Piracy is probably a means of them closing the door on the idea, but I'm pretty sure most people who end up pirating it do so because Namco isn't releasing the game legally.
Like hardcore Mother fans, in a sense. Nobody really pirated Mother 3 until the translation was done.
I was also mainly referring to their console games. Outside of Tales of Symphonia 1 and 2, and Tales of Phantasia, which were all marketed by Nintendo of America, Namco has released every other Tales game with no marketing, which is probably the largest factor to the games not selling.
Tales of the Abyss is a great example of this. Tales of Vesperia is another, as it actually got less marketing than Eternal Sonata did in the states.
EDIT: On top of that, has Namco EVER released any Tales games on a handheld outside of Japan themselves? It's always been other companies..
Like hardcore Mother fans, in a sense. Nobody really pirated Mother 3 until the translation was done.
I was also mainly referring to their console games. Outside of Tales of Symphonia 1 and 2, and Tales of Phantasia, which were all marketed by Nintendo of America, Namco has released every other Tales game with no marketing, which is probably the largest factor to the games not selling.
Tales of the Abyss is a great example of this. Tales of Vesperia is another, as it actually got less marketing than Eternal Sonata did in the states.
EDIT: On top of that, has Namco EVER released any Tales games on a handheld outside of Japan themselves? It's always been other companies..