jarrod said:
Er, Cave, G.Rev, 5pb, Alchemist, Koei and others disagree. 360 basically inherited the STG/ADV okatku-core legacy in Japan. Previous torchbearers include PC Engine, Saturn and Dreamcast... honestly, it probably has more JP only releases coming up than PS3. |
Far from it, the 360 is getting a few SHMUPs and rarely some 5pb graphic novels. Theyve managed to attract that down to the fact the 360 is easy to develop for, but now with the sheer increase in the PS3s userbase, it might not mean much.
The PC-E, Saturn and even the Mega Drive had huge mid-tier support as well as big-budget exclusives that gave them a niche in the market. In fact the Saturn beat the N64 with more hardware sales despite Nintendo having the Pokemon craze as well as stronger software sales.
MS are doing okay hardware sales wise, if they stay at the current 5k trend, theyll end at a decent total userbase, but unfortunately, the attach rate has not kept up with the increased hardware sales. Worst of all, those 360 owners pretty much all have PS3s which means that 1.2 million 360s mean little for developers wanting to make a HD game. If that wasnt bad enough, even in previous years they benefitted from the holiday effect, but this year, it did little.
Just look at the massive disconnect between Pro Evo 10 sales on both systems even though MS helped market the game. One place where MS did do well on were Western games sales, but thats no longer the case, Gears of War 2 for example has sold less than the first game. Similarly, fighters that have been released, SCIV, SFIV and Tekken 6, have all sold roughly the same amount despite the increasing userbase.
MS need to get out a slim and very cheap system out soon, this could get a lot of handheld and Wii gamers to get the 360 as a poor-mans-PS3 as it does have most of the big HD games being released by the big publishers. MS should also make better use of Mistwalker, but it seems like theyve given up on the traditional approach and riding their luck on Natal.
All in all, MS have done well and its going to be a big factor in influencing the sales of their next system as after all, the 360 does have a quality line-up for Japanese gamers, but that success has been extinguished by the PS3s improving fortunes.
