Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies Coming Fall 2013

[Shawn Zipay]

Well that's a hell of a name. I mean it's got a colon and a dash! Capcom has revealed that Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies will arrive on the Nintendo 3DS in Europe and North America in Fall of 2013.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, previously announced for the West as Ace Attorney 5, sees the return of courtroom hero Phoenix Wright. Set eight years since his last appearance in the courts, the first case in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies sees the action start in a destroyed court room. It’s down to Phoenix Wright and his team at the Wright Anything Agency to discover the cause of the destruction. Players will have to battle it out in court against Gaspen Payne, the younger brother of Winston Payne from previous Ace Attorney titles, as they defend the accused.

[K-16]

It's worth noting that Capcom currently only has plans to sell the game through the 3DS eShop (though no announcements were made regarding any limited edition releases). Needless to say, Capcom gets harassed by the North American community.

It hurts for me to accept the apparent claim that the Ace Attorney series merely gained a cult following and suffered underwhelming sales performance. Meanwhile Japan sees Gyakuten Saiban as a franchise expanded to cafés, movies, musicals, and merchandise (and of course, GS5 sold in retail stores as digital downloads aren't as successful there). I suspect this has to do with North America's exposure to visual novels versus Japan's foundation on visual novels, and is the very same reason why the NES did not really have visual novel games compared to the Famicom (heck many of them were detective murder mysteries so you'll feel right at home if you can find a translated version). With demand so low over here, it's the main reason why the iOS HD trilogy is delayed, and why Ace Attorney Investigations 2 has yet to exist even though Japan had both for a really long while. I'm still wondering if Professor Layton Vs. Ace Attorney will ever come to NA/EU... At least like Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban 4), we get Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies only a few months after the Japanese gets the game in June (though I wonder if the Japanese version will include an English option as some of the previous games have).

Anyways, Capcom blatantly told us that it was either the eShop, or no localizing at all.

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. With that in mind we have opted for a digital only release via the Nintendo 3DS eShop.

We understand that this decision may upset fans who wanted to have a physical version of the title to add to their collection but we believe this direction is the best to take to ensure that fans are able to enjoy the game at their own leisure.

We will be confirming details on the price point soon so please stay tuned for more information on the latest in the Ace Attorney series.

I kind of wished there was a way to word the second last sentence better. "We understand that this decision may upset fans who wanted to have a physical version of the title to add to their collection..." is nice to hear and whatnot, but then it follows up with a completely irrelevant statement, "... but we believe this direction is the best to take to ensure that fans are able to enjoy the game at their own leisure." What the heck? In what way was that sentence even related to the first half? That's like the MAD TV flight attendant skit addressing concerns of airline services!