Sword Art Online: Lost Song sold 100,000 copies in North America and 50,000 copies in Europe for a total of 150,000 copies in the west, according to producer Yosuke Futami.
“If you look at Twitter and Facebook, I think [Sword Art Online: Lost Song was received in the west] mostly favorably,” Futami told Dengeki Online. “But Re: Hollow Fragment seems to be more popular, probably because there are a lot of users overseas that like RPGs.
“However, Lost Song did 100,000 units in North America, and even in Europe it sold about 50,000 units, so I have no objections. The download version was pretty popular and sold well overseas. If we look at just the download version on its own, we put out about 30,000 units in North America.”
Compared to Japan, Sword Art Online: Lost Song‘s retail version last charted at 177,000 sales on PS Vita, 65,000 sales on PlayStation 3 , and 18,000 sales on PlayStation 4 (Sword Art Online: Game Director’s Edition).
Futami also spoke a bit about the upcoming Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization.
“Something particular to Hollow Realization is the ‘support cry system,’ though that’s a temporary name,” Futami said and laughed. “This is a system where, not only does the player praise other characters, but other characters praise the player. For example, when you attack an enemy with a cooperative attack, Asuna, Lisbeth, and Silica will attack, and they’ll trust Kirito (the player) to deliver the finishing blow. But once you deliver that attack, everyone will praise you like, ‘You’re amazing!'”
Hollow Realization will also have a character from the original novel never before seen in the Sword Art Online video games.
“We’re planning a character from the original novel who will appear for the first time. However, it’s not a character attached to the letters ‘a’ or ‘yu,’ so please understand.”
Late last year, when Futami debuted first gameplay of Hollow Realization during a Niconico live stream, he said the game was only 10 percent completed development. He clarified with Dengeki that he’s referring to the development process, and that graphics aren’t going to evolve dramatically. Their focus is on creating a great atmosphere, not amazing graphics. When he said 10 percent complete, he meant that “the appearance of the game and the system that gives it its atmosphere are developed.”
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization is due out for PlayStation 4 and PS Vita in North America, Europe, and Japan in 2016.