Microsoft's Tokyo Game Show Showing

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft's Tokyo Game Show Showing

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday September 20, 2006 @06:22AM from the serenity-to-accept-the-things-we-cannot-change dept.

Microsoft's Tokyo Game Show press conference had quite a few choice revelations, above and beyond 1080p for the 360. Several 360 titles are now platinum with games like Kameo, Project Gotham Racing, and Perfect Dark Zero becoming available for about $30 in October. For those with Xbox Live, the first bring it home content is now available from TGS. Demos are expected later this week, but so far all we have to show for the event are some picture packs. The hopeful Xbox presentation, located as it is in Tokyo, has prompted some consideration of the 360's future in Japan. Despite the upbeat tone, the general consensus seems to be Microsoft has already lost the Japanese market, before the other systems are even on the market.

31 comments

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Oh I thougt MS had a Game Show by CrazyJim1 · 2006-09-20 06:26 · Score: 1

I was psyched to see what sort of wacked Japanese Game Show that Microsoft could make up.

--
God spoke to me.
1. Re:Oh I thougt MS had a Game Show by gEvil+(beta) · 2006-09-20 06:31 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I hear the chair toss is a big hit.
  
  --
  This guy's the limit!
2. Re:Oh I thougt MS had a Game Show by hc5duke · 2006-09-20 06:44 · Score: 1
  
  As is pie-throwing
3. Re:Oh I thougt MS had a Game Show by Ucklak · 2006-09-20 07:45 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  For 3 seconds (not a second) I seriously thought the same thing.
  I envisioned some sort of popup bonanza and the host dressed as MS Bob.
  
  --
  if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
The summary forgot a few important announcments by Keeper · 2006-09-20 06:31 · Score: 3, Informative

HD-DVD drive goes on sale for 19800 yen (~$170)
Blue Dragon goes on sale before Christmas
Blue Dragon 360 bundle hits stores the day Blue Dragon ships
1. Re:The summary forgot a few important announcments by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-20 06:40 · Score: 0
  
  It's all so niche that I'll be surprised if they break even on any of it.
2. Re:The summary forgot a few important announcments by Keeper · 2006-09-20 06:46 · Score: 1
  
  Blue Dragon a niche game? Really? You might as well call FF one of those RPGs nobody cares about...
3. Re:The summary forgot a few important announcments by hansamurai · 2006-09-20 07:02 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  If anyone is confused about Blue Dragon, it was developed by the game studio Hironobu Sakaguchi created after he left Square-Enix. Sakaguchi was the creator of the Final Fantasy series.
  
  --
  Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
4. Re:The summary forgot a few important announcments by minus_273 · 2006-09-20 07:11 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  looking at the creators, it is a FF game in all but name. even uematsu did the music.
  
  --
  The war with islam is a war on the beast
  The war on terror is a war for peace
5. Re:The summary forgot a few important announcments by atomicstrawberry · 2006-09-20 12:39 · Score: 1
  
  It's not just Sakaguchi either. Nobuo Uematsu on the music, and the character art by Akira Toriyama. You've basically got a combination of the people behind the two largest RPG franchises in Japan - Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. If it doesn't make a splash, then I'd be extremely surprised.
1up Link Not Working by neonprimetime · 2006-09-20 06:33 · Score: 1

So here's a recap of the press conference from Games Are Fun
XBox in Japan by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-20 06:46 · Score: 1

Honestly, with how poorly they have performed I don't see Microsoft as having any chance of becoming a majory player in the Japaneese gaming market. With that said, with how poorly Sony is approaching this generation I think Microsoft has a real opportunity to make some inroads into Japan.

With Sony only launching with 100,000 units in Japan (and the likely supply problems that will occur in the following months), and the massive price tag, Microsoft has to get the message out that the XBox 360 produces graphics at a similar level to the PS3, is less expensive, and has some cool games out right now. If they're really successful they could probably get somewhere in the 1.5 Million units sold range, which would add creditability for the next generation.
1. Re:XBox in Japan by badasscat · 2006-09-20 07:40 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Honestly, with how poorly they have performed I don't see Microsoft as having any chance of becoming a majory player in the Japaneese gaming market. With that said, with how poorly Sony is approaching this generation I think Microsoft has a real opportunity to make some inroads into Japan.
  
