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FFXIII "opens doors" for 360 in Japan News
Xbox 360 News by Robert Purchese
Microsoft Game Studios boss Shane Kim believes snaring Final Fantasy XIII "opens doors" for Xbox 360 in Japan.
The revelation that Square Enix would bring its renowned PlayStation series (ignoring FFXI) to Xbox 360 was the most surprising part of the Microsoft E3 media briefing on Monday.
Final Fantasy XIII will only be released in Europe on Xbox 360 and not in Japan, but Kim is optimistic that the news will make Japanese developers pay more attention to the console.
"The Final Fantasy XIII announcement has some beneficial side-effects," Shane Kim told 1UP.
"The more games of this nature, and of the Devil May Crys and Resident Evils, that we secure on 360 opens doors for us in Japan, and gets developers over there interested in the 360, so it's a step-by-step process."
While sales of Xbox 360 hardware have not taken off in Japan, local development teams and publishers such as Square Enix and Capcom have contributed significant titles to the Xbox 360, in turn helping them reach out to more Western markets.
"Take Capcom for example: they took a chance with us with Dead Rising and Lost Planet, and have had great success, with both of those titles selling over a million units each," added Kim.
"Japan is obviously a very unique market to crack and gain support in, but I think we're making good headway with what we've accomplished on 360 so far, and we'll continue to surprise you."
Microsoft has previously used exclusive titles Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey - both from former Square Enix staff - as ways to gain favour in Japan.
Microsoft is obviously pleased with with its latest signing, then, but Sony US boss Jack Tretton has publicly aired his disappointment over the decision by Square Enix to go multiformat with Final Fantasy XIII.
"I guess disappointed is a clearly an appropriate term. I think Microsoft has spent the majority of their money on trying to curry favour with third-parties," Tretton told journalists during a round table interview at E3, Gamasutra reports.
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The_Inquisitor
17/07/08 @ 10:34
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Japan is a market only broken into by slow and reliable progress so it is a positive in the long run, I just hope the 360 version is treated with the same care when translated.
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andywilkie35
17/07/08 @ 10:35
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i can't understand why they don't accept the 360 over there. makes me laugh considering the games it has
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"I think Microsoft has spent the majority of their money on trying to curry favour with third-parties," - Why shouldn't they? Look at the GameCube and how much 3rd party support they had, and they ended up behind the Xbox & PS2 in sales (excluding Japan). Now look at Wii and amount of 3rd party support they have (even though most of it is crap). They are the number one seller worldwide. 3rd party support is essential for any console.
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Think we just have to wait and see how the port turns out. Though it will almost sertainly have lost Sony some sales, i know a couple of 360 owners who would have caved to buying a PS3 for FFXIII. But on the other hand IF the PS3 version offers the best version of the game then the hardcore FF fans will still fork out for a PS3 if they don't have one.
EDIT: The question I want answered is, is versus XIII also going to make it the 360? cos if not this could backfire on MS quite badly.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 17/07/08 @ 11:52
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SomaticSense
17/07/08 @ 10:51
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The bloke is talking PR bollocks.
It's great that 360 owners get the experience the (hopefully good) new FF game and all, but the fact that it isn't going to be released on the 360 in Japan will be enough to put off other Japanese devs. Anyone who has been following videogames for a decent amount of time knows that the most important market to Japanese devs, is Japan. It's hardly going to inspire more Japanese devs to make games for the console. What a crock of shit. The only way to get more Japanese devs developing for the console, is to get the 360 selling in Japan. And the only way to get that to happen is to lie to them and market it as a non-American made console.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 17/07/08 @ 11:53
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designerheadache
17/07/08 @ 10:51
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FPS dont go down well in Japan, for a console overloaded with them its never going to sell well.
plus (with the exception of dragon quest on the wii) they have all the RPG's they care about on the PS3 and PSP (monster hunter, disgea, Final fantasy and white knight chronicles). Its unlikely they will abandon it any time soon, maybe the 720 might be more successful! |
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@ Andywilkie35
Big chunky wired control pad with poor d pad, japanese like small sleek things, part of the reason why handhelds and the wii do so well. stupidly noisey internal fan again probably puts them off, as well as a noisey disc drive. Lack of games that interest the japanese market, star ocean might help but the ff knock offs that square keep comin out with wont do. And the final dis-honour and insult, terrible build quality, once it was known in japan that the american console had inferior build quality to everything else on the market and that it would be lucky to last 2 years, well im pretty sure that put the mass market off |
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Have any of you guys played Lost Odyssey to any extent?
