The president of Nihon Falcom revealed that since Switch and PC Steam account for the largest proportion of their new players, the company will no longer prioritize the PS5 platform, instead betting on global multi-platform releases. Previously, due to limited resources, Falcom was accustomed to releasing or developing games on PlayStation first before considering PC and Switch.
Foreign media report:
With the 2025 release of Trails in the Sky the 1st, Nihon Falcom delivered a pleasant surprise to players: a simultaneous global launch on Steam, Switch, and PS5. Reflecting on the response to this release, Nihon Falcom President and CEO Toshihiro Kondo stated that the company hopes to continue pursuing a multi-platform strategy as much as possible going forward.
In an interview with ASCII Japan, Toshihiro Kondo discussed the upcoming Trails in the Sky the 2nd. He stated that this remake series actually served as the catalyst for Falcom to embrace a multi-platform strategy.
"In the past, we primarily released Trails series titles on PS5, but starting with Trails in the Sky, we challenged ourselves to handle global publishing independently and launch simultaneously on multiple platforms, including Switch and PC (Steam)."
However, Kondo also noted that this release model was largely possible because the game's script was mostly finalized early in development. In contrast, brand-new titles often undergo various changes in the final stages of development, making simultaneous multi-platform releases more complex. Nevertheless, Falcom considers this approach to have achieved "very good results," so Kondo stated that the company's "basic policy going forward will be to ultimately release games on a reasonable number of platforms globally."
Kondo also pointed out that Switch and PC players have become an important part of Falcom's new player base. "If we want our series to continue in the long term, I believe we must seriously release titles on these platforms and strive to expand the series' recognition."
Kondo believes that by continuously bringing games to new platforms, even long-running series like Trails can keep attracting new players. As the player base continues to expand, Falcom can maintain a healthy environment that allows the company to continue developing games.