http://kotaku.com/5014894/star-ocean-4-coming-to-xbox-360-in-2009 Well... Microsoft is certainly trying. Though I am a bit ticked that their grand RPG Event had absolutely no presence from Mistwalker at all. Come on guys... Cry On? Blue Dragon 2? F'ing announce Lost Odyssey 2 now thats its outsold everything you guys have put out combined?
I saw this event. It was in my neighborhood. Was riding my bike home from the gym. Weird place for the party. It's usually for wedding receptions. Pretty good thing I think SE is crap, otherwise I'd have been upset I couldn't get in wearing shorts & a T-Shirt w/ no invitation.
Mistwalker is too expensive for MS at this moment. MS puts a lot of money and the games sold poorly (less than a million worldwilde both titles). It surprises me if they announce a sequel of BD or LO soon. MS is doing very well, catching games that are suppose to be on ps3 too and the most important thing, MS have this games beforme than ps3.
also you'll be able to see the PS3 sale potential only with the releases of GT, wipeout, MGS and FFXIII. i consider this state of the PS3 as still the beginning/early days.
Microsoft must love losing money in Japan, I can't think of any other good reason for them to have stayed in Japan for so long with sales that would make the last death throws of the Wonderswan look like healthy sales.
Blue Dragon has two sequels (DS & X360) coming out. If the numbers I've seen are right, Lost Odyssey sold better so it will probably have a sequel as well. Besides, LO is setup to be a franchise almost exactly like FF.
Even though I think these are good news for the 360, I believe that it isn't wise for MS to spend much money getting the exclusive on one of this classic JRPG sagas. The japanese market seems too far away for the 360, so if I were them, knowing that you have Mistwalker creating some exclusive games and getting the multiplatform ones without expending any extra I'd try to focus the effort on exclusives with more appeal on the US and Europe, like an only for 360 Doom 4, Assassin's Creed 2, a new Baldur's Gate or even a Blizzard game. I don't expect a huge boost on sales with the upcoming MGS4, as it still needs to reduce the price more (249€ for the basic machine and 299€ for packs with new games would be nice). GT5, Wipeout and FFXIII will surely improve the console's library of games, but I miss more games from Sony's inside studios. I can't understand the reasons behind the recent cancellations/delays of Eight Days and The Getaway. We've still got to hear about the exclusive games made by NCsoft and I've been expecting news from Santa Monica, Team ICO and the english studios (London, Liverpool and Cambridge) since launch. I mean, programming Singstar can't be that time-consuming.
You guys do realize that people outside of Japan play jRPG's too right? While it will certainly help in the Japanese market, money on X360 exclusives isn't just being thrown in a hole...
Selling less than a million is performing poorly? Man, I would've thought selling less than 200K would be selling poorly. Blue Dragon did well for MS in Japan. It sold around 200,000 there. Worldwide it has sold rougly 500,000. Not bad at all for an RPG that doesn't have "Final" and "Fantasy" in the title. Meanwhile, while Lost Odyssey had a much weaker showing in Japan (for whatever reason), it actually did REALLY well in the US breaking 100K its first week (once again, pretty phenomenal for a non Squeenix RPG). LO went on to sell 600K worldwide. So... I wouldn't call Mistwalker a failure by any stretch of the imagination. Given the uphill battle MS is facing in Japan, putting up the numbers they've been putting up is pretty respectable. And as has already been said, Blue Dragon 2 has already been announced and there's Blue Dragon DS coming. So obviously Mistwalker was fairly happy with that one (and Microsoft since they asked Mistwalker to make Blue Dragon 2).
after MGS4, wipeout HD and GT will be out i expect a little price drop, but nowhere close to the 250$ you are talking about. it is a machine that is actually giving out new texhnology, and tech that actually HAS a cost...i expect 2-3 months after gt5 release a price drop to 299. still since i don't have a ps3 so far i would welcome your dream-like prevision ps: from what is heard around wipeout is ready since months.... and it's always been a good selling point for sony. what are they waiting for?
I understand that the new tech that the PS3 brings has a higher cost than usual, but perhaps it'd be more useful to loose some money now in the long term, creating a bigger userbase faster and promoting even further the Blu-Ray as an alternative to the DVD. Imho a price drop and a huge boost on internal production (a bit more like Nintendo) and sponsored games like Heavy Rain would do more for the PS3 than a couple big names.
Awesome, but I can't get excited over any of the games. I want to try Lost Oddysey, as it looks genuinely good, but RPG's in this day and age just bore me. And, MS may be losing money in japan, but looks like we still win if the games are good.
The ps3 won't be down to $250 for years. I'd actually expect the 360 to drop down to $250 this fall with big games coming out like gears 2, fable 2, and even a new banjo kazooie game from Rare. If they do it, they'd have a huge holiday sales period. What's funny is that the 360 launched a year early to get better games and be able to price drop quicker than the ps3. However, MS hasn't done shit with dropping the price of the 360 much. It'll be 3 years since launch this November and their lowest model isn't as cheap as the Wii yet. Laughable.
It would help if they actually spent some time making good JRPGs on the 360. Blue Dragon was incredibly generic and boring. The English voice acting being some of the worst I have ever seen. Just a total grind fest with no saving Graces. I tried Eternal Sonata aswell, and while that was more entertaining, it was still slow and generic. What the 360 needs is a JRPG with something new in it, be it a good hook in the story, some nice gameplay features, even a good soundtrack would be an improvement. All the current titles play like they've been churned out of a new Hi-Def RPG Maker. I just hope Operation Darkness gets a UK Release / US Version if region free, as thats the only RPG on the 360 I've seen that looks entertaining.
Lost Oddessy is supposed to be the good RPG you describe. Operation Darkness, IMO, was one of the most boring fucking things I've played, if the demo is anything like the real game.
