Dear JRPG Developers; You’ve made your bed, now lie in it.
Dear JRPG Developers; You’ve made your bed, now lie in it.
Recently a Square Enix spokesperson is cited to have said that they are falling behind in multi-platform development. However what is most ironic about this statement is that Square Enix has yet to release a multi-platform game. Instead they have published and released various JRPG’s exclusively on the Xbox 360; and without fail these titles have failed commercially, one after another. As to whether they have made Square Enix any money is dependent on the deal made between Microsoft Games Studio (MGS) and Square Enix (SE).
Square Enix however is not the only Japanese based developer that is producing exclusive JRPG’s for the Xbox 360. Namco Bandai is another major developer which is doing so. Releasing games like Ace Combat 6, Tales of Vesperia, and Eternal Sonata (timed exclusive) exclusively on the Xbox 360. According to their financial report, they are poised to release further exclusive games on the Xbox 360 this year. These developers have developed games exclusively on the Xbox 360, a platform which was struggling in Japan.
As to why they did so, speculation ranges from financial incentives to the developers wanting to use the Xbox 360 to break into the western market. Whatever the case, these developers have now created a situation where there is no viable platform in Japan where their games can prosper. Their games have failed to make any impact in the western market. These developers now have no viable market for their games anymore. Historically companies like Square Enix made up to 50% of their revenue in Japan.
This is no longer an option. Their actions have caused Japanese gamers to be alienated, and stunted the growth of the Playstation 3 in Japan. This confusion has caused a lot of Japanese gamers to either remain with their PS2 or upgrade to the Wii. Because of this, what could have been a viable platform (the Playstation 3) is no longer a viable platform. Now these developers are frantically thinking of ways to break into the western market because the Japanese market is no longer viable for them. Even now, support for the Playstation 3 is scarce but slowly picking up as they realize it’s their only option. Not releasing a game on the PS3 in Japan forfeits guaranteed 350K sold to retailer numbers in Japan alone. At 3X the user base of the Xbox 360, the PS3 is starved for JRPG’s and the user base is clearly ready take anything thrown at them. BUT they are not receptive to year old ports. As you can see from games like Ryu Ga Kotuku 3, they sell like hotcakes on the PS3 and they impact PS3 hardware sales positively (to propel it above the Wii).
Proving that if they had released games on the PS3 from the get go, they would have a platform with at least 5M + user base in Japan. But unfortunately, the PS3 has still yet to break 3M yet and now JRPG developers are looking for ways to survive the rising development costs in this poor economy. To that I say, you’ve made your bed. Now lie in it.
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FABULOUS ARTICLE
JRPG devs themeselves are responsible for the SHRINKING OF their genre
First due to un-evolving gameplay/story
now due to the wrong platform!
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