Support NeoGAF

[Akai__]

Square Enix has no interest in building the audience for DQ on Xbox, as the entire purpose of that would be to increase sales of the mainline RPGs, and those will never come to Xbox. DQB would probably do better than other DQ options, sure, but that might mean 10k sales which isn't worth it, especially when the Xbox version will NOT sell in Japan.

Why should I care if the game will "NOT sell" in Japan? There are tons of other countries to still sell the game in. This "will not sell" nonsense is coming exclusively from Japanese devs/publishers. Especially from Square Enix, where we get these type of statements:

“Do the Western audiences want Kingdom Hearts titles on the Microsoft or Xbox platforms? Japan might say ‘well, we don’t want any more on Xbox.’”

The statement is especially dumb, because the games literally were released a few months ago and Xbox One versions were probably not even considered.

You won't see devs/publishers in other countries making statements like that. other countries actually try to grow their audience, instead of just actively ignoring them.

 

[Korigama]

I want to know what happened with fighting games between last gen and this gen because outside of KI Xbox has been shafted on a lot of great stuff.

King of Fighters 14
Guilty Gear Xrd series
BlazBlue Central Fiction
Street Fighter V
USFIV
Injustice 1 Ultimate Ed
Skullgirls 2nd Encore
Nitro Plus

Those first three are particularly glaring.

Dissidia NT is also not coming to XB

BBCF didn't happen because no one bought Chrono Phantasma Extend on XB1.

 

[Mr Moose]

dontbelievehislies.jpg

I'll do no such thing.

lol

 

[Yearsoflurking]

Great is subjective though. Developing for the XBO is an extra cost that will probably only see a moderate return in the US if at all. So yes they are missing out on sales in the US but is that made up for by the reduced dev costs? Selling on PS4/PC reaches a great deal of players.

I'm sure it would have sold comparatively to the pc version which is great. Great is subjective but action games have a following on xbox.

Another thing xbox is actually at tgs this year fwiw

 

[Raw64life]

Phil Spencer himself cares a lot about Japanese developers, and working with them is a personal passion of his

lol

Either he just completely made this up, or Phil Spencer is terrible at his job.

 

[stryke]

Another thing xbox is actually at tgs this year fwiw

This is what it's worth

And this year the kid would say Switch.

 

[modsbox]

Why should I care if the game will "NOT sell" in Japan? There are tons of other countries to still sell the game in. This "will not sell" nonsense is coming exclusively from Japanese devs/publishers. Especially from Square Enix, where we get these type of statements:

The statement is especially dumb, because the games literally were released a few months ago and Xbox One versions were probably not even considered.

You won't see devs/publishers in other countries making statements like that. other countries actually try to grow their audience, instead of just actively ignoring them.

If you were a game dev in Japan, wouldn't you want your game to be relevant in your home country? Xbox One games can't and won't sell in Japan. I find it hard to believe that as a game developer you wouldn't want to see your work be played in your own country.

That's (part of) why I have such a hard time believing this news from Greenberg. Tell us why we should expect Japanese game devs to give a shit about Xbox, besides being paid directly to create games for it. Oh and, if Microsoft did want to pay Japanese devs directly to create games for Xbox... why would said devs believe you won't just cancel the game?

 

[Neuromancer]

Sure Aaron I'll be waiting right here.

 

[blackjaw]

Heard this before, show me the money!

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Haven't I heard this before? I said it time and time again, but the demand for Japanese games just isn't there on the XBox or it is very diminutive and that is proven over and over again by the terrible sales for Japanese games on XBox consoles. When even a major franchise like Tekken or Final Fantasy have trouble selling a significant amount on your console, you know you have problems. Unfortunately the demand for Japanese games just doesn't seem worth the effort, time and money for developers or Microsoft. Sure, the more games the better, but why would developers keep porting and spending money or resources on bringing their games over to a contingent that doesn't appreciate these types of games that could lead to everyone losing money? Imo, Microsoft should just focus on trying to procure major Western games since that is what most of their audience wants.

