By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming Discussion - Who else realises that this latest JRPG announcement makes perfect sense?

Slimebeast on 10 June 2008
konnichiwa said:
The consumer will lose, this only benefits maybe MS.

And 19 million X360 owners, by far the largest installed base of a HD console.

Did it ever occur to people that it might be a good thing for gamers that JRPGs are being released to a bigger audience? Last gen most of them were exclusive to the PS2, now they are on both consoles.

Geez... the arrogance of Playstation-fans.



Around the Network
darthdevidem01 on 10 June 2008

I brought the Wii for Japanese support......this is not what I expect



All hail the KING, Andrespetmonkey

CrazzyMan on 10 June 2008

x360 is DEAD in Japan.

And in 2008 on PS3 Japanese are having:
Disgaea 3
Valkyrie Chronicles
Tears of Tiara
Cross Edge -> this game was just announced a few weeks ago.
White Knight Chronicles
Eternal Sonata

So, after LO failure, neither ToV, neither IU, neither LR will save x360.
DEAL WITH THAT.

And FFXIII could come in next 6-7 months.



Every 5 seconds on earth one child dies from hunger...

2009.04.30 - PS3 will OUTSELL x360 atleast by the middle of 2010. Japan+Europe > NA.


Gran Turismo 3 - 1,06 mln. in 3 weeks with around 4 mln. PS2 on the launch.
Gran Turismo 4 - 1,16 mln. with 18 mln. PS2 on the launch.

Final Fantasy X - around 2 mln. with 5 mln. PS2 on the launch.
Final Fantasy X-2 - 2.4 mln. with 12 mln. PS2 on the launch.

 

1.8 mln. PS3 today(2008.01.17) in Japan. Now(2009.04.30) 3.16 mln. PS3 were sold in Japan.
PS3 will reach 4 mln. in Japan by the end of 2009 with average weekly sales 25k.

PS3 may reach 5 mln. in Japan by the end of 2009 with average weekly sales 50k.
PS2 2001 vs PS3 2008 sales numbers =) + New games released in Japan by 2009 that passed 100k so far

mrstickball on 10 June 2008

Bladeneo, is for the most part, right.

The Japanese market for hardcore games is on the decline. We've seen SE, and other major J-Devs begin to look toward the West.

Guess which system offers the best survivability for Japanese games in the West currently? The X360.

Not only does it have a large hardware lead in the West, but Microsoft seems most willing to work with Eastern Developers on ensuring their product makes a succuessful debut in the West - both in terms of userbase, and "moneyhatting"

All a developer cares about is making enough money from their project to eat. And guess which one is more likely to work of the 2 HD consoles? The 360.

Simple comparison for the developers:

Microsoft: Lead in the West in terms of total users + software attach ratio for the next 2 years (forseeable). Willing to help developers financially to put their projects on the 360.

Sony: Will not lead for another 2 years. Only recently has it surged in sales (and even then, it's not by a whole lot). Difficult system to work with, Sony unwilling to moneyhat.

Lead time for a JRPG: 2-3 Years
So whenever SO4, and these other JRPG projects were greenlit, the PS3 hadn't started out, and looked god-awful in terms of sales, attach rate was tanking, and the Eastern markets looked like they had rejected HD wholesale, so they looked into Microsoft's Western portfolio, and thought they'd survive better.

Like Bladeneo said, it makes perfect sense. If your a fanboy, and don't understand development cycles, then you wouldn't understand that game platforms aren't decided 3 weeks before an announcement like this was made.



Back from the dead, I'm afraid.

Riachu on 10 June 2008
mrstickball said:
Bladeneo, is for the most part, right.

The Japanese market for hardcore games is on the decline. We've seen SE, and other major J-Devs begin to look toward the West.

Guess which system offers the best survivability for Japanese games in the West currently? The X360.

Not only does it have a large hardware lead in the West, but Microsoft seems most willing to work with Eastern Developers on ensuring their product makes a succuessful debut in the West - both in terms of userbase, and "moneyhatting"

All a developer cares about is making enough money from their project to eat. And guess which one is more likely to work of the 2 HD consoles? The 360.

Simple comparison for the developers:

Microsoft: Lead in the West in terms of total users + software attach ratio for the next 2 years (forseeable). Willing to help developers financially to put their projects on the 360.

Sony: Will not lead for another 2 years. Only recently has it surged in sales (and even then, it's not by a whole lot). Difficult system to work with, Sony unwilling to moneyhat.

Lead time for a JRPG: 2-3 Years
So whenever SO4, and these other JRPG projects were greenlit, the PS3 hadn't started out, and looked god-awful in terms of sales, attach rate was tanking, and the Eastern markets looked like they had rejected HD wholesale, so they looked into Microsoft's Western portfolio, and thought they'd survive better.

Like Bladeneo said, it makes perfect sense. If your a fanboy, and don't understand development cycles, then you wouldn't understand that game platforms aren't decided 3 weeks before an announcement like this was made.
I agree with you.  There is a decent market for JRPGs on the 360 in the West.  It will slowly but steadily expend as time goes on.  Look at Lost Odyssey's sales for reference.

