In an interview with Dengeki Online, former NIS president and Disgaea creator Sohei Niikawa (currently at SuperNiche LLC) revealed that Disgaea 5 Complete has sold over 500k copies outside Japan. He also revealed that the Switch push is what led to NIS America getting Falcom games.
Advertisement. Keep scrolling for more
We have translated Sohei Niikawa's statements related to Falcom and Disgaea 5 Complete below, but keep in mind that while he is talking about the Switch, Disgaea 5 Complete was also released on PC later on so it is unclear if the 500k milestone in this situation is specifically the Switch number outside Japan or taking into account PC as well. When asked about serving as an advisor to NIS America and working with Falcom, Sohei Niikawa said the following (translated by Kite):
The Nintendo Switch became the deciding factor. At that time, there was a situation where handheld consoles sold well in Japan, but only home consoles sold well overseas. The Switch, which can do both, was a solution to that problem. I believed that "the Switch will definitely sell!" and we launched Disgaea 5, the newest entry of our flagship series, on it. As a result, it sold a lot overseas, exceeding 500,000 copies.
Based on this success story on the Switch, we aggressively pursued to acquire Falcom's titles with the premise of expanding overseas by including Switch ports. I walked around Tokyo Game Show while wearing a Ys VIII T-shirt, and even after the show was over, I still wore it all the time inside the train. I kept sending those photos to President Kondo (Falcom) until he said "Please give me a break already" (laughs), and that's how we got to the contract.
Ultimately, I achieved a huge result where around half of Nippon Ichi Software's overseas sales consisted of Nihon Falcom's titles. That's why even after I had left NIS, I got asked to become an advisor for NIS America so they could maintain the relations with Falcom.
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana launched on Switch in 2018. Read James' review of the port here. Disgaea 5 launched in 2015 for PS4 with a Switch port as Disgaea 5 Complete in 2017. Read Chao's review of it here.