 

[The Pet of the Month]

I would rather the Xbox division focus on getting games that are familiar to their playerbase rather than getting games that would hardly move any units.

Would always be awesome to see more games on Xbox, but as long as the system gets the popular anime titles I don't think there's an issue. The niche titles simply don't sell on Xbox.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Why should I care if the game will "NOT sell" in Japan? There are tons of other countries to still sell the game in. This "will not sell" nonsense is coming exclusively from Japanese devs/publishers. Especially from Square Enix, where we get these type of statements:

The statement is especially dumb, because the games literally were released a few months ago and Xbox One versions were probably not even considered.

You won't see devs/publishers in other countries making statements like that. other countries actually try to grow their audience, instead of just actively ignoring them.

Japanese games on XBox aren't exactly lighting up the sales charts in other countries either. Last I heard the sales ratio for major franchises like FF15, MGS5 and Tekken 7 were something like 85/15-80/20 with the 80-85% favoring the PS4. Is that honestly worth the costs of developing and porting the game? Even porting games can get costly and time consuming.

 

[neojubei]

Kind of weird this news comes out when Fist of the northstar is announced for ps4 in the last 24hrs.

Spencer should go to Temco and see about developing a remastered version of ninja gaiden exclusive to xbox one.

 

[Melchiah]

I wonder, do publishers also get discounted license fees from Sony if the games don't come out on any other console within a certain time period? I remember Microsoft doing this in the early 360 days, not sure if it became a thing in the wider industry. Competition laws might have made it a thing of the past.

That's news to me, but not surprising in the least.

 

[tokenflipguy]

I have even less confidence in Greenberg saying this stuff. Sorry, but the dudes a hype man.

Phil has a HUGE hill to climb and he's not getting anywhere fast. Greenberg saying this is an empty statement.

Yep, and I think the next gen will see if new studios are formed, partnership patched up, and new ones reached.

 

[Pez]

Pssh, right MS. I own an Xbox and it's my main next-gen console of choice, but I know better than to believe this.

 

[Floody]

Believe it when I see it. Would be a good move though, Sony are pretty much just getting free exclusives at this point.

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

Seems pretty weird if a person is in to Japan made games, why would they Buy an American focused console? Sony and Nintendo get Japanese made games because they're Japanese companies.

Although playstation gets most of the big western made games too so it pretty much has all the bases covered as far as gaming is concerned.

 

[Ascenion]

Seems pretty weird if a person is in to Japan made games, why would they Buy an American focused console? Sony and Nintendo get Japanese made games because they're Japanese companies.

Although playstation gets most of the big western made games too so it pretty much has all the bases covered as far as gaming is concerned.

In my case I prefer everything about the American focused console. But I need my Japanese fix so you just kinda buy a PlayStation on the side.

 

[Defuser]

Edit : nvm

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

After how Xbox burned Platinum don't get your hopes up.

Keep seeing people saying this but I was under the impression this wasn't the case?

 

[Ushay]

Somehow I doubt we'll ever see anything with the quality level of Lost Odyssey

 

[DigitalScrap]

Oh yeah isn't there some bad blood between Level 5 and MS?

"Bad blood" doesn't exist in business.

That said, we'll see if anything comes out of this recent talk.

 

[Theswweet]

Keep seeing people saying this but I was under the impression this wasn't the case?

Just a few weeks ago Kamiya outright said that NieR: Automata's success saved Platinum. It's not a stretch to assume that a major reason they were in danger in the first place was Scalebound getting canned.

 

[Zukkoyaki]

Man, could you even begin to imagine the online rage if the cancellation of Scalebound led to the closure of Platinum? Fuuuuuuuuck.

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

I gotta ask, do Xbox fans really want Japanese games? I know this isn't a fair assumption but I've seen quite a lot of hate towards them not named DBZ, SAO, etc. But that's coming from a certain vocal minority.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

I gotta ask, do Xbox fans really want Japanese games? I know this isn't a fair assumption but I've seen quite a lot of hate towards them not named DBZ, SAO, etc. But that's coming from a certain vocal minority.

