Christian Svensson the Senior Director of Strategy said this at the capcom BBS

"Absolutely. There are many titles that sell hundreds of thousands of copies, but still lack a community with passion about the product such that sequels are still a challenge to get attention for (both with the media and consumers).

AA is something of a phenomenon and the first title has had a sales curve that is unlike anything I've seen in 15 years in this industry. Just straight up, consistant sales (not big, but consistant), month after month, regardless of not being carried by the major retailers. That doesn't happen by accident and is indicative of very active word-of-mouth community support.

When I arrived at Capcom a little over a year ago, this franchise became one of my pet projects. I wanted to grow it organically in the US and to that end, I've been one of the more vocal people internally for its continued support in the US. Its novelty needs to be experienced by more people and I firmly believe that the approach is compelling for a broad audience (fitting perfectly on the DS). Clearly, I'm not alone in my thoughts or we wouldn't have the consumer advocates for the games the way that we do.

The sequel first day shipments are a little more than 3X what the first day shipment was for AA1 US. Mind you, the AA1 shipments day one were fairly abysmal so it's a mislesading metric, but its probably 2X what AA1 should have been. I'd attribute the improvment to the new marketing and sales team, to the fact that AA is a bit more of a known commodity that retail is more comfortable with, the bizarre sales history referenced above for the first title and the passion the community has for the franchise. Again, despite the step up, these are not big numbers, but they are a step in the right direction for the franchise.

Now the marketing you're seeing is a direct result of higher expected sales for this project versus the first. Marketing budgets are ALWAYS a function of expected sales. So if you expect more revenue, you can do larger activities. AA:AJFA is still small, so the budget isn't gigantic, but you'll see a lot more for this title than you did the first one.

At Capcom, we have some mega blockbuster titles (like Lost Planet, DMC4, Dead Rising, etc.) and we have some smaller titles (AA, Puzzle World, Monster Hunter Freedom, etc.). Budgets range in size dramatically. We have no problem with shipping smaller titles and trying to grow franchises organically. I think Monster Hunter will be another great example of a franchise with an incredibly avid community that we're going to want to foster moving forward.

The commonality behind our nearly all of our projects is that we have incredibly vocal and passionate fans. I've worked and/or consulted for many other publishers over the years and I can say categorically, Capcom in a unique position with its fans (well, Sega had a similar fan base about five or six years ago, but I think it's a little different today). These are all people who want what they feel is best for their favorite products and we recognize that. It's our job to work within the financial constraints to best promote and foster each brand community.

I know it's still not quite obvious yet, but the community elements of what we'll be rolling out in the US (and hopefully soon thereafter in other territories) will become central to the marketing that we do. In the future, marketing will be less about placing magazine ads or online ads (they'll still have a place, but not quite as prominent as they were last generation) and more about having a more direct relationship with your consumer.

That's one of the reasons I'm as active on our own boards as I am and sharing some of the details above."

For those of you who are too lazy to read this I will summarize it in a couple of bulletins

-Phoenix Wright has an extremely passionate community that larger franchises would absolutely love to have.

-The unique sales curve is strongly indicative of "word of mouth sales" and it is unprecended in gaming history (maybe in the USA sure, but in Japan Brain Age and Animal crossing sell almost identically to Phoenix Wright)

-It was novel and he believed that it could reach a large audience

-Justice for all will have 3x the shipments of Phoenix Wright

-Justice for all is getting a much larget marketing push because they expect higher sales for the sequel (ruh oh)

-Compares Capcom of today as Sega of 5 or 6 years ago (which is very true)

-A lot of the marketing will be more community based because it was the community that helped make Phoenix Wright a success and Capcom will focus much more creating a direct relationship with the consumer