Consoles: Buying American--A Consideration for You?

[Arnwyn]

I've always had a hard time buying any explanation for the original Xbox's failure in Japan that doesn't take into account nativism -- not just of customers, but of developers. Why wasn't a single first-tier Japanese RPG ever made for the Xbox, when MS was throwing money around like water to anyone that would even try? Why did they basically have to found their own new studio to get one made for the 360? Why did Square and Sega reject buyout offers from Microsoft?

Speaking as a professional accountant, I find the idea that decisions were made for any reason other than a right and proper business decision to be... unlikely. Anything else sounds like nothing more than completely wild speculation and tin-foil-hat conspiracy theories. (Unless, of course, such proponents have managed to obtain some sort of insider information from the Japanese head offices...)

And really, a lack of top-notch Japanese RPGs shouldn't have been a system-killer in Japan, when there were lots of excellent games in most other genres -- including some of them the kind of great, quirky stuff Japanese gamers are supposed to love (most notably Sega's Jet Set Radio Future and Panzer Dragoon Orta) -- and when multiplatform games almost inevitably looked the best on the Xbox.

Really? When they release "certain RPGs" (and only RPGs) on weekends to avoid people skipping... everything? No, history has shown that "top-notch Japanese RPGs" is what sells hardware in Japan more than anything else.

 

[drothgery]

Really? When they release "certain RPGs" (and only RPGs) on weekends to avoid people skipping... everything? No, history has shown that "top-notch Japanese RPGs" is what sells hardware in Japan more than anything else.

Really? The hottest pieces of hardware in Japan right now are the DS and the Wii. And while the DS has picked up some RPGs lately, they're hardly what's selling the system.

 

[Arnwyn]

Really? The hottest pieces of hardware in Japan right now are the DS and the Wii. And while the DS has picked up some RPGs lately, they're hardly what's selling the system.

That's certainly true, but my statement was hardly an absolute - I'm sure exceptions pop up on occasion.

For the DS, its sales are no surprise because it's a new handheld that's small and cheap - something valued in Japan for years, even before the original GB (!) came out (you should see what still sells like crazy there - those crappy little tamagotchi-like pixel game things). As for the Wii, it took Nintendo entirely re-designing how one plays games on the cheapest new console combined with an expensive PS3 having no RPGs.

Both have little to do with why the original Xbox sucked there and why the Japanese are (rightly) gun-shy about the Xbox's next iteration. MS is definitely on the right track, though, with now releasing the Blue Dragon 360 Pack and the upcoming Trusty Bell 360 Pack. MS needs to do this, and continue doing such things for the forseeable future (because, as I pointed out previously, when they did so 360 hardware sales spiked materially). The Xbox(s) doing poorly because of some sort of "nationalism" is a bunk argument.

 

[Keldryn]

Are there any Made In Canada game consoles?

 

[sedarfaery]

I'm not a huge fan of Sony. Their prices are ridiculous. I do love the X-Box system though and hope to get my hands of a 360 soon. But first I need to buy an HDTV.

I have been playing Nintendo consoles for years though, Sega too.

 

[Murrdox]

I despise Microsoft. I'll never own one of their consoles. But that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that they're American or Japanese.