Konami ceases triple-A console production on all but PES

[dobwal]

Xbox also brought Call of Duty to the consoles, something that would not have happened had the Xbox not appeared. It also sparked the FPS and to an extent TPS genres on consoles. Which now happens to be the most popular genre on both consoles. Many of the most successful console developers are now also former PC only developers who never would have jumped into consoles if not for Xbox. Bethesda is also another developer that is huge on consoles now but was brought on board by the Xbox franchise, and later branched out to PS. Same goes for Bioware. And Irrational Games, although they don't exist anymore.

Xbox basically paved the way for up til then non-traditional console games to appear on consoles. Consoles were dominated by platformers, RPGs, driving games, and fighting games up until that time. All genre's that have been in decline since the advent of Xbox and the influx of western PC developers into the console development scene.

Not necessarily saying it's a good or bad thing, just the reality of the console landscape now. Personally, I like console gaming better in the PS1 era. PS2/Xbox era is when my interest started to wane. Especially with JRPGs changing from turn based or phased turn based to real time (bleh).

Regards,
SB

If I am not mistaken, the 360 bought COD to consoles not the Xbox 1. By the time the 360 shows up, western devs are well entrenched in the console market.

The xbox platform has had a big influence on the console market. But the migration of western PC devs to consoles had already started as well known PC devs like Valve, ID and Epic were already supporting console ports before the Xbox 1 was launched.

I point to GTA as a defining point in that transition as GTA:SA represents the first time a japan based console's best selling title was a western developed title and not a japanese first party title. And it managed to do this on the best selling console of all time while GTA titles took 3 out the top five slots on the PS2.

 

[Nesh]

Except none of them are in a particularly good place now are they?

Square Enix was on the ropes in danger of going bankrupt in a few years had FFXIV (an MMO) not been hugely successful, as well as getting a large cash infusion from Microsoft (the Tomb Raider deal). Lets not forget that both Squaresoft and Enix were in trouble and needed to merge in order to stay alive. And that was when both companies separately was healthier than they are today. However, they made some bad investments at the time which put them in danger.

Capcom is somewhat solid, but even there the executives were considering selling off the company as future prospects didn't look good.

Konami. Well, we see where Konami is now. And thank god they are going to exit AAA development after some of the most boneheaded decisions to ever make it into a game. Look at my post in the PC MGSV thread if you want to know what I'm talking about. MGSV while good is obviously not a finished game with much of it being cut prior to launch and the 2nd chapter obviously being rushed.

All of them used to be able to survive just making Japanese games. Games got more expensive to make, but sales expanded along with that up until PS2 and came crashing down with PS3. Not only can Japan no longer sustain purely AAA Japanese centric game development as easily as in the past, but Japanese gamers are less interested in those AAA Japanese centric games. Especially when they can get their Japanese centric gaming fix cheaper on other platforms.

You are explaining a different reasoning now than the one you did which I accept better.

Btw did you guys read the whole post of mine I made earlier?

And much of that is driven by the fact that the average Japanese gamer cannot spend as much (in inflation adjusted Yen) as they could in the past. As I mentioned. In the mid to late 80's it wasn't uncommon to see a home where there was 5-8 consoles. Some of those consoles having a gaming library in the single digits! Many of which only had golf titles available! In the 90's that was reduced quite a bit to 2-4 consoles. In the 2000's you might have had 1-3 (if you include handhelds). In the 2010's you're far more likely to see households with just a single console.

Their spending habits have changed. Quite drastically. If you have lived in Japan for the past 40-ish years you'd be able to see this quite clearly. They buy electronics less often. They buy consoles less often. They buy cars less often. They buy clothing less often. Basically they buy everything less often than they used to. They also buy cheaper foreign products much more frequently now than they did a decade ago, because it's cheaper. When asked they'll often admit they think the quality is worse, but that they can't afford to only buy Japanese products any longer. It isn't something limited to console gaming, but it is something that affects console gaming.

