The Daily Populous Wednesday November 26th, 2025 evening edition
Authored by eurogamer.net and submitted by Minute_Pop_877

Sega has admitted sales of its games may be lower-than-expected due to players awaiting "definitive editions" before buying.

The company has published (in Japanese) a shareholders Q&A session following its most recent earnings report (thanks Automaton). During the session, the company was questioned on a drop in sales of catalogue games, and revenue fluctuations impacted by new releases. Specifically, Sega has released a number of critically acclaimed games, but sales have fallen short of expectations.

In its response, Sega made a number of suggestions, including successful rival games of the same genre and initial pricing of games.

To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings Metaphor: ReFantazio ReviewWatch on YouTube

It also admitted players expecting a "definitive edition" of its games may be hesitant to purchase at launch.

"While we haven't been able to pinpoint a precise cause of [the lower-than-expected sales performance], we believe the problem also lies in our marketing, which wasn't able to sufficiently convey the appeal of our games to users," the company said, reassuring investors the issue is being investigated.

No specific games were mentioned in the exchange, but it certainly points towards the games of Atlus. Traditionally, the RPG maker has released revised versions of its games following initial release: Persona 4 was followed by a Golden version, while Persona 5 was followed by Royal, both of which had extra characters and content. For a more recent example, 2021's Shin Megami Tensei 5 was followed last year by Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance.

Last year also saw the release of Metaphor: ReFantazio. It was critically acclaimed, award-winning, and surpassed 1m sales on launch day to become the fastest-selling Atlus game. Then, in July this year, Atlus announced it had sold 2m units worldwide. It suggests a drop-off in sales after that initial surge.

Atlus has not specified if Metaphor: ReFantazio will receive a revised version, but the precedent set by its previous games may have had fans questioning.

As Eurogamer reported yesterday, Katsura Hashino - director of Metaphor: ReFantazio and the Persona games - wants to create "JRPG 3.0" as a next evolutionary step. The comment has raised eyebrows ahead of the presumed-reveal of Persona 6.

Fryng on November 26th, 2025 at 19:04 UTC »

This is beyond funny to me, turns out releasing all your games in a non-finished state has turned peoples away from buying them because they know it's a scheme to sell it to you twice once its finished.

And even when they are waiting to buy the full version, by the time that version comes out, they won't be hyped by the game anymore and might not buy it as it is not the last new thing that peoples gravitate towards, thuse effectively having done irreparable damages to its original launch and it's "final launch".

Hilarious

Tolwenye on November 26th, 2025 at 18:16 UTC »

I just don't buy games at full price.

I wait until they are under $25 before I think about it.

dscvrydave06 on November 26th, 2025 at 17:21 UTC »

Good. Most people dont want to buy a game twice.