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    Catherine

    Game » consists of 14 releases. Released Feb 17, 2011

    The first game developed by Atlus for the PS3/Xbox 360. Made by the Persona Team, The game is an "adult oriented" action-adventure/horror game with puzzle platforming stages.

    According to a Cake, Catherine Sold 200,000 Units its First Week

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    alex

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    Edited By alex

    Whenever I have a conversation with someone about Atlus and the games the notoriously niche publisher puts out, the conversation always devolves into some permutation of, "Yeah, but how do they make money?" For as great as many of Atlus' titles are, the company almost exclusively deals in oddball Japanese role-playing nonsense that treads pretty far off the beaten (mostly beaten by Square Enix) path of games that American audiences acknowledge the existence of, let alone actively want to play.

    The elucidating cake in question.
    The elucidating cake in question.

    After reading today's news that Catherine, the Q*Bert-meets-anime/mumblecore (animumblecore?) game Atlus mostly recently brought to American audiences, sold 200,000 units in its first week of retail, I may have to stop asking that question. Now, to be fair, this information comes from Atlus' Twitter feed, and specifically from a picture of a cake. In celebration of the milestone, this cake had the sales numbers emblazoned in icing for all to see.

    Unfortunately, as we all know, cakes are by far the most unreliable of all dessert treats, known for providing consistently apocryphal information and constantly double-dealing for the pursuit of their own nefarious gains. Perhaps if this information had come on some manner of pie, or spelled out in chocolate chip cookies, then we could rely upon it. But a cake? They're like the Robert Ford of desserts.

    Seriously though, whatever you may have taken away from the experience of Catherine, it's always good to see games outside the mainstream norm of "shoot that guy" and "stab that dude" find success. Given the massive retail disappointments that were Child of Eden and Shadows of the Damned, this does at least give us some hope that Japanese weirdness can still succeed in America. Especially if there's marketing for it.

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    alex

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    #1  Edited By alex

    Whenever I have a conversation with someone about Atlus and the games the notoriously niche publisher puts out, the conversation always devolves into some permutation of, "Yeah, but how do they make money?" For as great as many of Atlus' titles are, the company almost exclusively deals in oddball Japanese role-playing nonsense that treads pretty far off the beaten (mostly beaten by Square Enix) path of games that American audiences acknowledge the existence of, let alone actively want to play.

    The elucidating cake in question.
    The elucidating cake in question.

    After reading today's news that Catherine, the Q*Bert-meets-anime/mumblecore (animumblecore?) game Atlus mostly recently brought to American audiences, sold 200,000 units in its first week of retail, I may have to stop asking that question. Now, to be fair, this information comes from Atlus' Twitter feed, and specifically from a picture of a cake. In celebration of the milestone, this cake had the sales numbers emblazoned in icing for all to see.

    Unfortunately, as we all know, cakes are by far the most unreliable of all dessert treats, known for providing consistently apocryphal information and constantly double-dealing for the pursuit of their own nefarious gains. Perhaps if this information had come on some manner of pie, or spelled out in chocolate chip cookies, then we could rely upon it. But a cake? They're like the Robert Ford of desserts.

    Seriously though, whatever you may have taken away from the experience of Catherine, it's always good to see games outside the mainstream norm of "shoot that guy" and "stab that dude" find success. Given the massive retail disappointments that were Child of Eden and Shadows of the Damned, this does at least give us some hope that Japanese weirdness can still succeed in America. Especially if there's marketing for it.

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    matoya

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    #2  Edited By matoya

    Neat

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    Vinny_Says

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    #3  Edited By Vinny_Says

    nice, getting mainstream recognition finally....

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    Cincaid

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    #4  Edited By Cincaid

    Great for Atlus.

    So...Persona 5?

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    Lemmycaution217

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    #5  Edited By Lemmycaution217

    Delicious

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    Sayishere

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    #6  Edited By Sayishere

    Im glad, the game deserve some praise, despite its difficulty.

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    Video_Game_King

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    #7  Edited By Video_Game_King

    Cue the Portal jokes in 3, 2, 1, GO!

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    LiquidPrince

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    #8  Edited By LiquidPrince

    So fucking stoked. Catherine is one of the best games I've ever played... and I've played a ton of games. So happy for them!

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    Ragdrazi

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    #9  Edited By Ragdrazi

    Cake sourcing is the new crowd sourcing.

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    FluxWaveZ

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    #10  Edited By FluxWaveZ

    According to Nich Maragos over at Atlus, the game actually didn't sell 200k copies in retail but shipped 200k copies.

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    jondavis

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    #11  Edited By jondavis

    I don't trust desert treats.

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    Slaker117

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    #12  Edited By Slaker117

    Dammit Alex, stop making me smile with your writing.

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    ckeats

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    #13  Edited By ckeats

    "Unfortunately, as we all know, cakes are by far the most unreliable of all desert treats, known for providing consistently apocryphal information and constantly double-dealing for the pursuit of their own nefarious gains."

    I laughed.

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    Chummy8

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    #14  Edited By Chummy8

    It's too sweet to lie. 

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    Axelhander

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    #15  Edited By Axelhander

    Bothers me when games like this do well.

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    NekuCTR

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    #16  Edited By NekuCTR

    Cant wait for Persona 5. those sale numbers will probably be bananas.

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    landon

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    #17  Edited By landon
    @FluxWaveZ said:
    According to Nich Maragos over at Atlus, the game actually didn't sell 200k copies in retail but shipped 200k copies.
    Are you saying THE CAKE IS A LIE?!?!?!?!?!?.....I'm sorry...
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    sixpin

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    #18  Edited By sixpin

    Alex, how dare you besmirch the character of cake! Any adverse allegations as to the quality of cake and any cake related sales numbers are obviously lies and speculation spread by pie.