Japanese developers are far more reliant on the Western audience now and that affects their ability to freely spend money on Japan centric AAA titles, which in turn is also going to impact how attractive they are to a Japanese audience that spends less on console gaming than they did a decade ago.

Regards,
SB

And this last part still doesnt fit.

What changed are the habits of the west towards japanese games and/or the fact that Japanese developers cant compete the west any more which were pointed earlier.
The japanese market is so small that even if every Japanese was rich and ready to buy AAA games they would still not be enough to make an investment on multi-million AAA projects worthwhile.

 

[Sonic]

I agree GTA series on PS2 has had a huge influence on the gaming industry today. I consider each game in the series as a masterpiece at the time they were released. There's little doubt GTA on PS2 was a turning point in the industry. The game is in a league of its own that while many attempt to reach they all fail in some way or another.

But surely Xbox as a platform deserves much credit as well with the transition of the industry to being more western focused. The platform proves that money can be made from two of the three major markets for video game consoles and that it better to focus on those two markets. MS's influence on the industry can be felt with the popularization of FPS titles. OG Xbox largely started the trend and the 360 solidified the FPS as one of the highest selling genres. Online play as well. Xbox Live, while not free, was vastly better at the time, and westerns devs took advantage of online play earlier and more effectively than Japanese devs.

I don't intend to downplay the significance the GTA series has on the console industry, to which is obvious a shit ton given that they're the highest selling games out there,

 

[Reznor007]

MS's influence on the industry can be felt with the popularization of FPS titles. OG Xbox largely started the trend and the 360 solidified the FPS as one of the highest selling genres

I think this started on N64 with Goldeneye. It was the 3rd best selling N64 game, selling more copies than Ocarina of Time and more than Halo 1 on Xbox. Although online multiplayer and improved graphics on later systems has really expanded the genre.

 

[JPT]

What changed are the habits of the west towards japanese games and/or the fact that Japanese developers cant compete the west any more which were pointed earlier.
The japanese market is so small that even if every Japanese was rich and ready to buy AAA games they would still not be enough to make an investment on multi-million AAA projects worthwhile.

The way I read it is that the Japanese developers never cared for the market outside Japan, now that the Japanese market has shrunk and the cost of making a title has gone up, it means that they have been hit by negative two things at the same time.

In addition, since they are not familiar with western tastes, it's hard to recoup some of the lost income and increased costs overseas, even if they try.

 

[mrcorbo]

If I am not mistaken, the 360 bought COD to consoles not the Xbox 1.

You are mistaken. Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Call of Duty: Big Red One and Call of Duty 3 were all on the OG Xbox. COD 3 was also a launch game on the 360 and then COD 4:MW on 360 was where the series became a top tier franchise.

Of course there's also the Halo Series bringing Bungie to console development. All of the Tom Clancy series (Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell) were first on XBox. Kotor I and II on Xbox brought BioWare and Obsidian to the console space.

That's just a few examples off of the top of my head.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_first-person_shooters

Rainbow Six on PS1 and N64. Doom and Quake also. COD was on all the PS2 era machines.

 

[pjbliverpool]

You are mistaken. Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Call of Duty: Big Red One and Call of Duty 3 were all on the OG Xbox. COD 3 was also a launch game on the 360 and then COD 4:MW on 360 was where the series became a top tier franchise.

CoD 2 was a launch game on the 360 but CoD 3 came later.

 

[dobwal]

You are mistaken. Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Call of Duty: Big Red One and Call of Duty 3 were all on the OG Xbox. COD 3 was also a launch game on the 360 and then COD 4:MW on 360 was where the series became a top tier franchise.

Of course there's also the Halo Series bringing Bungie to console development. All of the Tom Clancy series (Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell) were first on XBox. Kotor I and II on Xbox brought BioWare and Obsidian to the console space.

That's just a few examples off of the top of my head.

