As promised Microsoft's 'RPG Premiere' has just come to a close in Japan and there's enough stats here to give even the most casual RPG fan the horn. One thing's for sure, MS isn't going down in Japan without a fight.
Let's get right to it. First up is Namco Bandai's colourful Tales of Vesperia, which has been confirmed for release this August in Japan and the US, with us dirty Europeans having to wait a far longer into 2009.
It's not all bad news for us though; there's a demo planned to arrive on Marketplace this month, so you get eight months to decide whether or not to buy it.
But as expected, Square Enix took centre stage, showcasing three RPGs that will be coming to Xbox 360 in the next 12 months.
It was revealed that the promising-looking Last Remnant will be arriving on 360 before PS3, with a simultaneous launch worldwide this winter. Namco Bandai, take note.
Meanwhile, further embarrassing the localisation team at Namco, the gorgeous Infinite Undiscovery is due for a staggered worldwide release in September, with Europe down for September 5 and the US on September 2.
Last up is the reveal of Square Enix's latest Star Ocean, subtitled The Last Hope, which will be out sometime next year.
A CGI trailer was shown at the event, apparently showing a more science fiction art style and not much in the way of plot. It should be decent.
Surprisingly there was no showing from MS-funded studio Mistwalker, which we would've at least expected to turn up at the event. Maybe it's saving Cry On for E3?
Looks like MS really have the bit between their teeth when it comes to Japan. Problem is, even PS3 is performing poorly in the east, so how do MS expect their fortunes to change. Japan are obviously not as interested in next gen as the west.
It's good to see MS making an effort to appeal to a wider audience and trying to shake off the "360 only has FPS" myth... More games that appeal to the Japanese market can only be a good thing for the 360 (it's hardly going to make the situation over there any worse for MS, and may well go some way towards making the 360 slightly more palatable to the Japanese)
That's because they seem to have it hard for the Wii. Clearly the Japanese like jumping around like crazy people. Although with their history of extreme TV shows and karaoke I can't say I'm all that shocked
My question goes thusly: how many of those RPGs feature annoying kids with annoying voices and storylines-by-numbers?
Looks like MS really have the bit between their teeth when it comes to Japan. Problem is, even PS3 is performing poorly in the east, so how do MS expect their fortunes to change. Japan are obviously not as interested in next gen as the west.
True, I doubt it'll have a mass effect (sorry) on the Japanese front. Maybe a sudden boom in software sales- before settling back down to the normal 3 consoles a month routine. I'm kinda picky about RPG's- especially JRPG's- Final Fantasy 7 maybe one of my favourite games of all time, but since then the sequels have been more than a bit 'meh'- so I'm not sure what to think of Square these days.
Hopefully it'll help the morons understand that the 360 has more to it than shooters.
That's because they seem to have it hard for the Wii. Clearly the Japanese like jumping around like crazy people. Although with their history of extreme TV shows and karaoke I can't say I'm all that shocked
My question goes thusly: how many of those RPGs feature annoying kids with annoying voices and storylines-by-numbers?
Probably all of them. Don't get me wrong, I love a good rpg, but this new generation has not produced a great eastern influenced rpg yet. We want something that will be remembered in years to come.
JRPGS still use a same old format but I'll always enjoy one with good production values and is enjoyable to play no matter the story. Good to see some hitting the 360 before the PS3 but i'm pretty sure that there will be a few in the pipeline for PS3 as well!!
That's all well and good, MS, but when will you understand that all we want isthat big one? Come on, we've seen plenty of Square-Enix RPG's on the 360, wouldn'tdishing out a bit of dollar for FFXIII really turn the tide? It would for me.
The fact that they are investing in a market that hasnt been succesful for them in the past takes big balls. They are obviously going to get some stick from the obvious quarters but if they are serious about expanding their portfolio and their audience then this will surley prove to people that they are serious on the matter.
This might even double their sales in Japan to about 12.
The fact that they are investing in a market that hasnt been succesful for them in the past takes big balls. They are obviously going to get some stick from the obvious quarters but if they are serious about expanding their portfolio and their audience then this will surley prove to people that they are serious on the matter.
This might even double their sales in Japan to about 12.
*Thinks about it? Crazy Japanese!*
MS don't need balls with all that cash. They are in the fortunate position of having no noose around their necks if anything goes t**s-up.
Yay. Star Ocean 4 is good news (although I may wait for the PS3 version)
However Infinite Discovery, Vesperia and SO are all the same type of combat and really not what Japan is after. I don't know about the fourth one but these are more western influenced in their combat.
Man, they must've searched a long time for the most cheesy RPG name, to come up with Infinite Undiscovery... And Lost Oddisey... I'm sick of that kinda names.
