Microsoft aims toward Japanese audience

[Broken Goggles]

I don't know if you've read the news on this, but Microsoft is trying hard to get the support of the people in Japan. Here's some things that I found online:

There was a survey that was held in Japan that asked which console they wanted to have. Here's the results:
PS3: 60%
Revolution: 8%
XBOX 360: 2%
Undecided: 30%
XBOX wasn't really popular in Japan, not even during the early days I think. They didn't sell nearly as much as the GC or PS2. So now they're deciding on getting help by hiring Japanese developers like Hironobu Sakaguchi and Tetsuya Mizuguchi.
My Comments: I say, make more RPGs. It doesn't take a genius to know that Japan loves RPGs. Microsoft should've paid more attention to their competition's (PS2/3) genres instead of making more and more FPS and racing games. Not that I have a problem with them, but they're all the same to me.
FPS: Hands...Gun...done. How can they call this first person? How can any FPS games call themselves first person when it's not. Compare your field of vision to these games and you'll know what I mean. Not to mention blinking.
Racing: Race...that's pretty much all you do...

Another topic: In Japan, their 360 will also be backwards compatable. Problem; there's only 12 titles available:
Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
Fable
Forza Motorsport
Grand Theft Auto Double Pack
Halo
Halo 2
Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack
Jade Empire
Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden Black
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3
The Simpsons: Hit & Run
Compare that to the US's 200+ titles that are available for 360.

Probably the most horrible thing is the launch of 360 in Japan. Now, we got a good variety and amount of games but Japan will only get 6 games on release day:
Every Party
FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup
Ridge Racer 6
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Perfect Dark Zero
Tetris: The Grandmaster Ace
Tetris was so unexpected <_< I also heard that DOA4 got pushed back 7 days later after the launch of 360.

That's pretty much it. Your thoughts? I personally think that what Microsoft is doing is pretty good. With all the negatives popping up, it's a bit harder for them to accomplish their goal. FINALLY, they get support by people who know the Japanese audience's interest. To be honest, I wasn't surprised when I found out that FPS were not popular in Japan. Which means more RPGs! (Hopefully). If they fail, well then no doubt Japan will continue to cheer on for PS3.
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Family Guy > Everything on Earth

[Chiyoumen]

Personally I think Microsoft is wasting there time and money attracting the Japanese audience to buy an Xbox/Xbox 360. Bill Gates tried his best to promote the Japanese release of the Xbox but it didn't turn out the way he wanted it to be. The Xbox sales are so bad in Japan that even the original Game Boy Advance is outselling it. I think the reasons why the Japanese don't care much about the Xbox/Xbox 360 is that it's American made and it doesn't has as many Japanese made games for the console. I think Microsoft should stop trying to get a hold on the Japanese market and focus more on the North America and Europe market where the Xbox is doing strongly well there.

I'm not much an Xbox fan myself but this is what I believe Microsoft should do.

And one last thing, this is how the demand the Xbox 360 is in Japan.

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000770067844/

It's pretty much self-explanatory.
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Anything we assume at this point is an assumption.

[Vanilla_Go_Rilla]

It's really a combination of a number of things. Perhaps the two most glaring difficulties in marketing the XBox are a lack of retail shelf space like in the article that Chiyoumen pointed out, that makes the XBox rather difficult to expose to customers than the other consoles. Especially the PS3, which has the most sheer popularity.

Then there's that issue of "home-made" pride, where the Japanese are more likely to support, promote, and successfully sell something that was made in Japan rather than America or anywhere else for that matter.

Basically, it's all a problem rooted in marketing. Not the system itself. The XBox 360 just doesn't have enough of a fan base in Japan, nor does it have enough game variety to make a successful sales plan yet.
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Better to keep your mouth shut and make people wonder if you are stupid, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

[Dark Lord Zenigame]

The chances of the Xbox 360 doing well in Japan are infintesimal. The main draw for American gamers is PC game ports, FPS and Madden, three things that Japanese gamers couldn't give a damn about. (same goes for me...)

The original Xbox had the image of only DOA fanboys wanting the system, and I'm sure that the same will go for the 360.
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「無一物」
仏に逢えば仏を殺せ。
祖に逢えば祖を殺せ。
何物にも捕われる、
縛られず、
ただあるがままに己を生きる。

[HeatShadow]

There are only two things I really need to comment about. First, it's not that there are too many FPS games on the X-Box (which there are, but that's becide the point), but there are way too many shooter games period. Ever since Halo and Halo 2, people have been trying to compete with that, and game developers are trying to make games more realistic as a whole. What's sad is that none of the people they make these games for will ever be satisfied until a reasonably good virtual reality device is made.

Second, I find it odd that only 8% of those polled wanted a Revolution. Of course, maybe it's just they haven't heard much about it, but still.
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Stuck In The Middle With You; a Metroid and Halo crossover
Devil May Cry: Renegades

[Unknown Neo]

The xbox is not for the japenese audience. It's too big and there's too many games that they don't care about on there. Playstation does a better job with the games just like nintendo does and that's why the xbox fails in japan.

[Broken Goggles]

[Blues_EXE128]

Stop bashing the 360 with no lack of evidence. Microsoft gives a damn about Japan, and they've shown us that.

