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While the series is nowhere near as popular in the West, the Sengoku Basara franchise (known in the West as Devil Kings) has been a pretty viable cash cow for Capcom in Japan, and it’s a brand they clearly hope to closely associate themselves with, going forward. Sengoku Basara: Battle Heroes for PSP saw some great sales and combined with merchandise has been garnering much attention from the Japanese public.
Interestingly enough, Capcom’s press release points out that 40% the Sengoku Basara: Battle Heroes’ userbase consists of female gamers and that the series has sparked a “Sengoku craze” in Japan, indicated by a dramatic spike in the number of visitors to the historical sites depicted in the game. Capcom hopes to take advantage of this through a stage adaptation of Sengoku Basara from July 3 – July 12 at Tokyo Dome Theater G Rosso and an organized bus tour to the Miyagi prefecture. From the press release:
This stage adaptation, combines video, sound, and lighting effects to bring battle scenes alive in a way that only the stage can, and creates a fresh view of the Sengoku BASARA world. Capcom is also planning to take a more proactive approach in reaching a larger audience of potential fans. One way planned to accomplish this is to offer bus tours to Miyagi, the land once home to Masamune Date and Kojuro Katakura, to increase knowledge of the characters in the Sengoku BASARA series. This tour is managed by JTB and scheduled to take place during the month of June 2009.
The press release goes on to state that the publisher hopes to maximize the value of its franchises through this “Single Contents Multiple Uses” strategy (aka Polymorphic Content™) and expand its audience in this fashion. So…about time for that Phoenix Wright anime, then?