I've had a copy for a few months but haven't even taken it out of the wrapper yet - still working through Blue Dragon, which is fantastic for those of you looking for a good JRPG. If you have never played JRPG's before, Blue Dragon is well worth a punt at £10. |
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@cyacomini
I'm on disc 4 of Lost Odyssey, have been for some time, don't really feel like finishing it. It's just not very good imo, battle system is boring, characters aren't interesting at all, the villain is a complete joke and the storyline is weak. All my opinion, i'm sure others will disagree. |
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To copy myself day ago:
"The biggest megaton at E3 was that Square-Enix(company that gave xbox zero support last gen,PS2 MMO port this gen) is putting main entry from their top franchise on 360.Dont be surprised if you see more and more Japanese developers putting their games on 360,Wii combo and moving away from PS3." Actually this has been happen for quite a while if you have watched what Japan devs are doing,but still i dont expect 360 to be "hot" console in Japan.But one thing is for sure,360 will do much better in Japan than xbox. Its funny that some people now say that FF is only important in Japan,considering that the majority of its sales are from the West.Also PS3 user base in Japan is laughable comparing to US and EU. I expect that FF on PS3 will sell better than MGS4 in Japan,accompanied with 2,3 weeks of sales bump,then just like with MGS4 sales will go to 10k-ish per week. Sorry,but HD gaming is dead in Japan,its all about handhelds and Wii now. If you dont believe here is this week top ten(media create): 1. [PS2] Persona 4 (Atlus) - 193,000 2. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 30,000 / 2,353,000 3. [NDS] Densetsu no Starfi Taketsu (Nintendo) - 29,000 4. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 25,000 / 1,560,000 5. [NDS] Daigasso Band Brothers (Nintendo) - 23,000 / 190,000 6. [WII] Biohazard Zero (Capcom) - 21,000 7. [NDS] Derby Stallion DS (Enterbrain) - 20,000 / 206,000 8. [NDS] Hanayori Dango: Koi Seyo Onago (Konami) - 20,000 9. [NDS] Gegege no Kitarou: Youkai Daigekisen (Bandai Namco) - 16,000 10. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (Capcom) - 16,000 2,277,000
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most recently on 17/07/08 @ 12:17
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"The only way to get more Japanese devs developing for the console, is to get the 360 selling in Japan."
Err I think the fact that Capcom, Square, Konami, Namco, Temco etc all heavily support the 360 disproves this point. In fact apart from MGS4 am I right in thinking that the 360 has more Japanese 3rd party exclusives released in the West than the PS3 ? |
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crazyhorse174
17/07/08 @ 11:15
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@chris_ace:
Big chunky wired control pad with poor d pad, japanese like small sleek things, part of the reason why handhelds and the wii do so well. Chunky? Wired? What are you talking about? Most 360's come with the wireless controller, which is about the same size as the PS3 one. |
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CreepinJesus
17/07/08 @ 11:15
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"Final Fantasy XIII will only be released in Europe on Xbox 360 and not in Japan"
I stopped reading after that. |
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SomaticSense
17/07/08 @ 11:18
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cyacomini "Have any of you guys played Lost Odyssey to any extent?
I've had a copy for a few months but haven't even taken it out of the wrapper yet - still working through Blue Dragon, which is fantastic for those of you looking for a good JRPG. If you have never played JRPG's before, Blue Dragon is well worth a punt at £10. " It's utterly fantastic, especially if you like your FF-style RPG games. It really is FF in all but name, and I found it far better than FF12. I didn't like Blue Dragon at all though. |
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SomaticSense
17/07/08 @ 11:21
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@ SteveB
They all developed for the last Xbox as well, so that hasn't changed at all (I think, apart from Square). It's all about getting the smaller Japanese devs to develop for the console, rather than the wealthy established ones who can afford the punt, and who have a huge western consumer base as well to fall back on. |
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FFXII's storyline was bollox it was so blargh I really don't care if I never complete it which for me is the first FF to ever do that to me. Eurogamers 10's are a curse I tell ya every game they've rated 10 has ended up bland to me.
