PS3 concerns ignite Xbox 2 support?

Other Games
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Copied and pasted from MCV:

[quote]PS3 concerns ignite Xbox 2 support

26 November 2004 by Johnny Minkley

Tecmo president Junji Nakamura launched a fierce attack on Sony?s strategy for PS3 this week, slamming an apparent dearth of information available to third-parties, while commending Microsoft on its relative openness with Xbox 2.

?There?s not much information from Sony (about PS3) ? the situation with Microsoft is very different,? Mr Nakamura told a conference in Japan. ?Microsoft should be able to use its experience of the current machine’s failure to succeed, even in Japan.?

But while these comments were met with little surprise, given the Dead or Alive publisher?s current favouritism towards Xbox, further investigations by MCV have revealed a nascent and widespread concern over Sony?s next-gen plans - leading some of the biggest players in the business to reassess where their loyalties lie.

?There is a lot of uncertainty amongst Japanese companies that Sony is unsure of what direction to take with PS3,? said a senior figure at a major Japanese developer and publisher. ?Everyone?s business model has traditionally been built around Sony hardware, but given the lack of info, people are nervous about putting all of their eggs in one basket.?

Highlighting the difference in approach between Microsoft and Sony, the source added: ?If we ask Sony technical questions, we don?t hear back for four-to-six weeks; Microsoft answers (Xbox 2) queries there and then.?

What will be of most concern to Sony is that an apparently groundswell of support for Xbox 2 emerged between Japanese companies at Tokyo Game Show: ?The vibe between most of the major parties was: ?Is PlayStation such a safe bet? Maybe we should take Xbox 2 more seriously?,? the source added.

These feelings were echoed by a source at a separate Japanese games company, another strong Sony supporter, who said: ?With Microsoft there?s a clearer indication of what?s going on ? Sony is being sketchy about a lot of things. We?re now planning joint releases on PS3 and Xbox 2 for next-gen, where we have always lead on PlayStation hardware in the past.? [/quote]

Has Sony’s time finally come? Will Sega help hammer the final nails into Sony’s coffin?

It seems that Microsoft may have recruited quite a few new allies in the form of Japanese developers to help it wage war on Sony thanks to Sony’s unwillingness to ease Playstation 3 hardware concerns, but will they be enough? I was discussing this article with a few Sega fans at another forum, but I wanted to know how you guys felt about the imminent clash of these two titans.

I’d also like to know why Tecmo has decided to more or less ostracize Sony. What were the motivations behind that decision? Although the games industry is a place of business, it is not a place devoid of conflicting agendas. Lest we forget, some developers sometimes hold grudges against other companies that they never let go of. For example, Camelot was so disgusted with how Sega treated the Saturn Shining Force III trilogy that the people there vowed never to work for Sega again, and they were once Sega employees (I love watching Sega pretend like it did nothing wrong).

What’s Tecmo’s grievance with Sony?

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Unless we know officially that there is a genuine grievance it’s all just speculation imo. A decision could simply be a business decision and usually is.

As for Tecmo… I guess that there was no main fighting for the system, they decided to concentrate on that with making DOA3 for xbox exclusive. Hidekagi (sp?) said this was for for technological reasons. He wanted the most powerful system.

[quote]slamming an apparent dearth of information available to third-parties, while commending Microsoft on its relative openness with Xbox 2.

?There?s not much information from Sony (about PS3) ? the situation with Microsoft is very different,?[/quote]

Hmmm, I don’t think Sony is unaware of this and it could be that there will be plenty of 3rd party support for all we know.

I had lost all hope of a King Of Fighters game coming to xbox, but now I realize there is one with Live support aswell!! About time aswell , didn’t want to get an PS2 just for one game. I’m thinking of ordering a Hori stick from Lik-Sang.

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Unless a Sega console is released in the mean time or a PD game is announced for a specific console my next purchase in terms of gaming consoles will be the XBox2.

That said I hope Japanese developers start investing on the XBox.I mean, in the end there really isn’t a reason why not to.They can still invest on the PS3 if they like but they owe (sp?) the XBox a chance…

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I’m past caring, to be honest. It’s like watching WWE when it comes to news reports about this/that/t’other company nattering about consoles.

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[quote=“GehnTheBerserker”]Unless a Sega console is released in the mean time or a PD game is announced for a specific console my next purchase in terms of gaming consoles will be the XBox2.

That said I hope Japanese developers start investing on the XBox.I mean, in the end there really isn’t a reason why not to.They can still invest on the PS3 if they like but they owe (sp?) the XBox a chance…[/quote]

The problem is that, besides Tecmo (whose Team Ninja team leader Itagaki is obsessed with graphics and refuses to work on anything but X-Box…), Japanese developers games simply do not sell on the X-Box.

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Yes but the Japanese market for games is small when compared to what lies in America and Europe.

If Japanese third party developers/publishers want to continue to earn profits from their games they’ll think twice about ostracising the Xbox 2 when it steals more of Sony’s marketshare outside of Japan.

When I say this I say it in the nicest possible way: screw Japan.

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Hah. Hahahahaha. That’s music to my ears.

Far as I’m concerned, I go where the games I’m interested in, are. As always, I never buy consoles at launch, so I’ll sit tight and watch things play out.

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[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]
When I say this I say it in the nicest possible way: screw Japan.[/quote]

More accurately, screw Sony.

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[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]Yes but the Japanese market for games is small when compared to what lies in America and Europe.

