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For Toru Kawakatsu, gaining a 70-second spot in the popular Nintendo Co live showcase last month was the culmination of an unusual strategy that many dismissed as quixotic.
His four-person game studio, called Petit Depotto, started working on an adventure game called Gnosia for the PlayStation Vita handheld in 2015. The Vita was already ill at the time, and Sony Corp had stopped announcing the sales numbers, but Kawakatsu and his friends did not hesitate. Last summer, three months after the Vita was officially discontinued, they released their finished work on a zombie platform. Warmly received by gamers and recognized by critics, the game caught Nintendo’s attention, which might not have happened if they had competed on more congested fronts. GnosiaThe Switch edition went on sale in Japan on April 30.
Competition for Nintendo’s direct focus among game developers is fierce. It is where independent titles like Snipperclips shown alongside big-budget blockbusters like Assassin’s Creed in front of millions of fans watching live. And with Animal crossing and the coronavirus pandemic that is increasing the popularity of the Switch console to unprecedented levels, simply getting to the platform is now an achievement.
“We have gone through twists and turns to make the game, but the result showed that what we believed was correct,” said Kawakatsu, head of the Nagoya, Japan-based study.
The developers reasoned that by sticking with the Vita, they gave their game the best chance of being noticed. Rather than chasing a small slice of audience for huge platforms like the Switch, they could draw attention to old Vita.
“If we had released the game to the other platforms, Gnosia it would have been buried in the avalanche of hundreds of new releases and consumers wouldn’t even have realized it’s there, “Kawakatsu said.
On the Vita, hungry for new releases, the game gained steam with loyal console fans as well as game critics, earning a grand prize along the way. It became the most downloaded Vita software for three weeks in a row, was covered on the official PlayStation blog, and was recently recognized as the best independent game of 2019 by the Famitsu games magazine.
“We decided to award the prize for the game because the level of satisfaction we heard from the players was extremely high,” said Katsuhiko Hayashi, head of the Famitsu Dengeki gaming prize committee.
Gnosia It was not the first time that Petit Depotto adopted its unconventional strategy.
In 2012, a year before Microsoft Corp introduced the Xbox One, the group released a game titled Unholy Heights to Xbox 360, another platform clearly unpopular in Japan.
Kawakatsu said it is easier to get rave reviews when a game is released only to a niche with a dedicated fan base that can be directly targeted. A larger platform, by comparison, could weigh on the game’s reputation by inviting more casual gamers who may find it inappropriate for their tastes and review it negatively.
Unholy Heights It was later released on PC and Switch due to a popular request from gamers. Gnosia It also got free promotion from Vita loyalists and drew interest by being the console’s only bright spot of the year.
Kawakatsu said the answer to Gnosia and pre-launch sales on Switch have exceeded their expectations. For its next release, Petit Depotto may well repeat what worked so well, targeting another platform that is nearing its end to build a loyal following again.
“No one wants to present a game whose potential is unknown,” said Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at the Ace Research Institute. “Yes Gnosia They were to be released on Vita and Switch at the same time last year, Nintendo would not have featured it in the direct storefront, and the game’s sales would be much lower.
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