The WoW Effect: Sony's RPG Strategy?

H.Cornerstone

H.Cornerstone

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E3 got me thinking, have we seen a shift in priorities from Sony in terms of the RPG market?

With losing FF XIII, and all the new MMORPGs, I think Sony realized from Blizzard that their is a lot of money to make in the MMORPG market, from Casual gamers and hardcore gamers alike.

If you look at the Agency and The DC game, those are both games that appeal to the masses. Casuals love Bond, and they love Super hero, DC comic book characters. And since MMORPGS on consoles have not really been the focus of any console manufacturer (the only really one was FF XI, which is very hardcore), they probably thought this was a good opportunity for them to start doing so.

Or could it simply be the reason they let FF XIII go is because they need the money to get games going now to build momentum, and with FF XIII not coming out till 2010, could it being exclusive be irrelevant at that point?

Will it pay off? Only time will tell.
 
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Well square enix certainly doesn't need the cash, but frankly any third party publisher would be foolish to not go multiplatform. Development costs are just too high now to limit sales, even with big bonuses from the hardware manufacturers.

That out of the way, I think the PS3 is the most likely system to successfully keep an MMO alive. Personally I'd be a bit hesitant to pay for Xbox Live(which I pay for now) and an additional monthly fee for an MMO. FFXI had a fantastic chat system that, if expanded, could really fix the whole "keyboard required" barriar. Some nice voice-recognition built into that type of system would make for a great console mmo.
 
[quote name='Surferflames']Well square enix certainly doesn't need the cash, but frankly any third party publisher would be foolish to not go multiplatform. Development costs are just too high now to limit sales, even with big bonuses from the hardware manufacturers.

That out of the way, I think the PS3 is the most likely system to successfully keep an MMO alive. Personally I'd be a bit hesitant to pay for Xbox Live(which I pay for now) and an additional monthly fee for an MMO. FFXI had a fantastic chat system that, if expanded, could really fix the whole "keyboard required" barriar. Some nice voice-recognition built into that type of system would make for a great console mmo.[/quote]

Which is why I Don't understand the Star Ocean 4 and infinite undiscovery exclusiveness... your limiting the sales of your games in the biggest market for RPGS, Japan.
 
I'm not a big fan of them. As long as the PS3 has a selection of other RPGs I'm good. If they move completely in this direction I wouldn't be into it.
 
I really hate the fact that Square is pushing so much on the 360. Like previously mentioned, I don't understand how they can alienate the largest players of JRPGs, the "J" part, by release exclusives to a console that has no foothold at all in that market.

Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey both proved that good quality JRPGs are not system moves for the 360 in Japan. They even decided not to publish FF XIII in Japan on the 360 since they know it would not be worth the production cost. This seems like a huge conflict of business strategies to me.

I don't care if they release on both consoles, I just wish they would not make them exlusives.

For me personally, it comes down to system noise. While I love my 360 and play the vast majority of my games on that system, the system noise is almost unforgiveable when trying to play a game like a JRPG where it's a bit more mellow. On a high impact action game, it doesnt make that much difference. When your playing an RPG, it makes a huge difference hearing a constant roar in the background.

Seems like a big mistake overall for SquareEnix both from a person appreciation standpoint and a business standpoint.

More on topic, I am happy to see more MMORPGs coming to consoles. I played WoW for a few years and really enjoyed it. I do not however, enjoy the cost of keeping my PC graphically up to date when almost all my other gaming is on consoles. I really wanted to play Age of Conan and was happy to hear that it was coming to the 360 (but that seems to have disappeared in nothingness). I never did get into City of Heroes when I tried the demo. Hopefully the DC Comics one will be better or a least a little more diverse. Can't wait to hear more about these in the near future.
 
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[quote name='AdvOfJet']I really hate the fact that Square is pushing so much on the 360. Like previously mentioned, I don't understand how they can alienate the largest players of JRPGs, the "J" part, by release exclusives to a console that has no foothold at all in that market.

Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey both proved that good quality JRPGs are not system moves for the 360 in Japan. They even decided not to publish FF XIII in Japan on the 360 since they know it would not be worth the production cost. This seems like a huge conflict of business strategies to me.

I don't care if they release on both consoles, I just wish they would not make them exlusives.

For me personally, it comes down to system noise. While I love my 360 and play the vast majority of my games on that system, the system noise is almost unforgiveable when trying to play a game like a JRPG where it's a bit more mellow. On a high impact action game, it doesnt make that much difference. When your playing an RPG, it makes a huge difference hearing a constant roar in the background.

