A Namco Bandai representative has stated that Microsoft paid to keep Tales of Vesperia an Xbox 360 exclusive outside of Japan … then backtracked to say that it didn’t.
“Microsoft paid for the exclusivity the same way Sony paid for having Heavy Rain only on PS3,” said junior community manager Charlotte Toci, originally. “It’s just one way the business works, sadly. Those decisions are made really high up y’know, we do try and give them the max of fan feedback, but sometimes it’s just out of our hands.”
Now, however, Toci has claimed that she didn’t have enough information to make that claim, and has retracted the statement: “A few months ago I replied to a fan who asked me why Tales of Vesperia wasn’t localised in Europe on my Facebook page. I replied that it was because of a Microsoft exclusivity, thinking that that was the reason why, even though I didn’t have any official information on that. I was wrong to do so, and sadly my reply was relayed on many websites, thus sharing a false information to fans around the web.”
Toci has apologized, but Namco Bandai has not given any official reason for refusing to release a PS3 version of Vesperia in the West.
