Anyone else surprised by Sony's focus on Japanese partnerships? Whats next?

Your also forgetting other games like Y's, Guilty Gear among others as well.

Sony has a vested interest to keep these games coming to their latest and greatest, even when the chips are stacked against them in Japan. It also creates a double effect where it diversifies their platform library for western fans as well.

I would never buy an XB1 cause it doesn't have what i want. Yeah i like western games tons, but i could never live on just those. I thought MS knew that when they were courting J devs back in the day, but it was not really for the health of the marketplace in their case
 
Trust me said:
Your talking about the guys who launched Person 4 exclusive to PS2 in June of 2008. Plus, between Adam Boyse favoriting the "Persona 5 on PS4 please" tweets not too long after the initial reveal and then breaking the localization announcement at Playstation experience, it is fairly likely at least a phone call was made. 3rd party relations and all that^^
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How the market responded to PS2/PS3 in 2008 is very different to how the market is treating PS3/PS4 in 2015.

Besides, Duckroll said the PS4 version was happening regardless.

duckroll said:
DeliciousDoc said:
They were pressured into making a ps4 version.
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Based on the stuff I heard long before it was actually announced, this is not true.
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Absolutely loving that someone is attempting to 'keep the flame alive' over there. I'm hoping this continues soon... like perhaps with the long-rumored Arc the Lad title? Or a new Wild Arms?
 
What it basically amounts to is Sony showing Japanese publishers the sales numbers the PS4 is achieving and saying to them "Look, this thing is selling like hotcakes all around the world - join the fucking party assholes!" Partnerships and co-development are one thing, but I think Sony are really convincing these guys to give a damn through the international sales potential there is for Japanese games, even the niche ones. The worldwide install base for the console is already a sizeable one and it continues to grow rapidly, and more A/AA/AAA-retail games are always welcome this gen. It's good that they're trying to keep home consoles relevant in the homeland and everything, but if a game doesn't perform to expectations in the charts, there's always that safety blanket to fall back on of Western games (possibly) picking up the slack.
 
RyoonZ said:
GENSO SUIKODEN VI

And I can die happy after that
Click to expand...

Well I don't want to raise your hopes too much but...

I can't wait to match my post to the 108 Stars of Destiny? It's fate Psycho.

1. New Suikoden game in the works now. This one is very far off though as it's a recent thing as far as I know. I'd think 2016 is the earliest we start hearing stuff about it.
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By Verendus.
 
pastrami said:
I think Sony realized that they need third parties to succeed. In the PS2 days, their platform was THE platform to make games on. Third parties needed the PS2. Sony knew it and used it to their advantage.
.
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This.

From pricing, policies to what partnerships to pursue.

Sony has been incredibly smart this gen.

I suspect Capcom's gonna cozy up more to them. EDIT: (not Bamco, was thinking of another Dev who said they're focusing on PC and Sony)

Next up - Level 5 collaboration.
 
Chobel said:
I think it's more to do with MS not focusing on Japanese partnerships, so that makes striking deals with Japanese publishers/developpers easier (no one to outbid).
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Even if Microsoft focused on Japanese partnerships, you really think there was any chance of Street Fighter, FF Dissidia or Dragon Quest being Xbone exclusive?

It's a combination of a number of things but Sony is clearly pouring a lot of time, money and effort into these deals and deserves credit for doing so.
 
Psycho_Mantis said:
With the recent announcement of Star Ocean 5 for PS3/4 and insight that Sony are helping with it, is anyone else surprised by the amount of collaborations SCE are conducting with Japanese third parties? I can't remember much from the PS3 era (demon souls, folklore, WKC....) and I guess with the PS2 era most of it was exclusive by default.

To list:

From Software
- Bloodborne ( co-developed/funded)

Capcom
- Dragons Dogma Online
- Deep Down (development of next gen engine help)
- SFV (funding)

SE
- DQH (I'm sure there was some nudging by Sony here)
- FF Dissidia (?)
- SO5

Konami
- Silent Hills (?)

We also have NIS commenting that SCE helped them with marketing budget (suggesting they are at least aware of niche devs) and L5 are making a PS4 game to be announced at E3 (SCE has had a history in making stuff with L5 so its a possibility). Note how its all for PS4/3.

Question is, at a time where console gaming is declining in Japan and where Western franchises are a more dominant, why is SCE aggressively going for these partnerships? How successful can these partnerships be for both companies? Also, from what we see right now, what can we expect in the future?

