Once upon a time, my best friend would call me the ‘crusher of hopes and dreams.’ It’s almost like Dogi and walls, but makes the world a little more sad sometimes. This is because I try to provide a realistic view of things, and I would like to take a moment and give people that chance now.
Yes, this is absolutely prompted by the listings on GAMES.es regarding ‘Trails of Cold Steel.’
Let me start by pointing out the glaringly obvious thing- this is the fact that GAMES.es is showing ‘NAMCO’ as the publisher… yet back in January, the name was found having been registered by XSEED Games.
“But what about European publishers?” You may ask. Or what about the fact that GAMES.es seems to use NAMCO as a place holder publisher. Sure, I’ll give you both of those.
But let’s look at XSEED Games again, since our only piece of real evidence comes from the registered domain- and let’s just assume that it’s Sen no Kiseki, because we need to remember that XSEED has yet to give any response to confirm or deny this speculation as well!
We know that XSEED Games is currently working on Trails in the Sky SC for release for Steam and PSP, as they’ve tweeted about it. We can also look back at how long it took XSEED to release FC, and it was about a year and a half of work. SC has been well over three years’ worth. And at this point, it’s just been a year and a half since Sen no Kiseki’s release.
We're dutifully QAing Trails in the Sky SC at the moment, so no, no launch date yet for PSP/PC. We'll let everyone know once we have one.
— XSEED Games (@XSEEDGames) May 13, 2015
To think that we’ve not had a single hint or clue or announcement from XSEED themselves and the game is expected for release in October is kind of wild. Especially if they have had resources tied into SC of late, which I can promise has been happening. Any chance of XSEED releasing Sen no Kiseki in English at all in 2015 is simply setting up unrealistic expectations. I think it’s very important that people remember that.
Besides, it’s not outside of the realm that it’s just a retailer trying to draw attention for a preorder. Amazon most certainly has done it before.
As linked above, Amazon has had- and still has- the Last Guardian up for preorder for the PS3. This game was announced at E3 six years ago, and we have yet to see any hint of a release for it, due to internal issues with Sony, Fumito Ueda, and the game’s development. Amazon, yet, continues to give people some hope. Despite the repeated incidents of rumored cancellations and Sony squashing them, that preorder remains valid on Amazon’s site as they dutifully change the release date each year. Retailers make these connections in hopes to keep customers and gauge interest in possible future titles.
This, to me, doesn’t mean confirmation of a game’s release at all. In fact, XSEED has said this on multiple times that the only time you should trust a release date from them is when they themselves announce it.
If you want my personal opinion, I think it’s for the best if people sit back and not let their own excitement get the better of them right now. I can promise it would only lead to disappointment in the likely event that the game isn’t even announced come October, let alone released. It’s most definitely not enough evidence to warrant me adding a ‘Trails of Cold Steel’ tag here anyway.