Want Xbox 720 to conquer Japan, Microsoft? Make Monster Hunter 5 exclusive

[The Sith]

http://www.oxm.co.uk/43235/blog/want...r-5-exclusive/
If Ms wNt to make a big splash with there next console something like this needs to happen.

At the time of writing, there is exactly one Monster Hunter game available for an Xbox console in Japan - Monster Hunter Frontier, released for Xbox 360 and PC in June 2010 to critical acclaim. Which just goes to show, you can have enough sofa change to wallpaper Buckingham Palace with £50 notes three times over, inside and out, and still be thicker than two short planks.

Monster Hunter is one of the few games Japanese consumers will buy on the strength of the logo font alone. Shelving a copy in downtown Tokyo is like force-feeding a fox mescaline and throwing it into a bathtub of obese chickens. Xbox 360, by contrast, is the console Japanese consumers cross the street to avoid looking at. The only way you could sell fewer units is by repackaging the hardware in orphan skin. And yet, Frontier remains Microsoft's only stab at Monster Hunter, its sole contribution to the magical business of murdering things in order to manufacture hats out of their hair. Sometimes, you just have to fall to your knees, open your arms to the all-knowing heavens and ask: "why?

At the time of writing, there is exactly one Monster Hunter game available for an Xbox console in Japan - Monster Hunter Frontier, released for Xbox 360 and PC in June 2010 to critical acclaim. Which just goes to show, you can have enough sofa change to wallpaper Buckingham Palace with £50 notes three times over, inside and out, and still be thicker than two short planks.

Monster Hunter is one of the few games Japanese consumers will buy on the strength of the logo font alone. Shelving a copy in downtown Tokyo is like force-feeding a fox mescaline and throwing it into a bathtub of obese chickens. Xbox 360, by contrast, is the console Japanese consumers cross the street to avoid looking at. The only way you could sell fewer units is by repackaging the hardware in orphan skin. And yet, Frontier remains Microsoft's only stab at Monster Hunter, its sole contribution to the magical business of murdering things in order to manufacture hats out of their hair. Sometimes, you just have to fall to your knees, open your arms to the all-knowing heavens and ask: "why?"
It's not like Frontier was an experiment gone wrong. The game topped Japanese software charts in launch week, despite the presence of no less than six other new releases, selling around 93,000 copies in total. At around about the same time, Xbox 360 hardware sales increased by 800 per cent in mysterious circumstances, settling just behind the Wii with 17, 370 units. Coincidence? Sure, if you're breathing glue fumes. The Slim's Japanese launch deserves a portion of the credit, but games sell consoles in the end, not hunky case mods and built-in wireless - to put the figures in context, the Xbox 360 Elite scraped a mere 18, 717 Japanese sales across the whole of launch month.

Did somebody at Redmond forget to join the dots? Was there nothing to be learned from the eventual Japanese success of the PlayStation Portable, buoyed up for years on a steady stream of Monster Hunter Portable editions? When Microsoft started throwing money at companies like Mistwalker to produce decent but hardly turbo-charged riffs on Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, was there no solitary dissenting voice in the boardroom - no laser pointer tentatively circling the largest spike on the all-formats graph?

And if there wasn't, is it happening now? Next generation consoles are just round the corner, resetting everybody's odds to zero. As Gandalf would say, this is the deep breath before the plunge. If Microsoft wants to make a serious go at cracking the world's second largest games market, 2012 would be a fine year to re-open the conversation with Capcom and engineer an exclusivity deal. Large amounts of cash would have to change hands, of course, but Microsoft has cash to spare. A gun is only as good as the bullets it fires.


If I sound like I'm protesting too much, that's because I most certainly am. I used to adore Monster Hunter, and to be frank, the thing that really irks about Frontier isn't that it's the only Monster Hunter game on Xbox 360, but that it hasn't been released in the West. Promisingly but gallingly, Dragon's Dogma has a lot in common with Monster Hunter - it's a game built for co-op (albeit not "real" co-op) in which you chop down large, multiple-component, multiple-behaviour critters, then harvest raw materials from their corpses. Hopefully, the latter's stonking launch week performance will have shown Microsoft the value of such experiences. Monster Hunter 5, an Xbox 720 launch title? Smells like good business sense to me.

[AaronSOLDIER]

That's not enough to make them win Japan, PSP had 2 or 3 exclusive MH games, DS still destroyed the PSP. Plus didn't MH:F kinda flop? It would cost MS big bucks for this since Capcom knows it'll probably fail.

Now if they got DQ11 AND MH5 exclusive, then MAYBE.

[admartian]

I don't know what to make of the Japanese market. They seem to only respond to Nintendo and random PS3 games.

If In was a Director of Marketing/Product of a western company for Japan, I'd be in a mental institution...

[LfCpS3]

Or get one of those Japanese girls that look like anime and are adored by everyone there to be on consoles advert, that should be enough. Maybe even like having an exclusive character of that popular "idol" in a game will be enough.
This is just speculation of course.

