Sony’s been talking about how they’ve overtaken the Xbox 360 here in the States, perhaps this is because Microsoft shifted their attention to pwning them in Japan? Xbox 360 sold 25,000 units to PlayStation 3‘s minor 9,673 units according to Edge Online, that’s 2.5 times more if you’re into that math thing.
Seriously though, Microsoft didn’t really shift any effort, they just got a Japanese style game called Tales of Vesperia from Namco Bandai. Go figure, when a Japanese focused game arrives for a console Japanese gamer will go out and buy it.
The big barrier to the 360 in Japan is the games and their contents. Microsoft is in tune with the needs and demands of the United States gamers, it usually involves FPS titles and excessive killing. Japanese gamers are not exactly huge FPS fans, we’ve seen the Asian community dominate in RTS style games (Starcraft is a great example) and they’ve always had interest in MMO’s, especially micro-transaction based games and we all know that’s the land of Final Fantasy. Is it so surprising the Xbox 360 moves off Japanese shelves when they have a game or two the gamers actually want to play?
This is only partly Microsoft’s fault, Microsoft doesn’t specialize in Japanese games anymore than Square Enix excels at western style games. The big difference? Square Enix doesn’t manufacturer its own console hardware. It is Microsoft’s console and they should have an interest in making games the Japanese people will like, thankfully Namco Bandai came through for them this time!
@electroshock headset: Why? I can’t fathom why anyone would pay $100 to do this on purpose.
@VR horror survival: I think this is a good idea, and I thought DayZ was a survivor horror game. I do tend to get jumpy with various mobs from different games so having it VR would be even worse.
I wanted to give my impressions of E3, I have to say that Bethesda just knocked it out of the park day one. I was admittedly on the fence about Fallout 4, I wasn’t sure I wanted to even look at it. Then Todd Howard took to the stage and converted me to a rabid fanatic of Fallout 4. He did a fantastic job of building up and revealing the various features of the game. Showing the great detail of character creation, adding that you can play as a woman (to be fair you can do so in all Fallout games). Then the sheer amount of vibrant color which goes a long way to look better than the drab colors of Fallout 3. Then he went into the sheer amount of weapon customization and then stated “oh and you can build settlements” at which point I lost it and had to have this game. Then he revealed you can have a real freaking Pip boy!
After that presentation everything else just felt lack luster. Even the lovely rendered Doom just failed to impress me. When Adam Sessler asked what’s different about this Doom? They then stated that it was speed and weapons, which to me is what every FPS has or aspires to have. FPS in general just doesn’t make me happy, building does and adding THAT to Fallout 4 is like making it an entirely different game.
I will most likely be building settlements across the wasteland like I’m building a new Civilization. I may end up forgetting the main story entirely as I will be busying acting like I’m playing a modded Civ game to look like Fallout.
I saw the Hololens which is a great concept and idea, but it seemed like the control of it was a little rough there. I’ve been told this game is 2x the size of Skyrim, one developer spent 4oo hours exploring and was still finding new things. So I suspect Jonah may not want to play this.
I do like when you guys have Genre talk like the D&D, Vampire Masquerade, and Dr Who.
QotW: I think I prefer a voiced character, someone who has an identity. The blank slate is nice but I feel like I need a complete story and knowing that my character never says anything can feel kind of gimmicky at times, especially when other characters are basically having to be your voice.