X360 Slow start in Japan

[Medic]

I'm not saying X360 is teh uber great, I'm saying it's next-gen, it's here and it's now.

Whoop-dee-fucking-doo. Why should I give a flying fuck that "OMFG T3H 360 IZ OUT AND IZ UB3Rl33T?" Only fanboys use that kind of logic. Why pay out the wazoo now when in 4-6 months the price'll start dropping to something reasonable?

And I'm not surprised at the lukewarm reception. RPGs and fantasy games tend to dominate the Japanese market. Seriously, does anyone really expect "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland" or Madden '06 to do anything in Japan? 360's starting lineup is virtually all shooters, racers, and sports. Of course it's going to fail in Japan.

I probably shouldn't've italicized all of that cause I'm not a fanboy, if that's your impression.

Rather, wouldn't these traits apply to the average consumer, i.e., a parent looking for a present (albeit expensive) for their child? I can see now why X360 so far has dismally failed in Japan because of the launch titles but in America I would be surprised to see X360 stack up weakly against PS3, considering the launch gap and as-yet-unknown graphics contest (we simply don't know for a fact which will ultimately look decisivley or marginally better).

Personally, I'm only getting a PS3 if Ace Combat 6 is the messiah of arcade fighters. Though honestly, aside from the FPS's, I'm not eyeballing much X360 games very closely either. (I'm mainly a PC gamer)

[SirNitram]

I'm not saying X360 is teh uber great, I'm saying it's next-gen, it's here and it's now.

Whoop-dee-fucking-doo. Why should I give a flying fuck that "OMFG T3H 360 IZ OUT AND IZ UB3Rl33T?" Only fanboys use that kind of logic. Why pay out the wazoo now when in 4-6 months the price'll start dropping to something reasonable?

And I'm not surprised at the lukewarm reception. RPGs and fantasy games tend to dominate the Japanese market. Seriously, does anyone really expect "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland" or Madden '06 to do anything in Japan? 360's starting lineup is virtually all shooters, racers, and sports. Of course it's going to fail in Japan.

I probably shouldn't've italicized all of that cause I'm not a fanboy, if that's your impression.

Rather, wouldn't these traits apply to the average consumer, i.e., a parent looking for a present (albeit expensive) for their child? I can see now why X360 so far has dismally failed in Japan because of the launch titles but in America I would be surprised to see X360 stack up weakly against PS3, considering the launch gap and as-yet-unknown graphics contest (we simply don't know for a fact which will ultimately look decisivley or marginally better).

Personally, I'm only getting a PS3 if Ace Combat 6 is the messiah of arcade fighters. Though honestly, aside from the FPS's, I'm not eyeballing much X360 games very closely either. (I'm mainly a PC gamer)

See, for console gaming, there's this big issue:

What games are coming for it?

It's kind of like saying 'Hey, a Mac's stats are better, let's get that for gaming!'. Sure, the numbers might look better, but there's something of a limited genre of games(It's obviously more pronounced in this example, and therefore I'm being somewhat facetious, since the fanboys need this kind of sarcasm spelled out for them).

The 360's lineup is limited as fuck. The only games coming for it which won't be done better on the PC(FPS', etc), are sports games and fighting games.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

The killer apps probably won't come out for 6-12 months. That's the way it's been with every non-Nintendo console I can remember. Only the big N seems to know how to launch with good games.

That said, there are a few killer apps for the X360 on the horizon, such as Gears of War and Mass Effect.

[SirNitram]

The killer apps probably won't come out for 6-12 months. That's the way it's been with every non-Nintendo console I can remember. Only the big N seems to know how to launch with good games.

That said, there are a few killer apps for the X360 on the horizon, such as Gears of War and Mass Effect.

Isn't Gears of War a FPS? And what's Mass Effect?

[Instant Sunrise]

Mass Effect is a Sci-Fi Action RPG by BioWare. Link to official site.

Looks like it could be very promising.

[Edward Yee]

Praxis kinda hit on it. I don't consider myself a "PS2 fanboy," but sometimes mere backwards continuity is enough to determine the system choice; hence my waiting for PS3.

[Master of Ossus]

For the purposes of selling 360's in Japan, ONLY Mass Effect and DoA:4 are remotely promising (of the games I've seen, anyhow). Kameo is currently the only game Microsoft's got, and frankly it doesn't seem to be getting stellar reviews, here, and I think everyone would agree that it's not enough to sell the system. Gears of War is likely to be mostly or completely ignored by the Japanese market, so that leaves Japanese gamers to wait and see.

Frankly, to me that's a legitimate strategy: the 360 simply does not recommend itself with the games that it has, now. Not one of those games sells the console, to me, and so when you buy it you're essentially gambling that future titles will hold up to their promise, while (in my case, at least) simultaneously hoping for those games to be better than what the PS3 offers. IMO, it seems like a good option to wait and see how the PS3 turns out before committing to one console maker.

Edit: also, what fraction of the populace owns an HDTV in Japan? The big advance that "next gen" consoles have right now is that they are HDTV compatible. Not many Americans have HDTV's. I'd be kind of surprised if that was seriously different in Japan.

[Lost Soal]

Edit: also, what fraction of the populace owns an HDTV in Japan? The big advance that "next gen" consoles have right now is that they are HDTV compatible. Not many Americans have HDTV's. I'd be kind of surprised if that was seriously different in Japan.

I believe its been available in Japan for the last 10 years. By now every single TV sold is probably HD compatible.