I understand that certain factors have it made it far easier for them to acquire them, most notably PS4's success.
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Honestly? No. To me, it's a combination of their existing relationships and the benefit of being in the dominant platform. Most of these types of deals were made with Microsoft during the early days of the last generation.

Here are some of the benefits Microsoft had because of their position last gen. Not all of them remained exclusive but they debuted first on Xbox 360:

Mistwalker
Blue Dragon
Lost Odyssey

Square Enix
Last Remnant
Star Ocean 4

Capcom
Dead Rising
Lost Planet

I don't see it as aggressive as much as they're the de facto platform holder to partner up with. Who else are they're going to partner up with? Microsoft? Not unless MS has stacks of cash to offset the lost sales.
 
Microsoft tried it last gen and it wasn't too big a success for them although there was some great games amongst the ones released for sure. Sony will definitely find success though there's no way they won't especially with the likes of Street Fighter V and now Star Ocean V.
 
When have Sony not done this? The only surprise regarding Japanese partnerships was/is when Microsoft does it--they tried to go in hard last gen with very limited success, really surprised to see them working with JP devs at all this gen after that (and after the sales numbers for Xbox One in Japan--ouch). Sony has always done this and the Japanese market is all but free exclusives for Sony in the west due to strong long term partnerships.
 
There isn't that many choice for Japanese developers if they want to make a console game. X1 is irrelevant in Japan. WiiU installed base is mostly poor everywhere. That leaves the PS4 as the only logical option.
 
No_Style said:
Honestly? No. To me, it's a combination of their existing relationships and the benefit of being in the dominant platform. Most of these types of deals were made with Microsoft during the early days of the last generation.

Here are some of the benefits Microsoft had because of their position last gen. Not all of them remained exclusive but they debuted first on Xbox 360:

Mistwalker
Blue Dragon
Lost Odyssey

Square Enix
Last Remnant
Star Ocean 4

Capcom
Dead Rising
Lost Planet

I don't see it as aggressive as much as they're the de facto platform holder to partner up with. Who else are they're going to partner up with? Microsoft? Not unless MS has stacks of cash to offset the lost sales.
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Exactly, I think OP is reaching a bit.
 
Sir TapTap said:
When have Sony not done this?
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Things were pretty bad last generation when it comes to Sony collaborating with Japanese devs.

30yearsofhurt said:
I thought Silent Hills was deadified. Kaput. No more.
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The KojiPro version is dead. But we don't know what the KojiPro version of it was anyway. Kojima said that P.T. wasn't the actual game. The game has far too much hype behind it for Konami to just let it die. We'll just have to wait and see who they choose to take over on the project.
 
SolidSnakex said:
Things were pretty bad last generation when it comes to Sony collaborating with Japanese devs.
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Last gen was a MAJOR fuckup by Sony all around and they still had better Japanese support than MS by far by the end of it. Only in the first couple years did it look any different (and even then there were exclusives like MGS4 and Folklore).

30yearsofhurt said:
I thought Silent Hills was deadified. Kaput. No more.
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We have no idea one way or another. We know Kojipro is probably dead but no idea what's up with the project beyond Kojima's apparent removal at a company level. I don't think we've heard a peep about SH specifically.
 
Yeah it's a very interesting and much needed approach.

They are also making it easier on the devs with the option of PS3/Vita, PS4/Vita and PS3/Vita/PS4 versions of games so there is less risk involved. It's a very smart approach.

Japanese games are still where it's at for me so I'm loving this.

Here's hoping Japan Studio itself also starts releasing games worth mentioning.
 
Psycho_Mantis said:
Question is, at a time where console gaming is declining in Japan and where Western franchises are a more dominant, why is SCE aggressively going for these partnerships? How successful can these partnerships be for both companies? Also, from what we see right now, what can we expect in the future?

I understand that certain factors have it made it far easier for them to acquire them, most notably PS4's success.
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It adds quality exclusives to their portfolio without needing to spend hundreds of millions to secure them.

It may not even be moneyhats either. Just straight support and marketing would do wonders for a lot of the smaller publishers.

Chobel said:
I think it's more to do with MS not focusing on Japanese partnerships, so that makes striking deals with Japanese publishers/developpers easier (no one to outbid).
Click to expand...

After last gen, it's unlikely any publisher with IPs remotely popular in Japan would accept a moneyhat from MS just to let their IPs to commit suicide.

There is a reason why after the initial push of Japanese games on the 360 for the first 2 years, the majority of the small to mid sized Japanese publishers went straight back to PS3 exclusively. The sales just aren't there.
 
Hey man, what ever brings work to the devs and games to me.