[Blacksite]

Now if they got DQ11... then MAYBE.

That would be interesting, seeing as how you only see Dragon Quest games released for Sony and Nintendo platforms... but mostly the latter.

[AaronSOLDIER]

Or get one of those Japanese girls that look like anime and are adored by everyone there to be on consoles advert, that should be enough. Maybe even like having an exclusive character of that popular "idol" in a game will be enough.
This is just speculation of course.

They've already done that with some 360 ads.

That would be interesting, seeing as how you only see Dragon Quest games released for Sony and Nintendo platforms... but mostly the latter.

DQ goes to whichever console is dominating, DQ7 went to PS1 and DQ8 went to PS2, so yeah, very little chance of happening.

[Ghost-Rhayne]

MS need to make more games aimed at the eastern market if they want to even have a chance in the east, nevermind dominating. I don't see this ever happening. American company + typically western games = likely repeat of this gen.

[mynd]

MS need to make more games aimed at the eastern market if they want to even have a chance in the east, nevermind dominating. I don't see this ever happening. American company + typically western games = likely repeat of this gen.

Not sure if your serious.
I mean I know you came in to all this relativley late, but hells teeth surely even you know what MS did in Japan at the begininng of this gen?

So no, that wont work, it didnt work last time, wont work next time.

[Ghost-Rhayne]

Not sure if your serious.
I mean I know you came in to all this relativley late, but hells teeth surely even you know what MS did in Japan at the begininng of this gen?

So no, that wont work, it didnt work last time, wont work next time.

Yeah, I know there were games like Lost Odyssey, Tales of Vesperia etc. I meant that I don't see xbox conquering japan, not that MS won't/didn't make more eastern flavoured games. My point is that the only thing that will make ground in Japan is software, and that I don't thionk it will make a big difference because the Japanese seem to have a patriotic love for native companies.

[mynd]

Yeah, I know there were games like Lost Odyssey, Tales of Vesperia etc. I meant that I don't see xbox conquering japan, not that MS won't/didn't make more eastern flavoured games. My point is that the only thing that will make ground in Japan is software, and that I don't thionk it will make a big difference because the Japanese seem to have a patriotic love for native companies.

The only thing that will work is if they partner up with SNK or somebody.
If they slap SNK-BOX no the side of it, it will sell.

They did it once before with the MSX.

MSX Box would work.

[MATRIX 2]

MS need to make more games aimed at the eastern market if they want to even have a chance in the east, nevermind dominating. I don't see this ever happening. American company + typically western games = likely repeat of this gen.

They did. It didn't work. For whatever reason Japanese gamers don't respond well to non Japanese consoles, regardless of the titles they receive.

[radgamer420]

MS already tried to crack that market. Not going to happen.

[Nitey]

Doubtful. Monster Hunter dominates in the handheld space

[The Sith]

MS already tried to crack that market. Not going to happen.

I agree. they failed twice and will fail again. IMO they should pull out of the Japan Market when the next console is release.

[mynd]

I agree. they failed twice and will fail again. IMO they should pull out of the Japan Market when the next console is release.

The irony of all of this of course was just how wonderfully the stealth infiltrated it years and years ago.
They really should look at the success of the MSX and try and duplicate that.

Tell people the first Metal Gear was sold on a Microsoft designed box in Japan and they will look at you crazy, but it did happen.

So it is doable, they just have to hide their name again, behind a Japanese company.

[AaronSOLDIER]

I agree. they failed twice and will fail again. IMO they should pull out of the Japan Market when the next console is release.

Every console sold is a profit so there's no reason to pull out. Also they'd lose support from Capcom, Square Enix, Namco etc. if they did that.

[D3seeker]

I'd still say it's a lost cause. MS and XBox haven't exactly been trying to steel anyone away as of late, and Japan simply doesn't like what they have to offer, and 3rd party-multi-platform hoopla hasn't, doesn't, and won't do a thing for them over there. They don't have the appeal necessarily to stand in that market, let alon even dream of conquering so if they want X-Box to matter in Japan MS is gonna have to pull their head out of the a-s-s and make some special and even exclusive deals for the type of games they like, and not flop

[MjW]

Or they could rename Xbox to Nintendo.


TA-pa-TA-pa-taPAtalk

[DarkNemesis]

ms needs to conquer making a good console first.

[MjW]

Meh. The 360 is a good console.


TA-pa-TA-pa-taPAtalk

[Soldier 95B]

ms needs to conquer making a good console first.

The console is awesome. The problem is that it's American, and Japan doesn't care much for most (not all) American products.

[sainraja]

It has nothing to do with being American. Why do they buy Apple products without issue?

[Soldier 95B]

The console is awesome. The problem is that it's American, and Japan doesn't care much for most (not all) American products.

Just wanted to make sure that was highlighted in case some missed it.

[radgamer420]

Meh. The 360 is a good console.

This.^

[mynd]

It has nothing to do with being American. Why do they buy Apple products without issue?

Explanation then?