Two months following the launch of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, Nihon Falcom’s CEO Toshihiro Kondo has shared some insights about how the remake has been performing so far, both in terms of feedback and sales. Talking to Dengeki Online, Kondo says that the overall response has been “extremely positive,” far surpassing even what the developers had been expecting.
“With remakes, companies always worry about how far they’re supposed to take things, but the majority of the feedback we’ve received has been positive about the approach and scope we chose for Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter’s remake. I’m astonished by how positive the reactions have been.”
Notably, the remake launched simultaneously worldwide across Steam, PS5 and Switch – and Kondo says overseas reception is on par or even better than in the domestic market. Aside from North America and Europe, he highlights China, where sales have been remarkably strong, among the best in the Trails series’ history.
As for platforms, Kondo says the game saw the biggest response on Steam. It seems the demo Nihon Falcom released for Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter one month ahead of launch played a big role in generating interest for the game. “We did a user survey, and the number one reason people gave for purchasing the game was, ‘Because I played the demo.’ And the platform where the demo was played the most was Steam. So in that sense, I think Steam had an enormous impact.”
While Nihon Falcom generally finds it tricky to handle simultaneous global releases and Steam ports on its own, being a remake, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter presented the studio with a rare opportunity to commit to the endeavor. “We felt that if we didn’t do a simultaneous worldwide release now, then when would we ever do it?” That said, the workload involved was still quite challenging for Nihon Falcom. Thankfully, it seems to have paid off.
Related: Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter debuts as Nihon Falcom’s most successful Steam release to date
