Tales of Graces - Wii & PS3 - to Be Released in North America (U.S)?

As if there was every any doubt, this is Kaiju... This time I'm bringing you some rumored release info on Tales of Graces for Wii & PS3.

The 'Tales of' series as a whole has had its ups and downs. Last generation they released what is considered one of the greatest RPGs of all-time for the GameCube- Tales of Symphonia. This generation they released one of the most disappointing for the Xbox 360- Tales of Vesperia. The epitome of 'hit or miss', its hard to predict the quality of a Tales game. Sometimes you get some great like Tales of the Abyss or Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of The New World- other times you get Tales of Tempest or, even worse, Tales of Legendia. Lately a lot of fans have been wondering about the recently released Tales of Graces and when it will be coming to the U.S.

There's some rumored good news and bad news. The localized Wii version, which has been in development for some months, is likely to release in the first half of 2011. The game is set to have all the glitches from the Japanese versions fixed and a slew of new content- most, if not all of the PS3 bonus content. The MSRP is said to be $40, though this is tentative, and a pre-order bonus is in the works. An online arena co-op mode is being toyed with, though may not make it into the final version. Similar to the Samurai Warriors 3 and Tatsunoko Vs Capcom localization, they believe the western audience would appreciate some sort of online mode. Namco intends to use the game as a gauge to determine consumer interest in future US releases for the Tales series.

Now the bad news. The HD version of Tales of Graces for the PS3 will not be seeing a US release anytime soon- if at all. Like the PS3 version of Tales of Vesperia, it was more expensive to develop and less likely to perform well outside of the east. If the Wii version performs well enough, a special edition PS3 US release will be considered. A potential 2012 release can be considered for it.

Rumored along with this news is that Namco is extremely disappointed by the results of their Tales of Vesperia release- citing it as the main reason for the halt in Tales localization. As stated before by Namco Bandai representatives, developing a game for 360 or PS3 is extremely expensive and can make or break a company. The poor performance of Tales of Vesperia setback several localizations- including DS, PSP, and PS3 releases. It is uncertain whether the unnamed Tales PS3 game will ever the see a release in the west. Strange creature, traitor to the world- this has been Kaiju

Source(s)
Tales Union
Tales of Graces Wikipedia
Aseila Tales Wiki
Nintendo Power