The next entry in the Ace Attorney series hits North America this fall on 3DS! Check out the full press release and announcement trailer below:

"Capcom, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today confirmed that Phoenix Wright™: Ace Attorney™ – Dual Destinies will be available to purchase digitally on Nintendo 3DS™ across Europe and North America in Fall 2013.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, previously announced for the West as Ace Attorney™ 5, sees the return of courtroom hero Phoenix Wright. Set eight years since his last appearance in the courts, the first case in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies sees the action start in a destroyed court room. It’s down to Phoenix Wright and his team at the Wright Anything Agency to discover the cause of the destruction. Players will have to battle it out in court against Gaspen Payne, the younger brother of Winston Payne from previous Ace Attorney™ titles, as they defend the accused.

The much loved gameplay and features from previous titles in the Ace Attorney series return but for the first time with stunning 3D graphics, bringing the courtroom and characters to life and putting players directly in the heart of the action. Players will need to investigate each crime scene with dynamic 3D visuals, making it possible to change views and zoom-in on areas to uncover any hidden evidence or clues. The drama continues in the court room as players present their evidence, challenge witnesses and begin to unravel the truth behind each of the cases in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies.

Joining Phoenix is the young Attorney Apollo Justice and new Associate Attorney Athena Cykes. Athena’s unique ability to psychoanalyse witnesses introduces a brand new element to proceedings. Using Athena’s ‘Mood Matrix’ players can detect the emotional state of a witness and tell whether they’re surprised, angry, happy or sad. Players can compare these feelings with the statement given by the witness, point out any contradictions between the two and challenge the witness testimony."


What do you think about this digital-only fate? Will it hurt sales? Or is everything just peachy?

Source: Capcom press release

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Xbob42 said:

Hmm... Release digital-only to the Phoenix Wright fans who are mostly hardcore Phoenix Wright lovers, or spend literally millions of dollars on cartridges for that same crowd who would've bought it digitally anyway because they've been dying for Phoenix Wright for years?

Yeah, real hard choice, there.

Yup. Agreed 100%.

Posted by

GameDadGrant

on: 05/13/13, 23:51

Zero said:

@Shadowlink I'm saying:

B. Word-of-mouth doesn't always mean you hear about something and then you run out and buy it ASAP. It often means you hear about something, then stumble upon it and think "oh, this is that thing that person A was talking about..." I'd love if more people stumbled upon stuff in the eShop but I don't think we are there yet.

This is where your argument breaks down IMO. Phoenix Wright doesn't exactly have high visibility in the retail space either. It isn't positioned like the latest Mario or whatever. The vast majority of sales are going to come from fans who already know about the game and will seek it out in any form. Most of the remainder will come from new fans hearing of it via 'word of mouth and also choosing to hunt it down (eventually, it doesn't need to be ASAP). The type of sales you describe would be the very tiny percentage of sales left.

I have to agree with Capcom here. They simply aren't going to pick up enough 'serendipitous' sales to make a physical release worthwhile. The savings that come from the digital sales to the existing fans will more than outweigh the few extra sales a physical release would have netted them.

Posted by

Shadowlink

on: 05/14/13, 00:56

Edited:

05/14/13, 00:58

I understand why Cappycommy would want to go digital only, but it still annoys me because until Nintendo fixes their draconian DRM policies and let's me play the games I purchase on multiple systems I only want to buy physical copies.

Posted by

deathly_hallows

on: 05/14/13, 01:08

@deathly_hallows

Out of curiosity, why are you playing on multiple 3DS's?

Posted by

Shadowlink

on: 05/14/13, 01:09

This sort of sucks for me. Trish loves the Ace Attorney games and usually plays them as soon as I'm finished. We both have our own 3Ds systems, so blah. I guess she can borrow my XL for this game. Double-blah.

I understand the arguments for digital-only, but I would personally have preferred a physical retail copy. Plus, it'd look nice next to my other Ace Attorney games. Oh well. WAH WAH.

Posted by

ploot

on: 05/14/13, 01:20

@Shadowlink It doesn't have high visibility in the retail space in stores, true, but it does have some, and I'd wager that there is a much bigger chance that someone stumbles upon it at retail than in the eShop. And pretty much any notable retail release gets HUGE retail presence from Amazon, who advertises Nintendo's upcoming games to Amazon customers better than Nintendo does to their own customers.

I just don't understand why people are assuming everyone is going to move to digital for this game when every game that has released at both retail and eShop, as far as we know, has sold tons more at retail. Maybe 2-5 times more or more at retail. This isn't like the PC where everyone and their brother are just in the habit of buying everything digitally and retail copies are nearly dead. This is a market where digital releases only make up a fraction of overall sales when both options are present, which says something about the customers and the way that they buy things. To assume a massive shift in customer's purchasing habits is to ignore how entrenched in their purchasing habits so many customers are.

