Why are you adding DQ8 but not DQ9?
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Sony admits PS4 is a tougher sell in Japan
- Thread starter Bundy
- Start date
and that place will be phones if it has to be, they have no vested interest in PS4s success
sony are the ones who have to stop that and lead out with some first party japanese games and they dont seem interested in it
sörine;120555832 said:
For obvious reasons
jk I think it would be interesting to see a comparison of the cumulative sales on Sony and Nintendo systems. Because the average is very misleading (niche games and Japan exclusives like that Girls RPG with something like 100k or NinoKuni NDS beeing Japan exclusive clearly aren´t helping the average) but Level5s actions are solid prove of where they actually had more success.Including DQVIII is pointless because a) it sold based on brand strength and can't be replicated by L5 on their own and b) Nintendo has the stronger out of the two, DQIX.
With ~5 million for DQIX the average evens out in slight favor of Nintendo. But if we leave DQ out (as we should), the high selling Sony title is below the Nintendo average.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
test_account
XP-39C²
DQ9 isnt on the list posted earlier and the discussion seemed to be about that list only. Feel free to add DQ9 to the numbers posted earlier =) There are more Level 5 games that arent on that list if one want to concider those as well, like Little Battler Xperience, Fantasy Life, Gundam AGE and Yokai Watch.sörine;120555832 said:
I dont think Sony can do much to stop that to be honest. Look at Nintendo and WiiU for example. Nintendo's support has been pretty good in my opinion, and their IP are a lot stronger sales wise, especially in Japan, yet hardly any 3rd party developers are on board the WiiU. If Nintendo's games cant do it, i doubt Sony's games can do it. I dont think that every developer can depend soley on mobile games either.
I just mentioned DQ8 because you mentioned it first and because it was on the list posted earlier
But yeah, i agree that i dont really view Dragon Quest as a Level5 game. Level5 has been supporting Nintendo platforms a lot more than Sony platforms in terms of number of SKUs, so it makes sense why they have seen more success there (as in total number of games sold). Its not only because of the numbers of SKU of course, the popularity of the games also play a huge factor in the sales numbers. But Professor Layton and Inazuma Eleven has like 14 SKUs on total just on those two series. There isnt anything in comparison on other platforms when it comes to Level5 games.The two problems that 3rd parties need to fix are the following:
1.) Make games that caters to the Japanese audience. They don't care about western titles &/or genres like FPS's or sports games.
2.) Stop it, stop it, stop it with the cross-gen porting between PS3, PS4, &/or PS Vita! The more that these Japanese 3rd party publishers keeps having games being put towards PS3/PS4, PS3/PS4/PS Vita, or PS4/PS Vita, the more that people in Japan aren't going to want to shell out many yen just for a PS4!
spatenfloot
Member
PS4/vita is good for developers. They get a bigger audience for their games. Plus most Japanese games don't push the tech envelope anyway.
unempLLOYD
Member
My gawd, imagine what xbox is like up in japan.
au contraire
big fail to not get naruto/zestria/shining/persona etc crossgen
when they identified early on that devs were too comfortable to leave ps3 nest
Wii U not selling is a WiiU issue. PS4 would be selling a lot better if sony had prepared some games for it. They need a first party JRPG or at least to fund the development of a third party exclusive. Hell they dont even need the games out, just stuff announced with solid release dates to build some kind of excitement. there are plenty of people who want to buy a PS4 but havent got a good reason to do it yet.
Forgottonone
Member
lol yeah just get them to abandon their home land completely to make euro-american games? Is that really what's going to happen?
Paracelsus
Member
SCEJ has been dead for several years, there's no "going to".
Imru al-Qays
Banned
I think SCEJ should try to develop a JRPG with global appeal. Now that Final Fantasy is imploding that's a niche that someone needs to fill.
Rising_Hei
Member
This console has no new media format like PS3 did to sustent its sales with no games, plus No HQ japanese software + NO jrpgs = no sales.
Period.
Fuel the console with Jrpgs and other japanese genres and it will sell like cakes.
Period.
Fuel the console with Jrpgs and other japanese genres and it will sell like cakes.
DR2K
Banned
Because besides for your exceptions it isn't the general rule for what Japan is buying.
Imru al-Qays
Banned
Wut.
Nightengale
Member
Imru al-Qays;120594529 said:
L2 sarcastic retort.
well buy on rumour is for stocks, not systems
Imru al-Qays
Banned
Metal Gear is one of the elite tier of Japanese franchises that has emerged from the seventh generation unscathed.
The major Japanese franchises of the sixth generation were Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, Kingdom Hearts, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, and Tekken. Of those Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts were absent from home consoles in the seventh generation.
The main release in each of the remaining series sold in line with their PS2 counterparts - including Metal Gear Solid 4, in spite of the PS3's smaller install base. Gran Turismo 6 and the Final Fantasy XIII sequels are the only ones that have actually sold poorly.
Forgottonone
Member
They still get lots of japanese 3rd party support... no?
Imru al-Qays
Banned
Your statement was so preposterous I half thought you were joking.
The major Japanese devs are major Japanese devs precisely because they've had enormous success selling their games in the West. I'm talking Capcom, Konami, Namco, Nintendo, and Square Enix. All of these companies sell vastly more of their flagship series abroad than in Japan.
