Colonel Sanders is actually super popular in Japan. Somehow the stars aligned for KFC, because their restaurant's offerings is considered the traditional Japanese Christmas Eve dinner.
He is right. Nobody in the USA plays linear games like COD, GOW, Halo, Forza, Uncharted, Killzone 2, Resistance, etc.
You're reading it wrong. The point is that the US will play pretty much anything. The article even mentions that Japanese games do well in the US. But the Japanese in general won't play non-linear games (this is regardless of where they are developed).
Honestly, you can see this in their development styles - most Japanese developers make fairly linear games. Those that break away from that mold don't see a lot of success in Japan. Look at how terrible the Metroid series does over there for example.
It's some weird cultural thing, like the hatred of foreigners. I find it interesting though that Japanese developers are trying to drill that thinking out of them though.
What a load of crap. Non-linear is an entirely subjective thing because underneath everything, nearly every game is still pretty linear. People like to call games like GTA sandbox or non-linear but they're not. You still have to finish specific missions (which are scripted to a point of frustration) to unlock new shit (islands, weapons, etc) and progress. How's that any different from a game like FFVII, where you can run around the overworld but still eventually have to go to some place and continue the game?
The least linear game I've ever played was Way of the Samurai. Far less linear than any western game I've ever played, apart from the ones with no actual goals (like The Sims).
But since the Japanese hate foreigners so much, please explain why the Naughty Dog Crash Bandicoot games sold so incredibly well there. Please.
I may be late to the party, but I would still like to chip in on this.
I recently had a lecture by a PhD who had been studying Japanese games and Japanese game attitude for the past 7 years. His studies showed a general attitude found within Japanese people: their fear of being "lost". While this is prone to subjectivism, he countered this attitude again and again when he, as a foreigner, did something unexpected and not according to a plan. He speculated that this attitude transferred to games that Japanese play and thus an explanation as to why non-linear games where you potentially can feel "lost" perform poorly in Japan.
Colonel Sanders is actually super popular in Japan. Somehow the stars aligned for KFC, because their restaurant's offerings is considered the traditional Japanese Christmas Eve dinner.
Over the years, KFC Japan has successfully convinced the Japanese that its chicken is the thing to eat for Christmas. It puts on a special promotion during the Christmas season, using TV advertising and specially designed props. (Even someone dressed as Colonel Sanders, Kentucky Fried Chicken's founder, helps with the promotion, donning a Santa outfit at storefronts.) The "Christmas Barrel" it pushes during the season contains fried chicken, salad and cold dessert and costs about $45. "Kentucky for Christmas" has become an established notion here, said Sumeo Yokogawa, KFC Japan's spokesperson. All of these efforts result in sales that are 50 percent higher in December than other months.
Also my first search for KFC in Japan resulted in some sites with colonel pictures that are probably not appropriate for PA forums.
“Aside from the difficulty curve being too steep (starts too easy, ends too hard), the major complaint was the price, which is 240 MS Points ($3). It's a little sad that $3 is too much for a XBLIG for a lot of people, but if my games get played by a lot more people and make more money at $1, then I can't really complain.”
Schneider, unlike many developers, is open about his sales performance: “It appears this whole gamble will pay off,” he says, “but only once I get a couple more games out. September will hopefully be the first month I actually cover my living costs from sales of my games. Because of Crossfire's failure at $3 and JoyJoy and Inferno's success at $1, all my future XBLIG projects will be $1.”
He is right. Nobody in the USA plays linear games like COD, GOW, Halo, Forza, Uncharted, Killzone 2, Resistance, etc.
You're reading it wrong. The point is that the US will play pretty much anything. The article even mentions that Japanese games do well in the US. But the Japanese in general won't play non-linear games (this is regardless of where they are developed).
Honestly, you can see this in their development styles - most Japanese developers make fairly linear games. Those that break away from that mold don't see a lot of success in Japan. Look at how terrible the Metroid series does over there for example.
It's some weird cultural thing, like the hatred of foreigners. I find it interesting though that Japanese developers are trying to drill that thinking out of them though.