SE have a lot to prove to me that they're not sucky these days. :( |
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crazyhorse174
17/07/08 @ 12:00
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FFXII's storyline was bollox it was so blargh I really don't care if I never complete it which for me is the first FF to ever do that to me. Eurogamers 10's are a curse I tell ya every game they've rated 10 has ended up bland to me.
SE have a lot to prove to me that they're not sucky these days. :( Personally I thought FFXII was fantastic. I thought it was very brave of Square to change one of the fundamental concepts of the game - the combat - so much. I even rate - deep breath - above FFVII as the best one yet. VII was great - fantastic in fact - but taking the rose tinted spectacles off for a minute, it hasn't aged very well. So I for one am looking forward to XIII - and even more glad that its coming out on the 360! :) |
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farticusmaximus
17/07/08 @ 12:08
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"Has there actually been an explanation as to why it's not being released in Japan?"
I'd like to know the official reason too. The cost of development would be negligible as the assets will be identical to the PS version, and there are easily enough 360's in Japan to turn a healthy profit. There can be only 2 logical reason that I can see: 1) Sony paid SE for a regional exclusivity deal. 2) SE dont want to be seen to support the western devil in their homeland. In reality I dont know if having FF is opening any doors in Japan, but it really doesnt matter. The Japanese market isnt worth shit to the HD consoles as all they care about is Wii and handhelds now, and FF on the 360 in the rest of the world will sell bucketloads. Everyone knows the best place for JRPGS is the 360 so it makes sense for the most prominent JRPG series to be there if it wants maximum sales. Lets just hope the latest FF isnt shite like every FF since FFX.. ;)
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 17/07/08 @ 13:10
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farticusmaximus
17/07/08 @ 13:24
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@chris_ace
You are, of course, very very wrong. FFX sold nearly 5 million copies outside Japan. It is a HUGE franchise in the west. |
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Good point Widge, Japan has become more global in its outlook to selling games, and if Square feel they can no longer maximize their profit by selling solely for PS then it may make others sit up and take notice.
This may start a flow of games to the west, but as for selling many more 360's in Japan, i don't think so. |
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Although that is a shady statistic to pull, considering that FFXII wasn't available on Xbox, so thats an entire demographic of gamebuyer you cannot account for in previous sales. The only thing you can do is generalise what demographic of PS2 owners who have migrated to PS3 will buy in what location.
edit: that wasn't at you gruff!
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most recently on 17/07/08 @ 15:03
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hiddenranbir
17/07/08 @ 14:06
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If MS wants to tap that market they need to have more tentacles and cliche chars. Seductive means big boobed. Intelligent means having glasses.
Sorry, I've been reading the char descriptions of that Remnant RPG. We played a game to guess what they'd look like and were not surprised at all when we saw the pics. |
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@farticusmaximus
actually your very very wrong: Final Fantasy X Sales Figures Japan - 3.02 million copies North America - 2.74 million copies Other Territories - 2.19 million copies Total - 7.95 million copies Final Fantasy XII Sales Figures Japan - 2.42 million copies North America - 1.75 million copies Other Territories - 0.84 million copies
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most recently on 17/07/08 @ 15:22
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farticusmaximus
17/07/08 @ 14:32
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@chris_ace
Try to keep track of the thread you post in. You wrote: "after 7 final fantasy games no longer sell huge numbers in the west, japan always sells more copies than any other region" And I proved you wrong. |
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WinterSnowblind
17/07/08 @ 15:21
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I'm not really sure why people keep using Final Fantasy XII as a reason why XIII won't sell on the 360.
Ignoring the fact XII was released very late in the PS2's life (Same reason why IX was poorly recieved) and the fact it was heavily critisised by fans and reviews? Most people generally consider it to be a bad game. What about the fact that MGS3 also sold very poorly, particularly in Europe. I guess that means MGS4 is going to perform badly as well, right? |
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