| ZenfoldorVGI said: Well, "no" games is painting in broad strokes. It has Disgaea 3, Yakuza, and Devil May Cry. It simply has no games worth writing home about, for the Japanese game loving fan in America. I think it has at least a months worth of playable games for the Japanese audience. It has been out for over a year though, and there in lies the issue with a stigma its creating. When the PS3 does inevitably get good Japanese style games, within the next 2 years, will the casual audience immediately change its mind about the machine when they are released, or will the stigma take time to overcome? Usually, it takes time, but Nintendo has managed to break stigmas overnight, with the launch of the Wii, so there really is no way to tell the future. |
It will definitely take time, but I believe that FFXIII, MGS4, and GT5, along with help from other games like Tekken 6, White Knight Story, and Eternal Sonata (and Tales, if that gets ported, and SO4, assuming it's coming to the ps3), can gradually reverse that stigma. The latter titles are also important, in large numbers, as they provide the base upon which the big titles stand. Without them, the ps3 will be like the GameCube, having a big hit here and there with nothing in between to keep people interested.
Looking at the games you listed. The only notable series is Yakuza, and even that barely breaks the 700k mark. DMC hasn't ever broken the 400k mark in Japan, and DMC4 has already sold 290k, so anybody willing to buy a system for it already has, and apparently had a good while before it was even released, given the non-existant spike when it hit. As for Disgaea, it has never even broken the 150k mark in Japan.
Those just aren't the types of games that people are willing to jump in for. Dynasty Warriors and Hot Shots Golf so far have been bigger successes, with notable spikes upon release, but even those haven't carried sales substantially.
If GT5, FFXIII, and MGS4 (more so the former two than the latter) can't change the image of the ps3, then it will officially be dead in Japan, imo.
