Monolith reflects on Disaster non-sales, mentions a sequel

by Chris Greenhough { Nov 25th 2008 at 7:18PM }

It is difficult to envisage a second Disaster: Day of Crisis game, for two reasons:

How any follow-up could top the unlikely mélange of disasters (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, terrorists, bears) that featured in the first game is beyond us. Perhaps an asteroid?
Sales of the first game. Or the lack thereof.

Nevertheless, developer Monolith Soft is at least open to the idea of a Disaster 2. In an interview with Cubed3, Director Keiichi Ono revealed that "...there were so many wonderful options [in the game]. We would like to see the possibility for them, if we have chance to develop the sequel..." The sequel? Or a sequel? The difference is pretty crucial! While we're not exactly taking that as rock-solid confirmation of Ray's return, it's an interesting remark.

To bring us back down to earth, Nintendo's Hitoshi Yamagami reminded us of why the first game might not even come to North America, describing how Disaster is "performing lower than expected" at the tills.

Gallery: Disaster: Day of Crisis

Tags: action, baten-kaitos, disaster, disaster-day-of-crisis, monolith, sequel

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

nintendo1889 @ Nov 25th 2008 7:25PM

Ouch. Well, I admit when I saw the first clip of it, it looked cool. I thought "This game looks pretty cool!" But after a while, it started to look like it would be less and less good. But no sales? Could there be any game that had worse sales. Well, maybe Daikatana...

leonus11 @ Nov 25th 2008 7:51PM

if their going to make a sequel then Ninty of America's president, Reggie Fils-Aimé, needs to bring over the first Disaster game to North American Shores as i'm sure it'll do better in the USA then it did in Europe. also, i'm still gonna kick me some European butt!! damn you for not buying the fist one enough therefore resulting in the USA getting it much later (or AT ALL i even that)!! *shakes fist*

Chris Greenhough @ Nov 25th 2008 8:34PM

I bought it. :(

And pretty much just me, apparently.

Mr Khan @ Nov 25th 2008 8:28PM

It seems to me that unfair blame is being heaped upon Reggie, though he brought it upon himself with those disparaging remarks about the game

It seems to me that the matter was out of Nintendo of America's control. It's become increasingly clear that NoA has little executive power in determining what gets localized and what doesn't.

Chris Are @ Nov 25th 2008 8:58PM

Why do you guys keep torturing us w/ news on this game?!

Though I'm assuming the reason they haven't brought it over to the US is due to past games like it that have failed. It seems like games on the Wii do poorly unless they have Nintendo, Sega or EA produce it.

ramuji @ Nov 25th 2008 9:09PM

I enjoyed the game enough to look forward to a sequel.

leonus11 @ Nov 25th 2008 9:34PM

@ Mr Khan

seriously? hmmm i thought since Reggie was the president of NoA that it's up to him if a game gets released in America or not. but if NoA isn't the one's who determine what gets released in the US then who is i wonder? O_O

hellhammer @ Nov 25th 2008 10:20PM

Reggie is President and Chief Operating Officer for NOA, I'm pretty sure that means he can make some pretty big calls.

Reggie did Disaster and Europe both a great disservice going out of his way to bash the title and then leave it's NA release on the shoulders of UK.

I've played through Disaster (beat it just today) and it's easily one of the best games on Wii, both in fun and graphics. I'm glad I imported and I can't help but feel like it's a huge mistake on NOA's part to not release this great game.

Either way, please Monolith Soft I'll take a sequel, even if I've got to import again.

Anonymousaurus @ Nov 25th 2008 10:35PM

release this game to the last third of the larger video game market share territories, that's step one.

give the game positive reinforcement (you know, advertise it) before sales, that's two

make a sequel based on sales, that's three.

call me crazy but that's how usually games become successful.

3cubed @ Nov 26th 2008 1:26AM

I didn't know there was a website called Cubed3. My screen name is awfully close to it. Anyways, this game did seem interesting until it started sounding like a game one would play at the movies.

Rob @ Nov 26th 2008 6:22AM

To be fair a lot of games that were expected to do well didn't (ie Zack and Wiki, de Blob) so it's not like Disaster has done much worse.

Plus there aren't many games like Disaster and it Monolith look at what worked well (Time Crisis shooting) and what didn't (some driving parts/handling) they could do much better.

I really enjoyed playing through Disaster and would certainly look out for a second.

Mogster @ Nov 26th 2008 3:35PM

It's not our fault no ones buying it, the blame lies purely with NoE. There has been zero advertising for the game, and last time I went in GAME they didn't even have it. No, not even an empty box. Same goes with HMV.

I also think they release was pretty badly timed, with so many other games on toher systems coming out in the same window. Maybe sales will increase in the run up to Christmas?

I havn't bought the game, though I really want it!

SParky @ Nov 26th 2008 10:04AM

I live in the UK and upon release, I didn't see Disaster on the shelves.
I want to buy it and haven't yet only because I'm not working atm due to being made redundant and not being able to get a job because of the global recession and it not being top of my spending priorities until I get cash again.
Once I have cash I will be buying it.

There's all the talk of gaming being able to withstand the recession, and to an extent I would agree to this as people spend less money on gaming overall to get more entertainment time than other entertainment commodities.
You just have to look at how Wii is doing compared to other consoles (although I have to say that I want an xbox 360 for a number of games now that are not available on Wii) and this shows this as it's gonna be sold out before christmas yet again, and I wish I could get hold of Wii fit but again, this is sold out everywhere it seems and I'm not gonna pay upwards of double the price.

jb1830 @ Nov 26th 2008 10:23AM

Honestly, I don't know what Reggie or Nintendo are thinking. This game was fantastic. I too went through the effort of importing it and was easily the most enjoyable game I've played on the Wii this year. As far as action-adventure goes this game was good fun and had enough elements to keep it fresh all the way to the end. It even has replay value.

They released the game with no notice, no real marketing after almost a 2 year delay and then you have the President of NoA saying saying it's unworthy of being localized (localized for where? the game is already in English) After all that, how could you expect such a game to have any decent sale numbers?

Like Ray would say, SON OF A B*TCH!

bug frawg @ Nov 26th 2008 2:22PM

To be honest I don't see this selling well even with advertising. :/

jb1830 @ Nov 26th 2008 9:25PM

Did you play the game? All they needed to do was inform people about the game and I'm sure that with the Nintendo name behind it it would've done much better than it did. Honestly no one in the US except the hardcore demographic, which Nintendo does NOT cater to anymore, know about this game.

My feelings are that D:DoC would've been released in the timeframe that Nintendo originally announced with actual media exposure the story of this game would've been much different.

Even if you are giving away money noone is gonna take it if they dont know about it.