NIS President Clarifies Disgaea 5 Comment, was Merely a Playful Joke
By: On December 10, 2014, 10:18 pm EDT @brandonorselli

disgaea 5 12-10-14-1

Last night we published a story regarding Nippon Ichi Software and their latest title, Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance. The article focused on what seemed to be a depressing comment made by the company president, Sohei Niikawa.

Nippon Ichi representatives reached out to me and clarified that his comment in the 20th anniversary Playstation edition of Dengeki Playstation was merely in jest, and that he was simply trying to put an emphasis on their sales projections.

As we know, Poe’s Law makes it very difficult to read the subtleties of human speech. To be clear, the spirit of the statement and the translation was meant to be as such:

“If Disgaea 5 does not sell as planned, I, as the producer, might need to leave the Japanese gaming industry. (LOL)”

In a response to Niche Gamer, Niikawa-san elaborated on the comment, and their goals with Disgaea 5:

“This comment was simply self-deprecating humor and in no way did it mean or imply that Nippon Ichi Software as a company is going bankrupt or is in financial difficulties. I was merely trying to use humor in order to get the point across that we are committed to selling 150,000 copies of Disgaea 5.”

So there you have it. The Disgaea developer doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

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Brandon Orselli

About

Founder & Editor-in-Chief at Niche Gamer. Italian, but I love Asian culture. I also write about music, comedy, noodles and beer.

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  • Pdugna

    *whew* definitely buying it though, I can finally play one of the console versions of Disgaea for ridiculous hours with remote play :D.

  • Pyrotek85

    Good to hear, I’d be more than a little sad if they went out of business.

  • Siveon

    Well, now I won’t feel guilty for not picking it up.

    But guys, seriously, Z.H.P2. Needs to happen.

  • Pepper

    For the love of…
    At least they’ll be fine that I won’t have to buy the game out of guilt. T_T
    Wahh…I can keep my Axel now.

  • Guest

    Get them to deal with NISA and I’ll buy 10 copies

  • Cy

    Ok, good. Fucking text not imparting tone, lol.

  • Lordlundar

    Ugh, corporate representatives REALLY need to learn to watch what they say. I’ve read about a similar statement causing a very profitable company’s shares to tank in the span of a few hours that it never recovered from.

  • Pyrotek85

    It shouldn’t be like that but unfortunately you’re right. If I were running a company I’d be very careful what I or my employees said in public, it’s easy for it to be misinterpreted and the damage can get out of hand fast.

  • NuclearKangaroo

    good to see they are not in a dire situation, id still want them to consider PC releases

  • Landale

    It’s also a matter of translation not just what they themselves said.

  • Nonscpo

    Well sir you can make it up to me by localizing Dangan Ronpa Another Episode, Im sure I can forgive you then for that terrible joke. Oh my how offended I am……lol!

  • Matt McCoy

    Nuuuuu~ Nikawa-sama you baka!! >////<

  • tetrisdork

    Cool that it isn’t dire. They still need to embrace the PC, though.

  • I’m relieved. Thank goodness we have you to confirm things like this for us.

  • Marlon Hernandez

    Hey, the important thing is that sempaii noticed you.

  • TheCynicalReaper

    I’m glad, and THANK YOU for clearing this up for us, Niche
    That said, I wish they’d finally give a damn and do something about NISA already…

  • Satori Mask

    So uh, the source in the original article was some guy on NeoGAF, which isn’t exactly the most reliable source. I feel that this miscommunication could have been avoided if someone on the staff had found the original comments and translated it for themselves.
    (This seems to be where the mix-up was first cleared up, it’s the last post on the bottom: http://nisamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15580&start=60#p836347)

  • landlock

    150,000 copies on the PS4 in Japan? good luck with that Disgaea 4 only made it to 79,000 in the first week and that was on the PS3 with a huge userbase.

  • Fenrir007

    Good! Now I don’t have to feel guilty over not buying it because of NISA.

  • Ncrdrg

    Well, that’s a relief. I’m glad it was just some dumb fuck at NeoGAF who misinterpreted the comment.

  • Sylveria Shini

    I just hope their American branch gets their shit together. After Mugen Souls Z being basically unplayable for almost 2 months, The Witch and the Hundred Knight bug, the Disgaea D2 bug which I, tahnkfully, never ran in to, their slapdash approach to localizing is starting to harm the brand.

  • Casey

    Good that their situation isn’t dire, but if they put their game on platforms people actually own, maybe they would buy it? (Pc, hint hint.)

  • jobo

    I’m pretty sure they’ve said similar things before. Those guys are staying around forever!

  • Game Guy

    Great, they still need to flush NISA down the toilet though

  • Tyrannikos

    Cool, but can we still get rid of NISA?

  • LurkerJK

    hopefully senpai also noticed all those ppl screaming for PC ports

  • Hydroninja9

    Agreed. Its fairly cheap to port to pc and they may get more money on pc than on PS4.

  • Indeed. I said it in the previous thread, but even if there isn’t quite as much at stake here, I still think NIS is making a mistake by jumping ship to the PS4 too soon. Come to think of it, they made similar mistakes with putting early titles on the PS3 (back when it still got flack for its “five-hundred-and-ninety-nine US dollars” price tag), as well as the PSP and Vita. I’m not sure why NIS is so blindly devoted to Sony, but they really should start considering sticking to an older system with a higher install-base just a little longer (especially if it’s during a time when they really are on the brink of bankruptcy).

    Though, ironically, it’s usually NIS’s titles that actually make a Sony system start seeming worthwhile to me. I might’ve said this before, but I usually wait until I pick up a PlayStation (usually after the next model combined with a price-drop), and NIS titles are often among the first in line to what eventually builds up to be a promising library.

  • MusouTensei

    Glad to read that, would suck if NIS would go away :<

  • Marburg-chan

    I guess this is what happens when you use neogaf as a source :^)