Jump to content

WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0


TildeGuy~!

Recommended Posts

  • Paid Members

I thought Sega had signed some kind of business partnership with Microsoft? If anybody's going in for Sega I could see it being them, based on the previous dealings they've had. Heck maybe even Nintendo. 

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sega-clarifies-its-alliance-with-microsoft-wont-result-in-xbox-exclusives/amp/

Edited by jazzygeofferz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

Isn't a good chunk of the world (particularly in the US) still on subpar Internet? If so until that changes I don't see streaming video games taking off.

I reckon SEGA might be next on Sony's list, strong IP catalogue to get their hands on. 

Australia is another market miles away from the average gamer having affordable internet fast enough for streaming games like say Forza Horizon 5. Its probably the future for quite a few markets but alot of places it's way off.

You don't need a mega fast connection for music or film streaming so the likes of Spotify and Netflix took off everywhere. Modern games need some speed or you have a slideshow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Aren't a big portion of Sega's biggest games Western franchises these days? Games like Football Manager and the Total War series are the types I'd see Microsoft wanting for themselves and Gamepass.

Their biggest Japanese hits these days are probably Atlus (SEGA bought them out years ago) titles like Persona and Shin Megami Tensei which I could see Sony wanting to lock down. 

Edit. 

Also Yakuza but they've been going multi plat for a while now. 

Edited by The King Of Swing
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
25 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

Isn't it very difficult for non Japanese companies to buy out Japanese ones? Hell MS's struggle to even break into the Japanese market with Xbox was a running gag for years. 

Yeah, there are laws in Japan about what % of a business can be sold to foreign investors in certain sectors, including tech. I think anything more than 10% of stocks sold to a non-Japanese corporation has to be reported to the government and go through a mountain of red tape. That's on top of multiple cultural taboos relating to Japanese business, foreign investment, and selling up to anyone outside of your family or organisation, nevermind to a non-Japanese corporation.

The X-Box failing to take off in Japan has mostly been an issue of failures on the part of Microsoft, historically, to cater to the Japanese market. The famous one was that the XBox controller was too big for the average Japanese player to comfortably use, but there were stories about how the "X" was too close to the Japanese letter for "punishment", how the design was against Japanese design principles and sensibilities, how Japan had no real history of PC gaming when the first XBox was launched so Microsoft had no history to leverage, and so on. But there was also lots of stories, early on, about how Microsoft just didn't do business the Japanese way - there was one account of Bill Gates giving a speech at a conference, that was basically a sales pitch, and it being a huge issue that it wasn't the speech that he'd had signed off and agreed upon, which was seen as disrespectful. The guy who did American localisation for Studio Ghibli released a book recently, and the accounts of the difference in how Japanese and American businesses approach meetings and conferences and so on were really interesting - but Microsoft were always doomed if they weren't going to adapt to the Japanese way of working, because it meant they won very few allies in the Japanese games industry, or in the press. They were always seen as clumsy Americans trying to force their way into the Japanese market. On top of all of that, Sony is a huge, trusted brand there.

I think Microsoft are doing better than they have been in the past, but they're unlikely to ever be a major player in Japan - and that might be the thing that keeps Sony afloat, if Japanese developers are less inclined to either sell out or getting into bed exclusively with Microsoft. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...