stronger "exclusive" library for PS, whereas on the PS side, you see a lot of people welcoming these kinds of games, and even getting rather excited over some titles, from well known to niche.

I don't think that overall these games aren't appealing to the general Xbox user base(non-fanboy types), but it's not like many Xbox fans here help promote the fact that they would be willing to buy such games if they existed. That could be said for any game that doesn't exist on the Xbox system though.

Publishers prefer hard sales numbers of course, but if the general discussion of Xbox gaming has nothing to do with wanting these types of games, and efforts to bring them out on the system don't do anything for the software or the hardware sales, then obviously there isn't much audience for it on the Xbox regardless of if it's a matter of userbase or lack of content driving potential userbase away. End result is the same.

[jznrpg]

Oh I love Psycho Pass , day 1 for me-

[The_BlackHeart__]

We need to start reading between the lines

This game went from Xbox complete exclusive to PS exclusive in the West.

This plus Quantum Break going to PC and Remedy visiting Naughty Dog, is a sign that eventually the Xbox brand will be terminated.

Lets face it, at the end of the day, if the Xbox games go multiplat, everybody wins including Microsoft.

[AizenSosuke]

Nice analysis and the possibility is still relevant and in the air, I personally think that Xbox becoming a service for all platforms and devices would open up a lot more to be honest, but It would be very sad to see go :(