What a load of crap. Non-linear is an entirely subjective thing because underneath everything, nearly every game is still pretty linear. People like to call games like GTA sandbox or non-linear but they're not. You still have to finish specific missions (which are scripted to a point of frustration) to unlock new shit (islands, weapons, etc) and progress. How's that any different from a game like FFVII, where you can run around the overworld but still eventually have to go to some place and continue the game?
The least linear game I've ever played was Way of the Samurai. Far less linear than any western game I've ever played, apart from the ones with no actual goals (like The Sims).
But since the Japanese hate foreigners so much, please explain why the Naughty Dog Crash Bandicoot games sold so incredibly well there. Please.
I may be late to the party, but I would still like to chip in on this.
I recently had a lecture by a PhD who had been studying Japanese games and Japanese game attitude for the past 7 years. His studies showed a general attitude found within Japanese people: their fear of being "lost". While this is prone to subjectivism, he countered this attitude again and again when he, as a foreigner, did something unexpected and not according to a plan. He speculated that this attitude transferred to games that Japanese play and thus an explanation as to why non-linear games where you potentially can feel "lost" perform poorly in Japan.
Damn it. I'm trying to find an article in which a person (some developer) describes westerners as being excited to see a bear while hunting while Japanese people will crap their pants.
Couscous on
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
That's awesome. In fact, they need to go bigger. I want to see Ronald McDonald and the Burger King in there too! Or better yet - the Hamburgler!
Colonel Sanders is actually super popular in Japan. Somehow the stars aligned for KFC, because their restaurant's offerings is considered the traditional Japanese Christmas Eve dinner.
Seriously? Weird. Man, Japan, you always deliver.
You know I think I heard this - like KFC is the #1 fast food chain over there or something.
“Aside from the difficulty curve being too steep (starts too easy, ends too hard), the major complaint was the price, which is 240 MS Points ($3). It's a little sad that $3 is too much for a XBLIG for a lot of people, but if my games get played by a lot more people and make more money at $1, then I can't really complain.”
Schneider, unlike many developers, is open about his sales performance: “It appears this whole gamble will pay off,” he says, “but only once I get a couple more games out. September will hopefully be the first month I actually cover my living costs from sales of my games. Because of Crossfire's failure at $3 and JoyJoy and Inferno's success at $1, all my future XBLIG projects will be $1.”
Yeah, I saw that article. Nice guy and he makes good games. There's definitely a stigma associated to pricing your XBLIG at anything other than $1. On the other hand, I think we're good. RPGs are a lot rarer than shmups, our first game got us a good amount of press and a fanbase (83.75% average on gamerankings, 4.5/5 user rating average, and almost 30,000 sales so far), and well, look at the cover:
Are you seriously going to argue semantics on this? "I define non-linear this way so clearly you are wrong!" Riiiight.... Funny how you knew to jump right to GTA as an example of a game thought of as non-linear though!
Yes because you clearly detailed what you do consider a non-linear game. So what, are you going to mention games like Mass Effect 2 and/or Fallout 3 as 'non-linear' games then? Because again, they're not even remotely as non-linear as Way of the Samurai. What non-linear western games that failed in Japan are you complaining about exactly?
People get so defensive about any perceived negativity towards Japanese gamers.
Can we just agree that in the current market Most HD games sale worse in Japan than elsewhere and that western developers concentrate their developement on HD games?
Ridiculous blanket statements (which aren't in jest) tend to annoy me when there's very little outside of truthiness to back up their claims.
Personally I tend to think the 'issue' is a combination of what you said (the Japanese prefer handhelds so no shit western games aren't going to sell, their handheld efforts are generally shit) and that the Japanese just don't have an interest in the same genres most westerners do. Why some people are narrowing it down to non-linear games I don't know, seeing as the most popular western games are pretty bloody linear (like Couscous said in the last thread; CoD, Halo, Uncharted, etc.).
I may be late to the party, but I would still like to chip in on this.
