| KBG29 said: The problem with consoles in Japan, is not to do with Japan itself. The problem stims from Sony and Nintendo, refusing to expand the console market. PlayStation and Nintendo consoles and handhelds should be a lot more functional than they are, but do to their lack of growth over the last 20 years, everything else is starting to eat away at their sales. I 100% garntee that if Sony had made an effort to run apps and software outside of gaming on PS3 and PS4, and showed it as a console that could replace your PC, the sales would have been much higher. If both 3DS and The Vita had Phone capabilities, they would be dominating the mobile scene in Japan right now. People are not less interested in great gaming experiences, but great gaming experiences are harder to justify when you already have a $800 phone with your all the time, or a $600 tablet at home.If great gaming wants to survive, then the platforms that deliver that experience have to eveolve to compete with everything else on the market. |
I agree with you on this. Even PSP should have had phone capabilities, and it`s even worse for Vita, it had a 3G version and even uses a heavily modified android as core OS. Nintendo is so stubborn with their vision of how gaming should be that they get suicidal at times, I think it`s a miracle they are even bringing something to mobile.
Have 3DS be also an OK phone it could have eaten some iPhones sales! Nintendo lacks of vision is ridiculous at times. With Switch let`s see how they handle that.
Sony on other side still pushed consoles as multi-media devices for many years and sold a lot based on that, I think it`s strange this gen they aren`t caring anymore about it actually.
And we have to think, phones nowadays are as capable as full fledged PCs, hell, probably iPhone 7 is stronger than the rumoured Switch specs and Galaxy S8 will also be a monster, probably with a 4K screen.
And I don`t think this trend is going to stop. Console gaming in Japan isn`t dead, but it will be a niche market while mobile will be the main driver of revenue, and it`s just a matter of time `til we see a DQ or Tales of or any heavily Japan based franchise to bring a main title to mobile.
P.S.: And DQ IX already was a DS game, wich caught many people off-guard but was still a great choice business wise. Developers are not going to insist on consoles and handelhels if it`s the best for business to make iOS and Android games, they don`t have any love for dedicated gaming machines nor they should. DQ XI is already on 3DS, i`m surprised it wasn`t announced for phones yet, but it`s almost sure it will be released on iOS and Android.
