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The State of Gaming in Japan 45

Posted by Zonk from the rpgs-and-food-simulation dept.
dean73 writes to mention an article at the SeekJapan site entitled The State of Gaming in Japan. The article runs down the seventh round of the console war from the Japanese perspective. IE: The one where Microsoft is probably going to lose. From the article: "The Xbox 360 comes to us now with a reduced price, a screwed-up slogan ('do! Game, do! Choice, do! Xbox 360') and a slew of games targeted at the Japanese audience. The trump card is Hironobu Sakaguchi: the Final Fantasy creator's studio, Mistwalker, is due to deliver the first of two Xbox-only RPGs, Blue Dragon, on December 7th. Given that the Xbox has until now lacked any decent Japanese-style RPG (the cocaine of the J-geek world), this might prove just the ticket, and Microsoft is predicting a big hit."
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The State of Gaming in Japan More

The State of Gaming in Japan

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  • ...is that the Japanese version of Engrish?

    I wonder if the Japanese laugh at it and will use it as an inside joke like "all your base are belong to us"? Of course, perhaps they're more cultured and civilized than us.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Aladrin ( 926209 )
      That's the English translation of it. I suspect the slogan was developed there, in their current culture, and sounds weird to us because of it.
      • not to mention I suspect that's a TERRIBLE translation. if they wrote "Choice shite" or "Choice wo shite" then that COULD be translated as "Choice, Do" but only if you were an idiot .... or maybe if you looked up each word seperately in a dictionary and didn't take grammar into account. On the other hand, since most Japanese people don't really speak english that well they could probably use that english slogan and sell it just fine. If I string together a whole bunch of japanese words and make them soun

        • I don't think this is a translation; I think this is the slogan. [famitsu.com]

          In my experience from a few trips to Japan, it is very common to use weird English as product slogans. Most Japanese have enough high school English to understand a short slogan made up of common words, even if they don't speak it that comfortably.

          Perhaps my favourite was a 7/11-type store that had the phrase "So Delicious! So Happy!" plastered all over its fast-food takeouts.

          I no longer view this as badly translated English. It's really i

          • For those who don't understand Japanese, this is what the title says.

            (the) Keyword (is) do! Game, do! Choice, do! Xbox 360 media briefing's (bunch of kanji I can't read)

            So the slogan is probably closer to "The Keyword is do! Game, do! Choice, do!" than it is "do! Game, do! Choice, do! Xbox 360".

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Aladrin ( 926209 )
              Ah, thank for that. It makes a lot more sense that way, and with their grammar being different than ours, it probably sounds pleasing to them.
            • I dunno. The article seems to suggest that the slogan is actually:

              do!Game, do!Choice, do!Live

              The "do!XBox 360" is only in the title. The rest of the article (what I can decipher, anyway) dissects the three contructs above. Look a little lower, and you'll even see them each discussed in a table. It would appear that each "do!" is intended to represent some sort of attribute about the XBox 360.

              i.e.:

              do!Game - Possibly representing the game library available.
              do!Choice - Possibly referring to "chosing" the hardw
              • I'm just working based on the title of the japanese article. In either case the slogan is not "do! Game, do! Choice, do! Xbox 360". That slogan seems to be an obvious mistake of simply grabbing whatever English there was and ignoring the Japanese.

                I'm not claiming to know exactly what the real slogan is, I'm just guessing, so you may very well be right.
                • I did Babelfish and Google translations of the page. While both (annoyingly) drop the "Live" part of "do!Live", it does appear I was correct. The slogan is "do!Game, do!Choice, do!Live", with each of the three standing for the features I was referring to. I'm still unclear on the spacing (i.e. is it "do!Game" or "do! Game"), but I think the mystery is otherwise solved. :-)
    • No, I think someone just watched Perfect Hair Forever, and decided to lift Action Hot Dog's lines. Presumably the next ad will feature an old man asking his schoolgirl age companion to bend over and turn on his 360.
    • "perhaps they're more cultured and civilized than us."

      They are to an extent more cultured, but more civilized is debatable.
    • Actually, after browsing around their website, apparently they put the "do! do! do!" in English [xbox.com]. The whole part listed on that page is "do! do! do! shiyou ze!", the last part being roughly translated as "let's do together!", with the "ze" particle emphasizing masculinity. They probably should have at least used "yarou ze!", since yaru, a more active "do" in Japanese, is the verb usually used for "play" as in "play video games".