Seems like a big mistake overall for SquareEnix both from a person appreciation standpoint and a business standpoint.[/quote]

/agree.

If your going to go Multi-platform, thats fine, but at least be like Capcom and go multi-platform for everything.
 
Actually guys, Square isn't going all out 360. It's more that MS has opened its coffers and is handing out money bags and incentives for anyone who wants to put their JRPG first on the 360. MS knows that one of the reasons why the PS2 succeeded so well was its huge library of JRPGs.

Also, MS of Japan is likely the one funding thing, they really don't have anything else to spend money on since the 360 is doing so poorly in Japan. So, the idea is to raise the JRPG awareness for the 360 and the Xbox brand overall so that even if the 360 still fails in Japan this generation, they'll have made headway for the next line of consoles.

A lot of the JRPGs you see on the 360 are actually doing poor to good, but nothing great sales-wise. The big market for JRPGs is still with playstation users.
 
Square Enix probably does need the money, since the way they usually handle things has them using a whole bunch of money they gained from sales at one time to use on multiple projects until they're pretty low on funds and then cash in all at the same time. This seems especially true since they seems to be far along in development with a few large games, and also since they realigned all or most of the production team for Versus XIII into XIII.
 
Microsoft seems to hand out lots of money for timed exclusives and extra DLC. I doubt Square is dumb enough to keep star ocean 360 only. It won't move that many systems, but Square knows it will sell well if it''s multiplatform. Personally, I never buy games on release date (except MGS 4 which was only for the bundle/walmart deal), so I'm happy to get games late and have more money go to new IPs/1st party games that stay exclusive.

I think sony is also betting on FFXIII getting delayed many times, especially when Square thinks they can do an entire port in the 6 month translation period. If the game actually comes out before the next xbox I'll be shocked.

Unless at least one of the MMOs has no monthly fee, they won't do well (even FFXI had no chance on consoles).

TGS better have some Shin Megai Tensei (I have no idea why there was no mention of persona 4 in the PS2 thing, that should be a huge game to the press audience that was there, everyone loved 3).
 
Oh you can bet your ass that almost every single JRPG announced for the 360 will come to the PS3. Simply put, there just aren't as many people who have 360s that will buy JRPGs. That's not saying people won't, nor that a game won't be successful on the 360. But the Playstation brand has always been known to have RPGs, and the same folk who played RPGs on the PS2 are interested in the PS3 for that reason. Likewise, on average people who bought the 360 for it's games aren't as interested in JRPGs.

More PS3 owners will buy JRPGs than 360 owners. This is especially true in Japan, which is why FF13 is exclusive to the PS3 there.

For example, one of the main reasons why The Last Remnant is a timed exclusive for the 360 is development problems with the Unreal Engine, a problem that's affected a lot of PS3 developers using the Unreal engine.

Eternal Sonata, both Tales games, etc... we'll probably see them all on the PS3 in 6-8 months after release. Just like how we're seeing FF13 on the 360.
 
Mostly, this is a show for SCEA. Now that they have SOE in their hands and are working with NCSoft, that's why we'll hear a lot of MMORPGs. I do think it's a good idea for Sony to have some because they'd be good profit makers (to offset other costs). I knew DC Universe was coming. SOE might make a PS3 Everquest.

Some may wonder about why there was no White Knight Story mentioned at E3, but that's because it's one of those games that's in SCEJ/Level 5's hands first, and until it releases in Japan, SCEA will not show anything (because English translation wasn't started). SCEA will only announce that stuff when SCEJ already finished the game. The usual process for SCE games (unless it's one of the few games supported by SCE WWS like Heavenly Sword and Uncharted), they are still region specific (SCEA games come out of E3 usually, SCEJ games come out of TGS or PlayStation Premier, and SCEE games come out of European shows).
 
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[quote name='H.Cornerstone']E3 got me thinking, have we seen a shift in priorities from Sony in terms of the RPG market?

With losing FF XIII, and all the new MMORPGs, I think Sony realized from Blizzard that their is a lot of money to make in the MMORPG market, from Casual gamers and hardcore gamers alike.

If you look at the Agency and The DC game, those are both games that appeal to the masses. Casuals love Bond, and they love Super hero, DC comic book characters. And since MMORPGS on consoles have not really been the focus of any console manufacturer (the only really one was FF XI, which is very hardcore), they probably thought this was a good opportunity for them to start doing so.

