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Why do you think Sony are neglecting so much Japanese games?

Varteras

Gold Member
I think you're confused.

Xenoblade sold a million copies on a console that sold over 100 million units. Xenoblade was on Wii. Are you thinking of Xenoblade Chronicles X? That was the game on Wii U. And at the time of Astral Chain's release, the Switch was not at 100 million units sold. I'm sure it has continued to sell since the last figures were released. And don't forget that in the most recent Bayonetta 3 trailer they included that dumb dog costume from Astral Chain. So while AC may have been forgotten by you, it has not been forgotten by Nintendo or Platinum.

It is well reported that Miyamoto had a very specific vision for Star Fox Zero. PG was just hired help. Doing what was told of them. So no, I don't blame Platinum for that. That's Miyamoto's doing.

And I think Scalebound is an example of what happens without the proper hand holding they need. Microsoft was hands off on that project. They dumped a ton of money into it and PG couldn't figure it out so they had to cut the cord. So yeah, PG NEEDS that guidance from the publisher. Or it could backfire like with Starfox Zero.

I don't love their games so I don't even know why I'm defending them so much here. LOL. Maybe because they have made some good games and don't deserve all the blame for some of the misfires.
Yeah for some reason I was thinking Wii U. Not even XCX. I know that AC wasn't on a console that had sold 100 million by then but it's on it still and 1 million is still the last reported number. We'll never know how much more than that it sold. Old games getting referenced by their creators in later games happens a lot. Of course Platinum never forgot about Astral Chain. No developer would forget what they worked on. But again, Astral Chain just didn't go anywhere. It didn't drive conversations. It came and went. Some Switch owners picked it up but most were focused on whatever games Nintendo themselves were bringing. I'm not saying Astral Chain was bad. Not at all. But, it just doesn't have a presence. There again, one game can sell a million and be praised, celebrated, and continued while another does the same and everyone moves on. No one is asking where the next Astral Chain is at. I see tons of people wanting the next Xenoblade. It's an unfortunate reality of the industry. Like why it's okay for some games to have tons of bugs while others get raked over the coals for it.

Again, Platinum Games agreed to help with StarFox Zero. They knew what they were getting into. They could have turned it down but Kamiya had really wanted to work on a StarFox game, so they agreed. They don't get a pass because Miyamoto had a vision that didn't work. They could have declined. You can give them that pass if you want, but their name is forever attached to that and it will continue to be a stain on them.

I definitely agree with Scalebound. Microsoft should have been more on top of that. Being a good publishing partner is knowing when to back off and let them work but then when to put a foot down and demand a result. I think that still goes back to their own management and having too many projects at once. PG isn't even 300 people right now. I don't even want to know how many people they had during Scalebound and trying to do 3 or 4 other projects at once. They need to stop trying to crank games out and focus on one or two projects at a time.

That's why I kind of rolled my eyes when they talked about demanding freedom if anyone picked them up. Like, yeah, no. Not if you continue to run yourselves the way you have been. You haven't earned the prestige to be able to tell someone how the relationship is going to go if they buy you.
 

AJUMP23

Member
Well I enjoyed Astrobot and GT7 a lot.... even with the always online stuff and DRM, the underlying game is excellent and so addictive, wish the campaign was bigger too though.

Astrobot was incredibly endearing and fun and had so much diversity in its gameplay.
GT7 is the last Japanese tentpole for Sony.
 
Dunno, but negatives are prolly due to sexualized characters and ideologies in Japan vs western shit. Positives are prolly due to how shit Japanese developers are at making actual levels in their games and overall quality, with only From being the single exception. Even P5R which I loved had garbage dungeons.
It was a terrible move though because Japan gave them a bunch of great exclusives. Ps4 was THE place for fighting games and shmups and bad games like BB, gravity rush 2. Last guardian, Wipeout, and nioh. Now MS is making up a lot of ground and is the better place to play fighting games due to having lower input lag. Wtf is wrong with ps5 btw that games like Strive and kof 15 have such high input lag anyway?

Sony has been disappointing and un Sony like when it comes to greedy moves, Japan and hardware issues
 

Bryank75

Banned
GT7 is the last Japanese tentpole for Sony.

Yeah, wish they had wayyyyy more.

It is kinda insulting that Sony has no JRPG studio, no fighting game studio and specifically doesn't own From.

Massive missteps. IMO.

Edit: Atlus was something they should have bought before Sega too...
 
