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Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment ships 400,000 units


Even with the quality of Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment‘s English localization being less than stellar, the RPG with a visual novel-esque flair continues to do remarkably well on the PSV. Bandai Namco Games has announced that the game has now shipped more than 400,000 units worldwide since it first launched on April 23rd in Japan. Though they don’t do a break down of the sales for each individual region, the game has at least sold 200,000 of those copies in Japan alone.

After the initial Japanese release Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment received a Chinese localization in May and then an English one in August, where it also topped the European PSN sales charts that month.

The release of the game contains not only Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment, but also the first game in the series, Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment, which was never released outside Japan. Infinity Moment originally came out in Japan for the PSP in 2013 and serves as an alternate storyline picking up from the end of the first arc of the Sword Art Online anime. Hollow Fragment continues that alternate story, though that won’t be the case for the upcoming third game in the series for PS3 and PSV, Sword Art Online: Lost Song, which will instead have an original story taking place during the second arc of the series.

Apart from the moderate VN aspects, Hollow Fragment shows how sales can be propped up by an anime. Hopefully the same will happen for the Grisaia series (which has a kickstarter for an official localization planned soon), though the anime is unlikely to reach SAO’s popularity levels.

This post was written by hotsauce2000.

Zakamutt

Writer of irreverent VNTS commentaries, shadowy Fuwanovel string puller, Swedish, ambivalent toward meatballs. Brave Fuwanovel Skype Group memeber (rip), technically a reviewer, chronic everything staller. I am all these things and more, but mostly I'm really lazy. Loves yuri, reading, chocolate, and quality sugar-free colas. Hates VNs with too many choices and long walks on the beach.

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Silentwatcher
9 years ago

Not being a big fan or a big hater of the anime (only saw the first quarter of the first season) I’m pretty happy with this news, however hoping the same for Grisaia really is wishfull thinking. Visual novels completely lack any form of a ad campaign, most people watching the anime don’t even realize that it is based on pre-existing material (not including steins;gate “the exception to the rule”). So sales will again rely heavily on the prestablished fanbase of vn lovers, which is very small .

Silentwatcher
Reply to  Silentwatcher
9 years ago

I’m of course talking about in the west.

TeeAge
Reply to  Silentwatcher
9 years ago

true that
which is really sad because it’s a masterpiece among masterpieces

Vinn
Reply to  Silentwatcher
9 years ago

That’s why I’m a bit worried about the Kickstarter for Grisaia. $40k definitely is reachable but they want $120k for all 3.

Silentwatcher
Reply to  Silentwatcher
9 years ago

Oh, I’m not too worried about it. World End Economica got nearly 100k and I’m pretty sure that it’s a more obscure title and even if it isn’t fans of the grisaia series are much more fanatical I saw alot more people wanting $100+ pledges to get the backer rewards. I myself will probably do everying in my power to get a physical copy of the trillogy ($200-300 bucks) which will probably ruin me. I’m at least sure that the second title will be funded and even if we don’t make it to the third title, I’m pretty sure the origional english fan translator made a statement that he would still work on it if the kickstarter failed to fund all three games.

Silentwatcher
Reply to  Silentwatcher
9 years ago

Wait scratch that, seems I misread something… still I’m reasonably confident the 120k goal isn’t as bad as you may think.

Vinn
Reply to  Silentwatcher
9 years ago

True enough. Forgot about how much WEE made during there Kickstarter. Ya, the trilogy box set is what I’m aiming for also.