Man, they must've searched a long time for the most cheesy RPG name, to come up with Infinite Undiscovery... And Lost Oddisey... I'm sick of that kinda names.
Just had to put it out there.
Yeah, these recent developers have good talent but no creative edge.
The fact that they are investing in a market that hasnt been succesful for them in the past takes big balls. They are obviously going to get some stick from the obvious quarters but if they are serious about expanding their portfolio and their audience then this will surley prove to people that they are serious on the matter.
This might even double their sales in Japan to about 12.
*Thinks about it? Crazy Japanese!*
MS don't need balls with all that cash. They are in the fortunate position of having no noose around their necks if anything goes t**s-up.
I would disagree there (Not a 1st).
I think it does take big kahonies to repeatedly go back to the Asian market and keep trying to convince that market to buy their product, when the marketplace is so blinkered to their own corporate loyalty.
The fact that they are investing in a market that hasnt been succesful for them in the past takes big balls. They are obviously going to get some stick from the obvious quarters but if they are serious about expanding their portfolio and their audience then this will surley prove to people that they are serious on the matter.
This might even double their sales in Japan to about 12.
*Thinks about it? Crazy Japanese!*
MS don't need balls with all that cash. They are in the fortunate position of having no noose around their necks if anything goes t**s-up.
I would disagree there (Not a 1st).
I think it does take big kahonies to repeatedly go back to the Asian market and keep trying to convince that market to buy their product, when the marketplace is so blinkered to their own corporate loyalty.
Money and Kahonies, then.
No, just money. And stupidity.
I think we should just agree to disagree on this one.
The fact that they are investing in a market that hasnt been succesful for them in the past takes big balls. They are obviously going to get some stick from the obvious quarters but if they are serious about expanding their portfolio and their audience then this will surley prove to people that they are serious on the matter.
This might even double their sales in Japan to about 12.
*Thinks about it? Crazy Japanese!*
MS don't need balls with all that cash. They are in the fortunate position of having no noose around their necks if anything goes t**s-up.
I would disagree there (Not a 1st).
I think it does take big kahonies to repeatedly go back to the Asian market and keep trying to convince that market to buy their product, when the marketplace is so blinkered to their own corporate loyalty.
Money and Kahonies, then.
No, just money. And stupidity.
I think we should just agree to disagree on this one.
People forget that Japan is only part of the market Microsoft are targeting here. South Korea is another mass market they've been targeting recently. Even China is a bigger market now than most of Europe and unlike the US the market is growing rapidly. RPG's are yesterdays news in Asia. It's all MMO's now. S.Korea has internet cafes open 24 hour's a day dedicated to WoW or some other crazy Asian MMO. Microsoft need to be targeting this market to succeed in Asia.
Weekly sales of around 1,500 360's in Japan is an embarassment. No Japanese developer in their right mind would release three RPG's for the 360, so obviously a MS briefcase full of cash has been sent to Square Enix and the others to get them to do this, either the briefcase or the severed horses head in the bed; you choose Square Enix. I think that's how it works.
But you know this in a way is an admission by Microsoft themselves that they have too many steroid fuelled macho shooty games on the 360. Throw in some RPG's and horse racing sims and the Japs will love you for pete's sake. Continue to haemorrhage the Xbox library with violent games and pacifist nations like Japan will turn their small noses up at you.
Weekly sales of around 1,500 360's in Japan is an embarassment. No Japanese developer in their right mind would release three RPG's for the 360...
Unless of course those Japanese developers are looking at the bigger picture and hoping to appeal to markets beyond their own country - markets in which the 360 currently seems to be doing rather well... Yes, the PS3 is coming on in leaps and bounds and may or may not have already overtaken sales of the 360 in Europe (although that depends who you believe), but the 360 is still currently the most successful of the HD consoles, and so it is hardly surprising that developers are embracing it...
Weekly sales of around 1,500 360's in Japan is an embarassment. No Japanese developer in their right mind would release three RPG's for the 360, so obviously a MS briefcase full of cash has been sent to Square Enix and the others to get them to do this, either the briefcase or the severed horses head in the bed; you choose Square Enix. I think that's how it works.
But you know this in a way is an admission by Microsoft themselves that they have too many steroid fuelled macho shooty games on the 360. Throw in some RPG's and horse racing sims and the Japs will love you for pete's sake. Continue to haemorrhage the Xbox library with violent games and pacifist nations like Japan will turn their small noses up at you.
Not today little man. Your about as tiring as doing a marathon with your legs tied together.
Like many have stated, it's shocking to think that after last gen MS have managed to out peform every other console for quality JRPG's. I have to pinch myself every time I look at the line-up. Again, like someone has stated, I think Japanese developers are starting to look at the bigger picture, ie worldwide markets in order to make a decent profit this gen. That's the only reason for 360 getting such great 3rd party support as the console performs p**s poor in Japan.