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PlayStation has been acting like a right bunch of cuntwaffles since 2016 and I am waiting on the day they get their arse handed to them and realize they are getting too cocky.
PlayStation is the opposite of cocky. A cocky company wouldn't spend record budgets on their games trying to continually pushing gaming forward.

A cocky company will cut corners, save as much time and money as possible and assume (or know) their games will sell regardless. The Pokémon Company is a cocky company.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
PlayStation is the opposite of cocky. A cocky company wouldn't spend record budgets on their games trying to continually pushing gaming forward.

A cocky company will cut corners, save as much time and money as possible and assume (or know) their games will sell regardless. The Pokémon Company is a cocky company.
Ape Escape pushed gaming forward. ICO and Shadow of the Colossus pushed gaming forward. Hell, even Uncharted 1/2 could be argued to have pushed gaming forward a bit. Sony has done *fuck all* to push gaming forward over the past decade. They have fallen back to retread the same tired gameplay mechanics, an over focus on narrative, and "graphics" which are immediately outdated as soon as the next AAA game comes out a few weeks later. They have become another Ubisoft.

" Captain Toad Captain Toad - I advertise for PlayStation. For free." - Fucking lol

You literally can't be more transparent, warrior.
 
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There have been several Japanese games exclusively on PlayStation or coming soon. Forespoken, FF15, Persona 5, death stranding, babylons fall (not good but it counts), ghostwire Tokyo.. I can go on and on. I would hard disagree that Sony has been ignoring the Japanese audience
 
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AJUMP23

Member
Yeah, wish they had wayyyyy more.

It is kinda insulting that Sony has no JRPG studio, no fighting game studio and specifically doesn't own From.

Massive missteps. IMO.

Edit: Atlus was something they should have bought before Sega too...
I don’t know that Frim wants to be owned by an exclusive console maker. I think they like being multi platform.

The idea that they don’t have a jrpg like square is a mistake.

Sony has been the most Weeb console in the past. Probably still is but that is due to 3rd parties.
 

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
These forums are interesting, people think Japanese games have any sort of levity in the industry.

A lot of people got it right on the nose, the asian market has largely transitioned to mobile games, the console gaming space has either become hybrid (mobile/console) causing the quality to suffer greatly or they have been largely weeb games that have such low quality and production its an absolute joke. This is coming from me, a weeb as well lol.

The only publishers that really make slightly better quality games are Capcom, Kadokawa (fromsoft), Square. Konami is useless and even with those three the quality is sub par many times.

If i were Sony i would abandoned them as well, they can't invest in companies that have such low standards of quality, people LAUGH at Japanese games in the state of play - it's a joke regardless of the niche it hits within this community.

People laugh because the showcase is mediocre. For great new Japanese games, look at Nintendo Direct.
 

tmlDan

Member
People laugh because the showcase is mediocre. For great new Japanese games, look at Nintendo Direct.
They're not great, Nintendo has built up 30 years of nostalgia and hands us mediocre games (like pokemon and, personally, mario odyssey is garbage).

But when something new comes around that doesn't have Horizon level graphics or a big name (like Kirby) they laugh.
 
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tmlDan

Member
Lol Nintendo in house studios develop better games than Sony and Xbox, tf you're talking about.
Explain how they're better.

Tennis: Trash
Golf: Trash
Strikers: Hopefully not
Pokemon: Trash
Mario Party: Trash
Mario Kart: Same game remade and they added old tracks and fans oogle over it for some reason.
Fire Emblem: Huge travesty, bad performance, uneven rehashed static backgrounds, basic story....massive let down. I'm a huge Fire Emblem fan and bought a switch for it specifically, lazy money grab.
Animal Crossing: extremely basic game overall, not for me tbh can't really call it bad.

The only legitimately good game they've had was Zelda and I hated it (weapons breaking after 4 hits is a joke of game design). They haven't done anything impressive since Mario Galaxy.

You can come for me all you want but that's likely because you adore Nintendo for some odd reason, likely nostalgia - but they have very basic, but charming, concepts that trick you into thinking the games are good at all. And maybe that's because it's target audience is for kids, but i was playing arcade games that were hard af as a kid and hated spoon fed simple games.

And i've bought all those games i laid out, constantly let down by them.
 

Ezquimacore

Banned
Explain how they're better.

Tennis: Trash
Golf: Trash
Strikers: Hopefully not
Pokemon: Trash
Mario Party: Trash
Mario Kart: Same game remade and they added old tracks and fans oogle over it for some reason.
Fire Emblem: Huge travesty, bad performance, uneven rehashed static backgrounds, basic story....massive let down. I'm a huge Fire Emblem fan and bought a switch for it specifically, lazy money grab.
Animal Crossing: extremely basic game overall, not for me tbh can't really call it bad.