I recently had a lecture by a PhD who had been studying Japanese games and Japanese game attitude for the past 7 years. His studies showed a general attitude found within Japanese people: their fear of being "lost". While this is prone to subjectivism, he countered this attitude again and again when he, as a foreigner, did something unexpected and not according to a plan. He speculated that this attitude transferred to games that Japanese play and thus an explanation as to why non-linear games where you potentially can feel "lost" perform poorly in Japan.
I don't know, is that mentality really that unique to the Japanese? I mean, there's a reason why pretty much every open world game has a mini-map, they generally want to help give some sense of direction to the player. There really aren't many games coming out these days that don't actively try to push you towards some objective and help you out.
Or are you saying that Japanese gamers are even worse in this regard and just can't handle large environments? Cause that I just don't get. JRPG overworlds tend to be pretty big.
Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
edited September 2010
Again, you are using semantics to argue this. It's pretty damn clear what "non-linear" means in this context.
I mean, I can twist words too and argue that every game is actually non-linear. You are constantly deciding what order to tackle things - do I go left? Or right? Which enemy do I kill first?
Making, in your own words, "blanket statements" that every game is really linear doesn't mean anything.
So you may have noticed that Robin and I haven't been posting as much lately. This is due in part to us being busy with various things surrounding the release (and other things IRL, as we can't quite ignore The Physical for The Wired just yet) and due a little in part to us not wanting to spoil things for folks. It's been a lot of fun watching a whole crop of new players discover Recettear and all the little secrets and whatnot therein. Seeing everyone having so much fun with something we worked so hard on for so long feels fantastic.
We've also been derping over a few of the polish issues that slipped through the cracks, naturally Tongue We managed to get most of them patched out last Monday, and we'll likely be making a last polish push this coming week (although these melons are being difficult). We have noticed the crashes a few people are having but I have to be honest: at this point we're beginning to suspect that crashes are symptomatic of a problem in the end user's PC, not a problem with the Recettear executable per se. The only time we've been able to replicate crashes is when we do daft stuff like uninstall our sound drivers without a replacement or somesuch. We'll still report crashes to EGS (and keep giving us info), but with practically no reviewers reporting issues (and you may notice we've had just a few now and lots of people seemingly running the game without incident, my personal suspicions are trending toward the "something's broke on your end" answer.
Anyway, to counter The Silence I'm probably going to get a nice proper dev-blog (or loc-blog, I suppose) set up on the site here in the next few days, with a new forum for discussing posts therein. There's a lot of stuff I want to blather on about at length that aren't quite appropriate for a live game forum, so it'll be good to have a space available to go on about various things.
And for the curious, we'll be able to talk about how Recettear is selling at the end of the month. By then we should have a pretty good idea of just how well we're doing and how sustainable everything will be. Remember though, word of mouth is our most powerful tool right now, so if you like Recettear, tell your friends and get them to throw money at us! Otherwise I won't be able to afford that Jaguar we won't be able to turn CF into a going concern and bring over more excellent software to you guys!
It really does do us good to see everyone enjoying Recettear. Hopefully this is just the beginning!
Nice to see an indie group finding some success and enjoying it; I'm interested to see how their numbers come out.
The number of actually "non-linear" games this gen can be counted on one hand. For example, GTA games are fairly linear as far as progression goes. You have your fairly linear main story with side missions. Basically, it is like Yakuza or Shenmue. It isn't that different from things like Monster Hunter or MMOs. Thinking of "crap, where do I go now games," I can only think of Bethesda's and Bioware's stuff in that you are given real options of where to go first.
The number of actually "non-linear" games this gen can be counted on one hand. For example, GTA games are fairly linear as far as progression goes. You have your fairly linear main story with side missions. Basically, it is like Yakuza or Shenmue. It isn't that different from things like Monster Hunter or MMOs. Thinking of "crap, where do I go now games," I can only think of Bethesda's and Bioware's stuff in that you are given real options of where to go first.
Arguing definitions is dumb. I should know, I've done it.
Ok, so actual "non-linear" games can be counted on one hand. But "games that are not MMOs but still have a pretty big world where you can do a wide variety of things outside of the main quest and potentially get lost and kill a few hours in a virtual sandbox and overall it feels pretty non-linear in comparison to other games" games are really flourishing!
