Japan: X360 outsold by...GCN.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2006-09-15 10:27am

Nephtys wrote:Didn't that come out like... only 2 or 3 months after the system launched?

DOA4? Yes. It had originally been promised as a launch title though, not just launch window.

Setesh · Post by **Setesh** » 2006-09-15 12:13pm

Honestly the 360 is a bust, while it is apparently popular in initial sales everyone (and I mean everyone) I know who has one has learned to hate it.

Many of the promised online features are monthly fee to use the good ones.
5 had to exchang them as they broke down within a few weeks
2 set themselves on fire
3 returned them for store credit after they destroyed 1 or more $50+ game
1 got bored with it in a month (these games all blow), plan to play Halo 3 then get rid of it.

The 360 didn't interest me before, it does even less for me now. The Weii (they really should have kept the 'working name' Revolution) actuallty interests me. Though because they got burned before by the lack of features compared to Playstation they are dumping a lot of unneeded extras into the Weii as well it will still retail $250

(just for laughs I entered the release price of the NES into the inflation calculator, inflation turned the $199.99 into $324.51, meaning that the Weii is being released for less than the NES was after inflation)

Inflation Calculator

Neko_Oni · Post by **Neko_Oni** » 2006-09-16 05:13am

*Shrug*, I've got a 360. I've had zero problems with it so far. However in hindsight I would not have got a 360 on launch day, since it had no games out then. Even now the selection is limited, though my collection is slowly growing (Perfect Dark Zero, DOA4, Chromehounds, Enchanted Arms and Dead Rising so far).

As for the Wii, I'll be getting myself one of those as well. Mario Strikers and Smash Brother Brawl both look like a lot of fun.

Dark Primus · Post by **Dark Primus** » 2006-09-16 01:19pm

Why do I get the impression M$ is just sitting dumbfounded looking at the lack of sale numbers on the Japanese market instead of simply asking them what kind of games appeals to most of them.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » 2006-09-16 03:48pm

Dark Primus wrote:Why do I get the impression M$ is just sitting dumbfounded looking at the lack of sale numbers on the Japanese market instead of simply asking them what kind of games appeals to most of them.

Well, they are trying to bring in some japanese devs to do game on their platform aimed for that market, but most of theses games aren't out yet and won't be anytime soon: Blue Dragons and others j-RPG projects from various devellopers, there is also some manic shooters like Senkô no Ronde, but without a true mass seller like a FF or a DraQue, i think that MS will have a hard time making it in Japan.

Medic · Post by **Medic** » 2006-09-16 07:28pm

Cao Cao wrote:Yeah basically the 360 has mindless shooters, mindless slash-hackers, mindless sports games and Oblivion. And anybody who wants Oblivion would do better investing in a decent PC given that the vanilla game is.. well.. crap.

When the 360 starts getting a bigger collection of RPGs and the like, it's sales in Japan will increase.

The only thing I take objection to in this post is... mindless sports games? Have you ever taken on an All-Madden difficulty level defense with a passing game? If you're successful it isn't cause of 'mindless button mashing' but because you READ THE FUCKING DEFENSE. Moving a guy in motion, pre-snap indicators, etc.

Now though. The REAL reason at least sports games would fail is that they're American sports games. I'm sure Japan doesn't care American football for one [although maybe baseball would be more popular?] And I do remember it being noted that although the X360 would get more Japanese games, very few were launch titles.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-16 07:57pm

Well the 360 has other, more fluid sports games like basketball and rugby right? I don't think it's the choice of sports, rather than how it's played - the Japanese gamer is very different to the American one, hence the huge differences between popular RPGs in both areas.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2006-09-17 10:21am

I wonder if the difference in playing strategies between Japanese and Americans as far as those sports games go IRL, would impact on the enjoyment of those games by each culture, given that the games would most likely be programmed from an American perspective, and may be programmed in a way such that the Japanese way of doing things, while it may work IRL, wouldn't work in game, simply because of the way the AI works.