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    JetForceGemini

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    #19  Edited By JetForceGemini

    Nice, but I hear it fumbles too frequently to work ;)

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    napalm

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    #20  Edited By napalm

    The fact it sold more than Shadows Of The Damned is a crying shame.

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    Rolyatkcinmai

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    #21  Edited By Rolyatkcinmai

    @JonDavis said:

    I don't trust desert treats.

    Like... cactus cakes? Armadillo pie?

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    cookiemonster

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    #22  Edited By cookiemonster

    No way.

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    ToxicFruit

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    #23  Edited By ToxicFruit

    Good for atlus

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    DumbFounded

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    #24  Edited By DumbFounded

    Very nice! I just wish they had announced it for Europe sooner as im guessing many people who were interested probably imported it, may delay their cake over the pond!

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    tgammet

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    #25  Edited By tgammet

    Cake over pie, bitches. I said it.

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    count_zero

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    #26  Edited By count_zero

    @Landon said:

    @FluxWaveZ said:
    According to Nich Maragos over at Atlus, the game actually didn't sell 200k copies in retail but shipped 200k copies.
    Are you saying THE CAKE IS A LIE?!?!?!?!?!?.....I'm sorry...

    Technically, Alex Navarro strongly implied the falsehood implicit in the cake in the article. We're all just making it explicit.

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    cooljammer00

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    #27  Edited By cooljammer00

    Mmm, if I was stuck in the Sahara I could go for some cake with a half naked girl on it.

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    JetForceGemini

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    #28  Edited By JetForceGemini
    @Napalm said:
    The fact it sold more than Shadows Of The Damned is a crying shame.
    Thank EA for that :/
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    Make_Me_Mad

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    #29  Edited By Make_Me_Mad

    A game that deserved to sell well actually did!  Fantastic news.

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    eirikr

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    #30  Edited By eirikr

    I give that cake two stars.

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    uberexplodey

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    #31  Edited By uberexplodey

    great. now give me persona 5.

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    Bestostero

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    #32  Edited By Bestostero

    mmm erotic cakes

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    LiquidPrince

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    #33  Edited By LiquidPrince

    @Axelhander said:

    Bothers me when games like this do well.

    Cause you suck?

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    Lelcar

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    #34  Edited By Lelcar

    I'm happy for Atlus. Catherine is a sweet game.

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    brocool

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    #35  Edited By brocool

    Rum and Coke for everyone!

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    SumDeus

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    #36  Edited By SumDeus

    When I read the tweet I thought it was referring to a pie chart as a cake. But no, that's a cake.

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    Rolyatkcinmai

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    #37  Edited By Rolyatkcinmai

    @Axelhander said:

    Bothers me when games like this do well.

    I was going to say you are a bad person, but then I looked at your profile and saw you've been playing a bunch of DW Gundam 3. So it turns out you just don't like games.

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    Homeslice

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    #38  Edited By Homeslice

    I can't wait for that desert treat from thatgamecompany.

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    Luke

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    #39  Edited By Luke

    If these sales numbers are considered good, than that may be a good thing because more games in this "style" (graphics/animation/story) need to be made.    
     
    With that said, I never ever want to actually "play" a game like this ever again.  The gameplay portions in Catherine are not to my liking at all, personally.  Being frustrated constantly playing a game on Normal Difficultly isn't so bad I guess, I kinda liked it at times because challenges are a nice change of pace and all, but the thing that sucked about Catherine (to me) was the gameplay got really boring really fast.  
     
    Catherine needed more to it in my opinion.  Like maybe one or two more types of gameplay elements, completely unrelated to anything to do with puzzles/etc.  
     
    I really hope they've moved-on to working on Persona 5 in this style of graphics/animation/story telling and these sales numbers could mean just that :)  

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    Bigheart711

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    #40  Edited By Bigheart711
    AWESOME! :D
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    wolf_blitzer85

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    #41  Edited By wolf_blitzer85

    I only trust Choco Tacos.

    Also good on ya Altus.

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    mewarmo990

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    #42  Edited By mewarmo990

    Yep, there was a huge marketing push behind Catherine, which helped a lot.

    THERE BETTER BE SOME CAKE LEFT WHEN I GET TO WORK TODAY. Damn testers.

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    deactivated-61f341f558336

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    Oh man! This is awesome. It sold more in it's first week than even Demon's Souls. Nice job!
    @Haru48: I sure as hell can't wait for P5 as well!

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    OllyOxenFree

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    #44  Edited By OllyOxenFree

    @Rolyatkcinmai said:

    @Axelhander said:

    Bothers me when games like this do well.

    I was going to say you are a bad person, but then I looked at your profile and saw you've been playing a bunch of DW Gundam 3. So it turns out you just don't like games.

    OOOOOHHHHHH SHIT!

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    Tophat666

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    #45  Edited By Tophat666

    YES!!!!!!

    Make that crazy Atlus money for Persona 5.

    Great to see this game do well so quick, hope the good sales continue.

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    shinluis

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    #46  Edited By shinluis

    So basically Alex is saying the cake might be a lie then.

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    Juicebox

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    #47  Edited By Juicebox

    grrr someone is gonna say that cake is a lie .

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    kollay

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    #48  Edited By kollay

    I'd lick it.

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    WJist

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    #49  Edited By WJist

    I'm glad I live in a world where weird games like this and No More Heroes can exist without causing some kind of singularity. 
     
    All NPD numbers should be on cakes, btw.

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    kollay

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    #50  Edited By kollay

    @Juicebox said:

    grrr someone is gonna say that cake is a lie .

    You just did. Now how do you feel?

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

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