Also of note is that Japanese people tend not to buy/play/enjoy those types of games. I mean, I don't know how they feel about "non-linear" games, but the genre I described is fairly relevant.
Ok, so actual "non-linear" games can be counted on one hand. But "games that are not MMOs but still have a pretty big world where you can do a wide variety of things outside of the main quest and potentially get lost and kill a few hours in a virtual sandbox and overall it feels pretty non-linear in comparison to other games" games are really flourishing!
Also of note is that Japanese people tend not to buy/play/enjoy those types of games. I mean, I don't know how they feel about "non-linear" games, but the genre I described is fairly relevant.
Pseudo non-linear. While the Final Fantasy games were in general linear, they still provide a sense of non-linearity. Sure, you can't progress the game without meeting a certain point or objective, but the game won't stop you from exploring. As long as you've got the transportation anyway. It's one of the reasons why even the Japanese disliked FFXIII. It was far too linear. It was pretty much an onrails RPG like that Dragon Quest RPG for the Wii.
Yeah, I saw that article. Nice guy and he makes good games. There's definitely a stigma associated to pricing your XBLIG at anything other than $1. On the other hand, I think we're good. RPGs are a lot rarer than shmups, our first game got us a good amount of press and a fanbase (83.75% average on gamerankings, 4.5/5 user rating average, and almost 30,000 sales so far), and well, look at the cover:
How can a game with that cover not sell?
Sorry, but my first thought when looking at that was "does Cthulhu have a boner?"
While we're debating on Japanese sensibilities, I just ran into this:
Hands On: Shooters + Moe – Dignity = Gal Gun
TOKYO — There’s still two days left at the Tokyo Game Show, but I doubt I’ll find a more entertaining title than Gal Gun, an on-rails shooter set in a Japanese high school.
Before you cry Columbine, relax: There are no bullets and nobody dies. In Gal Gun for Xbox 360, your character hits schoolgirls with “pheromone shots.” Tapping the X button as I walked through the hallways, I put smiles on the faces of dozens of young girls who wanted to profess their love to me.
(Chris says: I’m just going to jump in here and add my thoughts. Apparently these girls are attacking you with love? You lose health when they successfully give you a love letter or if their words of love slap you in the face. So you have to hit ‘em with pheromones that make them go kyaaaa! and pass out from ecstasy. I guess.)
After enough successful meetups you can choose a girl and trigger… doki-doki mode. The girl appears in a a pink purgatory and you, uh, inspect her by rotating the camera and leering over her. I couldn’t quite determine what in-game goals could be accomplished here, as I ran out of time, but I’m sure there’s unlimited potential for emergent gameplay.
(Chris says: Certainly the girl’s panties emerge.)
The demo level ends with a boss battle against a green slime monster who has a hostage in his tentacles. Your pheromones are needed to destroy him, but hitting the girl only gets her angry. There’s a time limit on this fight and I shudder to think what might happen should it run out.
I know how all this must sound, but the truth is Gal Gun is actually a lot of fun. It looks great too; the girls are well animated and their cuteness is contagious. I can imagine a quick round of this would be a great way to unwind after work. If only I could play it without my wife walking out the door.
(Chris says: I hate to say it, but Feit is right: This game is hilarious. I mean, really stupidly funny. It’s also totally indefensible. It’s pure pandering with absolutely no point.)
Gal Gun is slated for a winter release in Japan, and I can’t imagine it will ever be translated into English. Then again, you don’t need to speak a word of Japanese to understand this one.
“Aside from the difficulty curve being too steep (starts too easy, ends too hard), the major complaint was the price, which is 240 MS Points ($3). It's a little sad that $3 is too much for a XBLIG for a lot of people, but if my games get played by a lot more people and make more money at $1, then I can't really complain.”
Schneider, unlike many developers, is open about his sales performance: “It appears this whole gamble will pay off,” he says, “but only once I get a couple more games out. September will hopefully be the first month I actually cover my living costs from sales of my games. Because of Crossfire's failure at $3 and JoyJoy and Inferno's success at $1, all my future XBLIG projects will be $1.”