Or could it simply be the reason they let FF XIII go is because they need the money to get games going now to build momentum, and with FF XIII not coming out till 2010, could it being exclusive be irrelevant at that point?

Will it pay off? Only time will tell.[/QUOTE]


That's a good point and to continue, MMMORPGs are a market in which the 360, and Wii have not gotten into, 360 had the FF MMO but nothing to follow it up. I think that investing in console MMOs is a good market for Sony to get into because, now you get some of the PC fans, looking at your console. I think the goal is to get some of this PC market that's wide open and up for grabs. The first attempt was UT3, and the ability to create mods. FFXIII market is strongest in Japan, a market where PS3 should just totally dominate. WHen FFXIII releases in Japan, 360 is done in that territory, and the fact that maybe they didn't put up more money to get the game released in that territory tells me that they've given up on that area.
God of War 2 put the PS2 as the top console in March of 2007, so God of War 3 (and Madden 09) is the game thats going to push hardware in america.
 
I just dont get why the FFXIII going to 360 is such a huge deal? I mean it is great for 360 fans and it MIGHT have a small impact on system sales, but its great that more people will get to play this game.
 
[quote name='Pojomofo']I just dont get why the FFXIII going to 360 is such a huge deal? I mean it is great for 360 fans and it MIGHT have a small impact on system sales, but its great that more people will get to play this game.[/QUOTE]It's because of various things:

PS3 Fanboys
-They want bragging rights against the competition.
-They don't want the competition fanboys laughing at them.
-They want it to fully utilize their console (I think it will, since it will be like how some games played best on GC due to being designed for it, although they got ported. Regardless, I can see that logic).

Other console fanboys:
-They want more reasons to not have to buy another console (I can see that logic), due to not being able to afford a lot, for a game that want.
-They want to see PS3/Sony dead.
-They just want more ammo to through at PS3 fans so they can say PS3 has no good games/exclusives.

The problem is really fanboys, that's all. And that's sometimes why I get disgusted reading some forums (not so bad at CAG thankfully), because all fans do is fight.
 
[quote name='Pojomofo']I just dont get why the FFXIII going to 360 is such a huge deal? I mean it is great for 360 fans and it MIGHT have a small impact on system sales, but its great that more people will get to play this game.[/quote]

The reason it's important is because the few people who really care about this are the ones on internet message boards. If you looked at the NYTimes coverage by Seth Schiesel (who is excellent), the FF announcement is buried in the middle.

Go to forums on any topic and things that are unimportant to most people are blown into huge deals. Fark had 100 comments on Cindy McCain saying that a small private plane is the best way to get around Arizona. Honestly, of all the issues out there, that's something nobody should care about, but it gets people excited.
 
[quote name='Pojomofo']I just dont get why the FFXIII going to 360 is such a huge deal? I mean it is great for 360 fans and it MIGHT have a small impact on system sales, but its great that more people will get to play this game.[/quote]

It's a big deal because it's the biggest RPG franchise ever, and one of Sony's biggest franchises.
Just like it was a big deal when they chose the PS1 over the N64.

However, thats about it. At this rate, its not coming out till 2010 in America at the earliest, and is pretty irrelevant in the console wars, as by that time, The Xbox and PS3 will either have a healthy competition and pretty even in America, the new Xbox will be announced, or one of them will be the next gamecube (most likely the PS3), which isn't necessarily a bad thing as the Gamecube still did have great first party exclusives.
 
The big problem I see about MMORPG's is they represent a greater deficiency in American culture as a whole, at least in TV. This is having an established story arc so you can have a quality plot. Most MMORPG's plot's are threadbare at best, this stemming from the fact they don't want to have a set ending time and drag it out on a ledge for as long as possible, as is the case with most American scripted shows in general. I really don't see the issue, just use the existing engine and put an expansion that is a new storyline or the second part of said storyline.
Cornerstone my issue is there we will get watered down product. If the PS3 truly gets ahead we see BR utilized more, consistent and heavy use of HD textures as well as Lossless audio hopefully becoming standard.
 
Yeah, that's pretty much what's already happening. Last generation they really didn't have any first party FPS games and now they're funding two big budget FPS games.

Simply put, FPS games sell big in the US and Europe. Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and other FPS games combined with good marketing really got a lot of people interested. In order to reclaim more market share in the US they're putting out Resistance 2 and Killzone 2, both with pretty big marketing campaigns.
 
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