There was a comment earlier that Xbox should essentially pay for ports and I just wanted to say that I think that would set an awfully dangerous precedent, Japanese developers shouldn't get preferential treatment no matter how much some of us want them, if Xbox starts paying Japanese developers for ports then what is to stop someone who actually sells well on Xbox, a larger publisher, from demanding that Xbox pays them too? Nothing.
Has PlayStation/Nintendo/Steam ever had to pay for ports?
This is where Game Pass has helped things a lot, since Game Pass we've had quite a lot of titles release on Xbox for either the first time ever or the first time in years, and that's because there's a very real business reason to pay for the titles, Xbox isn't paying for ports, they are paying for a title to be in Game Pass, it's just a side benefit that the payment Microsoft gives essentially covers the porting costs.
Some companies like Sega, took advantage of Game Pass to get some IPs on Xbox (Yakuza, for example), and then their follow-ups didn't release directly onto Game Pass, why? Because Sega understands how to grow a fanbase, Sega actually takes a risk, unlike Square Enix, who are richer than Sega, Square is a very risk averse company and give up far too quickly.
I don't think Square hates Xbox, I just think they don't like taking risks, I think they can't be bothered to grow the Xbox fanbase and I think that now they're simply waiting for a Game Pass cheque (which I understand there's quite a long line) and maybe we'll eventually get them but I'm confident in saying that without Game Pass we won't get them at all because that's just Square.
There is definitely still work to be done (although I'm noticing people listing titles which are actually releasing on Xbox now, Lol) and that is mostly about making Xbox as easy to develop for as possible and increasing Xbox's install base to make ignoring it harder. I'm not sure even Xbox has to sell that great in Japan since it seems like a huge chunk of Japanese IP fans exist in the West too.
I don't really see outside of Square many major publishers/developers skipping Xbox, not including Sony money-hats and I still think things have improved a lot lately with Xbox support, way more Japanese support than the Xbox One era and some popular indie developers who skipped Xbox entirely have came back, like Supergiant Games. Xbox has some indie titles come to it first, Sony has some come to it first, nothing has changed there.
Only issue is that Xbox does barely fuck all to market them, as an example, Nobody Saves the World in 2022, a great indie from a well known developer, barely marketed and they dropped the ABK acquisition news on the same date of its release, Lmao. Y'all listed Gris which is...now coming, so that is also progress.
I don't think Xbox really needs to fund their own JRPGs either (although they should), the Japanese audience is a lot bigger than one genre (JRPG) and when was the last time someone like Sony funded their own JRPG? And honestly, I feel like nowadays the vast majority of the JRPG market comes from Nintendo and Square Enix but I'm not that invested so Idk for sure.
There are for sure some Japanese titles that still need to come, and I hope we get them for your guys benefit, but I wouldn't exactly call them large IPs, I'm sure Xbox will get round to them eventually but when everywhere else seems to see improvement, like Christ, even Atlus is back on Xbox, but Square is the most noticeable holdout still, maybe the issue is Square? Lol.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 18 December 2022
