Durante said:
...I don't understand how any of your arguments refute Second's claim. Regardless of how the split between handheld and console JRPGs changed, he is talking about how the latter chunk was distributed among consoles. Even if that chunk was relatively smaller than in previous generations it was also distributed quite differently than ever before.
No.
Second's original clam, broken down into distinct points, was this:
a. Sony's PS3 issue in Japan isn't its price
b. Sony's PS3 issue in Japan is its games
c. the 360 absorbed all of the Japanese RPGs
d. the 360 absorption of all the Japanese RPGs is what hurt the PS3
Now, I'd quarel a bit with Point A. I think Sony was impacted initially by its price, as the price scared off a lot of consumers and that scared off a lot of developers and that contributed to the dearth of games. There were obviously other factors as well that impacted the # of games, but price was
an issue, if not
the issue. But Point B is obviously correct: the lack of games was the biggest contributing factor to the PS3's weak sales.
However, Point C is bollocks. As I was trying to show with my list, the 360 hasn't absorbed all of the Japanese RPGs. It's gotten a handful of RPGs, at best. You guys can go back later and refocus that by saying "well it got all the
console Japanese RPGs," but that wasn't the claim that was originally made, and if that's the claim into which the argument's being modified, it really is silly -- as Stumpy said, you're narrowly focusing on the crumbs of what was once a much, much larger pie instead of looking at the big picture. Regardless, the claim I originally decided to refute was strictly stated as, and I quote, "Microsoft absorbing all the JRPG's." That hasn't happened. The bulk of the Japanese RPGs this generation were not released on the 360. I'll grant that the lack of getting lots of Japanese RPGs
has hurt the PS3, but again, this hasn't been spurred by the 360.
The final point, Point D, is also wildly inaccurate. Setting aside the belief that the 360 absorbed all the Japanese RPGs for a moment, it's a bit ridiculous to think (as Second later argued as well) that the handful of Japanese RPGs that the 360
did get would have in any way contributed to some kind of greater success or market impact for the PS3. As I listed in my post, there were a total of six Japanese RPGs that sold over 100k (which we'll use as a baseline for establishing some kind of notable impact). Two of those six are Microsoft games, so obviously we can scratch them off the list -- they wouldn't have been going to the PS3 (a third is also questionable since it was funded by Microsoft with the intent to publish before a third party stepped in at the last minute, but we'll leave it on there for the sake of argument). So Second's argument becomes that the PS3 was hurt by the lack of four games: The Last Remnant, Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean 4, and Infinite Undiscovery. Can we not see how absurd this argument is on its face? That's why I pointed out the sales comparison. These games aren't as huge as we think they are... at least, not on the home consoles, not anymore! Star Ocean 4 and Tales of Vesperia were both outsold or sold equally to portable (DS/PSP) incarnations of those series. The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery were both outsold many times over by other Square Enix games; Undiscovery was outsold by a DS spinoff of one of tri-Ace's established series. Even if we assume (correctly, I think) that the games would've sold somewhat better on the PS3 versus the sales they achieved on the 360, it's utterly ridiculous to think that simply the lack of having these four in any way is a contributing factor to the PS3's failure in Japan. It's these four games which killed the PS3 -- these four games which sold a combined total of 664,397 units -- and not the entirety of the Japanese RPGs releases that have come out this generation, the bulk of which were on portable consoles (the DS RPGs published by 3rd parties which hit above 100k have sold a combined 15.2 million copies; the PSP RPGs published by 3rd parties which hit above 100k have sold a combined 3.8 million)? How is it that in this new universe we've constructed these games have had a lesser impact that the four "big" console RPGs that hit the 360? Can we say blinders much?