The only legitimately good game they've had was Zelda and I hated it (weapons breaking after 4 hits is a joke of game design). They haven't done anything impressive since Mario Galaxy.

You can come for me all you want but that's likely because you adore Nintendo for some odd reason, likely nostalgia - but they have very basic, but charming, concepts that trick you into thinking the games are good at all. And maybe that's because it's target audience is for kids, but i was playing arcade games that were hard af as a kid and hated spoon fed simple games.

And i've bought all those games i laid out, constantly let down by them.
Lol imagine being this delusional
 

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
They're not great, Nintendo has built up 30 years of nostalgia and hands us mediocre games (like pokemon and, personally, mario odyssey is garbage).

But when something new comes around that doesn't have Horizon level graphics or a big name (like Kirby) they laugh.

They are pretty great. Mario Odyssey is certainly no garbage. The problem is you, no doubt about it.
 

begotten

Member
Not quite. Vanillaware will be a Sony Studio in the near future and they're one of the next studios being propped up to the next level like Bluepoint & HMQ.
 

SSfox

Member
Not quite. Vanillaware will be a Sony Studio in the near future and they're one of the next studios being propped up to the next level like Bluepoint & HMQ.

No way imo. They didn't even port the legendary Muramasa vita on ps4 after all those years, but they have been pretty quick to port PS4 exclusives to PC and they even bought and invested into a studio for this.

Sony are getting away from this nonsense because most japanese games release on ps by default still, but sooner or later it will catch them, for example if Nintendo would release a not so outdated hardware so japanese 3rd party would also release on by default, or if Microsoft or others would aquire a Japanese Publisher ect. Sony will lose most of their appeal , and they can have all the Marvel games in the world it won't change a thing.
 
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NahaNago

Member
It is because Sony will get 99.9% of all of the Japanese console games to come to playstation anyways so why would they even bother. I would like for them to go harder on Japanese games since they were the reason I got really into playstation in the first place but that is just a dead dream.
 

ToTTenTranz

Banned
What japanese games is the OP talking about that should have released on Playstation but didn't?
I.e. exactly what titles were neglected?

- The PS5 released with a free japanese exclusive, Astro's Playroom from Sony Japan / Asobi. They're reportedly working on a full Astro title to compete with Nintendo's Mario platformers.
- Persona 5 from Atlus is still a PS5 exclusive AFAIK.
- Late last year Death Stranding from Kojima Productions got a PS5 remaster / upgrade.
- GhostWire: Tokyo from Tango released last week.
- Gran Turismo 7 from Polyphony released earlier this month.
- Final Fantasy 16 from Square Enix is a PS5 console exclusive releasing later this year.
- Forspoken from Luminous is releasing later this year.

I'm probably missing a bunch here, these are the only ones on the top of my head.

I see no indication that investment in titles from japanese studios is getting reduced. Is there any credibility for OP's claims?
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
I do worry for Sonys future catalog diversity, recently it feels like there just putting out Ubisoft games (admittedly of a slightly higher quality, but Ubisoft open world all the same).

Right now we have Capcom, SEGA and the Japanese side of Square Enix stepping into to help offset this and that does help catalog diversity currently.

However after the PlayStation move to the United States there has definitly felt like Sony has been reluctant to support anything in house that is more "Japanese" and the closing of Japan Studio I think was telling, people already felt it but with the closure it hammered the fact home.

Smaller Japanese indie or smaller A class publishers have moved over to Nintendo during this latter half of the PS4 era and I feel that this is one of the reasons the switch now dominates every Japanese chart.

There are also issues where Japanese developers that create more... "risky" content can fall afoul of Playstations new purtian guidelines resulting in Nintendo and PC versions of titles being released uncensored and the PlayStation version changed to fit there new policy.

All of these things work together to make the rival console more popular in Japan and therefore more people produce Japanese games for that console, this means for PlayStation Japanese titles become less important as they have a smaller share in the home market resulting in an increasing focus for titles aimed at the west.

Really I just want Sony to keep producing some in house Japanese titles, it really helps expand the library, even if they don't sell like blockbusters if you only chase what is the market researched core game experience all you will end up essentially a Cinema that only shows Marvel movies and Transformers.

I would hate that to be Sony.
 