Yeah, I saw that article. Nice guy and he makes good games. There's definitely a stigma associated to pricing your XBLIG at anything other than $1. On the other hand, I think we're good. RPGs are a lot rarer than shmups, our first game got us a good amount of press and a fanbase (83.75% average on gamerankings, 4.5/5 user rating average, and almost 30,000 sales so far), and well, look at the cover:
How can a game with that cover not sell?
No offense to all your work on the game but this would be the kind of box you'd find in the "PC games no one ever heard about" baragin bin at Walmart.
I think they were going for intentionally bad like the NES game covers of yesteryear, but I also think it takes a good artist to do a good intentionally bad cover. I really don't want to insult your efforts because you guys are doing wonderful things, but I think you could do better!
The game's supposed to be ridiculous. I'll tweak it a little but I don't think you'll ever see a major AAA+ game on retail shelves with a title like, "Cthulhu Saves the World."
So Microsoft is here to allay our fears that the latest Halo game may not have become a runaway smash hit.
One part of Microsoft's promotion of Halo: Reach is the inevitable announcement of the Xbox 360 exclusive's massive day-one haul. In the first 24 hours after the game went on sale on September 14, the game raked in over $200 million in the United States and Europe. (Canada was not mentioned.) Though not enough to beat the multiplatform Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's record of $310 million in 24 hours, it was enough to best Halo 3's $170 million day-one haul in September 2007. The last Halo game, 2009's Halo 3: ODST, made $125 million in just over two weeks.
Microsoft did not offer unit sales figures for Halo: Reach but did hail it as the "biggest US entertainment launch of 2010."
So Microsoft is here to allay our fears that the latest Halo game may not have become a runaway smash hit.
One part of Microsoft's promotion of Halo: Reach is the inevitable announcement of the Xbox 360 exclusive's massive day-one haul. In the first 24 hours after the game went on sale on September 14, the game raked in over $200 million in the United States and Europe. (Canada was not mentioned.) Though not enough to beat the multiplatform Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's record of $310 million in 24 hours, it was enough to best Halo 3's $170 million day-one haul in September 2007. The last Halo game, 2009's Halo 3: ODST, made $125 million in just over two weeks.
Microsoft did not offer unit sales figures for Halo: Reach but did hail it as the "biggest US entertainment launch of 2010."
My brother told me that he heard Halo: Reach sold 200,000 copies on the first day. I tried to tell him that made no sense, and I hadn't heard anything myself but it must have been more like 2 million. Of course he was "very sure" it was 200k (despite not telling me where he heard it from). Now I know how he mistakenly heard/read 200k.
Either that or Halo was secretly 1000 dollars and we're all going to be back-charged the difference.
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
edited September 2010
200 million for any sort of one-system game is, well, impressive. Even if it is the Halo series. Glad to see Bungie finish up with the Halo series on a high note right before submitting themselves to the slavery of Activision. Bungie probably has a fair number of loyal followers, but the average Joe is neither to realize or care that Bungie is making non-Halo games, especially with Microsoft having another internal studio to continue the Halo franchise.
In the meantime, what they've done for matchmaking and custom games and maps has been nothing short of incredible for console-based gaming. I almost have more fun with Forge than playing the actual game and I really, really like the game.
Ninja Snarl P on
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
While we're debating on Japanese sensibilities, I just ran into this:
Hands On: Shooters + Moe – Dignity = Gal Gun
TOKYO — There’s still two days left at the Tokyo Game Show, but I doubt I’ll find a more entertaining title than Gal Gun, an on-rails shooter set in a Japanese high school.
Before you cry Columbine, relax: There are no bullets and nobody dies. In Gal Gun for Xbox 360, your character hits schoolgirls with “pheromone shots.” Tapping the X button as I walked through the hallways, I put smiles on the faces of dozens of young girls who wanted to profess their love to me.
(Chris says: I’m just going to jump in here and add my thoughts. Apparently these girls are attacking you with love? You lose health when they successfully give you a love letter or if their words of love slap you in the face. So you have to hit ‘em with pheromones that make them go kyaaaa! and pass out from ecstasy. I guess.)
