| wenlan said: i hate to stereotye people and that's not what i was trying to do. Monster Hunter Portable 2G on PSP has become more like a social phenomenon in Japan. to reach the level of popularity like that, it takes more than hardcore gamers' support. people over there get together playing MH ad hoc to socialize and having fun. do you think this will ever happen in the western world? (this is also the reason why several people on this forum and I think MH3 on the Wii will do well, but will not be as popular as MHP2G in Japan, but that's off the topic). a good marketing campaign can make people aware of the existence of MH, but in no way it will suddenly change people's social behavior and make a good number of "casual" gamers want to spend hours with friends farming for rare materials to make good equipments so they can take on the next quest. |
While western gamers aren't too big on local multiplayer anymore, online play is one of the more prominant features. Maybe that is why Capcom made Monster Hunter 3 more online focused. In my highschool some kids have no life other than Xbox Live or World of Warcraft or some other online game. They play the games all the time when they are home, and then they go to school to talk about it. So Monster Hunter 3 has a better chance of hitting U.S gamers than the other games. If Monster Hunter 3 is advertised as an extremely impressive online focused game, then it will find some success in the U.S. Not anything amazing like it's Japanese sales will be, but something that will cover both costs of the game, and then extra. Capcom just has to find the right amount of advertising, and more importantly the right way of advertising. It isn't advertising alone that will help but how you do it.
Edit: Also the sales of the PSP games in the West aren't as bad as people like to make them out to be. For PSP games it is actually quite impressive. Sadly, many gamers in the U.S don't see how great of a handheld the PSP is.
