What can Sony do about Japan?

I wonder why people always think like this? Wii will never be the main platform for any third party developer, excluding the mini-game making companies. Most of their games cannot be made for the Wii due to its lack of power. It's a technological limitation, not economic. So even if the Wii sells 20 million, most of the traditional games will still be made for the PS3 and possibly the 360.

 

As long as PS3 has it's place in Japan and attracts it's games, does that matter? If all the Pachinko and dating games go to Wii, as long as PS3 gets the epic RPGs like FFXIII which need powerful hardware, it'll get everything it needs for strength of worldwide software library. It won't be the money-maker Sony would like, but as long as it turns a profit and gets enough content, it'll be a success, especially if the sacrifices that lost market share pay back in their areas such as widespread Cell adoption and BRD licensing fees.

Failing that, Sony need a portable PS3 quick!

 

I wonder why people always think that the Wii cant become the main platform. It seems some people have a dislike to Wii's slower hardware and strange controller that they just wont allow their brain to even think of the Wii maybe become the main platform for a reason that doesnt make any sense because looking at sales alot of people apparantly are interrested in the Wii and you tell me why a third party dev wont see a console that sells more and is cheaper to dev for as the main platform instead of a slower selling more expensive to dev for platform.

C'mon... Do I really have to read this kind of stuff at B3D? as far as I know just about every genre made it to ps2 and that sure is alot less powerfull than Wii is. Oh but I forgot, ever since x360 came out suddenly everything that has less power isnt capable of running big games anymore and is limited to mini games with NES gfx. Yeah that makes sense.

I know im not a very smart person but could you please explain to me how a platform that sells more than the others and is less expansive to develop for not economic? Are you trying to say that developing for a platform wich sells less and costs more to develop for will make you more money?

20million vs what? 20million vs 40million, yes. 20million vs 10million? no. Its all a matter of numbers. If wii starts outselling x360 and ps3 like crazy do you really think devs will ignore that just because its not as fast? Do you really think any higher-ups at devs think that is a reason not to develop for a platform?

It doesnt matter if you dont mind that it will get a GC'ish libary if it keeps selling like this. I couldnt care less how a platform sells as long as it gets the games I want to play.

Well you can have a epic FF on Wii just as well. It wont look as good but in a 60+ hour rpg gfx are the least of my worries.

 

Maybe they should just release FF13 on PS2 for an even bigger user base than the Wii.

Oh wait, that defeat the whole point of going next-gen in the first place. Face it, the technology upgrade has already happened, and few devs are willing to go back.

 

One problem Sony could face if it doesn't become main platform is that Japanese gamers will just buy the hardware & software, finish those must have games, and sell back the hardware & software, just like they did with x360 & Blue dragon. Then Sony will end up with a big PS3 used market to compete with new PS3 Sony is trying to sell. And the new hardware numbers will flounder, again, just like it is with the x360 now.

 

Any real proof of that? Have XB360 numbers dropped below their pre-BD sales?

Also I doubt PS3 would face that issue as long as there's a constant stream of the top-end titles. If FF proper stays PS3, and you have WKS and whatever else comes out, as long as there's enough to make it worthwhile, people will keep their PS3s. If anyone is buying XB360 to play BD and then sell the console again, they're selling it because they don't think any more worthwhile games are coming.

Don't they have console renting in Japan like the West? I still think it weird that someone would buy a console to play one game and then sell it again. Especially if interest is that low. How much resale value will they have? If people aren't buying XB360's new in any great number, will they be interested in paying a reasonable amount for a 2nd hand machine?

 

The whole point of going next gen is for MS and nintendo being able to gain more market share. Do you really think sony wouldve launched the ps3 in 2006 if ms and nintendo wernt there? ofcourse not. MS and nintendo want more market share, so to build a new console wich is a improvement over their old one (yes even the wii is, dont treat it like a NES ffs). Ofcouse sony wants to maintain its market share so it must also build a new console.

And do you got a source on devs not wanting to go back? do you really think, especially from a money/time pov devs enjoy trowing away all their old stuff, build it again, spend alot more time on devving and than releasing it on a platform wich has userbase 50 times smaller than the old one? Besides that the wii is a improvement too, just not as big as ps3. ps1 and ps2 had big games too so its just.... dumb... to say wii cant have any big games just because its not as powerfull as ps3. And as things look, consumers arnt that interrested in ubergfx otherwise Wii wouldnt be selling as good as it is and everybody would be buying ps3 and x360.