By saying that Japan doesn't care about sports games, you're showing us that you're an idiot. Does Winning Eleven ring a bell? 360 Exclusive in Japan, and that game and it's numerous versions have sold better than any Madden game did over here. By saying that Microsoft doesn't give a damn about RPGs, you're blind. Has anyone here ever heard of FinalFantsyXI for the 360? Yeah, that's what I thought. And Blue Dragon? Yeah, it was supposed to come out soon. And it is going to. Guess who's in charge of making the game? Try the folks over at Mistwalker, the same guys who were responseable for Final FantsyI- FintalFantsyX. Still think the Japanese don't give two shits about the Xbox360? Think again.
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[Zodiac]

I think just seeing that Dead or Alive is still going to be an X-Box game shows that Japan has some kind of interest. Really, I would have expected it to get moved over to the PS3. Well, it could just be that Mr. Gates threw enough money to the company to keep DoA.
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Red Vs. Blue

[Dark Lord Zenigame]

Actually, it's because Team Ninja likes the system rather than any consumer inerest in the system.

That said, their five games have moved quite a few X-boxes, and it looks to be the same with the 360.
My sister got the original one for the sole reason of DOA3, and she wants a 360 for just so she can play DOA4. ^_^;;

[Ryouko]

[Ryouko]

[Synchro-Kun]

[Broken Goggles]

Well 30% were undecided. So I'm sure if those people had to choose 1 of the 3 then I'm sure all the scores would've been higher.

From what I've seen in games that are popular in Japan: Swords > Guns
Lots of characters have swords nowadays. There's not much you can do with a gun other than to pull the trigger or hit someone with it. With a sword, you can do tons of fancy tricks, whether ground, aerial, or just plain fantasy moves with cosmic explosions.
Dante from DMC is the only person I can think of that actually had fancy tricks with a gun. There has to be others. I guess you could include characters like Barret who could do moves like Catastrophe.

Microsoft needs to let their imagination run wild. They'll get better story ideas and more sick moves. Super Nova in FFVII was truly something creative. If they did something like that, MS would only say everyone on the world died. Where as in the fantasy world, a character can actually survive that. Plus, the world is still in 1 piece after getting incinerated.
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Family Guy > Everything on Earth

[Dark Lord Zenigame]

To be fair, that's not Microsoft's fault, but rather that of game developers.
And the main FPS market doesn't really care for such things.

There are some games on the Xbox that have more creative elements, like the Shin Megami Tensei game that came out, but the Japanese for the most part don't really care.

It doesn't help that the thing's huge as hell, and the controllers are only a minor improvement over the originals...
_________________
「無一物」
仏に逢えば仏を殺せ。
祖に逢えば祖を殺せ。
何物にも捕われる、
縛られず、
ただあるがままに己を生きる。

[Blues_EXE128]

As for the lack of evidence, http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3145997.

Enough said.[/url]
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[Maverynthia]

You got that right Blues EXE, Xbox 360 is definately 404 on the scale... Hrmm.. XBox 404... XD (or more likely XP)

I think the problem is that yes they are going to make maybe 3 or 4 games to try to appeal to the Japanese people, however dropping $400 for 3 or 4 games you might like isn't worth it...
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[Sol]

[Sol]

[Broken Goggles]

Well it seems the 360 was a success. It sold out at the location of the launch. Which FYI is only at 1 store. It's a good start. We'll just have to wait and see what happens to other stores.

There is 1 comment that Peter Moore of MS said that bothered me:
"History tells us that no great empire lasts forever. In the case of the Sony PlayStation, obviously it has been a great empire. But when a superior culture comes along, typically, it means the end of that empire. We believe that the superior culture is the Xbox 360 games experience, particularly the Xbox Live experience, which will bring communities from around the world together through gaming."
They're already declaring this better than PS3 when it clearly hasn't even been released yet. Total BS. I find this to be kind of unprofessional, officials speaking that a game/console is the superior and the competition is inferior. It's like a videogame director saying "This is a game that I made."
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Family Guy > Everything on Earth

[Enzan Chaud]

Blues EXE, all those titles are things X-Box 360 is GOING to come out with, because they noticed in the past their lack of focus on Japan. We are talking about that it hasn't gotten enough of a strong foundation yet until it releases those games. The Japanese DIDN'T give two shits until they saw the 360... and they certainly cared less about the original X-Box...

Not only that, but Winning Eleven is a Soccer Game that has been made over and over again... this is gunna be... game 10...

Yes, we have heard of Final Fantasy XI, and Blue Dragon... don't act like most of us haven't. But those games haven't come out yet... until hey do, the 360 MIGHT suffer just a tiny bit... if it sold out at the one store it was selling, that's pretty good though. I'm not Bashing the X-Box 360... and I don't totally support it either, but if they focus 360 more on the Japanese market unlike what they did with the original... then it's great for it's marketing... not that I'm gunna buy one.
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[Chiyoumen]

I found pictures on the Xbox 360 launch in Japan.

http://onthexbox.com/?view=article&article=489&cat=3

Not bad. There are even crowds of people lining up to buy the console. I can also see that Peter Moore even show up to help support the Xbox 360 in Japan. As far as I can tell this type of excitement would not last very long as it did with the Xbox 4 years ago. The Xbox 360 would do moderately well during the first few weeks after launch and then after that the excitement would wear down, sales of the console would go in a slump, and then people would soon forget about the Xbox 360. We'll have to wait and see if Microsoft can keep the Xbox 360 afloat in Japan.
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Anything we assume at this point is an assumption.