Mall Zombies and Lost Planets Not So Hot In Capcom's Home Town
It's no secret that Capcom has done phenomenally well on the Xbox 360. Lost Planet and Dead Rising have had sales up to and likely exceeding 810,000 and 730,000 respectively. 1-Up theorizes that both will likely hit one million each in the U.S. alone! In fact, as much as 90% of sales for those games have been in the U.S. and Europe. However, things aren't so rosy in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Upon reviewing Capcom's 2006 fiscal figures, neither Dead Rising or Lost Planet have cleared 100,000. Truly disappointing, but Xbox 360 does not have a very large install base. However, I would have expected a much larger figure on Capcom's native soil. Perhaps things will change as more Japanese oriented content (Eternal Sonata, Lost Odyssey) or more exclusives formerly 'exclusive' to PS3 migrate to Xbox 360? Who knows, it's like asking how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie-Pop...or not. What do you think is keeping the Japanese from joining their gamer brethren in zombie bashing and shooting things on snowy slopes?
90% Lost Planet, Dead Rising Sales Outside Japan [1-Up]
[via EvilAvatar]
Super Timsy
Posted to Video Games on 5 June 2007
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: 2006 Fiscal, Capcom, Dead Rising, Lost Planet
because they dont want M$-branded 'fun'. and they are not alone. 360 is losing ground everywhere. M$ can piss right off.
I remembered reading an article about how cultural differences could play a role in such things. Japanese RPGs for example tend to follow a fairly linear storyline, having a start, middle and end.. something most players over there tend to be quite comfortable with.. They want to play the story that the developers there have scripted.. there's very little freedom to really roam, the camera angles are fixed. Basically straight forward gameplay. Something like Oblivion on the other hand seemed often intimidating because while American gamers demand a great deal of freedom in their games, especially with Oblivion's free roaming style and "do anything you want" gameplay, I guess it just seems overwhelming to japanese gamers who are used to linear, strong story based fare.
It is rather sad that the 360's basically been branded the "FPSBox 360" by a lot.. since indeed, it's a genre that you can find in abundance on the system, but I can only hope that we'll see something with a bit more of a japanese flavor in the comming months. Still, it does raise a question. Besides Eternal Sonata, Blue Dragon and Lost Oddysee, just what else is Japan developing for the 360 that could give it a more favorable light?
Didn't Dead Rising also receive Japan's version of a adults only rating? Could that have something to do with it? From what I understand alot of places would not even edvertise it.
From what I understand, the marketing just isn't there for Xbox games in Japan. MS assumes that non-"Japanese-style" games won't interest Japanese, so they don't bother with creating a marketing campaign. Lost Planet is the perfect example. It's really not that great of a game, but it was hyped as a huge event here in the states, and people bought it.
I still think that the vast majority of Japanese gamers don't see 360 games that they want to play. I think the only game really targeted at getting the attention of Japanese Gamers is Blue Dragon. It's a shame that BD didn't attract the attention or sales it deserved, and hopefully a US release (or more MS money) will give Mistwalker reason to keep developing for a platform where they are needed.
I don't think that the 360 has much of a chance to make more of a positive impression over there. The time where clever marketing, a good exclusive, or price cut could change things came to a close with the launch of the Wii. On the same week where the Wii outsells the PS3 5 to 1, the Wii outsells the 360 20:1. :/
I think that the best thing MS could do is to work with developers directly and offer them a ton of support to make XBLA games. Getting developers away from the pimp/'ho relationship many developers have with their publisher has to get some developers on board (I'm looking at you, Treasure!).
I love my 360. I love quirky Japanese games. I would love quirky Japanese games on my 360. Too bad it'll never happen.