If we ever see persona on xbox. Sony may as well just be bought out and cease to exist. That’s it for them
Pretty sure sega have a lot of people who work with Xbox consoles. Why the hell do atlus have to do the Xbox ports? That’s the whole point of being part of a bigger company. Heh sega have ported the yakuza games on xbox and they male multiplats. Surely they can port a game like persona to xbox. It wouldn’t take much effort considering that game can run on a basic laptop.
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Yousuke Shiokawa, the director of the massively successful free-to-play Fate/Grand Order, has left Delightworks in late January to found his own independent studio. Fate/Grand Order is a huge moneyspinner for Sony’s music division (that’s where the mobile game division is).
How about this? I doubt Shiokawa would want to be purchased by Microsoft, but secure the rights to his games to go to Xbox as well as other platforms, as well as ex-Japan mobile rights, and that would be a good start.
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I just want them to buy mistwalker studio
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I don’t think they do tbh. If anything more Mobile game IP. Western is where it is at for Console games, just look at how much Sony are pulling away from it.
I think partnerships would benefit them more than acquisitions at this stage. But ideally if they could catch some talented teams it would be a boon to Game Pass and the platform as whole.
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MS already has a partnership with Sega. It remains to be seen if MS can form similar partnerships with other major Japanese firms without Sony running interference.
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Honestly I think the scorched earth treatment PlayStation has shown Japan for the past 5 or so years just made “Sony interference” with non-Square Enix companies a lot harder. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else who accepts this interference.
People keep trying to paint Capcom as a Sony loyal company who does timed exclusives but it was just SFV. Sony didn’t/couldn’t even lock down RE Village from them and that had SIE heads congratulating Capcom on that on RE stream. Pragmata wasn’t locked down either and that seemed like it should have been cheap for Sony being a new IP, but again it seems Capcom didn’t accept it (or Sony didn’t try)
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Interesting take from over at InstallBase
Basically if this really good JP appealing line up comes and goes and still sells just as badly as all other PS software has been for the last year or 2, then it’s safe to say that PS will not recover in Japan.
Not sure if Xbox is able to capitalize, but if nothing else this would make it harder than ever for Sony to moneyhat Japanese games.
SE is the purchase. MS wants SE Europe and you don’t want to buy SE Europe and let Sony get SE Japan cheap.
I think if I were MS, I would start by getting the big publishers on board for game releases on Xbox day and date.
Then, I would make a deal with Square Enix to make sure every Dragon Quest game that’s planned to release (especially Dragon Quest 12) comes to Xbox (and that DQ10 offline is localized) and comes to Game Pass on day one. Dragon Quest is huge in Japan, so getting that to happen would likely significantly increase adoption of Game Pass, especially if it were Xbox Play Anywhere and launched on xCloud with touch controls.
Alongside that, I would focus on publishing various games from various independent Japanese studios (as in, more than just Kojima) and leverage that as well.
japan is overrated. hope they do something in korea instead
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Sony isn’t trying to put consoles out in Japan, they really don’t care for that market anymore.
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With games at 70$ I don’t think they’ll recover…
The state of the hardware sales there is… Okayish. Real problem is the state of the software sales, no PS5 SKU has passed 100k yet (physically, but Japan statistically still prefers physical, so digital won’t help add too much here), and PS4 software sales continue plummeting each year. Obviously the PS4 software sales declining is natural, it’s nearing it’s end… But, even extremely PS historic franchises like Gust (Atelier), Disgaea, etc games are getting more and more sales on Switch and less and less on PS, implying the fanbase for niche stuff like this is moving to Switch. Not the PS5.
Again I’m not sure what or how Xbox can or will do to capitalize on this. I doubt PS versions of smaller Japanese games will stop being made, because the Western audience is still there I think (though NISA didn’t localize Disgaea 6 PS4 possiblity because they thought it wouldn’t sell well, so who knows). Maybe MS can convince devs that Xbox is a good platform for Western presence as well.
Capcom and Sega would be a perfect 1-2 combo to go along with Tango and perfectly round out the Xbox portfolio. Square is likely out of reach and rather bloated; all Square would do is guarantee all these SE JRPGs stop missing Xbox and come to Game Pass day 1 and I don’t think their western IPs are needed by Microsoft at all.
