Bandai Namco Says “Tales Of” RPG Series Is Growing In The West

Tales of series product manager Dennis Lee recently chatted to Siliconera about the popularity of the Tales series in the West. Lee admits that while there was a period when they didn’t bother to bring any of the games over, they are now committed to making sure that Tales games are released around the same time in Japan and America. He went on to say that with each game the Tales producers have released in the west, sales have increased each time.

“There were a lot of titles that weren’t brought over to the west—in fact, there was a span of two or three years where we didn’t bother to bring any over. We’ve put a lot of work into making sure that Japan and America get Tales of games right around the same time. With each game we’ve released, sales have increased—so we believe that fans have been going out and talking to other fans. With games coming out on a more periodic basis, I think it conveys [to new fans] that this isn’t just a one-off game, it’s not just another RPG.”

“Working with our community and fans has helped the audience to grow, and we’re delighted to see it taking off so well in the west.”
“Right now the team’s very focused on getting us caught up to Japan with the new releases, and they’re looking at different platforms to get these games out to the fans,” he replied. “There were a couple of… experiments, you know, with games like Tales of Phantasia, which we released on iOS. That received some mixed results. In general, though, we’re looking at all of the ways in which we can bring the Tales of series to the fans.”