Maybe because its too hard, maybe its too graphic, or maybe it just doesn’t seem poised to make any money outside of Japan. Whatever the reason, Atlus US recently announced that the company’s Japan HQ has no plans to release the action platformer/dating-sim Catherine outside of Japan, despite it dethroning Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as the top selling title on both of its release platforms.
“Catherine is a Japan-only game and there are no plans for a NA release at this time. Sorry about that!” reads a statement released to Beefjack.
Think this embargo is only temporary, E-Gs? Do you think an American Catherine release will even sell? Tell us your thoughts below!
NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo!
Man, that means I’ll have to learn Japanese and import it… but I don’t have the time.
Yeah it sucks. Learning Japanese isn’t easy, but it is fun. I just wish it could be localized so more people can play the game.
It is not the graphic content or being too hard, so it has to deal with money. The game is a mix between a Dating sim and an action platformer, and that mix hasn’t been done before. The Persona games have been doing just fine in the US, so the relationship part should be just fine. I think Atlus thinks the game might be too strange for people to understand, but when I look at a game like Cho Aniki, Catharine makes some sense.
If it isn’t released in the states, I will just import it so I can play it.
So I Atlus is hinting at a US release with this email the Atlus Faithful just got:
http://www.atlus.com/res/doyoustilllikeus.jpg
OK, its official, Catherine will see a Summer release in North America, with Amazon listing the release date as July 26th
Yes, and this proves that Atlus is Tsundere.
http://www.atlus.com/res/catherine_faithful_reveal_final.jpg