I think its a smart move by sony, I mean if Japanese devs/publishers are unwilling to create games due to a shrinking market then at least sharing the risk with sony helps make them more possible.
 
MS would never get contracts again after how last gen turned out. People acting like MS could do the same thing is very short sighted i think.

There's been a lot of 'Sony is funding X, Sony is helping so and so on this platform". They've always done so, but they seem to be the one initiating and not the other way around, so that games are actually okay to launch.

I don't think Y's would be anywhere but Vita without Sony's help for example. The Japanese devs seem content not to be ambitious unless they have a safety net, and even then its hard
 
Inuhanyou said:
MS would never get contracts again after how last gen turned out. People acting like MS could do the same thing is very short sighted i think.

There's been a lot of 'Sony is funding X, Sony is helping so and so on this platform". They've always done so, but they seem to be the one initiating and not the other way around, so that games are actually okay to launch.

I don't think Y's would be anywhere but Vita without Sony's help for example. The Japanese devs seem content not to be ambitious unless they have a safety net, and even then its hard
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It's Ys, not Y's.

and I'm glad there's a PS4 version, hopefully it's 1080p/60fps, I'm pretty much getting a PS4 for Ys 8.
 
Mauricio_Magus said:
It's Ys, not Y's.

and I'm glad there's a PS4 version, hopefully it's 1080p/60fps, I'm pretty much getting a PS4 for Ys 8.
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My mistake, i apologize :P

The fact that your buying a console for these endeavors is proof their strategy is working
 
No_Style said:
Honestly? No. To me, it's a combination of their existing relationships and the benefit of being in the dominant platform. Most of these types of deals were made with Microsoft during the early days of the last generation.

Here are some of the benefits Microsoft had because of their position last gen. Not all of them remained exclusive but they debuted first on Xbox 360:

Mistwalker
Blue Dragon
Lost Odyssey

Square Enix
Last Remnant
Star Ocean 4

Capcom
Dead Rising
Lost Planet

I don't see it as aggressive as much as they're the de facto platform holder to partner up with. Who else are they're going to partner up with? Microsoft? Not unless MS has stacks of cash to offset the lost sales.
Click to expand...

Don't forget Tales of Vesperia as well.
 
There's a market for Japanese developed games outside of Japan and Sony knows it. Japanese developers need to know that if they make a game that cost time and money they are going to see a return and by looking only at their country they see it could be a risky development. The fact the ps4 is doing so well could with the fact that some of us would love a real jrpg or quirky Japanese game makes it easier for devs to go with Sony (as they probably rather go with a Japanese company than American one).

There probably is still a stigma with Microsoft and how well a Japanese centric game would sell (even though worldwide the system is not selling horribly). Devs see the low Japanese sells and probsbly think that the worldwide sales won't be as big and they also would rather have moderate Japanese sales as well for them to be comfortable. I'm sure with the money Microsoft has they are approaching Japanese devs (there is no way they aren't, unless they got really cold feet after the deals they made for the 360 didn't give them more clout) but the devs are the ones not biting.
 
Apathy said:
There probably is still a stigma with Microsoft and how well a Japanese centric game would sell (even though worldwide the system is not selling horribly). Devs see the low Japanese sells and probsbly think that the worldwide sales won't be as big and they also would rather have moderate Japanese sales as well for them to be comfortable. I'm sure with the money Microsoft has they are approaching Japanese devs (there is no way they aren't, unless they got really cold feet after the deals they made for the 360 didn't give them more clout) but the devs are the ones not biting.
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Its not just in Japan. Japanese games on XB1 and 360 just didn't sell period. That's just the case. Its unfortunate but its the case in the world as it is in Japan.

Just hear from Kagari how much of a split there was between FFT0 HD in the west. it was a joke. Like 90% PS4 to 10% XB1
 
Inuhanyou said:
Its not just in Japan. Japanese games on XB1 and 360 just didn't sell period. That's just the case. Its unfortunate but its the case in the world as it is in Japan.

Just hear from Kagari how much of a split there was between FFT0 HD in the west. it was a joke. Like 90% PS4 to 10% XB1
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Which is probably why Sony didn't bother moneyhatting FFXV and KH3.

They pretty much have the jrpg audience worldwide.
 
This is probably the only way Japan stay relevant in the console space. Plus Sony can localize these games to the West. Bolstering the library.
 
While console market in Japan shrinking, Sony help many Japanese third party open up the east Asia market.
There was many success story in this raising market, now PS4 has enter China, it's hopeful that they can recover from whatever lost sales they have in Japan.
 