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TheTony316

Member
No way imo. They didn't even port the legendary Muramasa vita on ps4 after all those years, but they have been pretty quick to port PS4 exclusives to PC and they even bought and invested into a studio for this.

Sony are getting away from this nonsense because most japanese games release on ps by default still, but sooner or later it will catch them, for example if Nintendo would release a not so outdated hardware so japanese 3rd party would also release on by default, or if Microsoft or others would aquire a Japanese Publisher ect. Sony will lose most of their appeal , and they can have all the Marvel games in the world it won't change a thing.

That's a lot of "what ifs"

Sure MS could acquire a japanese dev but so could Sony. The next Nintendo system could be a flop for whatever reason and lose most of it's third party support etc.
 

DryvBy

Member
I buy a lot of games and there's almost weekly Japanese games coming out. Where do people get this stuff? Are you comparing it to Xbox or NIntendo or PC? Or just saying there's less Japanese stuff right now in general?
 

TheTony316

Member
I buy a lot of games and there's almost weekly Japanese games coming out. Where do people get this stuff? Are you comparing it to Xbox or NIntendo or PC? Or just saying there's less Japanese stuff right now in general?

Sorry wrong reply. xD
 
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TheTony316

Member
What japanese games is the OP talking about that should have released on Playstation but didn't?
I.e. exactly what titles were neglected?

- The PS5 released with a free japanese exclusive, Astro's Playroom from Sony Japan / Asobi. They're reportedly working on a full Astro title to compete with Nintendo's Mario platformers.
- Persona 5 from Atlus is still a PS5 exclusive AFAIK.
- Late last year Death Stranding from Kojima Productions got a PS5 remaster / upgrade.
- GhostWire: Tokyo from Tango released last week.
- Gran Turismo 7 from Polyphony released earlier this month.
- Final Fantasy 16 from Square Enix is a PS5 console exclusive releasing later this year.
- Forspoken from Luminous is releasing later this year.

I'm probably missing a bunch here, these are the only ones on the top of my head.

I see no indication that investment in titles from japanese studios is getting reduced. Is there any credibility for OP's claims?

I think people are just upset over Japan Studio and some of the censorship stuff that happened in the last few years. I was a fan of Japan Studio and hate what happened to them but at the same time, i understand why Sony did it. The studio was badly missmanaged for over a decade (One of it's key figures left in 2009) and struggled a lot with actually releasing games. Many of the studios staff are now at Team Asobi

It's that and the fact that the Switch is so dominant right now in Japan. But yeah, japanese games are still releasing on Playstation and i don't see this changing anytime soon. Hell, even Xbox is getting more games now.

I really hope the next Astro game can be played without VR. Persona 6 will most likely end up being exclusive aswell. And then there's Granblue Fantasy Relink as a console exclusive.
 
Explain how they're better.

Tennis: Trash
Golf: Trash
Strikers: Hopefully not
Pokemon: Trash
Mario Party: Trash
Mario Kart: Same game remade and they added old tracks and fans oogle over it for some reason.
Fire Emblem: Huge travesty, bad performance, uneven rehashed static backgrounds, basic story....massive let down. I'm a huge Fire Emblem fan and bought a switch for it specifically, lazy money grab.
Animal Crossing: extremely basic game overall, not for me tbh can't really call it bad.

The only legitimately good game they've had was Zelda and I hated it (weapons breaking after 4 hits is a joke of game design). They haven't done anything impressive since Mario Galaxy.

You can come for me all you want but that's likely because you adore Nintendo for some odd reason, likely nostalgia - but they have very basic, but charming, concepts that trick you into thinking the games are good at all. And maybe that's because it's target audience is for kids, but i was playing arcade games that were hard af as a kid and hated spoon fed simple games.

And i've bought all those games i laid out, constantly let down by them.
Idk, Tennis doesn't look that bad and the latest two Mario Party seems to be alright (althoguh the newest one is just a rehash of old boards), but they were never my thing, never had any friends to play it with. Agree with Pokemon and Mario Kart. Don't care about Zelda or Fire Emblem. Kirby looks great though.
 
They are pretty great. Mario Odyssey is certainly no garbage. The problem is you, no doubt about it.
Odyssey is overrated. It's waaay too easy and stages are waay to empty and the capture concept was waaay two underutilized (some of these captures just felt like the regular old power-ups with a new skin)
 

BreakOut

Member
I don’t know, but I do know that it is the reason I’m buying a switch. I keep seeing RPG‘s come out on that system and just flat skip PlayStation now. (Disgaea) Since that’s my favorite genre so I’m gonna go where it is. I really hope that changes at some point in time, but I doubt it.
 

