Unfortunately the attach rate for BR movies aren't that great either.
2007 major widespread Japanese publisher support for XB360
- Thread starter Brimstone
- Start date
Unfortunately the attach rate for BR movies aren't that great either.
heh...heh...
There *is* a domestic gaming market in Japan, something we often forget as it's been stagnant for some time... but it is still quite large. No doubt the IPs Japanese devs are used to exporting to the West anyway are going to be titles that could readily find their way onto the 360. But any titles that would launch in Japan first (such as the Final Fantasies) or have an outright Japanese focus period are going to have the PS3 in mind during development, because it would be hard to imagine at this point the 360 gaining the momentum necessary on that island nation to warrant a primary development focus for devs making games targeted towards the domestic market.
This is important, because as long as engine development continues apace for the Cell/RSX seperate from what's going on said Western-targeted titles, that knowledge will trickle down through the rest of the J-dev community, and ultimately should result (well I'd hope) in some games that whether multi-platform or not, make good use of the Cell.
This is important, because as long as engine development continues apace for the Cell/RSX seperate from what's going on said Western-targeted titles, that knowledge will trickle down through the rest of the J-dev community, and ultimately should result (well I'd hope) in some games that whether multi-platform or not, make good use of the Cell.
thatdude90210
Regular
Isn't that domestic gaming market now dominated by handheld (specifically DS) games? At least it looks like that the last few Japan sales charts posted around here. Maybe some Japanese publishers don't see that changing anytime soon.
With the ever growing NA and EU gaming markets, the Japanese developers need to branch out and cater to them, in order to maximize their profit. However, the NA and EU markets are quite different from traditional Japanese taste. This forces them to create new titles that *might* not do well in Japan but could be hits in the other 2.
So now you're developing this next gen title and if you stick with the PS3, you're really limiting yourself in these markets, especially in 2007. In 2007, even if Sony can produce 1mil PS3's a month and sell each one of them, they will still be behind the 360 in these 2 markets.
Then it simply comes down to numbers. Are you willing to spend X amount of money to port a game to the 360 for an oppurtunity to service all those customers or would you rather slash you potential customer pool by a large chuck just to remain exclusive and perhaps lose money on your title? Any decent business decision has have you heavily weighting the 1st option.
So now you're developing this next gen title and if you stick with the PS3, you're really limiting yourself in these markets, especially in 2007. In 2007, even if Sony can produce 1mil PS3's a month and sell each one of them, they will still be behind the 360 in these 2 markets.
Then it simply comes down to numbers. Are you willing to spend X amount of money to port a game to the 360 for an oppurtunity to service all those customers or would you rather slash you potential customer pool by a large chuck just to remain exclusive and perhaps lose money on your title? Any decent business decision has have you heavily weighting the 1st option.
Regardless of the success of the 360 in Japan there is a push among Japanese devs to emulate the financial success of western devs like ubisoft/EA and be more profitable, grow the company and make the shareholders happy. Capcom is the first to break the usual mold with their Dead Rising/Lost Planet engine which should be up and running for the Ps3 by now. I expect most capcom games this gen to make a showing a both consoles.
I agree the PS3 will be the primary platform but porting will be heavily emphasized more this gen, and many more simultaneous releases
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quest55720
Regular
It is completely dominated by the DSL for a long time. There have been a few weeks where every single game in the top 10 is a DS game. Most weeks it is 7-8 of the top 10 games are DS games. Many weeks the DSL will sell 2x the amount as all other systems combined. The DS has completely crushed every thing in japan. I can see why DQ9 is a DS game since it is the most popular platform in japan right now.
Right I agree on the above. My point wasn't that PS3 will hold some exalted place among Japanese devs; rather it's that there is and will always be a role for domestic-targeted titles. JRPGs have that name for a reason, y'know? And frankly the West sees only a fraction of that released outside those shores. It's not due to lack of ability, it's due to lack of interest abroad. And there will still be that domestic market that generates revenue for those publishers willign to target it. That is also an economic decision every bit as much as maximizing your overseas wares is.
But I wouldn't expect a flood of new titles to be coming to the West people. As it is, they already ship out a lot, I would hope we would all be cognicent of the fact that the games we would want, we for the most part already get... the major costs in porting to the West are not technology or platform related, they are localization related.
Indeed, as you mentioned Pozer I think the strongest shifts will be in multi-console support (ie having the 360 specifically in mind in the context of said exports), and indeed the restructuring in progress wrt to the way the in-house dev teams interact with one another and the move towards central game engines used for multiple projects.