I'm not particularly surprised. Japanese development finally has its shit together after the mess that was last gen... there's a lot of untapped potential there that nobody's bothered to pick up on yet. So, smart move on Sony's part.
 
No_Style said:
Honestly? No. To me, it's a combination of their existing relationships and the benefit of being in the dominant platform. Most of these types of deals were made with Microsoft during the early days of the last generation.

Here are some of the benefits Microsoft had because of their position last gen. Not all of them remained exclusive but they debuted first on Xbox 360:

Mistwalker
Blue Dragon
Lost Odyssey

Square Enix
Last Remnant
Star Ocean 4

Capcom
Dead Rising
Lost Planet

I don't see it as aggressive as much as they're the de facto platform holder to partner up with. Who else are they're going to partner up with? Microsoft? Not unless MS has stacks of cash to offset the lost sales.
Click to expand...

Even if the Xbone were in a much stronger position, you wouldn't see those kind of Japanese deals on the system. Last Remnant, Star Ocean 4, Eternal Sonata and Tales of Vesperia bombed on the 360, the JRPG audience just wasn't there. That's why Square Enix and Namco Bandai favoured the PS3 so heavily by the end of the generation.

Also, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey had nothing to do with Microsoft's position at the time, they were Microsoft first party titles. No different to D4 or Scalebound today.

And Dead Rising and Lost Planet are bad examples as well. They were exclusive/timed exclusive more because the PS3 wasn't even out at that point than anything else.
 
The age where a bouquet of third-party developers were constantly working on projects for your machine is over, especially in Japan. The money isn't there, the resources aren't there, and more and more prominent game companies are following the money elsewhere.

Which put Sony in an interesting position. The PS4 has sold extremely well and they have tons of money to invest back into the machine. They are basically guaranteed a certain amount of sales on install base alone, making the investments reasonably safe for them and directly beneficial to their business.

So Sony pays for the indie ports. Sony finances the titles other studios are not. Sony advertises and brands these games for PlayStation and, really, everybody wins.

The only problem is if Sony looses its financial footing then this practice will end pretty abruptly. But imagine if Nintendo had done this during the peak of the Wii.
 
LiquidSolid said:
Even if Microsoft focused on Japanese partnerships, you really think there was any chance of Street Fighter, FF Dissidia or Dragon Quest being Xbone exclusive?
Click to expand...

Yeah, some Japanese devs got burned badly by going all in with Microsoft early last gen so it's no surprise if there was considerably more caution towards an Xbox platform this time around... especially on top of the console's general unpopularity ww this time also.

That said, it's still surprising to see just how many Japanese games are just outright skipping XB1 altogether.

No_Style said:
I don't see it as aggressive as much as they're the de facto platform holder to partner up with. Who else are they're going to partner up with? Microsoft? Not unless MS has stacks of cash to offset the lost sales.
Click to expand...

Nintendo. Y'know, makers of the current top selling games platform in Japan by a huge margin? A game like this would have cost less to make and would probably sell better on 3DS than any home console, so Sony getting them to go to home console again with a JRPG series in this day and age is nothing to scoff at.

Finale Fireworker said:
But imagine if Nintendo had done this during the peak of the Wii.
Click to expand...

Given how shitty Nintendo were wrt english localisation of JP games with the Wii, this may not have been as good as it sounds in theory.
 
Psycho_Mantis said:
With the recent announcement of Star Ocean 5 for PS3/4 and insight that Sony are helping with it, is anyone else surprised by the amount of collaborations SCE are conducting with Japanese third parties? I can't remember much from the PS3 era (demon souls, folklore, WKC....) and I guess with the PS2 era most of it was exclusive by default.

To list:

From Software
- Bloodborne ( co-developed/funded)

Capcom
- Dragons Dogma Online
- Deep Down (development of next gen engine help)
- SFV (funding)

SE
- DQH (I'm sure there was some nudging by Sony here)
- FF Dissidia (?)
- SO5

Konami
- Silent Hills (?)

We also have NIS commenting that SCE helped them with marketing budget (suggesting they are at least aware of niche devs) and L5 are making a PS4 game to be announced at E3 (SCE has had a history in making stuff with L5 so its a possibility). Note how its all for PS4/3.

Question is, at a time where console gaming is declining in Japan and where Western franchises are a more dominant, why is SCE aggressively going for these partnerships? How successful can these partnerships be for both companies? Also, from what we see right now, what can we expect in the future?

I understand that certain factors have it made it far easier for them to acquire them, most notably PS4's success.
Click to expand...


Persona 5?
 
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