There was a thread about Japanese games on XBOX or something, and a surprising number of people claiming to be XBOX One owners commented that they had never even heard of these games. Stuff like Nioh, Nier, Ni No Kuni etc. Games you'd expect anyone on an enthusiast forum like NeoGAF would be familiar with.

 

[Inuhanyou]

lolsure

I mean, they do have Japanese games coming out, many of the bigger publishers don't want to miss out, but there is literally no real argument for saying these smaller devs care about MS in any capacity.

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

There was a thread about Japanese games on XBOX or something, and a surprising number of people claiming to be XBOX One owners commented that they had never even heard of these games. Stuff like Nioh, Nier, etc. Games you'd expect anyone on an enthusiast forum like NeoGAF would be familiar with.

I know you're being sarcastic, I was judging from what I've seen on youtube or twitt-nevermind.

 

[Give War A Chance]

How many times are they going to say this before they actually just do the damn thing?

 

[score01]

Greenberg: You realise, if you're in Japan, Every game you play is a Japanese Xbox game?

 

[Inuhanyou]

How many times are they going to say this before they actually just do the damn thing?

There is nothing they can do, so pretty much all they can do is talk about hope the situation naturally improves somehow

Why should I care if the game will "NOT sell" in Japan? There are tons of other countries to still sell the game in. This "will not sell" nonsense is coming exclusively from Japanese devs/publishers. Especially from Square Enix, where we get these type of statements:

The statement is especially dumb, because the games literally were released a few months ago and Xbox One versions were probably not even considered.

You won't see devs/publishers in other countries making statements like that. other countries actually try to grow their audience, instead of just actively ignoring them.

Its not just the Japanese audience, the global XBox audience doesn't buy "Japanese" japanese games period. Outside of the odd anime series based game and dark souls for example, its almost negligible. Even a huge series like FF was a 90/10 split. That's why SE doesn't give a shit

If MS were to bankroll a game, it would go about as well as it did when they tried it at the start of 360. Tons of devs not making their money back, MS enforcing American business model on developers from remote location and disaster ensues

 

[MCD]

FF15 Xbox version was blurry dogshit though. Can't blame them.

Xbox fans get shit games like that Valkyria instead of the main Valkyria game. Situation is comical.

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

 

[Grisby]

Port FF14 so I can make that my FF14 box dagnabit.

 

[BRocknRolla]

Yeah, I've seen this episode of Futurama:

Gamers: Greenberg, don't lie. I saw you cancelling Japanese development and shutting down studios. Explain that!

Greenberg: Well, I love a challenge. Um... no... I've got it. I'm gonna be completely honest with you, gamers. We're totally going to get a bunch of Japanese games.

Gamers: Japanese games? Oh, I would dearly love to believe that were true... so I do.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

I know you're being sarcastic, I was judging from what I've seen on youtube or twitt-nevermind.

...I don't think he was being sarcastic.

I vaguely remember such a thread as well.

There is a strange pride among a group of XBox fans that boils down to "we don't need no stinking niche Japanese games on our console!"

 

[Jaded Alyx]

I know you're being sarcastic, I was judging from what I've seen on youtube or twitt-nevermind.

I wish I was being sarcastic.

 

[klee123]

There was a thread about Japanese games on XBOX or something, and a surprising number of people claiming to be XBOX One owners commented that they had never even heard of these games. Stuff like Nioh, Nier, Ni No Kuni etc. Games you'd expect anyone on an enthusiast forum like NeoGAF would be familiar with.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them making that claim are deluded famboys trying to downplay the Japanese exclusives on PS4 claiming that they are niche and don't matter.

 

[nekkid]

¯_(&#12484_/¯

That's largely my opinion on the matter.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Keep seeing people saying this but I was under the impression this wasn't the case?

After Kamiya came out and said Taro saved Platinum its easy to see they were in a very bad spot after Microsoft canceled Scalebound.