After enough successful meetups you can choose a girl and trigger… doki-doki mode. The girl appears in a a pink purgatory and you, uh, inspect her by rotating the camera and leering over her. I couldn’t quite determine what in-game goals could be accomplished here, as I ran out of time, but I’m sure there’s unlimited potential for emergent gameplay.
(Chris says: Certainly the girl’s panties emerge.)
The demo level ends with a boss battle against a green slime monster who has a hostage in his tentacles. Your pheromones are needed to destroy him, but hitting the girl only gets her angry. There’s a time limit on this fight and I shudder to think what might happen should it run out.
I know how all this must sound, but the truth is Gal Gun is actually a lot of fun. It looks great too; the girls are well animated and their cuteness is contagious. I can imagine a quick round of this would be a great way to unwind after work. If only I could play it without my wife walking out the door.
(Chris says: I hate to say it, but Feit is right: This game is hilarious. I mean, really stupidly funny. It’s also totally indefensible. It’s pure pandering with absolutely no point.)
Gal Gun is slated for a winter release in Japan, and I can’t imagine it will ever be translated into English. Then again, you don’t need to speak a word of Japanese to understand this one.
So Microsoft is here to allay our fears that the latest Halo game may not have become a runaway smash hit.
One part of Microsoft's promotion of Halo: Reach is the inevitable announcement of the Xbox 360 exclusive's massive day-one haul. In the first 24 hours after the game went on sale on September 14, the game raked in over $200 million in the United States and Europe. (Canada was not mentioned.) Though not enough to beat the multiplatform Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's record of $310 million in 24 hours, it was enough to best Halo 3's $170 million day-one haul in September 2007. The last Halo game, 2009's Halo 3: ODST, made $125 million in just over two weeks.
Microsoft did not offer unit sales figures for Halo: Reach but did hail it as the "biggest US entertainment launch of 2010."
Well, and Modern Warfare 2 was multi-platform. I don't know if people who own PS3s but not 360s are making the difference, but just in terms of potential numbers: There's more people out there able to buy a multi-platform game.
Gibbs on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
Pretty sure now a days its if you have haven't gotten laid by second grade then you are a loser. Nobody wants to be the 10 year old virgin watching cartoons.
Protection of the Children from Violent Video Games
WHEREAS: The video game industry has a direct influence on
children; and
WHEREAS: Video games use increasingly disturbing images of
violence, including decapitation, mutilation, acts of
terrorism, and displays of massive amounts of blood
and gore; and
WHEREAS: Children are becoming addicted to violent video
games and wasting many hours each day on this
potentially harmful activity; and
WHEREAS: Children are prone to the bullying and aggressive
behavior from video games and bring this behavior
to school with them; and
BE IT
RESOLVED: Violent video games, like gambling and other
potentially harmful activities, are not a form of free
speech protected by the First Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution, and
The Colorado State Board of Education submits that
Colorado should indicate its support for the amicus
brief filed by eleven other states with the U.S.
Supreme Court in Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment
Merchants Association (No. 08-1448) in defense of
the authority of States to pass laws to help parents
safeguard children against exploitation by the violent
video game industry.
Posts
Wait, what?
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
Isn't it also the number of commercials you've been in that denotes your popularity when it comes to being a actor/actress over there?
Winner.
I may be late to the party, but I would still like to chip in on this.
I recently had a lecture by a PhD who had been studying Japanese games and Japanese game attitude for the past 7 years. His studies showed a general attitude found within Japanese people: their fear of being "lost". While this is prone to subjectivism, he countered this attitude again and again when he, as a foreigner, did something unexpected and not according to a plan. He speculated that this attitude transferred to games that Japanese play and thus an explanation as to why non-linear games where you potentially can feel "lost" perform poorly in Japan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/18/your-money/18iht-mkfc_ed3_.html
Also my first search for KFC in Japan resulted in some sites with colonel pictures that are probably not appropriate for PA forums.
I love you for quoting one of my favorite movies of all time.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
I know I shouldn't be shocked by anything from the internets anymore, and rule 34 n stuff
but
link
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
You know I think I heard this - like KFC is the #1 fast food chain over there or something.