Thanks, I was thinking COD 1&2. I should note that every game you mentioned all came out for the PS2. The first R6 was on the PS1, N64 and GC in fact.

 

[mrcorbo]

Thanks for the corrections. This is why I don't often post from work. Don't have enough time to do my research to confirm facts from my imperfect memory.

I think the main thing that changed was that western devs were able to get out more fully-featured games earlier in the console lifecycle than in the generations prior to XBOX. Horror stories about the early developer documentation (or lack thereof) for Japanese consoles for non-Japanese devs are very common.

 

[function]

Japanese developers don't seem to be very good at making FPS with a fetisiation of Western military hardware and killing people using Western military hardware.

Ace Combat was a good start, but you were too far away from the people you were killing, and you weren't using handheld guns, and you couldn't see the pilots muscles and combat armour. And there were no scripted assassination moves, which are cool, because it's cool to murder people from behind.

 

[dobwal]

Thanks for the corrections. This is why I don't often post from work. Don't have enough time to do my research to confirm facts from my imperfect memory.

I think the main thing that changed was that western devs were able to get out more fully-featured games earlier in the console lifecycle than in the generations prior to XBOX. Horror stories about the early developer documentation (or lack thereof) for Japanese consoles for non-Japanese devs are very common.

Yeah, I can agree on that assertion. I think the Xbox presence help break down some of barriers that impeded western devs presence on consoles.

 

[joker454]

Japanese developers don't seem to be very good at making FPS with a fetisiation of Western military hardware and killing people using Western military hardware.

Ace Combat was a good start, but you were too far away from the people you were killing, and you weren't using handheld guns, and you couldn't see the pilots muscles and combat armour. And there were no scripted assassination moves, which are cool, because it's cool to murder people from behind.

They tried with Binary Domain, but it just came across as a really weird game to me. Also, at least for me anyways, anytime an attempt at dialog is made in a Japanese game I find it makes me want to fill my ears with molten lead. Not sure if it's due to the poor voice acting, inane scripts, abundance of cliches, etc, but once there is talking their games instantly seem horribly dated to me. I don't know if they are far behind because they have ignored world trends for so long, but it seems to me like they literally have years of catching up to do on most aspects of game design. It almost reminds me of the 80s when Japanese games ruled the roost, and when American devs tried their hand at Japanese style games they usually turned out terribly. It took American devs how long to get a grip on things, maybe with Crash Bandicoot on the PS1? Maybe Japanese devs will just need a few more years to get up to speed on current gaming.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Everything you mentioned is exactly what Japanese like. Movies, dramas, music and tv shows are pretty much the same.

Don't forget the average Japanese doesn't know and doesn't care about the west. This is a country where people when they, for example, go to Germany are absolutely convinced they have to buy bottled water because they believe tap water outside of Japan is simply undrinkable and act like they've just seen Moses split the sea in two when you tell them most tap water in Europe is fine for consumption.

They'll have a very very difficult time making a "Western" game. In the same way, because Japan is so different a Western dev probably won't be able to make a "Japanese" game.

The cultural difference is just too big.

 

[I.S.T.]

Eh, the dialogue depends on the translator. For example, Breath of Fire 4, a PS1 game, had insanely good translators working on it.

Whereas on the other hand you have stuff like Devil May Cry 1. Mostly grammatically correct, but the dialogue is awkward in the "Obviously not translated well" sense, and in the "Shitty voice actors" sense.

 

[Nesh]

I didnt want to make a new thread so I decided to make this question here

A cousin brought his PS3 and PES 2016 Day One Edition to my house so I would update and download his Day One Bonus Pack.

I entered the code which was confirmed and showed me the bonus pack. I selected it but I didnt see any download queue. I entered the game then and I was looking for the various bonus but I didnt see any indication that it was received. For example code says 100,000 GP x 10 weeks and some other stuff, but I didnt see any extra GP's nor anything else when I navigated the game.

Does anyone know if there is a process I should know about? Or is there something I missed?