  Keep dreamin'.
  
  If consumers aren't buying the Xbox 360 when the PS3 isn't even on the market, what makes you think they will suddenly *start* buying the 360 once the PS3 is available? (Not even mentioning the Wii... which is still a wildcard IMO.) It doesn't really matter that there are going to be shortages and the prices will be high. Japan isn't exactly a third-world country living in poverty, for one thing - those who want a PS3 will find ways to afford one. They're also going to be inundated with PS3 marketing telling them how cool the system is (and unlike MS's marketing, it'll actually seem that way coming from a company that understands Japanese culture).
  
  Once the PS3 launches, I would expect 360 sales to drop to near zero. They're already basically there, but the 1,500 or so people who are buying 360's each week are going to have even less incentive once the PS3 ships. Some of those potential customers will no doubt also buy a Wii instead; we just don't know how many. But the PS3 is the 800 lb. gorilla in Japan. (My bet is it eventually will be here too, fanboy arguments notwithstanding.)
  
  The 360 is dead in Japan. Thinking otherwise is just denial. It's pretty much *been* dead for a while now, but this is about the point an ER doctor would give up CPR and resuscitation efforts and finally call it. The Japanese public just has no interest. It's not that they hate the Xbox 360, it's just that they don't know or care. It's not even in their consciousness, nor do they want it to be.
  
  One minor correction to the original post here - the Tokyo Game Show is not in Tokyo, despite its name. It's in Makuhari, a city of 800,000 people located about 15 miles outside of Tokyo. It's a small point, but it's kinda like saying Giants Stadium is in New York. It's not; it's not even in the same *state* as New York. The Tokyo Game Show takes place in the Makuhari Messe, which is, as its name does imply, in Makuhari in Chiba prefecture.
2. Re:XBox in Japan by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-20 07:47 · Score: 0
  
  XBox 360 produces graphics at a similar level to the PS3, is less expensive, and has some cool games out right now.
  
  You get 2 out of 3. MS doesn't have much out for the Xbox 360 so far, the games that are quality number lower and Japan has always had a different sense of which games are more popular there and the 360 just isn't hitting home. Now the PS3 is totally going to have games that appeal to the Japanese market, so I am under the impression that in Japan it's just a question of getting the Wii or the PS3, Xbox isn't really even much of a blip on the radar. It's all coming down to what games are on it and how does it play there. Which I think it should also be here, but mainly people like to compare peripherals and processing power, which are neat, but not the core of the matter until I see games take advantage of it.
What A Fiasco by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-20 06:50 · Score: 1, Interesting

The last thing 360 developers need right now is Microsoft running their mouths off about 1080p support for games. The 360 graphics hardware simply is not powerful enough to handle games at that resolution. The 360 really isn't even able to handle 720p very well with huge numbers of 360 games plagued by screen tearing, jaggies, lack of affine filtering, and poor framerates.

The 360 is essentially at 480p console. A 4xAA 480p framebuffer fits perfectly in the 10megs of EDRAM. Anything larger than 480p on the 360 requires a tedious to write and performance draining tile renderer to be able to fit into the too small EDRAM. That is the main reason so many 360 games a filled with jaggies as developers don't or can't write tile renderers as their games are already running in the just playable 20-30fps range already.

And now Microsoft has stood up in front of the gaming world and bragged about 1080p gaming support? Right as we are learning that the PS3 already has two to three confirmed 1080p launch titles. Now every 360 developer is going to have to listen to gamers ask why there are no 1080p games on the 360 if Microsoft claimed the system is supposed to support it.

