How did the Xbox go from being reviled to shmup heaven?

[cj iwakura]

Just curious. The Xbox was a legendary failure in Japan, and now shmup developers are falling all over themselves to create games for the 360.

The PS3 and Wii don't even come close. What changed Japan's tune?

[Ganelon]

1. SCEJ refusing to support full-priced shooters, on account of the graphics giving its system a bad reputation.
2. Microsoft still supporting small JP studios.
3. Nintendo making a system and controls not conducive to shooters.

After the first few shooters came out on 360, the 360 has become the system for JP developers and gamers. The community is close-knit over there.

[Udderdude]

It's still reviled in some ways (region locking, flakey hardware, etc.)

[cj iwakura]

I can understand SCEJ being jerks about retail(though I was not aware of that; sounds like something SCEA would pull), but that still leaves the PSN out in the cold.

[StarCreator]

An interesting carryaway from the PS3 thread revealed that PS3 games are required to fill the screen with usable space - no nonfunctional border art allowed in all but a handful of cases. Given that vertical shooters when displayed in a 16:9 space only take up 42% of the display's horizontal space, this rule would certainly not fly - and to compromise, you end up with stuff like Raystorm HD which makes do by zooming in and making most of the play area completely invisible.

Not sure how much of this is actually true, but it's an interesting thought.

[Ganelon]

I can understand SCEJ being jerks about retail(though I was not aware of that; sounds like something SCEA would pull), but that still leaves the PSN out in the cold.

I'm sure that was an option (hence why the PS versions of donpachi and dodonpachi are on PSN) but why would Cave want to put out their quality new shooters at a budget 2000 yen? In fact, IIRC, that's why Cave shooter ports were never released on XBLA: because Microsoft would only allow full-priced games for retail releases.

Remember that it's no coincidence Deathsmiles didn't retail for $20-30 over here in the US either like with most other localized shooters...

[phobos]

What changed Japan's tune?

Japan knew 360 games that were region locked couldnt be hacked. so im guessing they went with that. But of course that no longer applies to the people with jtag consoles....

[Obiwanshinobi]

What changed Japan's tune?

Japan knew 360 games that were region locked couldnt be hacked. so im guessing they went with that. But of course that no longer applies to the people with jtag consoles....

Since when region locking has anything to do with hacking? (Yeah, yeah, I know.) PS3 remained unhacked for unprecedented period despite PS3 games not being region locked. I seriously doubt any publisher would choose a platform for the exact reason that games on it can be region locked. They rather don't give a toss about foreign markets than have anything against foreigners playing their games. Region locking is probably "just in case", for the sake of not scaring off potential foreign publishers.
Or do you mean, on 360 region locking was still unhacked after pirating became generally possible?
Still, I guess when you do not intend to release your game in other regions, all the piracy going over there isn't your biggest concern.

[HamidoOs]

An interesting carryaway from the PS3 thread revealed that PS3 games are required to fill the screen with usable space - no nonfunctional border art allowed in all but a handful of cases. Given that vertical shooters when displayed in a 16:9 space only take up 42% of the display's horizontal space, this rule would certainly not fly

What StarCreator said.

This pic (from the Mamorukun wa Nowarete Shimatta PS3 thread) kinda confirms this fact.

[Elixir]

What changed Japan's tune?

Japan knew 360 games that were region locked couldnt be hacked. so im guessing they went with that. But of course that no longer applies to the people with jtag consoles....

This might make sense, except for the fact that:

1. Mullti-platform region-locked 360 titles always sell less than their PS3 versions.
2. Companies evidently want to cater to the currently existing fanbase.
3. Developers have willingly made their shmups region-free for an international scale.
4. Milestone has moved from Wii to 360, obviously due to the supporters also being there.
5. There have been high profile Japan-only PS3 exclusives by big companies, they didn't care about the console being region-free or not.
6. It isn't cost-effective to make games of this genre for the PS3, period.

[Drum]

I'm going with Ganelon's analysis - I don't know much about console licensing fees, but I will bet you anything MS reduced them substantially for small Japanese devs so they could get their support. In the beginning, MS wasn't so accomodating - wouldn't accept straight ports without new features - but they changed their tune when they realised the 360 wasn't going to become a mainstream console in Japan but could still eke out an existence catering to a niche.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I think region locking has some part to do with it. Imo Shmups are in a strange position as there is slightly too much of a market for the likes of Cave and the others to just release their games in Japan as region free. So theres more money to be made regoin locking their games and having them localised. But shmups arnt popular enough that western publishers are falling over themselves to pick these games up. So instead were in this wierd situation were only a small handfull of the most "sure bet" games will get picked up like DS or DS2.

I really hope DS pal sells well propmting RSG to pick up some of Caves verts like DFK but the cynical bastard inside me tells me itll never happen