 

[statham]

I really enjoyed ffxv, one of my favorites. More please Phil.

 

[gogosox82]

Of course this needs to happen but MS has been saying that for a while now and it still hasn't really happened. I believe it when I see is basically what I'm thinking about this.

 

[W.S.]

Square Enix has no interest in building the audience for DQ on Xbox, as the entire purpose of that would be to increase sales of the mainline RPGs, and those will never come to Xbox. DQB would probably do better than other DQ options, sure, but that might mean 10k sales which isn't worth it, especially when the Xbox version will NOT sell in Japan.

Battlechasers and I Am Setsuna are not targeting the same audience, sorry. One is an adaption of a popular western fantasy comic by a popular western artist. The other is a very traditional JRPG. The gameplay similarities (they don't seem that similar in gameplay outside of being turn-based RPGs) don't really matter at that point.

It really shouldn't matter if DQB won't increase the sale of the mainline DQ RPG's because it's a different type of game and they aren't going to release mainline DQ on XBO anyway. If Square Enix is unwilling to venture out with a spin-off franchise on a type of game that's popular on the platform then that's not an issue with the Xbox platform so much as an issue with Square Enix.

Battle Chasers btw isn't some ultra popular franchise, the IP has been dormant in the comics realm for a while before the game became a thing. The gameplay isn't vastly different from I am Setsuna to say that it's not going for the same audience, one is just more visually western than the other and the same can be said of Earthlock.

 

[W.S.]

If you were a game dev in Japan, wouldn't you want your game to be relevant in your home country? Xbox One games can't and won't sell in Japan. I find it hard to believe that as a game developer you wouldn't want to see your work be played in your own country.

That's (part of) why I have such a hard time believing this news from Greenberg. Tell us why we should expect Japanese game devs to give a shit about Xbox, besides being paid directly to create games for it. Oh and, if Microsoft did want to pay Japanese devs directly to create games for Xbox... why would said devs believe you won't just cancel the game?

It's not an ideal situation for a Japanese developer/publisher but when a platform like Xbox is deadlocked in your own region and yet successful in others then the risk may still be worth it even if only digitally. If anything Steam has shown some success in having Japanese pubs/devs support a western storefront despite it not being the most used platform there.

Japanese games on XBox aren't exactly lighting up the sales charts in other countries either. Last I heard the sales ratio for major franchises like FF15, MGS5 and Tekken 7 were something like 85/15-80/20 with the 80-85% favoring the PS4. Is that honestly worth the costs of developing and porting the game? Even porting games can get costly and time consuming.

If they didn't think it was worth the cost of developing/porting then they simply wouldn't do it, historically some these games (like MGS, Soul Calibur, etc) have been released and supported since the OG Xbox.

Obviously these franchises do much better on the Sony consoles but that doesn't mean they don't make any money on the Xbox and quite frankly the console would fare even worse without them.

 

[Rymuth]

I have even less confidence in Greenberg saying this stuff. Sorry, but the dudes a hype man.

Phil has a HUGE hill to climb and he's not getting anywhere fast. Greenberg saying this is an empty statement.

This.

Of the totem pole, Greenberg is the least truthful/honest Xbox exec, which is not saying much since they're all PR mouthpieces but Greenberg is a whole different level.

 

[quesalupa]

I feel like they say this every other day.

 

[Rymuth]

I know you're being sarcastic, I was judging from what I've seen on youtube or twitt-nevermind.

He's not. I was part of that thread.

One particular xbox user, e-gamer, claimed Persona 5, Nier and Ni-oh won't even reach a million so who cares if Xbox misses out on them?

Spoiler

The joke being they all ended up crossing a million

 

[jipewithin]

Talk is cheap

 

[c0de]

FF15 Xbox version was blurry dogshit though. Can't blame them.

Xbox fans get shit games like that Valkyria instead of the main Valkyria game. Situation is comical.

The PlayStation version was a stuttery mess though. So both platforms had to suffer in the technical department while all had to suffer the game for what it is.