Capcom gives them the most successful Japanese IP (Monster Hunter), a bunch of extremely popular westernized franchises, which everyone knows is where the money is at (Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, MvC), a bunch of goldmine IPs to finance (Dino Crisis, Breath of Fire, AAA Megaman, AAA Dead Rising, AAA Onimusha), and a bunch of talented devs. They can obviously keep many of these multiplatform (Monster Hunter especially with Switch). The issue here is Capcom is family owned and unlikely to ever sell.
Sega is self-explanatory and the most likely candidate we have.
I could live without Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts on Xbox if the above were to ever happen because let’s face it, Xbox has always gotten shafted with those IP, anyway.
What Microsoft really need to do is invest in Japan, maybe build a campus that invites indie JP developers to be creative and help the Japanese game industry overall. Not every game needs to be exclusive but many of these games can release on Game Pass. Have Tango be a part of that campus and whatever other studios they build/acquire, too. Tango already has one of the most legendary developers in Japanese dev history, anyway.
Either way, I really hope Phil does something in the near future.
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They should be pushing for Japan, not to appeal to Japan but worldwide
That being said, I agree on Korea, they are developing fast over there and there some really promising projects coming from there, they should be getting in there while they can and make an impact
Microsoft is already on the right track with XCloud and the more affordable Series S, from the sounds of the market it sounds like they just need to keep pushing that.
Step 1: When it comes to buying studios/publishers or funding projects, you offer the studios/publishers a level of platform autonomy when it comes to Japan. You make a big statement that while everything will be coming to Xbox/game pass (and be exclusive outside of Japan) the teams can continue to release Japanese ports on whichever console they choose (so long as the audience is there to support it). You build up goodwill with the Japanese players and you let the player base come to you in time with the lure of an affordable home gaming console and XCloud on whatever device.
Step 2: Japan likes mobile gaming and portable consoles. You’ve got one, follow the other. This isn’t necessarily a realistic option and is gonna take some negotiation with Nintendo, for sure, but you introduce a new Japan only game pass tier - Game pass for Nintendo Switch. Streaming only of course and you likely have to offer a slightly reduced library (Nintendo is obviously going to have some restrictions on what games are available) so you sell it as a cheaper tier overall with the option to buy it as part of Game pass ultimate. This gets people interested in the service and gives them the option to experience the full library on other devices with the upgrade to game pass ultimate, and over time brings people to the console as well (this also somewhat covers step 1, as any acquired exclusives would be available on switch and save the need for a full port).
MS needs to work closely with Indie developers in Japan to get their games on the platform/Game Pass and ID@Xbox (they’ve been doing pretty well with this TBH), as well as getting Xbox/PC ports of other bigger games like DQBuilders 2 and Dangonronpa and Drum Master, etc. Keep that momentum going.
They need to have dedicated teams of consultant developers in Japan whose role is to partner with companies to make the Xbox ports. Striking a business deal to help make the development of the port themselves, in exchange for whatever. Maybe this already exists, IDK.
Form business deals for exclusive development from high profile studios, not timed exclusivity. Example being an exclusive FROM Software game, not marketing deals. Like Sony’s long term 3 game contract (Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, ???).
Grow Tango Gameworks to be a 2+ AAA game studio and convince Mikami to direct his own game with unconstrained funding/resources, make buzz about it. Like how Tim Schafer has been freed (though Bethesda owned them so they had some safety there, I don’t think the relationship was as “lax” as it could be now).
The key is not to try and gain market share in Japan as much as it is making appealing software to the Japanese audience to get them interested in the brand/Game Pass/xCloud and exporting that software to your core audiences in the West. Hunger for Japanese culture and games is probably at an all time high right now, and Xbox needs to supply it. Doing so requires them fostering ports to their platform even it means making it themselves via consulting teams.
What AAA devs has Korea got? Cmon now. Thats a dumb statement. You can’t ignore Japan. It has the most AAA devs of any country bar the US.
And I’ve said this before
Make sure Persona 6 comes to Xbox. Day and date.
You can’t lose FFXV and persona.
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