Super Robot Wars series overall sales surpass 19 million copies
Bandai Namco announced that the Super Robot Wars series has surpassed 19 million units in its overall total sales. This number combines physical shipments and digital sales of all 90 series titles released on consoles (including PCs) since the inaugural game launched on Game Boy in 1991.
The Super Robot Wars series mostly comprises strategy RPGs that feature a crossover of multiple mecha-related anime titles, such as Gundam, Code Geass, Mazinger, Evangelion, and Gurren Lagann. Banpresto (now Bandai Namco's B.B. Studio) also created many original characters and mechs, which they would later gather to form the Original Generation sub-series.
Most of the games are also known for depicting the mechs in an SD (Super Deformed) chibi style. While Banpresto used to shrink the mechs to reduce the licensing fees, Bandai Namco retained the style to address the sheer difference of the mechs' actual sizes. They could range from Macross' Variable Fighters—sized appropriately to contemporary jet fighters—to gigantic super robots like the 120 meters-tall Daitarn 3.
With a sheer number of anime titles featured, Western localization for the series was long thought to be unfeasible due to licensing hell. Prior to 2016's SRW OG: The Moon Dwellers, most of the series titles were exclusively released in Japan only. Bandai Namco did try expanding the market to Asia in recent years—including releasing official English localizations in Southeast Asia. However, the company made the biggest breakthrough with a global release for Super Robot Wars 30—albeit only for PC and excluding Venezuela so far.
In a Japanese interview published on Asobimotto, SRW 30's producer Shohei Mogami confirmed that Bandai Namco did exactly what many people thought would be impossible before: obtaining consent from all IP holders and licensors of the featured anime titles to release the game worldwide. You can read our translation of Mogami's comment right below:
The one thing that left an impression to me was that such a long-running series like this having a Steam version. I had been thinking it would play well on PCs.
When we ported SRW V and SRW X to Steam, we only sold it in Japan and Asia just like the packaged software [for consoles]. People in Europe and the Americas were expecting that they would be able to buy since we released the games on Steam, but we ended up betraying them.
This time with SRW 30, we were able to realize releases in the West, based on consent from various related places. What especially left a deep impression to me is that there were many people who noticed the game before we even formally announced the Western releases, and they wrote about supporting [the game] by pre-ordering it.
The franchise's latest console entry, Super Robot Wars 30, is now available on PC via Steam worldwide, as well as PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in Japan and Asia. The first DLC pack, which features Voltes V and Sega's Sakura Wars series among others, will be available on November 18. Those who have owned the Season Pass will be allowed Early Access on November 16; the same day Bandai Namco releases a free update patch adding SRW OG's Gilliam Jaeger with his Gespenst for all players. The second DLC pack, which adds Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans and the 2019 Ultraman anime into the roster, will follow this December.