steverhcp02 said:
mrstickball said:
It's not so much that things change quickly, as it is that Microsoft did what was needed to make themselves competitive...Unlike last generation.
It's not that hard for a system to do well in Japan, or any country, really (provided there aren't strange circumstances such as mainland Europe's dislike of the X360 due to their hatred of Microsoft and their quality controls).
If the Playstation 3 had made the same moves - Bought up big 3rd party IPs, made aggressive pricedrops, and marketed properly, they could of been competitive with the Wii, but they didn't. Likewise, if the Wii had done the same, it'd be selling 70,000 a week and not 30,000 a week.
It's all about positioning, and Microsoft is trying to position themselves as the Otaku console in Japan, and not the Playstation 3. And unlike Sony, they are doing a pretty good job at securing a litany of JRPGs, western games, and other niche products that the Wii and PS3 have overlooked.
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i find your ignorance disturbing. You think MSFT just goes into some meetings and talks their way into securing SE to release exlusive RPG's on their console? Trusty Bell? Tales? So its the playstations fault that the PS2 was such a success in Europe and people ae comfortable and happy with the name brand....but thats not an actual variable you consider rationally or logically and assume its blind ignorance or hatred toward MSFT?....yet magically the 360 secures loads of RPG's from eastern dev's and secure timed exclusives and even get FF 13 and its "the PS3 overlooking"....give me a fucking break...hows about your post can be summed up liek this.
Europe doesnt settle for shit products and the Playstation brand is proven and strong. and MSFT is throwing pounds of money at japanese devs to stay alive and try to position themselves for next generation in japan. Period.
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No. I never said that Microsoft goes into meetings and secures everything by offering developers nothing.
Part of business is trading goods and services, as well as perks for securing certain products. We know that in Final Fantasy XIII's case, the deal involved Microsoft paying the fees that Sony had put in the contract if Square broke the exclusivity agreement. That was one way that Microsoft made the deal with SE a good one.
My argument was that Microsoft is doing whatever it takes to secure the products - Nintendo and Sony are not at certain levels. Sony, last gen, could do pretty much whatever they wanted to. They had a massive marketshare, so there was relatively little reason they needed to negotiate to get games on their platforms, since developers had an automatic incentive to produce their software on the platform. Likewise, Nintendo has a great deal of force this generation due to their insanely high penetration rate of Nintendo DS handhelds vs. the PSP, and even versus traditional consoles (hence DQIX on DS).
The hard fact is that Sony isn't going into negotiations and doing what Microsoft is, or even Nintendo. If Microsoft is throwing money, giving incentives, or just doing a better job of wooing the developers, they are doing it. Sony's 3rd party exclusive machine went from being the largest force since the NES to being the weakest of the 3 consoles this generation. You can argue what Microsoft is doing, but it's pretty easy to see what Sony is not doing enough to even get a foot in on securing anything in the East or West. Grand Theft Auto. Devil May Cry. Resident Evil. Silent Hill. Final Fantasy. Dragon Quest. I could keep listing games that were PS2-exclusive that they've lost for one reason or another to different companies, but they've done it. Why didn't Sony bother securing Tales of Vesperia before Microsoft? Eternal Sonata? Ridge Racer 6? Infinite Undiscovery?
Also, I don't buy the Playstation 3 brand name argument in Europe. If brand name was such a huge, wonderful point of sales in Europe, then why is the Wii curb stomping both Sony and Microsoft? Every Nintendo system before the Wii did very poorly in the region, yet Nintendo has magically cornered the market in a place that Sony has (according to you) such wonderful brand name recognition. That's what leads me to the whole idea that Europe dislikes the Microsoft corporation, and feel far more burned on the RROD defects than the US did.
