[Update 2] Valkyria Chronicles 3 will not see a USA release

Valkyria Chronicles (戦場のヴァルキュリア) is an innovative, classic video game that turned the genre of strategy RPG's on it's head with its varied gameplay, unique art style, and its innovative battle system. People pined for a sequel for it, and they got their wish, Valkyria Chronicles 2 (戦場のヴァルキュリア 2: ガリア王立士官学校) was announced for the PlayStation Portable. The announcement was met with lots of "complaining" for the lack of a better word since the original game is considered a classic on the PlayStation 3. When the game came out, it was a polished, well-developed game with some flaws. A majority of the complaints were about the second game's setting, poor class upgrade system, and redundant map design. After the release of Valkyria Chronicles 2, they announced that Valkyria Chronicles 3 (戦場のヴァルキュリア3 Unrecorded Chronicles) is coming out with a darker theme and a more direct influence from the original Valkyria Chronicles. The game was supposed to fix all the flaws in Valkyria Chronicles 2 while refining what made the franchise so great. American fans of the franchise waited in bated breath for return to the form for the Valkyria Chronicles franchise.

Today, I bring some sad news, the 3rd Valkyria Chronicles game will never see the light of day in the United States. It was first asked on Sega on Twitter, and they responded saying that Valkyria Chronicles 3 will not be at E3 and that there has been no announcement for a stateside release. A fan of Phantasy Star Online Portable asked Sega if they will release the game in the United States and here is his paraphrase of Sega's response:

"As much as I would love to see an English release of Infinity, SEGA West is currently not looking at further PSP development. Games like PSPo2 and Valkyria Chronicles 2 did not sell nearly as well as we had hoped that they would. Also, we all have to take into account the heavy amount of piracy that plagues the West. It may happen at some point, but there are currently no plans for it. " (Link)

There you have it, Sega will not be releasing Valkyria Chronicles 3 because the second game did not sell as much as they would like and that the prevalence of piracy makes it hard to make a profitable game on the PlayStation Portable. I would like to explain further as to why it happened, but frankly I am just upset that the game is not getting released in the USA. You can try contacting SEGA to do what Tales fans were successfully able to do with Namco (as in getting Tales of Graces F and Tales of the Abyss 3DS stateside), but success stories like that are far and in between. The best hope for the franchise is to hope for a PS Vita release, and the chances of that are very slim to none.

Update (10/11/11):

In an interview in Singapore, SEGA's team manager for Platform sales has confirmed that the game will not see a USA and EU release. He justified it by saying that the PSP's sales are horrible in the West and that Valkyria Chronicles II did not meet Sega's sales expectations.

Source

Update 2 (10/17/11):

All hope is not lost, Sega Brand Manager Aaron Webber says that Sega knows what the fans think and he things that the fans should keep at it to push Sega. They haven't announced any plans aside from the fact that they are listening to your complaints. There is a dim chance, but that is certainly better than the zero chance we got a week ago.

Source

Here are screenshots of the game that we are not getting:

Here are some of the great character art:

Selvaria Bles

Kurt Irving

Riela Marcelis

Imca

PSP Wallpaper