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Video Game Industry Thread: This is the old one, go to the new one
cloudeagle
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Hi! Welcome to the video game industry thread. Here we discuss things like sales figures, game development, studio closures, executive quotes, marketing and general business stuff. Also poop jokes. And stuff like the 360 being pulled in Japan. Which leads to thoughtful, detailed analysis like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoCZ07hwoZ4
And now, August's information.
Hardware via GAF
Xbox 360: 308K (-13.7%)
Nintendo 3DS: 235K
PlayStation 3: 218K (-3.5%) [Comes from press release statement math and known numbers.]
Wii: 190K (-22.2%)
Nintendo DS: 165K (-51.9%)
PSP: lolK (67K)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoCZ07hwoZ4
And now, August's information.
4-week tracking month; Reporting Period 7/31/11 through 8/27/11
Software
01. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (360, PS3, PC)** -- 244K
02. NCAA Football 12 (360, PS3) -- 240K
03. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC)**
04. Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd (NDS, Wii, PS3)
05. Cars 2 (NDS, Wii, 360, PS3, PC)
06. Just Dance Summer Party (Wii)
07. Just Dance 2 (Wii)
08. Lego PIrates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC)
09. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) -- 84K
10. Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (Wii, 360, PS3)
**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)
On the hardware front, Frazier noted the PS3 sales uptick but also pointed out that portable saw a bump thanks to the 3DS price cut too. “All platforms (if you combine DS and 3DS) saw unit sales increases over July. The 3DS price cut drove portable hardware sales into positive territory, to a year-over-year increase in both unit and dollar sales," she said.
Hardware via GAF
Xbox 360: 308K (-13.7%)
Nintendo 3DS: 235K
PlayStation 3: 218K (-3.5%) [Comes from press release statement math and known numbers.]
Wii: 190K (-22.2%)
Nintendo DS: 165K (-51.9%)
PSP: lolK (67K)
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
cloudeagle on
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http://www.next-gen.biz/news/xbox-360-dead-japan
Wow. Not good. Assuming the next Xbox isn't released until 2013 or 2014, that'll give a two to three year gap between console releases, and Microsoft will have to essentially start from scratch over there.
frownyface
... god damnit.
But seriously, that is a shame. And self centeredly, I wish BLOPS would stop selling so well, if only because it might lead to Activision finally lowering the price. Oh who am I kidding, I'll get around to buying it sometime in the next 5 years. When it's only $30.
Feel sorry for its existing user base are going to miss out on some exclusives. Also will destroy any confidence those customers had with the XBOX brand in future..
I thought thepoint was that there was almost no user base? And the few that there are can import from the US.
FINALLY YEAH TAKE THAT JAPAN
I played the demo for Bodycount last night, and it wasn't horrible which shocked me for something with the Codemaster's brand, but it wasn't good either, its terribly mediocre.
That said, yeah, Japan has been a really hard market to crack. Certainly MS has made a lot of missteps along the way, but I think things have been much better the last few years. Unfortunately, I guess once a brand has been tainted there, it's really difficult to recover. (Which can be said similarly for certain brands/products here in the US too ...)
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Like JCRook's says its not just the existing customers confidence that will be shot, but taints the product even further in the market. Retailers in the future will want some serious money offers to even get any retail space in future.
Unsurprising. System not made by a Japanese company. Dead in the water.
Their best bet is to license their next system's tech to a Japanese company to release in that market. Samsung, Toshiba, Panasonic, etc. Just pick one and have them license the system, put their branding on it, design a shell to appeal to the Japanese aesthetic and go to the races.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
Ride the Japanese handheld wave!
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Why didn't MS think of that!
Do not engage the Watermelons.
So Nintendo shouldn't license the 3DS to RCA?
Do not engage the Watermelons.
Yeah...how can you destroy something that was never there?
That being said I'm more worried about what this means for Japanese games on the 360 in the future.
I'm thinking not too much.
Most of the stuff by the bigger companies will stay multi-plat, and most smaller stuff was pretty much PS3 exclusive at this point anyway.
Japanese developers generally prefer the system leading in their own home market. Microsoft has a chicken/egg problem. System doesn't do well because of lack of developers, lack of developer support because they believe the system won't do well. Most of them are multi-plat anyways, just give them a marginally more successful base to work from.
My option works better than releasing the Microsoft _____ in Japan, which is just throwing money away.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
Pretty much that. We haven't been getting too many Japanese games over here that even had the faintest whiff of niche lately, for either system.
So, was there anything Microsoft could have done to make the 360 a success? Well, they could have done a much better job of localizing games from the beginning (seriously, at the start of the 360's life they didn't. At all. Everything was in English) and instead of moneyhatting a few big Japanese games they could have worked on making the system more inviting for Japanese developers in general.