Doom85

Member
I don’t know, but I do know that it is the reason I’m buying a switch. I keep seeing RPG‘s come out on that system and just flat skip PlayStation now. (Disgaea) Since that’s my favorite genre so I’m gonna go where it is. I really hope that changes at some point in time, but I doubt it.

Disgaea 6 is coming out on PS4 and PS5 though. And will probably run better as I heard the Switch version was rough.
 

TheTony316

Member
I don’t know, but I do know that it is the reason I’m buying a switch. I keep seeing RPG‘s come out on that system and just flat skip PlayStation now. (Disgaea) Since that’s my favorite genre so I’m gonna go where it is. I really hope that changes at some point in time, but I doubt it.

Disgaea 6 is on Playstation. It launched along with the Switch version in Japan and is coming to the west in a few months. Nintendo had a timed exclusivity deal for the west. Games skipping a system is normal. Soul Hackers 2, Granblue Fantasy relink and the new One Piece game are JRPGs and not on Switch (at least at launch) Not even the PS2 had every game.
 
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ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
Odyssey is overrated. It's waaay too easy and stages are waay to empty and the capture concept was waaay two underutilized (some of these captures just felt like the regular old power-ups with a new skin)

Its certainly not overrated, considering it has high quality gameplay and consistent words of mouth with great sales. As stated previously, its a personal issue to those who says they dislike it. Either they are being edgey, or console warring, or have bad taste.
 

Y0ssarian

Banned
Its certainly not overrated, considering everyone parrots that it's good...or have bad taste.
e2zl3qd.gif


Bing bing wahooooo
 
I think that IF (when) Sony buys Konami, the IPs are going to become very westernized, Silent Hill will be like last of us, and Metal Gear like god of war.
 
Its certainly not overrated, considering it has high quality gameplay and consistent words of mouth with great sales. As stated previously, its a personal issue to those who says they dislike it. Either they are being edgey, or console warring, or have bad taste.
The gameplay is good but everything else is lackluster, and great sales and popular youtube people saying it was good doesn't mean anything. As a Mario fan, I'd much rather pick up Mario 64 over Odyssey any time
 
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yurinka

Member
I predict this thread will not age well!
Well, it already started with a factually wrong and fake premise, like the flat earther people.

In recent years Sony published several great Japanese games, many great Japanese 3rd party exclusives have been published and announced (in fact basically every known Japanese 3rd party console dev or publisher released at least one PS4 exclusive). And what isn't exclusive most likely is on PS as multi. Exclusive or not, PS4 had more Japanese games than Xbox and Switch, I'd even bet that there are more Japanese games for PS4 than for Xbox and Switch combined.
 
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FStubbs

Member
I've said this before, maybe even in the same topic:

Sony has always gotten third party Japanese exclusives like Relayer. Even when they don't, the vast majority of Japanese third party games hit Playstation - even if they skip Xbox or Nintendo.

It's almost pointless for Sony to spend money on Japanese games when they get the most Japanese support of any of the platforms.
 
I wouldn't say they're neglecting Japanese games. At this point Sony (SIE) is just shifting its identity into something different to fit the new trend. Consequently, that means less emphasis on Japanese output and market. It is sad how they practically halted production on Japanese flavored and focused games like they once used to do though.

Most Japanese games aren't big sellers like they used to be.
They aren't negleting japanese games, only those selling poorly. If they had big franchises I'm sure they wouldn't sleep on them.
I think that Death Stranding was the last chance, it was developed and marketed like a western AAA first party, but didn't sell like them.
Also, Japan Studio internal development never had a hit in years despite ladership changes and beloved creators.
 

yurinka

Member
IIRC Japan studio used to also be a direct line of communication with japanese devs but since the "restructuring" there is no direct line with japanese devs anymore, anyone wanting to contact sony now has to do so in english to the american branch.
Outside of Japan Studios (R.I.P/Long live queen Kat),

They branched off their 2nd party publishing side as they did before in Europe and USA (team who after this restructuring published Death Stranding Director's Cut and has been hiring to grow) and rebranded their internal development side (which after this restructuring changing its leadership is hiring in many positions to grow).

That Japanese 2nd party publishing team, which now like all the other 2nd party publishing teams around the globe report to XDEV instead of to local internal development teams, wasn't the line of communication with 3rd parties. It was only for 2nd party games.

