Well as
@voke said places like ResetERA definitely have been doing the bolded, and it's probably tied to a combination of:
1: The strategic partnership between Microsoft and SEGA/Atlus from early 2022
2: Viewing Xbox as the spiritual successor to Dreamcast
3: Viewing Microsoft as some "underdog" (LOL) in the same way SEGA was back as a platform holder
4: Conflating modern "underdog" Microsoft/Xbox with old SEGA
5: Blaming Sony for SEGA's demise as a console maker
6: Blaming Sony for Xbox's death spiral as a traditional console platform
7: Using Xbox as a proxy vessel/stand-in for SEGA and wanting Microsoft to "exact revenge" against PlayStation to "bring justice" for SEGA
8: Grown manchildren Nintendo fanboys/fangirls who use Xbox as a proxy against PlayStation blaming Sony for dethroning Nintendo in the home console space, and wanting revenge since Nintendo no longer competes in that space
All extremely stupid and idiotic reasons, based on sentiments either no longer true (OG Xbox was the only Xbox that was a spiritual successor to SEGA hardware) or were never true (SEGA killed SEGA as a console maker, not Sony).
Just gonna stop you right here because you're doing the thing again; P5 had
MULTIPLE re-releases across
MULTIPLE platforms (PS3, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series, Steam) over a period of 8 years in order to reach 10 million units.
For the oddest of reasons, you keep ignoring this and talk about it as if the game accomplished it on one platform, with one version, then using that warped POV to denigrate modern FF sales performance for XVI (a game that only just released last year on a single system that only started resolving stock issues earlier that year, and just recently got a Steam port) and Rebirth (a game that only released
THIS YEAR and on only one system!).
You can have a hateboner for XVI and Rebirth (tho seems to be XVI in your case) all you want but please understand there's a difference between that and Persona 5 when it comes to how long they've been out, how many versions they have and how many platforms they're on.
Metaphor is like Starfield in that it's a "new" IP but it shares a lot of DNA with very well-established IP, so it gets by in ways off the cache those IP built. With Starfield, that's obviously Fallout and TES. With Metaphor, it's Persona & SMT.
You act like SE positioned Octopath as a pillar in anywhere the same capacity SEGA/Atlus have with Metaphor. They didn't.
Also it's been six years between Octopath and Metaphor. The addressable market for JRPGs has grown in those six years, so Metaphor has an advantage there that Octopath did not.
Plus as you already said, Octopath didn't launch on PS4 which, in 2018, was the biggest base for JRPGs.
THERE IS NO FANBASE TO BUILD THERE!!! JFC people keep repeating this, you sound like that ex-Square Enix guy who said FF marketing with Xbox would boost PlayStation sales. There is just no logical thought into such claims; if they sound dumb off rip it's because they usually are.
There is no magically secret, massive install base of JRPG fans on Xbox. JRPG people by and large already know of Xbox in that regard since the mid '2000s or from the 2010s, so they know what that platform is like when it comes to JRPGs. Microsoft can't build an audience for the genre there when they have no exclusive JRPGs, no exclusives period (everything is Day 1 on PC), and no value proposition for choosing an Xbox over a PlayStation with the current business model Series S & X are using. And no, Game Pass doesn't cut it either, particularly in this case since Metaphor is not in Game Pass!
Also I find the notion odd that the JRPG audience can't grow on PS5. The audience for any genre can theoretically grow if enough compelling content is made and marketed towards them. Guess what Atlus haven't been doing with Metaphor in the West? Marketing it to PS5 owners. They haven't marketed towards Steam players either, but Steam is a more open platform where WOM plus streamer culture favoring PC gaming basically acts as advertising in its own right. PS5 doesn't have those benefits (though IMO, SIE should open up data metrics for CCUs etc. to be more transparent to aid in WOM for the platform), so if you aren't targeting marketing to that platform, would-be newer JRPG fans will have little to no idea the game is there, so they won't buy.
Now, yes, them focusing Western marketing to Xbox & Game Pass in theory would help draw in more people to that genre on those platforms, but the problem is that Xbox as a console has all the issues I just mentioned, and Metaphor is not on Game Pass so it does nothing for that service. Given the advantages PS has over Xbox as a platform globally, any potential new audience for Metaphor or JRPGs in general on Xbox would be dwarfed by a similar new audience on PlayStation, just as it dwarfed by such a new audience on Steam. What's more, PS5 owners are no more inclined to buy an Xbox just because games like Metaphor are being marketed with it, but all the same, if they don't know the game's on PS5 they'll probably just not buy it at all (talking PS5 owners here who don't have a PC or don't game on PC). Which means a net loss for Atlus, in the end.