What a bunch of boneheads running the 360 project. No wonder the system is selling worse than the first Xbox.
1. Re:What A Fiasco by dartboard · 2006-09-20 07:34 · Score: 0, Redundant
  
  Parent makes some good points, not a troll at all.
2. Re:What A Fiasco by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-20 07:45 · Score: 0
  
  "The 360 can't handle 1080p but the PS3 can perfectly!" is conjecture or misleading at best.
if only... (was Re:XBox in Japan) by MoFoQ · 2006-09-20 06:54 · Score: 1

now if only Microsoft can develop an emulator or something to allow the Xbox 360 to run PSx (PS1, PS2, and perhaps PS3) games....maybe they might cause an upset in the Japanese market.
1. Re:if only... (was Re:XBox in Japan) by gEvil+(beta) · 2006-09-20 07:09 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  They almost did have a PS1 emu. Connectix, the company that MS bought VirtualPC from, used to make a PS1 emulator for Mac and Windows. However, Sony bought it from Connectix after failing to win a lawsuit over it.
  
  --
  This guy's the limit!
2. Re:if only... (was Re:XBox in Japan) by MoFoQ · 2006-09-20 09:00 · Score: 1
  
  I remember that...and Bleem.
  
  Actually, I might have the original CD somewhere.....
I Always Wanted To Pretend To Be An Architect by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-20 07:32 · Score: 1, Interesting

I don't know what Microsoft is thinking with this 1080p announcement. The best analogy for it would be a manager deciding on their own to enter their middleweight boxer in a heavyweight fight. In this case the manager is Microsoft and the boxer is the 360 developers out there.

Turning on the ability to output a 1080p signal doesn't change the underlying 360 hardware in any way. Reminiscent of the way the bungled backwards compatibly where if they had just stuck to their guns and just kept repeating that they didn't think BC was important. Instead the came out with a half-assed solution so they could claim a bullet point on a feature list and it has been nothing but a PR nightmare for them ever since.

1080p support is very similar. If they had just stuck to their guns and continued to downplay 1080p it would have been somewhat negative, but now they are making things worse by bringing the issue right to the foreground and their hardware simply can't handle the task.

This has to be a marketing driven decision, like backwards compatibility, and not a sound technical one.
1. Re:I Always Wanted To Pretend To Be An Architect by KDR_11k · 2006-09-20 07:44 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  What, you mean MS should handle 1080p like Nintendo did online with the Gamecube? Great idea, I can already see the gamers suddently agreeing that 1080p is nothing they want.
  
  How about realizing that people want features not to use them but to feel correct in their purchase? Really, noone uses 1080p because they don't have the TVs for that but that doesn't stop them from feeling shafted if MS announces 1080p is unnecessary and noone wants it while the competition touts it as a feature (even though we have no idea whether it can handle that either, most likely not but noone will notice as noone will use it). This is a PR war, nothing else.
  
  --
  Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
2. Re:I Always Wanted To Pretend To Be An Architect by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-20 07:58 · Score: 0
  
  I generally agree with you that Microsoft should have ignored 1080p but I completely disagree with your reasoning.
  
  Until after 2010 the majority of TVs, that have videogame systems attached to them, will be standard definition televisions; anyone who has children will have the videogame system in the den/basement/rec-room (and not attached to the nice TV) and most people with girlfriends/wives will also have the gaming system away from the living room. This means that supporting anything beyond 480i or 480p is mostly going to be an unused feature. If Microsoft starts pushing 1080p it will just be lowering the quality of the graphics for the vast majority of XBox 360 owners.
3. Re:I Always Wanted To Pretend To Be An Architect by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-20 08:06 · Score: 0
  
  "Until after 2010 the majority of TVs, that have videogame systems attached to them, will be standard definition televisions"
  
  I don't know how anyone can think that. The local computer/electronics giant chain has nothing but 1080p sets in their main display area - all running HD content. And anything less than 1080p is off in the back. 1080p set prices are plummeting. Prices are falling so fast that the people I know who are in market for a 1080p set are holding off buying until prices drop more. There are decent 1080p sets in the 1500 dollar range already and I would not be surprised if you can pick up a similar set for 1000 dollars early next year. That's not that crazy amount of money for even people with a modest income. Besides a car, huge numbers of people consider their TV something their very willing to spend a big chunk of cash on. Even if that means signing up for one of these no money down plans.
  
