| Kasz216 said: You think Monster Hunter is analagous to Halo? I think that right there shows the main source of disagreement. Monster Hunter is nowhere near that kind of franchise.
If I had to compare Monster Hunter to an Xbox 360 game, i'd go with something like Assassains Creed or something else with similar sales numbers.
I'd point you to consider PSP's region splits in sales, vs PS Vita's region split in sales. It's not really any different despite the fact that it lost the big only matters in Japan, Monster Hunter Franchise.
If Monster Hunter was that important to vita sales, you would expect Japanese sales to tank compaired to the US and Europe. Since it doesn't... and the drop is pretty standard all around there has to be a different reason. The fact that it doesn't disporves your entire theory. |
I do think it's a lot like a Japanese Halo, yeah. Xbox was basically an American phenomenon, and as a result so was Halo. After the rest of the world decided that it either wasn't a console in your pocket or that the idea just wasn't all it's cracked up to be, the PSP became largely a Japanese one. With the Japanese market being much smaller than the American one sales still seem comparable enough, and both were exclusive games that defined their platforms. Losing Assassin's Creed would be a blow, sure, but it wouldn't really make anyone question why the Xbox even exists. When it was first announced for the 360 it was just a tech demo with a working title. It was also pretty much a tech demo when it was released, but I digress.
That the Vita still performs better in Japan than elsewhere is, I think, a testament to just how poorly it's doing elsewhere as well as a reflection of regional preferences for home consoles vs. handhelds. Japan still likes portables. The 3DS is on fire in Japan while the west is kind of ho hum about even that. The Vita still has some place in the Japanese market as a device that receives a lot of smallish titles that aren't going to sell more than 100k-200k no matter what platform they're released on. In the west it averages maybe one retail release every couple of months.