Shadowlink said:

The vast majority of sales are going to come from fans who already know about the game and will seek it out in any form.

I don't agree with this at all though. I'm not sure why we should make this assumption. Nothing about either the 3DS or Phoenix Wright markets suggests to me that this is truth.

In fact, I'm not sure if "will seek it out in any form" ever applies to any game, anywhere. Would it be smart for a mid-sized PC franchise to ignore Steam and assume that everyone who cares about their game will seek it out even if they can't buy it on Steam? Some will, some won't. Customers buying habits are one thing you just don't F with. Not overnight, anyway. You have to ease them into new buying habits over time, and the eShop is nowhere near the point where enough 3DS owners are familiar enough and comfortable enough with it.

Hell, you know how I had to get my very own brother to pay attention to the eShop after repeatedly telling him about it and him ignoring me? I bought him a points card for his birthday. Once he had that, he had a reason to go in and take a look. Otherwise he was too entrenched in his retail buying habits to care, despite me telling him about a ton of games on there that he would definitely be interested in. This isn't just an isolated case. I've spoken to a large portion of 3DS owners who have never even once went into the eShop.

Posted by

Zero

on: 05/14/13, 02:01

Edited:

05/14/13, 02:10

I think more people than typically buy these games would like them if they gave them a chance. They should really put out a demo of it, I'll bet that'd increase sales like it seemingly did for Fire Emblem Awakening.

Posted by

Mop it up

on: 05/14/13, 03:08

@Zero Minecraft completely ignored Steam, you had to get it specifically from the Minecraft website to play it. People heard about it and sought it out. Ace Attorney fans are very avid and attentive fans. They're almost never going to be casuals because it's not a casual game.

Posted by

Xbob42

on: 05/14/13, 04:26

I wish all the Ace Attorney games were available on the eShop. Or imagine a Steam-like bundle where I could get every game for $30 or something. I'd do that in a minute.

Posted by

Jargon

on: 05/14/13, 04:57

@Xbob42 Sure, one game, but is it smart in general to just ignore Steam and say if they want it, they will find it? We're talking about a game that is going to demand heavily on word of mouth for people even knowing it released. Ignoring the biggest distribution channel for the platform that you are releasing on is weird.

Posted by

Zero

on: 05/14/13, 05:05

@Shadowlink
Cause I have an XL and an OG w CPP, and probably will soon have an AC XL.

Posted by

deathly_hallows

on: 05/14/13, 05:09

@deathly_hallows

Pick one and play on that . It's portable y'know!

Posted by

Shadowlink

on: 05/14/13, 05:45

Shadowlink said:

@deathly_hallows

Out of curiosity, why are you playing on multiple 3DS's?

I will just say that there are 3 3DSes that see all kinds of use in my house, and I would like the ability to swap DD games between them. It would be much easier on my wallet.

Posted by

Deerock69

on: 05/14/13, 05:58

@Deerock69

Are they all yours though? Or is it like Ploot where instead of lending the game to his wife, he's going to have to lend his system?

This whole thing with multiple handheld systems for one person mystifies me. Even if you upgrade, move your stuff to the new system and play that one. Why do you need to play on all of them?

Posted by

Shadowlink

on: 05/14/13, 06:11

Can't wait.

Animation is a little stiff, but maybe that will kind of keep intact the charm that PW has with its usual low budgetness (or seemingly low budget...reused artwork, spelling errors, etc).

Where's Maya :( She has to come back, right?

Kind of bummed it's on the eShop....guess I'll have to drop $40 on this one.

Posted by

PogueSquadron

on: 05/14/13, 06:17

@Shadowlink
Because you want to?

Also I don't consider the XL an upgrade, it's more of a side-grade. There are things that are nice about it, but the little guy is still my favorite for carrying around town.

Posted by

deathly_hallows

on: 05/14/13, 06:21

Edited:

05/14/13, 06:22

@deathly_hallows

I honestly dont think your situation resembles that of a typical 3DS owner .

Posted by

Shadowlink

on: 05/14/13, 06:29

ugh, that's not a release date! Worse than nintendo.

Posted by

Renjaku

on: 05/14/13, 20:39

Apparently Svensson wants us to spam him if we want a physical release?

Interesting.

Posted by

Zero

on: 06/18/13, 06:15

@Zero

Interesting!

No wait, the other thing. Tedious.

Posted by

Shadowlink

on: 06/18/13, 06:19