Sony has a separate team for 3rd party relations, which also has been growing, and since some months/a few years ago Sony did put a couple of former Capcom execs (a Japanese one -the boss of that team- and an American one) on top of it. And for relations with indies they have another team created by the new management, headed by Shuhei Yoshida.

So no, under Jimbo management -as he said in an interview- they strengthened their relationships with 3rd party Japanese teams both big and small, or at least grew these teams putting top Japanese people on top.

I think that Death Stranding was the last chance, it was developed and marketed like a western AAA first party, but didn't sell like them.
Death Stranding is a very well reviewed, that was the game that won more GOTY awards the year it was released. We know both its PS and PC releases were profitable shortly after release and the last time we got sales numbers it was on track to become the best selling Kojima game ever. Sony and Kojipro were happy with the results and worked together again with the Director's Cut. According to Norman Reedus they are now working on the sequel.

So seems that they are -and should be- more than happy with it. Specially considering it was the first title of a new studio, a new IP and a very risky, super bizarre and alien concept for a AAA game. Pretty likely when Hermen Hulst said they were proud of Death Stranding it wasn't PR bullshit. It's understandable they would be happy of it.

And wouldn't be realistic at all that such bizarre and niche concept as a postapocaliptic Amazon delivery simulator would become a huge superseller like mainstream blockbusters with way safer and proven concepts from already stablished teams and IPs are.
 
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BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
California based company. Europe and NA are bigger markets. JP is more interested in Nintendo and phones. Not really hard to figure out.
 

TidusYuna

Member
They branched off their 2nd party publishing side as they did before in Europe and USA (team who after this restructuring published Death Stranding Director's Cut and has been hiring to grow) and rebranded their internal development side (which after this restructuring changing its leadership is hiring in many positions to grow).

What you said is true. But Sony lost Keiichiro Toyama and some devs went with him to be part of his new studio Bokeh game studio, which is also true.
 

yurinka

Member
What you said is true. But Sony lost Keiichiro Toyama and some devs went with him to be part of his new studio Bokeh game studio, which is also true.
Yes, this is true. Let's hope Sony listen to him and allows them to make another Gravity Rush somewhere in the future.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
And yes, i'll say it again and again, some western games are amazing, but overall japanese games are always the best. And all those gif are still just a tiny testament of it.
nah not even close. quick reminder that western devs made motherfucking bioshock, hitman and prince of persia
japan has done some great stuff but they dont put out what they used to. not to mention companies like square enix and konami making everyone over there look bad
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
the capture concept was waaay two underutilized
if i'm being honesty the capture concept was overutilized.
the main draw of 3d mario in my opinion is the excellently crafted movement physics that sets it apart from every other 3d platformer. you use that movement to get stars, coins, defeat enemies and defeat bosses.
so imagine nintendo making a mario game where the main gimmick of it is that you DON'T have the amazing movement and physics 3d mario is known for. you have to switch to capturing enemies and use THEIR slow movement and boring gameplay to traverse through the stage instead of bounce around like a fucking maniac with the most satisfying gameplay you've ever had the experience of playing.
that's odyssey to me. some of the enemy types are legitimately fun and cool to play with but most of the time i just want to play as fucking mario
 

oldergamer

Member
Nintendo read the market correctly and realized the home console market in japan was shrinking in favor of mobile. Making a home console that could also be a handheld gave them the best of two markets they previously had split focus on. They now have a single market to target with games. Kudos to them for making a simple switch. Pun intended!

In general the console market in japan has been passed by in technical knowledge and game design compared to the rest of the world. Once a driver of game software technology, they started to fall behind in the tools used. Example being softimage was still used widely in japan years after it was no longer available.
The amount of studios that could compete with the rest of the world got smaller. Only a handful of publishers were even capable of having reach to games outside of japan, or building the types of games that would sell well in markets competing with western titles.

Less people were buying home consoles there then ever before. Many game developers in japan now focus on mobile as the costs of development are lower, and you can reach bigger audiences. Generating added revenue from in game purchases being a huge plus.

Sony focusing less on japanese first party games and more on western developed games made sense due to the market shift.

My personal opinion is sony and ms need to make it far easier for small indie dev studios to be supported in japan and provide solid publishing options for world wide sales. That is the only way to grow the console market in that region going forward. Phil spencer has said something to the effect that indie games are where the innovation happens. I dont think he was wrong in that. Nintendo has managed to tap into it on the switch. Not every game needs to be a AAA blockbuster to be successful or move hardware.
 
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