The future of the SoulCalibur series could be in jeopardy if the next title in the series doesn’t sell well. In an interview at Gamescom, SoulCalibur VI’s producer, Motohiro Okubo, says that getting to make the game in the first place was a struggle, but if it underperforms in terms of sales, the series as a whole could suffer as a result.
The previous iteration in the series, SoulCalibur V, released in 2012, received decent critical reception, but sold significantly less than its predecessor. SoulCalibur IV topped 2.3 million copies sold in eight months, while SoulCalibur V only made it to 1.38 million in the same amount of time.
In part, those low sales are what led the series to take such a long break. In an interview with DualShockers (via a translator), Okubo said that “the first thing is that the IP itself of the SoulCalibur had low expectations from the company.” Whether this means developer Project Soul had minimal expectations, or Okubo is referring to publisher Bandai Namco isn’t 100% clear, but I assume he means the latter.
Those low expectations were so severe that Okubo says the series as a whole “was actually facing a crisis of maybe disappearing. It took time for me to convince the company.” The position the series finds itself in is apparently so severe that when asked if another poor set of sales could spell the end of the series, Okubo said “yeah, that’s right.”
That possibly explains the unlikely crossover that’s on its way to SoulCalibur VI. If you cast your minds back a few months, you’ll remember that The Witcher series’ very own Geralt of Rivia will be a playable character in the game. Not only that, but the character also features on the game’s cover art. With the series as a whole potentially on the ropes, it makes a lot of sense for one of the most-recognisable videogame characters of the past few years to feature pretty prominently.
SoulCalibur VI releases on October 19. You can check out Geralt in all his witchery goodness in the video above.