Thoughts on Ace Attorney 5 Coming to the West as a Download Only Title

Apparently, the upcoming Nintendo 3DS game, Ace Attorney 5 will be releasing on the eShop.

No physical release.

Capcom confirms that Ace Attorney 5 will be released in North America this fall. Now titled, Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, the game marks the return of the Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright himself on the courtroom. Apollo Justice also returns to the series along with updated graphics, 3D locations, and the new heart scope system. What's not coming is, well, a retail version of the game.

+Christian Svensson stated the following in the Capcom forums as the reason for opting to go for the eShop:

"Historically it’s been tough to attract long term retail support for Ace Attorney titles. With the release of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies we wanted as many people as possible to be able to enjoy the game for as long as possible."

Capcom has not yet announced a price point for Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies. Will the price be the same as if it was released in retail? Or a slightly lower one? We'll have to wait for that.

Reaction Time

As for me, I have not expected this at all. You know what, I was really expecting that Capcom will release Ace Attorney 5 BOTH on the 3DS and iOS devices. In that way, I think more people will purchase the game. And perhaps when they find out that more people buys on the 3DS, then perhaps they'll release future titles on the device. The same can be said when sales are big on the iPhone. But of course, the 3DS is the logical choice. It looks like the game needs 3D to operate, especially during examination of murder locations, etc.

But Capcom is a big company. They are not Atlus or XSeed (or Marvelous, the creator of Senran Kagura, I wrote about the topic of localization before) who can settle with less than 100,000 in sales. Capcom is big, hence their expenses are also big. They do not operate small. And I think, mass producing the game in retail will entail more cost that doing that on the eShop. When they released it there, they do not have to worry about all those stuff involved when distributing retail games.

As for Ace Attorney fans out there such as myself, while it sucks that there won't be a retail version of this game, we don't have a choice. I am perfectly fine with the fact that I will be able to play another Ace Attorney game. This perfectly works for me. I hope the same goes for you.

What are your thoughts about this one?

 N-Handheds is both your Nintendo 3DS blog and Pokemon news source. Find more stories about Ace Attorney 5 and Nintendo 3DS games here on N-Handhelds.We also have a list of upcoming 3DS games.