Infinite Xero
Member
Imru al-Qays;120593683 said:
This. It amazes how Sony's home country loves JRPGs yet Sony with all of their studios do not have an ongoing JRPG franchise. You would think it would be the most obvious game type for Sony to make.
Nightengale
Member
Dark Cloud, Wild Arms, Arc the Lad all contracted as a franchise, selling less and less with each installment.
White Knight Chronicles was a disaster.
Manmademan
Member
Didn't they try this with white knight chronicles?
Edit: beaten by the above. Souls games aside, jrpgs are a shrinking genre and an absolute Money sink. Sony throwing cash down the toilet to chase an increasingly irrelevant Japan with them is nonsensical.
Shpeshal Nick
aka Collingwood
Well it'll outsell the 360 pretty soon. That's one milestone checked off. I'm sure it'll pick up soon enough.
nrvalleytime
Member
Well, hey now. Looks like one more Emmy nomination needs to go to Sony this year, because no shit Sherlock.
In all seriousness, I hope the system does better there. That market needs to be healthy for our genre to keep moving forward.
In all seriousness, I hope the system does better there. That market needs to be healthy for our genre to keep moving forward.
Nightengale
Member
I think JRPGs have a place, but there's no middle ground. You either bring your A-game, or you don't.
Sony's problem with their JRPG franchises was that they allowed mediocrity to weaken the value of their IPs. And even when they tried to make the next-big-thing, they fuck it up and ultimately underperform.
Either you find the middle-ground where you deliver consistent mid-tier JRPG experiences that don't need 1 million sales to be successful ala Tales/Falcom, or you give it a very serious effort to make a damn good one that it can move the needle amongst the Japanese audience. The latter, which is pretty damn hard to do.
LegendofDragoonLives
Member
Maybe giving something.. anything of an effort over there might have helped.
Imru al-Qays
Banned
I don't think the problem with JRPGs is that they're a shrinking genre per se. I think the main issue with JRPGs is that they basically became synonymous with Square Enix, and when Square Enix started to implode there wasn't anyone left to pick up the slack.
Final Fantasy was a success in the west because it was Japanese enough to be exotic without being Japanese enough to be alienating. The high production values, the distinctive art style (that isn't recognizably Japanese), the particular blend of scifi and fantasy, and the relatively sophisticated storylines (I said relatively) played really well in the West. And they'd still be playing really well in the West, I think, if Square Enix's incompetence hadn't killed the golden goose.
Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts sold really, really well in the sixth generation, both in Japan and in the West. Square Enix bungled the transition to the seventh generation, but the people who bought Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts on the PS2 didn't just disappear, as evidenced by the fact that Final Fantasy XIII sold really well: there's a lot of pent-up demand for quality JRPGs worldwide. The problem is that no one is providing them: Square Enix can't get its act together and all the other players in the JRPG field release extremely anime stuff that western gamers wouldn't be caught dead playing.
Basically, I think if someone came along and funded a game like Xenoblade on PlayStation and Xbox it would sell pretty damn well. And I think Sony is the company best positioned to do this: they understand both the Japanese and the Western market, and they'd be able to walk the fine line of appealing to both without alienating either that Final Fantasy was able to do for so many years.
ArkhamFantasy
Member
There is a fan base for quality JRPGs , in and out of Japan. Although Final Fantasy is probably the only one that is going to get huge 5 million+ numbers.
Nightengale
Member
Imru al-Qays;120608710 said:
Best positioned from a business perspective =/= best positioned from a development perspective.
Unlike Square or even Monolith, who are experienced JRPG developers, Sony does not possess the same caliber of resources, last we heard of, to build a competitive product to a good Final Fantasy title.
Imru al-Qays
Banned
It's true, sadly. I do wish they had taken advantage of the exodus of talent from Square Enix that happened between the sixth and seventh generations, though. Nintendo grabbed Takahashi, but Sakaguchi and Matsuno have been wandering in the wilderness for years. Matsuno especially has a storytelling and aesthetic style that western gamers would be incredibly receptive to if anyone would ever just let him finish a project in peace.
Aquamarine
Member
Paracelsus
Member
Sony isn't willing to take risks any longer, games like Drive Club (or back in the day Demon's Souls) are less and less likely to be pushed (DC was basically rebooted for the better). From their point of view it's alright to keep focusing in Northamerica and Europe, after all how much cash should you invest in second party exclusives in order to boost the userbase in Japan, by how much even? It's getting much and much harder for them to care.
Nightengale
Member
Imru al-Qays;120610600 said:
Back when the exodus happened, Japan Studio was not exactly the most desirable workplace if you wanted to get shit done. Apparently it's great place if you're lazy though.
Even though Japan Studio's more productive now, the ship has sailed.
if they dont have the talent, they can easily get it, there are tons of super talented teams wasting their time helping out on low rent games
Imru al-Qays
Banned
Hell, Matsuno is on Kickstarter. Sony could moneyhat him for chump change.
It is the highest grossing movie there, ever.
Imru al-Qays
Banned
Aquamarine
Member
It's actually the third-highest grossing:
Japanese box office, All-time Top 3:
1) Spirited Away - $300.1 million
2) Titanic - $258.6 million
3) Frozen - $240.8 million
And the audiences for the two types of media are distinct from each other. If a Titanic SKU shipped, would the PS4 be saved then?
Paracelsus
Member
No, but be would be flooded with sinking ship jokes for the next 7 years.