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Forums - Sales Discussion - Xbox 360 being phased out of Japan

LordMatrix on 16 August 2011
ryuzaki57 said:
Japanese retailers should have banned the 360 from their shelves the second Microsoft tried to steal Tales of Vesperia and Star Ocean 4 from us. It's never too late I guess...


Why you acting all butthurt? Not like like the games didn`t eventually hit PS3 and it`s not like PS3 owners had automatic rights to those titles either. The publishers decided to put it on X360 first for whatever reason... that was what it came down to.

@kowenicki: I don`t see how leaving Japan would be good at all. I think they will stick it out for the long haul. Microsoft gained tons of ground this generation compared to last in Japan. I know... I know it still isn`t much but if you are making improvements than why give up? Not to mention that it would likely mean less japanease support and that would not be good for their platform as a whole.



 How our favorite systems are just like humans and sometimes have issues finding their special someone...

Xbox 360 wants to Kinect &  PS3 wants to Move!  Why are both systems having such relationship problems?  The reason is they both become so infactuated with desire while watching the Wii as it waggles on by. They simply want what they can't have.

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Cirio on 16 August 2011
Shinobi-san said:

You don't get to say whats debatable and whats not.

Japanese gamers do not like western games. Simple as that! If they wanted to play a western game they would, im sure they not not buying western games just because its from the west. Thats insane to even suggest that (which is what you suggesting).

And yeah i too have never been to japan and i dont know many japanese friends, and there probably is a minority group of japanese gamers who think that of western developed games, but it certainly isnt the masses who share those views imo.

So are you suggesting that Metal Gear Solid (a shooter) would still be popular in Japan if it were developed by a Western team? How would its success in Japan differ from games like Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell and Uncharted? What about Resident Evil? Would that still be popular in Japan? Gran Turismo?



BenVTrigger on 16 August 2011
makingmusic476 said:

To touch on the "Japanese people don't play Western games" subject, I remember reading an article awhile back about a Japanese developer who was given the chance to play a demo of Uncharted 2. Upon starting the demo, he sat there with the controller in his hand, unmoving, for several moments. When the developers asked why he wasn't doing anything (he was at the train crash scene, from what I recall), he said, "Well, when will the cutscene end?"

I also read an article featuring game designers from Square Enix who talked about how Japanese developers generally look down upon Western development culture, and how they personally, upon working with such developers from Eidos, began to realize the benefits of such methods of design. Though these articles may be one and the same.

There is certainly a lot of ignorance to be found in the Japanese gaming industry, both from gamers and developers alike, and this no doubt has some impact on the sales of Western developed games in the region.

Yeah I think this is the biggest reason why the Japanese don't get into Western games its because they simply haven't been educated too much on them and have very misconstrued ideas of what western gameing is like.  Western games get very little coverage in Japan as a whole so its easy for them to believe and buy into stereotypes about games not from Japan.  I too read an article about a Japanese developer who was asked to play Just Cause 2 and he said when the demo started he had no idea what to do and was very confused and lost, it being a true open world game which are very unpopular in Japan so far.

 

Basically I think over time the Japanese will embrace the West more and more in gameing as they realize alot of high quality titles and developers are outside of Japan.  They are so used to and familiar with companies like Square Enix, Sony, Nintendo, Konami, and Capcom that developrs like Bethesda, Epic, Id, Bioware, and the rest just seem foreign and strange to them.



Shinobi-san on 16 August 2011
Cirio said:
Shinobi-san said:

You don't get to say whats debatable and whats not.

Japanese gamers do not like western games. Simple as that! If they wanted to play a western game they would, im sure they not not buying western games just because its from the west. Thats insane to even suggest that (which is what you suggesting).

And yeah i too have never been to japan and i dont know many japanese friends, and there probably is a minority group of japanese gamers who think that of western developed games, but it certainly isnt the masses who share those views imo.

So are you suggesting that Metal Gear Solid (a shooter) would still be popular in Japan if it were developed by a Western team? How would its success in Japan differ from games like Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell and Uncharted? What about Resident Evil? Would that still be popular in Japan? Gran Turismo?

I have no idea. Those games are established brands and were released a long time ago. If they were developed by western developers then who knows? Would the game even get sold in japan? How would the availability be? Would it be the exact same game? Theres way too many variables to say for sure what would happen.

