Scott
10-04-2007, 05:41 PM
TOKYO--It's no secret that the Xbox 360 hasn't exactly seduced the Japanese market. Even though Microsoft spent lavishly wooing the island nation, its new platform's December 2005 launch in the territory was largely met with indifference. By contrast, the 360 was nearly impossible to find in Europe and North America for months after its November 2005 launch, despite reports of now-infamous hardware issues.
Microsoft is quick to point out that the Xbox 360 is doing well in other regions, with 6.8 million in North America and 3.3 million in Europe as of July 31. Consequently, the console's success in Japan, or lack thereof, will not make or break the console. Clearly, though, the publishing giant wants to break into Japan, an influential region regarded by many as the holy land of game culture.
OVERCOMING THE XBOX LEGACY
So what has Microsoft done wrong? Aaron Greenberg, Xbox Live marketing director, thinks that the problems go back to the original Xbox, which sold poorly in Japan after debuting there in February 2002--nearly two years after the PlayStation 2's debut.
"The feedback we got from the original Xbox console was that people didn't like the black colour and they didn't like how big it was," he told GameSpot. "We worked with the Japanese design team to design the Xbox 360, so the console was designed with a Japanese style in mind. Hiroshi Ogawa, director of the 360-exclusive Infinite Undiscovery, concurred. "The first Xbox was a little big, a little bulky, and in Japan that doesn't go over too well."
That said, Greenberg isn't entirely convinced by the research and the reasons given by the Japanese respondents for not liking the console. He said, "This isn't like a car where you're driving it around town... I don't buy any of that stuff about the colour, to be honest with you. ... We listened to that advice and we made a white console, but then Sony made a black one, and theirs is now bigger [in Japan]. But I think if you have games people want, then they will buy the system."
So what must Microsoft do to court Japanese gamers? "In order to succeed in Japan, [Microsoft] needs Japan-created content, not just a lot of foreign games that have been localized," Soul Calibur IV lead programmer Masaaki Hoshino told GameSpot. Indeed, many developers say that, naturally, there is a bias toward Japanese games in the Japanese market. "People think [foreign games] are difficult and there's no guidance on how to clear the objectives," one Japanese game designer said. "Now that has changed, and they are much easier to play, but this bias remains among Japanese gamers."
JRPGS: THE KEY TO SUCCESS?
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation localization specialist Naotaka Higashiyama agreed with his colleagues. "I personally like games like Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, Gears of War, and Test Drive Unlimited," he said. "But I think Japanese players don't want challenging, stressful, difficult games. Japanese players would rather have role-playing games with a slow tempo, where they are led and shown what to do. So, maybe games like Blue Dragon will start to change things. When more of those kind of games come on to the market, then I think more Japanese players will accept the 360."
Indeed, Blue Dragon comes from one of Japan's most famous RPG designers, Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. The nearly 25-year industry veteran is one of several high-profile home-grown designers that Microsoft aggressively courted to create 360 exclusives for the Japanese market. Though other games developed through the program fared poorly at retail--games such as the Tetsuya Mizuguchi-designed action game Ninety-Nine Nights--Blue Dragon struck a chord with Japanese JRPG fans. In an interview earlier this year, Sakaguchi said the game was on track to double its sales target of 100,000 copies, which, although modest, is remarkable given the 360's tiny installed base in Japan.
Link (http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6180208.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;2)
Microsoft needs more games that are simple to play and that show off what Xbox Live is all about for the Japanese market.
Microsoft is quick to point out that the Xbox 360 is doing well in other regions, with 6.8 million in North America and 3.3 million in Europe as of July 31. Consequently, the console's success in Japan, or lack thereof, will not make or break the console. Clearly, though, the publishing giant wants to break into Japan, an influential region regarded by many as the holy land of game culture.
OVERCOMING THE XBOX LEGACY
So what has Microsoft done wrong? Aaron Greenberg, Xbox Live marketing director, thinks that the problems go back to the original Xbox, which sold poorly in Japan after debuting there in February 2002--nearly two years after the PlayStation 2's debut.
"The feedback we got from the original Xbox console was that people didn't like the black colour and they didn't like how big it was," he told GameSpot. "We worked with the Japanese design team to design the Xbox 360, so the console was designed with a Japanese style in mind. Hiroshi Ogawa, director of the 360-exclusive Infinite Undiscovery, concurred. "The first Xbox was a little big, a little bulky, and in Japan that doesn't go over too well."
That said, Greenberg isn't entirely convinced by the research and the reasons given by the Japanese respondents for not liking the console. He said, "This isn't like a car where you're driving it around town... I don't buy any of that stuff about the colour, to be honest with you. ... We listened to that advice and we made a white console, but then Sony made a black one, and theirs is now bigger [in Japan]. But I think if you have games people want, then they will buy the system."
So what must Microsoft do to court Japanese gamers? "In order to succeed in Japan, [Microsoft] needs Japan-created content, not just a lot of foreign games that have been localized," Soul Calibur IV lead programmer Masaaki Hoshino told GameSpot. Indeed, many developers say that, naturally, there is a bias toward Japanese games in the Japanese market. "People think [foreign games] are difficult and there's no guidance on how to clear the objectives," one Japanese game designer said. "Now that has changed, and they are much easier to play, but this bias remains among Japanese gamers."
JRPGS: THE KEY TO SUCCESS?
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation localization specialist Naotaka Higashiyama agreed with his colleagues. "I personally like games like Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, Gears of War, and Test Drive Unlimited," he said. "But I think Japanese players don't want challenging, stressful, difficult games. Japanese players would rather have role-playing games with a slow tempo, where they are led and shown what to do. So, maybe games like Blue Dragon will start to change things. When more of those kind of games come on to the market, then I think more Japanese players will accept the 360."
Indeed, Blue Dragon comes from one of Japan's most famous RPG designers, Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. The nearly 25-year industry veteran is one of several high-profile home-grown designers that Microsoft aggressively courted to create 360 exclusives for the Japanese market. Though other games developed through the program fared poorly at retail--games such as the Tetsuya Mizuguchi-designed action game Ninety-Nine Nights--Blue Dragon struck a chord with Japanese JRPG fans. In an interview earlier this year, Sakaguchi said the game was on track to double its sales target of 100,000 copies, which, although modest, is remarkable given the 360's tiny installed base in Japan.
Link (http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6180208.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;2)
Microsoft needs more games that are simple to play and that show off what Xbox Live is all about for the Japanese market.