 



 

http://www.youtube.com/user/InvaderZimGuy1?feature=mhum

Around the Network
sieanr on 10 June 2008
Godot said:
Bladeneo said:

Perfect sense for everyone but PS3 owners, of course.

Anyone who visits VGChartz regularly has seen how obscure the japanese market has been in recent times, leading more and more japanese companies to come out and say they want to expand greatly in the western markets (Square-Enix is a name that particularly springs to mind.)

Microsoft's japanese image has always been poor, and despite their efforts already this generation it doesn't seem to be getting that much better. So, following the announcements they've made, it's clear that some pretty big deals have gone down in Japan. Microsoft has never been scared of pushing money into the xbox brand, (particularly it's japanese division with a whole lot of JRPG's already going to the 360 this generation); and it seems like theyve done the same again.

At first glance it seems like a stupid prospect; why are Japanese developers focusing development on a console that barely pushes 10,000 consoles a month? However, for all parties involved it seems to be a win win situation. MS aren't exactly going to miss the money they're pushing into these deals, Japanese developers not only get a portion of their gaming budget paid for, but they also gain extra exposure in the western markets by putting their game out on the strongest HD console (in terms of install base). But, what about Sony's position in all of this? Well, while many would question their apparant backing down and losing potential games to their nearest rival, it's makes sense. They put zero money forward (no more than usual), and although they recieve these games later (months, perhaps even a year), they know that the 360 versions aren't going to take many, if any, of their potential japanese consumers away. So even though it's released late, its safe to assume it'll still perform much much better than its MS counterpart, most likely even as well as it would have done had it been exclusive.

Alot of people have been reiterating the old "the PS3 is too hard to develop for" as the reason for the timed exclusives, but I don't agree. Square-Enix have already claimed they have the White engine running on the PS3, which is what they're using for all their multiplatform games, and I cant remember them saying theyve had any issues with it.

So, who loses here? People like me, who anticipated a slew of RPG's on their PS3 and thus far have been well and truly shafted by Sony. I personally think the japanese developers in question are treading dangerously and putting far too much faith in the 360; we've seen how poorly (against expection that is) the exclusive JRPG's have performed thus far this generation, it seems wishful thinking to imagine these latest games would destroy the sales of those already released.

Okay, im ranting, and making assumptions here, but I honestly don't think this is in anyway unrealistic. People have probably already said something similar to this but I had an urge to post so I did.


 Actually, it's the Japanese customers that loses the most. The comapnies they love publish the games they love on a system they hate. So, they stop being interested in consoles and move to handhelds where the Japanese developers haven't yet sold out. The Japanese developers are basically getting profit on titles that sell bad. In the long run, it will hurt them as their fanbase will shrink. Smaller companies that tried something different on Wii or PS3 will be rewarded as all their profit will come from sales and not from moneyhats.

Do you actually know anything about the gaming market in Japan, in particular the mindset of the Japanese consumer?

Because based on what you've said I can only assume your knowledge comes from forums that either radically misconstrue information, or just create outright lies. Really, its pretty sad how many people online have these bizarre notions of what Japan is actually like.

Parts in bold made me lol 



Leo-j said: If a dvd for a pc game holds what? Crysis at 3000p or something, why in the world cant a blu-ray disc do the same?

ssj12 said: Player specific decoders are nothing more than specialized GPUs. Gran Turismo is the trust driving simulator of them all. 

"Why do they call it the xbox 360? Because when you see it, you'll turn 360 degrees and walk away" 

MorgZ on 10 June 2008

Its worth mentioning that surely LO was a profitable venture. It has sold in the regionof 750k and should break past 1m at some point in its life cycle.

Blue Dragon, which is my opinion far was a far inferior game actually sold OK in Japan.

If M$ sell 1m 360's in Japan this generation then I think that will be a good achievement, all it will take is 1 or 2 games to create the boost they saw when Blue Dragon was released and then this is within reach by Christman 2009. I think Japan would also react well to a possible Slim 360 revision which MS might aim to release by the end of 2008 / definitely before Xmas 2009.

Im looking forward to all these JRPG's, I just hope they are as good as LO.



mrstickball on 10 June 2008

Yes...Japan hates Western products and culture. That is exactly why IPods sell so poorly, and Western music groups never tour in Japan ;)



Back from the dead, I'm afraid.

Riachu on 10 June 2008
MorgZ said:
Its worth mentioning that surely LO was a profitable venture. It has sold in the regionof 750k and should break past 1m at some point in its life cycle.

Blue Dragon, which is my opinion far was a far inferior game actually sold OK in Japan.

If M$ sell 1m 360's in Japan this generation then I think that will be a good achievement, all it will take is 1 or 2 games to create the boost they saw when Blue Dragon was released and then this is within reach by Christman 2009. I think Japan would also react well to a possible Slim 360 revision which MS might aim to release by the end of 2008 / definitely before Xmas 2009.

Im looking forward to all these JRPG's, I just hope they are as good as LO.
If we are lucky, one of them could be better than LO

 



 

http://www.youtube.com/user/InvaderZimGuy1?feature=mhum

Words Of Wisdom on 10 June 2008
Aiemond said:

<snip> 


That writing style is annoying enough when Maelstrom does it... -_-