Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Heavy Japanese Support for Xbox 2

Posted by Zonk on from the no-home-court-advantage dept.

Gamasutra has word that there are already several Japanese game development studios and designers lining up to create titles for the Xbox 2 system. Yoshiki Okamoto, a former producer at Capcom, is quoted in the article as being surprised at the response the new console is getting. From the article: "I've been hearing that some other designers will also be joining. There are a lot of surprises. I find myself saying: 'What, this development studio!? This game!? These people!?'" Commentary on the upcoming console's Japanese future also available at GamesIndustry.biz. Update: 04/07 03:18 GMT by Z : The translations from the original source came from Gamespot.com.

8 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Resistance is futile... by the_skywise · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You will be assimilated.

    I'm not too surprised actually. Microsoft has been pushing hard and listening to what the Japanese developers want. (And probably throwing alot of money around as well)

    In that sense, I'm all for it. Microsoft's generally pretty good when competing.

    I'm worried, though, what happens if Microsoft "wins" the market.

    1. Re:Resistance is futile... by bersl2 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm worried, though, what happens if Microsoft "wins" the market.

      Mass seppuku.

    2. Re:Resistance is futile... by cgenman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      More than just the Japanese developers, Microsoft has pretty much been playing all of it's cards right. It hired incredibly bright people and gave them free reign to create the system they wanted to. They created something solid, flexible, with the correct gambles. They didn't sell it as a set-top box, but rather a dedicated gaming console. Except that they're still losing money on them, and they're the size of SUV's, it's a great system. Even the great controller mistake was largely corrected.

      I don't think one company can "win" the market. As other people have pointed out, this market turns over every few years. Backwards compatibility, while a nice selling feature, isn't needed because you still have the old console. XBL might be a way to lock people in, but only to the same extent that AOL can lock people in. Plus the market likes to create new gods and tear down old ones. Even if Microsoft plays everything right, after several years they'll naturally lose luster and get kicked out.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
    3. Re:Resistance is futile... by hawkbug · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Well, if M$ wins the market, you basically have what we had in a few different scenarios from the past:

      1) The original Playstation: It was around for a very, very long time - even after PC games looked a million times better due to evolving hardware. The PS2 didn't hit until 2001, and even then, it didn't seem to outdo computer games at all. It took the Xbox for Sony to really get serious in my opinion, and we'll have to see what the PS3 can do.

      2) Traditional Microsoft Monopoly, aka IE: Once Netscape was killed off, around 2000-2001 I'd estimate, Microsoft quit developing added features into IE. I don't care if IE 6 has a different version number, it's basically 5.0 with some security fixes, nothing really added feature wise. Not until XP SP2 did we see a pop up blocker, and a shitty one at that. Mozilla has them running scared right now in that department.

      3) Intel Pentium III: It was a fine chip, but slowly evolving and extremely overpriced. Once AMD debuted the Athlon, Intel was racing to keep up, and basically still is today. The AMD/Intel battle has done marvelous things for the computer industry, even though it may end up killing one of the companies off... not Intel because of their cash reserves I think, but if AMD screws up, they are probably sunk.

      It just goes to show that without serious competition, the market isn't forced to improve. If M$ can manage to kill Sony's game business unit (which is highly unlikely, but possible I suppose) it would probably just buy Nintendo, and whammo, XBox 3 won't come out until 2020.

    4. Re:Resistance is futile... by JFMulder · · Score: 3, Funny

      Even the great controller mistake was largely corrected.

      You couldn't have chose better words.

  2. MistWalker by jdubois79 · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the May issue of FamitsuXbox (comes out in April, oddly enough), there's a huge article with 3 top game designers about their new studios that are exclusive to the xbox2.

    One of designers is Sawaguchi, who was the brains behind the Final Fantasy series, and who is currently heading his own studio with other FF vetrans.

    He's apparently working on two different RPG titles for the xbox2. One is a very traditional RPG thingy, while the other deals with a main character who is over the hill and who has adventure come looking for him.

    --
    --------
    Nothing can be done before the tremendous power!
    RabidComics
  3. IE analogy does not hold water, et al by insomnyuk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here are a few problems with some of your arguments.

    1) PS2 effectively buried the Dreamcast (my sweet, dear Dreamcast). I would say Sony was pretty serious, but I agree with you that Microsoft did make the game a bit more deadly, no pun intended. Competition is certainly stiffer.

    2) IE isn't a good comparison, primarily because it is technically 'free' software, at least in the financial sense. It doesn't compare to the X-box, which is fabricated hardware that the consumer must purchase. Once they beat Netscape, Micro~01 had no incentive to develop IE further, which brings me to your third point and final comments.

    3) Yeah, Intel vs AMD = good for customers. However, if one of the companies disappeared, the other would continue marketing and making new chips, because software (or bloatware) continues to demand more processing power. I know I'm heavily simplifying things, but the console market is similar. Developers want to keep pushing the limits of the available tech, gamers want prettier graphics and more realistic bouncing breasts, and this requires newer hardware.

    Its all about sales. IE doesn't get developed as much because you don't 'sell' IE at Best Buy. Game studios want to keep selling new games. There are a finite number of X-Boxes that can be sold, thus Microsoft must make X-Box 2, and 3, creating demand and maintaining their bottom-line. The same for game developers. Even if Sony disappeared, we would probably see a new console every 5 years, which is roughly the timeline we see a company roll out its next generation. You don't stop doing business just because the competition is gone, which will never happen, the gaming industry is too lucrative, it rivals the movie industry and in some ways exceeds it.

  4. Re:Unexpected! by ZephyrXero · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Japanese developer support for the XB2 does not necessarily mean Japanese popular support. Games may sell systems initially..."

    If there are lots of good games, people will buy the system. The games are always what decides whether a console is a winner or not. The main problem with the Xbox in Japan is that 90% of it's games are American or European and apparently a large portion of Japanese gamers only like Japanese games. You have to also take into account that the Japanese market is not as big as it used to be, their numbers have been dwendling while both American gamers and game developers have been growing and growing...

    --
    "A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."