      Although, the latter point is pretty easy to explain away with Sony's much forg
    • It's not all that different from our own English speaking culture. Look at some of the ridiculous things we do with French or Italian words in order to make something sound stylish or sophisticated. Sure there are plenty of English speakers who also understand these other languages, but it is nonetheless true that people will buy a product with a cool sounding name (or slogan) without having any clue what it really means.
      • It's not all that different from our own English speaking culture. Look at some of the ridiculous things we do with French or Italian words in order to make something sound stylish or sophisticated. Sure there are plenty of English speakers who also understand these other languages, but it is nonetheless true that people will buy a product with a cool sounding name (or slogan) without having any clue what it really means.

        And I don't think it really matters - all this debate over the slogan is pretty pointle
  • but I'd have thought the Japanese situation was fairly obvious: The Wii will sell well with its 'novelty' controller and family friendly games; The Ps3 will 'sell out' at launch and will move as fast as they can be produced/fast as people can afford them, and Microsoft will come trailing last selling just enough they can say its a 'success'.
  • As for the commercials I have yet to see at least one.

    I do hope their Japanese TV commercials do not end up like this [youtube.com].
  • It's "Do! Do! Do!", [youtube.com] a theme written by they boy band (Tokio) they got to front for them.

    But yeah, the 360 is doomed in Japan. Sure MS was touting the Blue Dragon 360 package sellout, but they only made a thousand of them.

    Last week they sold 22,380 PS2's in Japan to Xbox 360s 1,287. (source [gamespot.com])

    So while selling an extra thousand 360s is impressive for Microsoft, it's garbage for the market. Hell, most weeks there are more GBA new releases than Xbox in Japan.

    • Hell, most weeks there are more GBA new releases than Xbox in Japan.

      Wow, talk about obvious. Throughout this past generation, most weeks there have been more GBA releases in the United States than any of the three home consoles. The GBA has been monstrously popular all over the world and developers can make GBA games for virtually nothing compared to the cost of developing for home consoles (and, the [low] quality of GBA games, on average, tends to reflect this). It's looking more and more likely that

    • But yeah, the 360 is doomed in Japan. Sure MS was touting the Blue Dragon 360 package sellout, but they only made a thousand of them.

      Ehh, you are incorrect. There were 100,000 bundles created [1up.com], with 10,000 of them being the limited edition versions (which are apparently sold out now).

      Last week they sold 22,380 PS2's in Japan to Xbox 360s 1,287. (source)

      So while selling an extra thousand 360s is impressive for Microsoft, it's garbage for the market. Hell, most weeks there are more GBA new releases than Xbox i

      • You're right, I couldn't find my source so I was going from memory.

        That will boost the Xbox numbers here by a lot, certainly there hasn't been anything like a Must Have Game for the 360 in Japan in the year since it launched. But if the only games they keep releasing here are translations of American sports and shooters, well, they're screwed, because those games just don't sell in Japan. Get some RPGs, fighting games, something based on a good anime franchise, a trading card game, or a port of a game-cen

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jchenx ( 267053 )

          Get some RPGs, fighting games, something based on a good anime franchise, a trading card game, or a port of a game-center game and they might have a chance.

          The thought is that Blue Dragon, Lost Oddysey, and Eternal Sonata will be be a good kick-start to the Japanese RPG genre. Well, there's already one RPG, Enchanted Arms, which was surprisingly decent. (Certainly no Final Fantasy, but good enough to interest some fans. It's also coming to the PS3 eventually)

          The problem with the 360 launch is that it takes

    • According to Joystiq [joystiq.com] your number is off by a factor of ten. The 10,000 limited editions were apparently all preordered very quickly, too. And that's just preorders for the limited edition bundle. I think it's going to do better than you're making out. Nowhere near enough to crack the Japanese market, but they probably don't need to - the US and European markets are bigger, and if they can maintain a large hold on those markets, then having a smaller presence in Japan won't really hurt them that much.
  • The weirdest quote from the article...

    "If [Steve] Jobs adds an Apple logo to the PS3, I think users will say it can be sold at $2,000. However it's not possible for the PlayStation brand. That is the difference in the computer world between the PlayStation brand and the Apple brand."
    Ken Kutaragi, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO & President

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