Fans and developers alike have hoped for a Xenosaga revitalization for some time, but it's now been revealed that we may be farther than ever from those dreams becoming reality.
Katsuhiro Harada, a director and producer working at Bandai Namco, revealed on Twitter that a remastered collection of the series was in development but the project was eventually scrapped when it "failed in a profitable market analysis."Essentially, what he seems to mean is the publisher was skeptical the project would turn a pretty profit. Harada went on to imply that the likelihood of the project being revived again is low.
It was five years ago when Harada himself publicly asked the series' fans to push for a remastered collection, but half a decade later it seems that push wasn't strong enough.
Xenosaga is a turn-based JPRG series which began in 2002 and saw three episodes release up until 2006. Born on PlayStation 2, the series later came to Nintendo DS and even some mobile platforms. It follows the story of a group of people caught in the middle of a war between human factions and hostile aliens called the Gnosis. The entire series was developed by Monolith Soft who was acquired by Nintendo a year after the final episode launched.
Monolith Soft has gone on to work for a number of properties for Nintendo's platforms, including Dragon Ball Z and, more famously, the Xenoblade series. They most recently launched Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for Nintendo Switch in 2017. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 earned Strong review scores as one of the premiere exclusives available early in the Nintendo Switch's lifespan. On OpenCritic, it sits today with an 83 average from 104 critics, with 80% of those reviewers recommending the game for play. An expansion for the game titled Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna - The Golden Country released in 2018 and earned similar scores of an 83 average and 81% recommendation figure.