Yeah, I saw that article. Nice guy and he makes good games. There's definitely a stigma associated to pricing your XBLIG at anything other than $1. On the other hand, I think we're good. RPGs are a lot rarer than shmups, our first game got us a good amount of press and a fanbase (83.75% average on gamerankings, 4.5/5 user rating average, and almost 30,000 sales so far), and well, look at the cover:
How can a game with that cover not sell?
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Yes because you clearly detailed what you do consider a non-linear game. So what, are you going to mention games like Mass Effect 2 and/or Fallout 3 as 'non-linear' games then? Because again, they're not even remotely as non-linear as Way of the Samurai. What non-linear western games that failed in Japan are you complaining about exactly?
Ridiculous blanket statements (which aren't in jest) tend to annoy me when there's very little outside of truthiness to back up their claims.
Personally I tend to think the 'issue' is a combination of what you said (the Japanese prefer handhelds so no shit western games aren't going to sell, their handheld efforts are generally shit) and that the Japanese just don't have an interest in the same genres most westerners do. Why some people are narrowing it down to non-linear games I don't know, seeing as the most popular western games are pretty bloody linear (like Couscous said in the last thread; CoD, Halo, Uncharted, etc.).
I don't know, is that mentality really that unique to the Japanese? I mean, there's a reason why pretty much every open world game has a mini-map, they generally want to help give some sense of direction to the player. There really aren't many games coming out these days that don't actively try to push you towards some objective and help you out.
Or are you saying that Japanese gamers are even worse in this regard and just can't handle large environments? Cause that I just don't get. JRPG overworlds tend to be pretty big.
I mean, I can twist words too and argue that every game is actually non-linear. You are constantly deciding what order to tackle things - do I go left? Or right? Which enemy do I kill first?
Making, in your own words, "blanket statements" that every game is really linear doesn't mean anything.
Apparently.
Nice to see an indie group finding some success and enjoying it; I'm interested to see how their numbers come out.
Arguing definitions is dumb. I should know, I've done it.
Ok, so actual "non-linear" games can be counted on one hand. But "games that are not MMOs but still have a pretty big world where you can do a wide variety of things outside of the main quest and potentially get lost and kill a few hours in a virtual sandbox and overall it feels pretty non-linear in comparison to other games" games are really flourishing!
Also of note is that Japanese people tend not to buy/play/enjoy those types of games. I mean, I don't know how they feel about "non-linear" games, but the genre I described is fairly relevant.
I can back that.
Sorry, but my first thought when looking at that was "does Cthulhu have a boner?"
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/09/gal-gun/#more-29044#ixzz0zoRJfiyd
Click on the link for a video that's technically SWF as long as you don't mind people thinking you're a very weird person.
No offense to all your work on the game but this would be the kind of box you'd find in the "PC games no one ever heard about" baragin bin at Walmart.
Battle.net: Fireflash#1425
Steam Friend code: 45386507
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6276248.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop%3Btitle%3B1
My brother told me that he heard Halo: Reach sold 200,000 copies on the first day. I tried to tell him that made no sense, and I hadn't heard anything myself but it must have been more like 2 million. Of course he was "very sure" it was 200k (despite not telling me where he heard it from). Now I know how he mistakenly heard/read 200k.
Either that or Halo was secretly 1000 dollars and we're all going to be back-charged the difference.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
In the meantime, what they've done for matchmaking and custom games and maps has been nothing short of incredible for console-based gaming. I almost have more fun with Forge than playing the actual game and I really, really like the game.
This game looks ridiculous, and there's actually a contingent trying to get Atlus to localize it.
It does look stupid fun, but it'll never, ever get localized.
(best or worst totp ever)
It'll sell like hotcakes to underage boys.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
Well, and Modern Warfare 2 was multi-platform. I don't know if people who own PS3s but not 360s are making the difference, but just in terms of potential numbers: There's more people out there able to buy a multi-platform game.
I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
http://www.boarddocs.com/co/cde/Board.nsf/files/89DNJA601711/$file/Protection+of+the+Children+from+Violent+Video+Games+Adopted.pdf Derp derp derp.