I've noticed a recent onrush of quality RPG titles making their way to the 360 as well. Surprising because that is the very reason I've always favoured the Playstation format in the past. I do love a good RPG!! Nice to see Microsoft finally embracing other genres.
Quite a few great titles coming out to both consoles this year it seems then. Looks like a good year in store for me!
The fact that they are investing in a market that hasnt been succesful for them in the past takes big balls. They are obviously going to get some stick from the obvious quarters but if they are serious about expanding their portfolio and their audience then this will surley prove to people that they are serious on the matter.
This might even double their sales in Japan to about 12.
*Thinks about it? Crazy Japanese!*
MS don't need balls with all that cash. They are in the fortunate position of having no noose around their necks if anything goes t**s-up.
That is utter nonsense, MS only have loads of cash, because they have brilliant business people, I don't think they would keep their jobs for long if they were found to be throwing piles of cash away needlessly, it makes no sense. MS has many small divisions which all operate as individual companies, and if they don't perform, people will be fired, it's as simple as that.
So, investment in Japanese RPGs isn't obviously just for Japanese gamers, it's for a worldwide audience.
It's good to see MS making an effort to appeal to a wider audience and trying to shake off the "360 only has FPS" myth...
Its not a myth though. The majority of the best 360 games are FPS, bar numerous other shooters and sports games there isnt much else. Microsoft wouldnt be trying to shake of a "myth" unless it was true, and its the main reason the 360 and the original Xbox failing in Japan. When Blue Dragon came out sales of the 360 soared for a brief period, but they didnt have enough to follow. Hopefully this will allow them to get a better foothold and encourage similar titles to come along. Because with sales of titles like Viva Pinata being dismal, the other genres need a boost.
As a percentage of games released the PS3 has more shooters than the 360... PS3 fanboys moan that all the 360 has are shooters... then go and have kittens about Resistance 2, Killzone 2... the exclusives of Unreal Touranament 3 and Haze... etc, etc, etc...
Its called hypocrisy, its not exclusive to PS3 fans... but they do seem to excel in it.
The 360 has a wider range of games than the PS3 because its been around longer, its crapping all over the PS3 on the JRPG front with a decent enough selection already out there and the PS3 collecting the cast offs and getting dodgy ports a year or so later (Enchanted Arms sucks on both, but at least the 360 version doesn't slow down when there's 1 thing on screen, and Eternal Sonata may not see light of day on PS3 outside Japan)... seems with the announcement of all these Square Enix titles that more and more Japanese developers can see the bigger picture, the 360 may be sucking in Japan but the biggest market of all, the US, its beating the PS3 nicely.
Out of all the games I have for my 360, less than half are FPS games or shooting games (and that's counting games like GRAW, GTAIV & N3 as shooting games...) - in fact the ratio is closer to 1/3 being shooting type games & 2/3 not...
All these titles will sell very well in the US and probably here too.Even if they don't perform well over in Japan, they still make profit and the devs know it
I don't understand all these arguments. At the end of the day we as gamers benefit. I'm more than happy with this announcement, means I can sink my teeth into some RPG action
I'd like to see a bit more about these games before passing judgement on them. It seem's a bit of a confused message. Are Microsoft pushing Japanese style RPG's on the 360 to increase market share in Asia or to offer more variety to Western gamers? Of course it could be both but Japanese RPG's that are successful in Asia tend not to do very well over here. There are a few exceptions but not that many. The PS2 had a lot of Japanese RPG's that were never released outside Asia because there was no interest in them.
Most of the time the reason they don't get released is because of the huge amount of translation that needs to go into them (in many different languages, not just English). That may include hiring voice actors to dub it as well. Unfortunately the genre isn't as popular in the west as it is in Japan so it's about whether or not they can turn a profit over here after investing in it.
The big name RPGs like Final Fantasy get released easily, but most never to make it over.
As a percentage of games released the PS3 has more shooters than the 360...
That's not even a fact man! You have absolutely no evidence to back it up. It's just your opinion nothing more.
If you weren't so stupidly loyal you would realise that both consoles are littered with FPS games. Why? Easy to make and they sell well.
Just check out the catologues retard, Wikipedia lists 360 PS3 games either released or announced, of those 35 are FPS's or 9.72%, Wikipedia also lists 490 game for the 360 of which 39 are FPS or 7.96%... I checked my figures, proves my point.
Yes there are loads of FPS's on both machines, but the 360 has a much bigger variety of games to choose from simply because it has a much bigger catlogue of games available... and its because FPS's are easy to make that there are so many making up the p**s poor range of PS3 titles.
As for blind loyalty, I've got all three current gen consoles sitting under my TV, so don't start throwing the fanboy accusations around... especially when you have no idea what you're talking about.
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