If Japanese third party developers/publishers want to continue to earn profits from their games they’ll think twice about ostracising the Xbox 2 when it steals more of Sony’s marketshare outside of Japan.

When I say this I say it in the nicest possible way: screw Japan.[/quote]

No, I mean that Japanese games don’t sell well on X-Box in general, whether those games are being sold in Japan, Europe, or the United States. The X-Box fanbase just doesn’t seem to like those games very much…

And I’m referring to Capcom, Konami, and Namco when I say this…

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I personally think that Microsoft could carry the Xbox 2 outside of Japan without the support of Japanese third party developers.

Even if Microsoft doubled its marketshare by creating a 40 million strong userbase for the Xbox 2 (i.e. a level playing field), the larger Japanese third party developers would have no choice but to support it. Unless of course, they want to go out of business.

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exactly, everyone knows America is the most important games market in the world. If xbox continues to steal market share from PS2 then more power to them.

Japan’s important to the world market is shrinking. The leading fighting games (2d and 3d) and the RPG’s will probably still be dominantly Japan exports for a long time though.

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Actually, them doubling their market share would bring them to about 35 - 37 million X-Box’s sold. They sold through 15.5 million as of June, so 17.5 to 18.5 million sold currently seems like a fair enough estimate.

Sony’s most recent numbers have them at 75 million PS2’s sold. O_o;;

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Only in the video games market. In the car and electronic industries, Japan is still very important.

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I suspect (and pray, and hope, and yearn, and plead, and beg…) that this utterly delectable tidbit of joyous information indicates that Sony is going to reiterate the cack-handed way in which it handled it Betamax system during the Cassette Wars with JVC. Whereas Sony jealously attempted to hoard a monopoly by strictly classifying the nature of its technology, JVC had absolutely no qualms with licensing out their VHS devices to all and sundry - and look what company produced the twenty-pack of blank videos I have in a corner of my bedroom now. :anjou_happy:

If Sony demands absolute submission to its business policies in contracts with third-party developers, as is suggested by its reticence in Geoffrey’s quoted article, the Betamax Syndrome could well re-emerge and terminally afflict SCE. Here’s hoping…

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[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]I personally think that Microsoft could carry the Xbox 2 outside of Japan without the support of Japanese third party developers.

Even if Microsoft doubled its marketshare by creating a 40 million strong userbase for the Xbox 2 (i.e. a level playing field), the larger Japanese third party developers would have no choice but to support it. Unless of course, they want to go out of business.[/quote]

This is what the Xbox has proved to the japanese that it didn’t need them to succeed. Only a few japanese companies actually managed to cash in on the success of the Xbox success in the all important North American market and that was Tecmo. Capcom,Konami and even Sega totally screwed up in developing and creating games for the Xbox. Mainly because THE japanese game that Capcom and Konami are so ept at did n’t register on Xbox. The only hit on the Xbox for Capcom was the pc like title Steel Battalion.

Sega on the other hand released some good titles but they were n’t
what the Xbox gamer wanted. Even the arcade translation could n’t shift
as many sales like the old days did. If Sega released an in depth fighter like VIRTUA FIGHTER 4 they would have seen better results on Xbox.

Camelot can take a flying leap. At first i was with them but now it’s gone a bit to far saying that Sega have sold out especially in the company where Camelot resides at the moment.
Sega has always encouraged dev teams independence and give them credit for the games they made. If camelot was in Nintendo first; we the public would never have known that they exsisted. Yet in Sega they at least gave credit to the individual teams that made the games. They even supported Treasure who was a team of ex konami programmers to make games for them for a while before they broke out on their own and got their reputation.
I’m not saying Sega’s a saint but they’re not that bad compared to other similar companies and that Camelot guy should remember who GAVE him the oppourtunity to form and lead his own team,concentrating on one particular brand of title. Which for a big company to do that is unheard of.
In Nintendo they got Camelot doing all sorts of games. So give Sega some due…

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I should buy a PS3. That would truly be the kiss of death for the system.

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The I’m lucky to have bought an XBox.It’s a safe bet.

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If I was the head of Camelot, I would’ve abandoned Sega too if Sega had turned its back on me. I really can’t bring myself to hate Camelot for breaking away from Sega anymore.

Maybe we will see an apology from Sega for its handling of Shining Force III in the credits for the newest Shining Force game. Do you think Sega cares enough about us (the fans it betrayed) to do even that?

As for the Xbox 2, I’m beginning to wonder if Sega Sammy plans to lend a helping hand in destroying Sony by supporting its competition, or if Sega Sammy will remain neutral in the conflict.

What are your thoughts on the subject Goonboy? Will Sega continue to view games purely from a business point of view?

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Um… Huh?

Yes, because ignoring the market leader when you are in a position of vulnerability is a sound business move.

Sega views its business no more or no less a business now than it did 10 years ago. It didn’t seem to bother people then.

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[quote=“Abadd”]

Um… Huh?

Yes, because ignoring the market leader when you are in a position of vulnerability is a sound business move.

Sega views its business no more or no less a business now than it did 10 years ago. It didn’t seem to bother people then.[/quote]

So you think Sony is a safe bet? That there’s no doubt that Sony’s newest Playstation will dominate the market yet again? I personally think the jury is still out. Why not ignore the PS3 if Sega can establish itself on the Xbox 2, especially if the Xbox 2 becomes much more popular than its predecessor? There’s no love lost between Sega and Sony.

As for SF III, don’t you believe Sega owes someone an apology (like the fans who missed out on the entire trilogy)? Camelot weren’t too pleased with Sega’s inept handling of the game.