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Xbox 360 steals Tokyo Game Show

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MarketTantrik

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Xbox 360 steals Tokyo Game Show

Microsoft riding high on new popularity of RPGs for its platform

 

By BRIAN ASHCRAFT

Special to The Japan Times

 

Source: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nc20081022a1.html

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The biggest announcement at the four-day Tokyo Game Show 2008 (Oct. 9-12) at Makuhari Messe convetion center in Chiba Prefecture was not for a Japanese title and not by a Japanese company.

 

On the first of the two press days, Microsoft exec John Schappert announced the Xbox 360 title "Halo 3: Recon," a game that was rumored to have been pulled from Microsoft's announcement lineup earlier this year at the Los Angeles game-industry event E3. "Halo 3: Recon" is an expansion of the wildly popular first-person-shooter "Halo 3," and will be out in North America next fall. While Microsoft's "Halo" franchise is a juggernaut among Western gamers, the series has had a tepid reception at best in Japan, where first-person-shooters aren't as popular. The reason for announcing such a Western-centric title at a Japanese event was simple: Free press.

 

Microsoft has traditionally had a tough time in the Japanese market. When the console launched in 2005, unsold Xbox 360s collected dust on store shelves. Japanese gamers griped that the games were "too Western" and didn't appeal to their tastes. It was a dreadful repeat of what followed the Japan release of the original Xbox in 2002.

 

Flash forward to August this year, when popular Xbox 360 role-playing game "Tales of Vesperia" caused the console to sell out across Japan. It was so extreme that Microsoft Japan had to release an official apology for the inconvenience to consumers and retailers. A price drop followed in September, which, coupled with more Japan-friendly role-playing games, has caused the Xbox 360 to be in demand like never before.

 

In years past, Japanese gamers have shown little enthusiasm for the Microsoft booth at TGS. But this year, there were long lines almost comparable to those at the Sony stand. Microsoft strategically placed its booth, packed with a staggering 140 demo kiosks, right across from venerated Japanese game-maker Square Enix, which was one of the must-visit locales of the show. Gamers hoped to get a glimpse of the new trailer for Square Enix's in-Japan PlayStation3 exclusive "Final Fantasy XIII" (the game will be released on both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 in North America and Europe but, oddly, only on the PS3 in Japan). Microsoft has secured several other Square Enix-developed role-playing titles, such as "The Last Remnant" and "Star Ocean 4," each of which were playable at TGS, if you wanted to wait in line for 90 minutes or more. Western-created role-playing games such as "Fallout 3" and "Fable II" each had waits of an hour, something that would have been unimaginable five years ago.

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Follow the source link to read the whole story. Its pretty interesting.

 

--MT

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KeezNah Newbie

KeezNah

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360? PS3? PFFFT I BEG TO DIFFER, LADIES.

 

Nintendo DS Steals the Tokyo Game Show

 

With more than 23 million units sold in Japan alone, and an updated version of the hardware called the DSi on the way next month, there isn't a gamemaker at the show that isn't preparing one or more big-budget games for DS. They're betting that the system's broad popularity will equal big returns on titles for hard-core players and casual gamers alike.

 

"DS is obviously kicking a*s in Japan," says Capcom's Hiroyuki Kobayashi, producer of the Resident Evil series of games. Kobayashi says that since many Japanese publishers create games only for Japanese consumers, they are naturally gravitating toward the dominant platform. Nintendo says it has sold one DS for every two Japanese households.

 

The surging popularity of handheld videogame systems like the DS, Sony's PSP and even the iPhone means an expanding market for gamemakers who can cook up addictive diversions for people killing time in a waiting room or on a train. Like Nintendo's superpopular Wii console, the DS and its portable bretheren appeal first and foremost to casual gamers. But there's plenty of red meat for the hard-core, too.

 

Tokyo Game Show organizers say about 19 percent of the games on the show floor are for Nintendo's portable system, almost double the figure for 2006. All of Japan's major game publishers have elaborate booths in Tokyo's Makuhari Messe convention center for the show, which lets the public get its hands on demos of upcoming games.

 

Square Enix is bringing its cult classic role-playing game series Valkyrie Profile to Nintendo DS, causing fans to line up for hours around its booth to play it, although they might be surprised by what they find. "The DS version is very different from the earlier versions -- it's a strategy RPG this time," says James Clark, who writes for a website called RPGFan from his Tokyo apartment. "It's really a bold choice, because it's going to alienate some of the fans, I think. But it definitely has a very deep story."

 

As the Nintendo DS market becomes stronger, publishers are taking bigger risks and putting more resources into DS development. Level-5, an independent publisher that shot to prominence in Japan with its Professor Layton series of puzzle games, showed a full slate of new brain-twisting titles for DS at its massive show booth in Tokyo. One of the games, Ni no Kuni, is an impressive-looking collaboration with the Oscar-winning animators at Studio Ghibli.

 

Role-playing games, in particular, are a hot commodity on DS. Square Enix has sold millions of copies of its remakes of classic games in the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series, and this year, most gamemakers on the show floor are previewing big RPGs.

 

The latest entries in the Suikoden and Phantasy Star series are coming exclusively to DS. Other RPGs are built on more quirky concepts: Riz-Zoawd is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz.

 

Many of these games will be released in early November, alongside the launch of the updated Nintendo DSi. The $185 version of the system will include two built-in cameras and the ability to download games.

 

Portable gaming in general is experiencing a renaissance in Japan, says Capcom's Kobayashi. "PSP is doing well, and for the first time, I'm working on a PSP title." Square Enix is also showing strong PSP titles in its Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series, although the next home console versions of those games are still far away.

 

After DS and PSP, the next most prevalent platform at TGS is Wii. The most powerful consoles, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, have the fewest games on the floor.

 

Software engineer Tom Fulp, whose company Behemoth created the recent Xbox Live game Castle Crashers, said his favorite games on the show floor aren't "super mind-blowing, technology-wise."

 

Instead, Fulp admires Japanese gamemakers' quirky creativity. "They have more fun with their stuff," he says.

 

Chris Kohler, much like the other DS fanboys, knows the real score :)

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