"Lost Odyssey" a catalyst to sell millions in Japan & tens of millions in Europe?

Indeed. MS knew they needed some quality J titles, and put up the moeny to make them. Kudos for the effort, and for their sakes hopefully it'll pay off.

 

anybody know if either titles will release outside of Japan first?

 

They needed some quality J titles before the PS3 debut. Sure the game (could) look nice (scans are kinda vague) but Japanese minded gamers didn't go for the 360, even as the only next gen offer so why would they now? We all know the PS3 will have the better JRPG content.

 

Well, at the moment we're talking about a million PS3s in Japan to early 2007. And no RPGs in the first 6-10 months as far as I know.

 

It's not that simple, I mean there are more colours than black and white. I don't think MS expects to beat Sony in Japan, but they need to pick up their game there to a level, where they are atleast recognised as a player. Xbox1 didn't work there and now they have a different plan which could pring some results in the end, atleast on paper their plan seems pretty good to me, offcourse it would have been better to have some AAA titles faster to the market, but it seems that it's not very easy to actually accomplish something like that.

All in all it's very clear that MS is serious about Japan, and they'll keep hitting it as long as it takes to crack it, I mean there has to be way. Right?

 

Well, apart from the thread title being a rather hyperbolic I think a lot of people you shouldn't get up their hopes too high. I remember that Halo was on Famitsu Most Wanted list for months as well and in the end it sold about 60k copies, I think. That said after reading the last interview I am sure that Lost Odyseey is on the way of becoming an AAA title. However, high quality doesn't always translate to high sales, especially when you have an perception / image problem like MS has in Japan.

I think the importance of LO lies somewhere else, even if it hypothetically doesn't sell well in Japan, first of all it shows that MS is committed to the market. But more importantly it illustrates their struggle to diversify their software line-up everywhere. Right now the X360 has an overabundance of FPS in all varieties (tactical, action, etc.), but some other genres are almost non-existant. Adding more choice greatly improves the chance of customers choosing your product.

Saying that, even if LO doesn't sell in significant quantities in Japan, it will help MS in the end. Of that I am sure.

 

I was more referring to that part where he says they do 'everything' with a single graphics engine, since he makes direct reference to cinematics, it seems like he's saying that cut-scenes are done in-engine. Maybe not 100% though.

 

Feel Plus? I think those are the guys working on LO.

 

I dont think MS own MW, but there's definatelly an exclusive agreement...

On last year E3, someone from MS said MW could only release non-xbox games on handhelds because Ms doesnt have a portable console...

 

I seriously doubt that since MW themselves said they were totally independent. the thing is, like with Sony and Insomniac, MS practically funded the whole project (presumably) so these games will most likely be 'real' exclusives. MW can and will support others- unless they find enough funding from MS to stick with them. ahain, like Insomniac to Sony.

like others said, things won't be as dramatic as "make or break" at all. getting attention and upping sales doesn't necessarily mean abandoning the other choices.
also, Halo sales in Japan aren't a good example since Japanese don't even like FPSs- which is why Coded Arms was a surprise (a FPS from a Japanese dev).

you know what is curious? how come non is talking about BD? that is the title that will ship first. are people neglecting it because of its young theme? personally, I don't care for that kind of art direction. that is why I don't play DQ. I lean more on the more 'natural proportions' more than fairy looks. but that's just me. are the rest of you neglecting BD or what?
I don't know why, but I thinbk it'll sell more than LO. Japanese are like that.

 

Cause this is the first time anyone has ever seen LO up and running, and BD still hasn't released any ingame footage or demo, or anything other than a handful of screens and a cinematic from 12 months ago.

I'm pretty hyped for BD, sounds like a great return to the games I played when I was younger.

Che's impressions from GAF:

 

... is that a joke?

 

I heard that too (for some other games) ,MS try to include a Vista version deal.(i'm not saying it's their general policy,but i have some real life reson to believe so)

 

Well I think the guy was being serious, which is kinda funny...
I quess it's okay to treat it as a joke then? I mean I laughed when I read it.

 

Indeed. It's next to impossible for these games to achieve millions in sales. Even popular rpg franchises on widely distributed consoles (360 sells even worse than xbox) normaly don't sell over a million in Japan. The few exceptions are S-E's IPs and pokemon games.
Same thing in the EU/US basically. Look up the charts. JRPGs only sell if they're made by S-E.
"hey but it's different with the 360. J-Games are super successefull now, just look at Dead Rising! It sells like crazy."
It's a freaking zombie killing game. There's nothing japanese about it. RE, too, sold like crazy. Doesn't mean ppl will buy jrpgs as much.
The game(s) could very well be "the be all end all" rpg(s), but very few would care.
The most recent example is the marvelous Okami (more of an adventure) which sold like 150k in Japan.

Considering the upcoming wii/ps3 launch you should really stop kid yourselves. This will be like a fart against wii-ps3-typhoon.

Still, I hope they turn out really good and MS continuous this "head agains the wall" strategy in japan if only to broaden its library as winning over japan is out of reach now.

 

I could care less about sales..
Phenomenal games don't have to sell x amount of units for the game to make an impact.

In Lost Odysseys case, I think it will actually move a decent amount of units in Japan (both software and as system-seller). A million? I seriously doubt that..but if anyone can move 360 soft/hardware sales up in Japan it's Sakaguchi, period.

From what I've read, Lost Odyssey will definitely be worthy of Sakaguchis legend that proceeds him..I can't wait to see this at TGS.

 

It took nearly a full year for CoD2 to sell 1 mil copies on the xbox360 worldwide. It is the only game on the platform that has sold 1mil copies so far.

So expecting these titles to sell a mil copies in Japan much less a mil xbox units is just crazy talk.

 

what about oblion and graw? what are their worldwide sales? just curious.

 

do you realize that you're quoting the impressions of a MS employee on a MS published and funded game?

and as for the chances the 360 have to be revived in japan thanx to MW games, i think this quote from neogaf says a lot.

 

No, CoD2 sold a million worldwide much earlier, it recently hit a million in US alone.

I don't think that LO will help Xbox 360 in Japan. The system just doesn't have and won't have enough quality titles for these people.