Anyway the whole point is that not having uberhardware doesnt mean a system cant be the main dev platform. In the end its all about the money.

 

How about Square Enix saying FFXIII was started for PS2, but after the FFVII on PS3 they couldn't bring themselves to stick with the old hardware?

Do you really think devs, artists and coders and designers, are happy to stick with the same hardware and limitations rather than grow their ideas with new technological possibilities? Do you thing those devs don't look at stuff like Natural Motion and Digital Molecular Matter and complex physics and next-gen stuff and think 'hey, that's so cool I want to be working with some of that!'? Sure, creating the software again is a drag. But that's the work you put in to create the big ideas you have. No-one enjoys working (if you enjoy it, it isn't work!) but they enjoy the pay-off at the end. If devs could just imagine their game and have it appear with a click of their fingers, they'd be happy. Instead, they have to choose where to create their ideas. And in some cases that'll be on big, complex hardware that enables more stuff and more work.

 

Thats why I said from a time/money pov. Obviously more power is only better because you can do more but that doesnt mean you cant do great things on less powerfull hardware.

 

If you read the digitimes article that week about developers in Taiwan complaining again on PS3 complexity to code for (so longer time and more money needed) , you can bet that for theses third party devs, Wii has way more chance to become their main platform than the PS3

 

The point of going next gen is not super duper shiny graphics.. its new experiences, whatever they may be. The reason people stop releasing games on older systems like PS2 is because the owers of those systems get tired of the system and stop buying games on it. After five or six years with the same system they want something new. But that doesn't have to mean next gen graphics. There are plenty of ways to experience new levels of gaming outside of how many polygons you put on screen or what texture resolution you use.. The fact is if a new console has a bigger userbase then another new console it will sell more software. Look at software charts in Japan (or anywhere else really, but lets focus on Japan since that's what this discussion focuses on). Wii dominates the console software charts, not PS2 and certainly not PS3. If the situation is the same 12 months from now Wii will have the majority of developer support, that's just the way it is.

 

I think people (in general) way over-analyze the "innovativeness" of the DS. The dual screen is never that important in any DS game. I will give you the touch screen. However IMO that's not the reason the DS took off in Japan. DS took off in Japan because of Brain Training. I could list Nintendog and NSMB but ultimately, if you take out the 40 year olds that brought the DS for Brain Training, the DS sales is similar to GBA sales, which BTW was almost as big as PS2 before the DS launch. BTW Brain Training was not the first game of its kind, there were Japanese arcade games that did very similar quiz questions.

So what I am saying is, don't use DS to predict the potential of the Wii. IMO the Japanese market simply change faster, and more unpredictable than the NA and European markets. I am an Asian and I grew up in an Asian country. A "trend" in Japan or Hong Kong catch on and go away much faster and harder than western countries. This applies to TV show, brand name product and everything else.

GameCube sold very badly in Japan last generation, IMO there was no reason to be so low. Nintendo just wasn't the favorite at that time. Now it's their day to shine. I wouldn't be surprised to see Wii outselling the PS3 quite abit this generation in Japan, but that wouldn't have anything to do with the innovativeness of the console. It would be because Nintendo is packaging the Wii properly and making it the iPod of Japanese family consoles.

If PS3 were to make a come back in Japan, IMO it would have absolutely nothing to do with the good solid games that are coming out for the PS3, the White Knight Story and DMC4 of the world. It would be something totally out of the left field. I actually think PS3 can pull it off. And my reason is this , for a country whose 60% of the population blindly purchase Toyota models year in and year out simply won't turn their faces away from the biggest national electronic name brand for too long.

 

Well the irony is the biggest game company in Japan right now is Nintendo.

 

White Knight Story is, as of now, an unproven IP and no Devil May Cry game has gone above 700k sold in Japan. It's going to take a lot more than that.

 

This published report says otherwise.

 

is that for Japan?

 

Is that income or the size of the team?

 

Not really. It's interesting that you didn't choose Xbox 1.

Media Create 3.19-3.25

DSL 130,549
Wii 75,571
PSP 41,546
PS3 20,459
PS2 16,961
Xbox360 3,492
GBM 765
GBASP 607
GC 270
DS 135
GBA 22

 

It is number of development staff. And it's not just for Japan. EA has hardly any presence in Japan.

 

That is what I thought. It doesn't really matter if other companies have more people though, as Nintendo has the games (Wii Play and Wii Sports right now) that the Japanese love.