After looking at this post a thought came to me that I'm surprised has not come up in contrast to this statement. Developers have had their opinions on what console may be "more powerful" but the consensus from every dev interview I've seen is that Microsofts dev tools and environment are far superior to what Sony is offering right now. So if I'm a developer and I have a new next gen game that I'm trying to get pushed out the door on time and on budget (and hopefully sell a few while I'm at it), why wouldn't I make 360 my PRIMARY development platform and port the game to ps3? At the moment and likely for at least the next year or two, the 360 will have more consoles on the shelf than ps3 and they have a consumer base that loves to spend money on games.
The odd thing is this isn't news. Most of this has been known since e3 2005. Pretty much everyobody (with common sense) knew Sony would not ship in "spring 2006" which meant they would have to catch up to MS sales regardless of how many or how few MS did sell. At the same time they also knew MS had better dev tools which would enable developers a smoother transition into next gen coding.
So the question is, why didn't we see more widespread support initially?
Sure you could point to Xbox sales vs ps2 at the time but really I think most people even before ps3 or xbox360 were announced thought that MS would gain marketshare on Sony with their next gen offering. It was just a question of how much. Then again, I shouldn't question the loyalty of Sony fanbois ... even in the development community. But we all know the saying, Money talks and BS walks.
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Well, among multi-consoles devs at the moment, this is exactly the case, and for the stated reasons.
But... you don't develop for the 360... and then naturally port to the PS2, y'know? The PS2 is still a viable target for development in it's own right; it's a little naive to think that when people saw the 360 coming, suddenly all development would switch to it. I think soon enough though 360 will form the 'baseline' development platform at most larger multi-console dev houses.
Release quantities and low attach rates. Both should be equally worrying to a studio. The cross platform of certain 2007 will likely be a reaction to these two things vs. prior planning. Ofcourse, if development of the 360 is easy(ier) then they maybe to able justify the additional expense to increase their customer base.
Of course if I were knee deep in developing a ps2 game I wouldn't drop everything but at the same time if I were at the begining stages of development when e3 2005 came around and for some reason I didn't know Next gen was right around the corner I think I'd want to get my game up to speed on the next gen systems asap as the likelihood my game would sell well after the new systems drop is pretty slim unless I was working on a final fantasy/god of war. And even then I would hope to be shooting for a end of 2006 release! (unless I liked seeing my brand new game land straight in the bargain bin)
Indeed - my question was more directed at developers jumping into next gen games.
Johnny Awesome
Veteran
I think we'll start seeing the beginnings of major support from Namco this year on X360 and maybe even Konami. Capcom is already pretty much onboard, but we might yet see DMC4. I don't think Square-Enix will fully support X360 until Sony has been routed, which may or may not happen.
Oninotsume
Newcomer
I can guarantee you're going to see many Japanese companies go cross platform. This is a pure cost thing. However, you won't see Tekken going to the 360, since it's going to come out in the arcades first on Sony/Namco developed hardware. Porting there is a no no.
Oninotsume said:
Soul Caliber series is built on Sony/Namco hardware and it been available for Dreamcast, Xbox and Gamecube. So there is nothing stopping Namco from releasing the game on the 360. Now if Sony payed for exclusivity for Tekken then that is another story.
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inefficient
Veteran
The problem for me is that there just isn't any BR discs currently released that I actually want right now. I did buy one, just to test the unit. But one is a lonely number.
HD-DVD has more movies in thier collection that I actually want. But this is probably because HD-DVD started out a lot faster and studios reacted accordingly. BR has a pitifull line up right now in comparison. Not even Sony has released they actually good/big titles for it yet. Where the hell is Spiderman for crying out loud?? Why is Da Vinci Code delayed? It's like even Sony themselves is waiting for BR penetration before relasing their big hitters.
But this could change coming in to 2007.
According to sales data earlier this month, the Xbox 360 HD-DVD addon has only sold 42,000 units. reference
While the PS3 has basiclly caused an explosion of BR players. Even if Sony does not sell 1million PS3 by the end of the year, there is still going to be an impressive number of players in cosumers hands.
I recall MS saying how happy they were with HD-DVD addon sales. But either they set their targets very low, or they just ran out of systems to sell and have not been able to resupply. 42,000 is a pretty low attach rate - even by console addin standards. And unless Toshiba and MS can figure out how to pick up some momentum in HD-DVD sales, BR hardware is going to steam roll them by way of PS3.
Edit: Yikes this is totally off topic! I blame blackjedi
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Maybe. I read other analyst numbers as high as 100K. I would proffer that is somehere between those numbers not including Christmas and Christmas sales may have taken that number over the top if supplies allow...
Hey! I explained myself earlier!
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