But if everything was done the exact same (not just gameplay wise) then yeah i think they would but thats just my guess.



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Legend11 on 16 August 2011

At this point it doesn't really matter anyways. Japan is moving towards handhelds and the vast majority of niche games will be on them while the AA and AAA games will be multiplatform. I think next generation will see all consoles doing worse in Japan.



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Xen on 16 August 2011

That's too bad. The only 360 games I want are from Japan or exclusive to the region.

@Everyone bashing Japanese gamers for apparently viewing western games as inferior... well, they have been for two decades, and Japan ran laps around the west up until this gen. Of course western games are seen as inferior.



MarioParty619 on 16 August 2011

why does japan hate xbox so much?? is it because it's a western console or is it because the playstation brand is just much more popular over their?? im confused..



Icyedge on 16 August 2011
BenVTrigger said:
makingmusic476 said:

To touch on the "Japanese people don't play Western games" subject, I remember reading an article awhile back about a Japanese developer who was given the chance to play a demo of Uncharted 2. Upon starting the demo, he sat there with the controller in his hand, unmoving, for several moments. When the developers asked why he wasn't doing anything (he was at the train crash scene, from what I recall), he said, "Well, when will the cutscene end?"

I also read an article featuring game designers from Square Enix who talked about how Japanese developers generally look down upon Western development culture, and how they personally, upon working with such developers from Eidos, began to realize the benefits of such methods of design. Though these articles may be one and the same.

There is certainly a lot of ignorance to be found in the Japanese gaming industry, both from gamers and developers alike, and this no doubt has some impact on the sales of Western developed games in the region.

Yeah I think this is the biggest reason why the Japanese don't get into Western games its because they simply haven't been educated too much on them and have very misconstrued ideas of what western gameing is like.  Western games get very little coverage in Japan as a whole so its easy for them to believe and buy into stereotypes about games not from Japan.  I too read an article about a Japanese developer who was asked to play Just Cause 2 and he said when the demo started he had no idea what to do and was very confused and lost, it being a true open world game which are very unpopular in Japan so far.

 

Basically I think over time the Japanese will embrace the West more and more in gameing as they realize alot of high quality titles and developers are outside of Japan.  They are so used to and familiar with companies like Square Enix, Sony, Nintendo, Konami, and Capcom that developrs like Bethesda, Epic, Id, Bioware, and the rest just seem foreign and strange to them.

Its not a matter of realising there are high quality titles outside Japan. They simply have different taste. Just look at Crash Bandicoot, it sold millions in Japan and thats back in 1999. It is very possible for a western developer to sell well in Japan if they do something that fit their taste. Though, by doing so, it may not sell as well in america, different taste...



mjk45 on 16 August 2011
CGI-Quality said:
20happyballs said:
CGI-Quality said:
enrageorange said:

 Software tie ratios for the 360 are signifcantly higher than for either the ps3 or wii in Japan.

Much of this coould be said for the PS3 in WW software in conjunction with the 360 regarding multiplats. Even when the 360 sells more, because of a lower fanbase, the PS3 has a higher attach ratio. Doesn't say much, except that your competition sold more hardware than you.

You don't seem to get it. He's talking about ratios and so it doesnt matter how much hardware was sold. 1000 to 500 is the same as 50 to 25. They are both 2:1 ratios. The xbox 360 having a higher software tie ratio says that the owners of an xbox 360 like to game on the system more than the owners of the other systems.

I actually knew exactly what he was talking about (which is why I referenced PS3 multiplats - which often sell less overall to a smaller userbase, meaning that percentage of users on PS3 would be higher in the ratio). Quite a simple task of math.

In the grand scheme of it all, you can't get by on ratios, or the PS3 would be considered the better console for multiplatform games in many cases. That's the point at which you missed.

the top statement  about tie ratio to me says that the 360 is selling to the Japanese  hardcore gamer, who are buying games they once would have imported

secondly  I suspect that when two consoles get closer and closer to parity ( what is it? about 3 million the difference on 50 + mill bases) that tie ratio  differences would be  more telling.



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Joelcool7 on 19 August 2011

Man this could be the end of Microsoft in Japan. If all the major retailers drop the 360 and don't carry Microsoft's next console its all but over for MS. Not that their Japanese branch was ever that successful but it sure helped get japanese developer support. I wonder if MS goes down in Japan if the developers will continue making games for the Nex-Box.



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