microsoft giving up japan?

[omoneru]

>> But what I really was trying to say is that Microsoft being a foreign brand with the relatively new foreign Xbox brand will obviously have much higher barrier of entry (and this applies to all markets in the world) than Sony or Nintendo due to brand loyalty and how long Sony and Nintendo has successfully delivered to the Japanese.

Indeed. It's is quite a challenge for Microsoft to reach the same level of brand recognition in Japan.

However, I have stated elsewhere in this forum that it is not impossible. Since the initial fiasco, the game division seems to have learned the market very well and began to implement better strategies, although it is too late for this generation.

One of their new plans that I've found quite interesting and perhaps effective to penetrate the market in the long run was to provide young students with free development kits and create a new generation of Japanese talents who are familiar with their development scheme.

It simply takes a lot of time and sophistication in their strategy and implementation to penetrate the market where Nintendo and Sony have saturated. Until the American Headquarter tells MS Japan that their time is up, there still is a chance to cultivate the market in preparation for the next generation, 2011 or 2012.

>> However, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear, both from Japanese developers can gain worldwide recognition and sell superbly outside Japan (in the millions). Its much harder for a Western game franchise to penetrate the Japanese gaming community and gain mainstream appeal in Japan

Yes. I see your point about the barriers of entry. As far as I see it, it seems to concern the issue of game design and genre, rather than consumer xenophobia.

Take Mass Effect, for example. I've played the game, and thought it's brilliant in many ways. To me, it was superior to most games developed by Japanese studios, if not all. But the character design of the protagonist, Shepard, doesn't belong to the Japanese market. Likewise teammates, villains, and stories -- they simply don't match with their tastes. You can call their preferences idiosyncratic, and I think indeed they are. But that's just how they are.

On the other hand, Japanese characters, such as Mario, Sonic, FF characters et al, seem to enjoy decent reception in the Western market. This is perhaps because these characters are inherently more universal (in the West-East dichotomy) than, say, Shepard is. Snake is an interesting character, for he is somewhat closer to American heroes in terms of his looks and his talk. But I think the success of the Metal Gear Series in Japan is less to do with how he looks, but more to do with the fact that the franchise has been there for over twenty years.

I think we've covered the genre issue. FPS or Third-Person Shooter won't do it.

>> but the crux of my point was regarding Japanese developers and talent. I think they will care way more if MS pulls the plug, especially Namco, Square Enix, Capcom, who are shooting for global mainstream sales, distribution and income (based on upcoming games and recent financial reports). This will only be better for Japanese gamers who will have more games at the end of the day.

Yes. Though, Japanese major studios are concerned about MS's platform mostly because the American and European markets constitute the significant portion of their revenue structure. It's not exactly because they expect to achieve incredible success with their XBOX releases in Japan, at least this generation. The presence of XBOX in Japan should help them build better business partnership with MS for their success in the West.

I'm going to tell you my personal preference. I love games developed by Western developers. I have enormous respect for many of them. That's why I bug a Japanese friend of mime who has XBOX360 (yes these people do exist) but plays THE IDOLM@STER all day to let me play American games.