Oh well, it'll be Square's loss of money, not MS. lol Though, if you look at play styles, etc.. those who play FF weren't buying XBox to begin with, at least for the last generation. This generation might be different though.
But it seems like Square Enix is still producing some non-FF games for the 360. Most of their games are high-quality, regardless of whether they have the Final Fantasy label. In fact, considering that none of the Final Fantasy games even really connect to each other, they might as well be considered seperate series. The VII series, the classic remakes, the X series, the XI series, the XII series, Crystal Chronicles, etc.
Yeah. I actually posted about Square's cross-platform game called The Last Remnant. But it hardly got any replies. http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=48186 Still, it's telling that Nintendo and Sony are getting close to 10 Final Fantasy games between them, yet the Xbox is getting 0. (Unless you count the expansion to XI: Wings of the Goddess to be one of them.)
I think that also has a lot to do with the XBOX's poor market presence in Japan. Gamers in Japan are crazy for those types of RPGs while N. American gamers seem to favor Oblivion/ Baldur's Gate style RPGs.
Whats d20? Not arsed about the FF games to be honest, seems very flat. Use the console for blowing shit up and driving games, it's ment to be used for quick games for me anyway. if i want to do a rpg use a pc as it's much better platform then anything else.
Considering the 360 has the biggest installed base worldwide for this generation so far, maybe that assesment is inaccurate? The only country the 360 hasn't sold well in is Japan. Who's market isn't nearly as important as it once was.
But they also had a year head start. And I'm not so sure about that anymore either, as the Wii was almost tied with the Xbox2 a few months ago. I'm pretty sure they would've blown past M$ by now. Depends on what games you play. If it's only sports games, or first person shooters, then the Japanese market has never been that important.
No, it has not surpassed it. I won't be surprised when it does.. but most people don't count the Wii as 'next-gen' gaming. The Wii is in it's own category. Another thing is most people don't just by a Wii, they have another next-gen console as well. Does anyone talk about the headstart the PS2 and Gamecube had over the XBox1 when they talk about how it didn't sell very well? Not really. http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=52602 Sigh.. another one of those fanboys with misconceptions about the XBox only being sports and shooters. Total crock of BS. Same thing was said about XBox 1 and it was wrong then and much more wrong now. Despite the XBox not being hot in Japan, doesn't mean Japanese developers don't develop for it. That was partially the case with the 1st one, but not this time around. Why you can even think of saying that line of BS, when RPGs like Mass Effect, Oblivion, Enchanted ARMs, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Fable 2 and hack/slash/shooters like DMC 4, Assasians Creed, Too Human, Crackdown, Ninety Nine Nights are all on the 360 will continue to confuse me. The american and european markets are the most important gaming markets nowadays, not Japan as much.
The only problem with your statement is that those games are not made in Japan. The traditional RPG with appeal to the audiences found in Japan will most likely never appear on the Xbox. Microsoft has a strong user market in America and Europe and the styles of games that commonly appeal to these audiences varies from those that appeal to the Japanese audiences. There was actually a study done about gaming that shows the differences between American and Japanese gamers. We as Americans want freedoms in our games abilities to pick our own paths and do things our way. We will compromise a rich and developed storyline in order to have a fulfilling adventure done in our style. Which doesn't make us stupid or anything it just implies something about our nature. Japanese gamers prefer more structured and scripted experiences that have enriching stories acrossed beautifully detailed landscapes that have only one specific straight and narrow path. The study actually showed that most of the Japanese gamers in the test group would actually do nothing when playing a game such as GTA as opposed to taking advantage of the freedoms inherent in the gameplay. Among your list Blue Dragon is the only game that has any potential to be a remotely traditional RPG as the man in charge of the project is one of the original leading men in the FF series. The other RPGs are all non-traditional in a gaming format and really have no do or say over whether or not we will ever see ports of FF to the Xbox. Regardless of you preference, the majority of Xbox players don't care about FF and because they are catering to their market MS won't spend the money to get FF since they already have its brain child.
They're not made in Japan? Blue Dragon, Enchanted ARMs, Lost Odyssey, DMC 4, Tenchu Z, Ninety Nine Nights were and are all made in Japan. Those first 3 RPGs are all traditional RPGs, as well as the new RPG Square Enix is producing which I can't remember the name of. Magna Carta 2, when it's released for the 360 will be korean made as well. But, as I was saying, all you have to do is look and you can find traditional RPGs. No, there isn't nearly as many as for the PS, but it's a give/take battle. There are also a lot of Japanese produced RPGs on the 360, which will never make it here, because there isn't really a market for them.
Excluding DMC 4, Tenchu Z and Ninety Nine Nights because last time I checked they aren't RPGs. I knew they were made in Japan, but did not know about Enchanted Arms or Lost Odyessey. Granted we agree the market of RPGs for the Xbox is lacking, at least in the traditional sense. I think we can all also agree that the systems each carry a stigma for being branded with specific to genres- ie Xbox= Halo, Forza; PS= MGS (despite the multiplatform), FF (and an plethora of other RPG exlcusives); Nintendo= Kiddy games due to their mainstay characters being child friendly (for the most part). This isn't to say that is what each system is capable of solely, but is what the public en mass sees them as.
I've heard a couple things about Microsoft lowering the price of the Xbox 360 to boost sales, since they take a loss on the actual hardware anyways.
All hardware companies take a loss on their systems initially. I can't remember the specific trend or pattern, but production values initially outweigh sales profits and as the systems lifetime progresses (and they become easier to make/mass produce) the profit ratio increases. If you bought a slim PS2 tomorrow Sony would probably get something like 60-80% profit off of that sale.
Thats what i have been hearing too, think it will be sometime in sept just before halo 3 comes out. They should have the new cheaper to build bits (dies and stuff like that) in them around that time too.
Fine, since you have to refute me constantly I will retract and reword my statement- All hardware companies, except Nintendo, take a loss on their systems initially. I believe that too, it makes sense that Nintendo wouldn't take a loss because they have been at this a whole hell of a lot longer than anyone else and have remained profitable through all of those years. They did make one klunker that they had a hard time making profit off of- Virtual Boy.
I don't know if Nintendo made money of the Gamecube hardware at first, either. They are on the Wii, because a bit of it is recycled hardware and off the shelf parts.
They didn't make any money with the gamecube, it's the DS and Wii that prints money for them now. The wii thing will fade in the next few months as they just lost about 90% of the US PR staff over the office move to new york.