But really, I'm not sure anything could have made the thing a success over there. Nintendo and Sony are too strong, and the country is quickly transforming into portable-land.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
I know, just like the iPod/iPhone. The Japanese brands have been absolute crushing App...oh, wait. The 360 may or may not have ever gotten a truly fair shake in Japan, but blaming its failure on Xenophobia is both unjustified and also (if MS takes a similar view) ensures that no future system will ever succeed either.
And Apple and MS make entirely identical products, too. You clearly cannot make a case that one company might actually be encountering xenophobia just because another is not.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
But by the same token, no evidence is ever given to make a case for the bolded statement. It is just assumed as fact. When so many foreign companies do quite well in Japanese markets (what Chris was likely alluding to), I'd say the burden of proof is on those who say xenophobia is the Xbox's downfall.
Assuming as fact that the counter argument is true is still not an effective counter argument. If the reason the Xbox failed was because it didn't offer anything that a Japanese gamer might've wanted, then why did the 360 fail even after MS went so far out of their way to court Japanese developers?
And just how many Western games succeed in a big way in Japan? Not gadgets, but games.
There are many reasons for the lack of Asian success for Microsoft. Xenophobia is merely going to be a part of that. It's not like the region doesn't have a history of being distrustful of outsiders or anything. As silly as it is to say that it's the only factor, it's just as silly to pooh-pooh the notion altogether just because another company that makes a different product has had success.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
Don't get me wrong, I am open to the idea xenophobia could contribute to the XBox's lack of success. My point was that it is almost always given an assumed fact, with no evidence given. And frequently given as the sole reason. I am honestly curious, what evidence points to xenophobia causing or being a major cause of the xbox's failure?
But that's their best hope I think, paying lots of money to smaller independent developers to try and get some exclusives. The big companies will want waaaaaay too much for anything other than a timed exclusive (and we saw how far timed exclusives carried MS this generation, that is not far).
The other thing I think they would have to do is ditch the Xbox brand and reinvent themselves the way the Wii did for Nintendo. This won't happen of course since they spent so much building up the Xbox brand in the Western markets.
The aforementioned The Idolm@ster was probably the XBox 360's biggest exclusive in Japan (even moreso than Blue Dragon).
But really, the biggest problem in Japan was that they didn't even bother to localize most games into Japanese for the first year or so. How many people would have bought the Wii if all of the Nintendo developed games were in Japanese? Not many, I think.
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And yes, I'm tooting my own horn. Toot toot. :P (Okay, back to work for me ...)
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Twitter: http://twitter.com/JiunweiC
I work on this: http://www.xbox.com
Ten? Twenty! I guess twenty.
edit: Heck, thirty-five.
Before I launch into the rest, consoles are not smartphones or music players. Microsoft had no established base in the Japanese console market and provided nothing the Japanese consumer desired; style or gamewise. Sony did much the same, but was backed by a well-known brand from a well-known Japanese company. They knew what Japanese consumers would be willing to buy. Microsoft does not.
My comment was taken as commenting on Japan's xenophobia, but that's not the problem here. The problem is the same problem Japanese developers have in reaching Western gamers. They are so divided from a cultural standpoint that they are unable to create games we find enticing on a large scale. Microsoft needed to say, 'stylistically, what is the Japanese consumer looking for in a console? what games do they enjoy playing? Do we have an offering for them?' I believe they are unable to do that.
Apple succeeded because Japan loves portable technology and Apple is a wonderful design company. Anecdote time: I work for Otakon on their guest relations staff. Another staff member at the time worked for the Apple Store. Upon the release of the first iPhone, Apple gave one to every employee working for the company, so he had one when the convention rolled around. Never have I seen such raving from the Japanese guests as when they first saw the iPhone. They all wanted to touch it, hold it, see it. The connection and desire was instant and immediate.
Microsoft could never engender that sort of love in the Xbox 360, and dare I say it, the Xbox brand at this point. The first was the very antithesis of a Japanese-style console. The 360 was frankly, unremarkable, and lacked games in the market for a long time. Partially because of the chicken/egg issue. Blue Dragon and other games needed to be at launch. Games like Idolmaster, Tales of, etc...
So yes, moving forward I'd license the tech to a Japanese company who not only can design the product in a manner that speaks to Japanese consumers, but can also reach out to Japanese developers. Because they're a very entrenched society as you move higher-up, and the new guy isn't going to get anything done.
A valid question if Microsoft isn't going to be jumping into the portable market, but then you're ceding a specific Japanese IP to Sony. They may not be big-sellers, but every bit counts as a tick in the feature list.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
Consoles are just a weird area in their own. Apple's software sales and home office market are even more abysmal in Japan than here in the United States (and they have been for more than a decade, last I checked). Someone following the phone market could explain better, but I'm under the impression that the iPhone is competitive, but not dominating (they're not beating Android in the US, though they are the no. 1 vendor, and they've already long since lost the smartphone race in Taiwan, where most of the components are actually manufactured).
Nonetheless, it's a shame. It's a useful demonstration that worldwide 360 sales and comfortably beat PS3 sales month after month just by doing so much better in North America (I think Europe is split, depending on which country), but it's still a shame.