  I think both Nintendo and Microsoft are going to be in a bad position come middle of next year when 1080p really starts to hit mass market prices.
4. Re:I Always Wanted To Pretend To Be An Architect by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-20 08:59 · Score: 0
  
  The local computer/electronics giant chain has nothing but 1080p sets in their main display area - all running HD content. And anything less than 1080p is off in the back.
  I live in Europe. I have never seen an HDTV, nor do I expect to see one in the next five years, much less buy it.
Correction to my correction by badasscat · 2006-09-20 07:45 · Score: 1

Ok, I read the post wrong. The *presentation* was in Tokyo. But TGS isn't.

That actually makes it all the more puzzling, though - that MS would have a media briefing in a completely different city than the game show itself. All of the media are right now camped out in Makuhari, filling up the hotel city that exists to serve the convention center. MS just made them all truck back into Tokyo for their media briefing? That just seems dumb.
Microsoft needs to lend out Xbox 360s by ConfusedSelfHating · 2006-09-20 07:51 · Score: 2, Interesting

Microsoft needs to take 100,000 Premium Xbox 360 systems and lend each of them out for a week in Japan free of charge. Repeat 12 times. They could make a deal with the Japanese video stores to lend them out and after the 12 weeks they could take ownership of them. I know that there isn't video game rental in Japan, but it could be to Microsoft's advantage if they tried it. If each of the consoles had 8 games with it, it should give a diversity of play. It would be a test drive. The Japanese are very familiar with Nintendo and Sony consoles, but are not familiar at all with Microsoft consoles. People could borrow it and play around with, try Xbox Live Gold online play. It would create product awareness. Most people are reluctant to shell out a few hundred dollars before they try something. Total cost for Microsoft, about a hundred million dollars. But, it would almost certainly be worth more than that in free press coverage.

In the event that no one wants to even try out the Xbox 360, Microsoft has to abandon Japan as a console market. If you can't give away your product, how can you sell it?
1. Re:Microsoft needs to lend out Xbox 360s by womby · 2006-09-21 08:45 · Score: 1
  
  I know that there isn't video game rental in Japan
  
  Sorry What?
  
  --
  **** lying is wrong even for sleeping dogs
Something most people are forgetting.. by kinglink · 2006-09-20 08:41 · Score: 1

Microsoft hasn't really launched in japan. There's systems, but look what japanese games we have for our systems, there's nothing ground breaking. Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey are both going to be major games for what ever system they are for. Expect a sale of a million consoles just based on that. Japan hasn't even gotten Dead Rising yet. Americans have gotten many games at launch yet the japanese had really only one major launch title in their mind (ridge racer).

Basically once the Japanese sees JRPGs will be on this system and Japan is actually supporting the system the system will sell. Right now the japanese don't even know if they are getting a PS3, there's hesitant there, and if the 360 will have similar games it'll work.

The Xbox just flat out skipped most of the Japanese favorite genres (platformers, JRPGs, and the rest) and it suffered for that.

Anyone calling this race now is quite literally an idiot. The race hasn't even started.
1. Re:Something most people are forgetting.. by shimpei · 2006-09-20 14:10 · Score: 1
  
  The cumulative sale of 360 in Japan is well under 200,000 units. Your esimate would require an average Japanese retailer to purchase an inventory of over five times as many 360s as they've sold all year, based solely on the unprovable belief that these two games will be mega-hits. What makes you think Microsoft has that kind of credibility left with retailers after their performance this year, not to mention the three years before that with the first Xbox?
  It may be true that the race hasn't begun yet, but Microsoft is not starting from ground zero in Japan. They are starting from a very deep hole that they've been digging for themselves for the last four years.
A real xbox360 = $600!!! SIX HUNDRED BUX! by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-20 09:02 · Score: 0

HD-DVD drive goes on sale for 19800 yen (~$170)
Considering they are bleeding in Japan, I take it that is a "greatly" reduced price.

So, non-gimped Xbox360 at $400 + at HD-DVD $200(probably the real price they will sell it for) HD-DVD = $600, SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!