A tweet went out this morning from the @XSEEDGames twitter account. It looked like the above image. You can find the exact tweet here.
People have immediately assumed that this is a hint or tease towards releasing Memories of Celceta on Steam, but there are a few things that can show that this may or may not be the case.
Okay, so I know I don’t have the very best of track records, as I got trolled completely over Trails of Cold Steel- and I definitely had egg on my face for that. Cold Steel came out of the blue and surprised the heck out of me. This case, however, I’m far more confident that people are jumping on coincidences, and there are a number of reasons for it.
Regardless, there are more details behind the cut to show the known patterns we’ve already seen from XSEED in the past.
Number 1: Look at who controls the account and what she does:
For people who don’t know, Hatsuu is the one behind XSEED’s twitter account. She likes to tweet a good morning fairly regularly, and add an anecdote about the day, and a picture- either of a cat, something in the office, or one of the titles they’ve released.
Here are a few examples of such:
Good morning, everyone! I hope you have a wonderful week full of video games. pic.twitter.com/mPFQKUtJA5
— XSEED Games (@XSEEDGames) November 9, 2015
Morning, everyone! And seeing how it's November 2nd, Merry Christmas to one and all. pic.twitter.com/5H66jGNFFA
— XSEED Games (@XSEEDGames) November 2, 2015
Good morning, everyone! pic.twitter.com/k5ruJXS9kN
— XSEED Games (@XSEEDGames) October 27, 2015
Good morning, all. I'm sleepy. I want coffee. Machias likes coffee, too, so I'm gonna post him. He understands. pic.twitter.com/xmfPoAfOdp
— XSEED Games (@XSEEDGames) October 6, 2015
Number 2: Look at the pattern of teases:
The one I have most recently on hand is the recent one before the release date and price was announced for Trails in the Sky SC.
— XSEED Games (@XSEEDGames) October 23, 2015
When you look back at their teases, how many times have they actually, straight up, used an unaltered image from a game for a tease like with the Celceta image?
Number 3: Look at the rights for this game:
Memories of Celceta for the PC is being done via a joint project with two Chinese companies, Joyoland and Changyou, as I reported on back in October. This is going to start a somewhat sticky situation, because of multiple factors involved.
The first and foremost is to remember that Falcom was not behind the PC port of this game. This has been made by a third-party developer with licensing rights made through Falcom. Now, Joyoland probably got HD assets from Falcom, like they did with Zero and Ao no Kiseki. However, the number one issue is that this requires dealing with Joyoland, not their actual partner. While I can’t say one way or another, but I’m not sure XSEED has the resources to make a business agreement with a Chinese developer.
And for the third point, while it hasn’t really shown up again since they originally teased it in 2013, Joyoland themselves has shown interest in releasing Ys Seven for PC in English.
Regardless of Joyoland, Changyou, and so forth involved in this, however, I would assume that for XSEED to release Memories of Celceta for PC in English, they would need Falcom to make the first move. This is the thing we’ve been getting hints at with Ao no Kiseki for the PC, and what is preventing the Crossbell duology of the Trails series to be released for PC in English.
Number 4: Look at Hatsuu’s tweets from her personal account:
I don’t need to say much else on this one. Just look at her response to the reaction to the tweet:
If websites and people could stop freaking out every time I say good morning and post a picture, that'd be fantastic.
— ????????? (@Hatsuu) November 19, 2015
can't a publisher of a 2013 game talk about their failures with a coffee maker while posting moe adol and badass karna in peace
— ????????? (@Hatsuu) November 19, 2015
I think I'll just tweet artwork from all our old games from now on with coffee text and tally how many websites take it as news of a port
— ????????? (@Hatsuu) November 19, 2015
When you look at all of the above, you can see that the odds are stacked against the favor of XSEED releasing Celceta.
In closing, allow me to leave you with one final tweet from Hatsuu for all of this:
"BRITTANY WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO" — the boss, two minutes ago
— ????????? (@Hatsuu) November 19, 2015
Never doubt the falcom fanbase, we are in a year where TiTS SC actually released and Cold Steel was playable at E3, can’t really blame everyone.
I don’t see how that acts as evidence for it being a teaser. This had none of the characteristics of XSEED’s normal teasers, really… SC was the culmination of years of work (which I kept telling people to be patient over- despite the constant belief that XSEED had given up on the game), and Cold Steel was a surprise to everyone.
This is still nothing like anything that has been used to even tease either of those games. As I said, they never use a full, unedited image from the game they’re teasing, for one.
That’s how pc fanboys act these days. Port port port port port, they don’t know how to say anything else.
I don’t hold anything against them for it either. Falcom’s DNA is in PC development, since that’s where they started. They are a 30+ year old company, and have moved to console only in just the past six years.
The only problem is they need to find out if it’s financially viable in the first place to make the first move on things. They have seemed reluctant to do anything about porting Joyoland’s PC port of Ao no Kiseki as an example.
I just think it’s really silly that people are jumping to conclusions on this, and it’s being perpetuated by certain parties.