Senko No Ronde Announced for Xbox 360

Post by **nZero** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 3:38 am

Thunder Force wrote:I'm shocked at some of the comments in this thread, suggesting this is somehow a bad thing.... are folks really so out of touch that they think this is bad news? :roll: This is like bringing Virtua On to Xbox Live, but even better. Gives a nice promotional boost to G.Rev's international image, give gamers a nice unique title for X360 Live play, and gives Microsoft some real content in their lineup.

Yes, it's certainly a great candidate for online play, but I believe the underlying sentiment of the western fanbase/potential customers being largely ignored isn't completely unfounded.

Is there international play via XBox Live? Maybe I don't understand very well, but I was thinking the online servers were as region-locked as the games. Even with the J-X360, and the imported game, good luck getting on XBL Japan. Or the modchip route, just to try some face-to-face competition... I certainly wouldn't want my new $400 console centering on online play to be banned from XBL just to try an imported game or two. Certainly Microsoft is not going to be embracing cross-regional/region-free... anything.

I'm all for G.Rev making some cash, and buddying up to MS in their bid for the Japanese market is a fine way for them to achieve that. However, the fact remains, that unless the game is localized, most here will never experience it. Even if the game is localized, I don't see it being hugely popular here and the prime period for online play will be short, and left to relatively small clusters of competitors. At that point I'd rather just play it arcade style, in front of the same screen as my opponent.

That said, I have no idea how the game would sell on the DC these days. Still, the idea of a basically free port from NAOMI makes me wonder if it wouldn't be worth the minimal effort involved. Not that it matters if the developments over at Sega really mean new DC releases are finally cut off entirely-- which, I'm honestly surprised didn't happen years ago. Having briefly tried the game this summer in Akihabara, it's quite beautiful in action, but it's true that it's something I would pre-order only if I thought I could get my friends in on it.

Ahh, I suppose all of this speculation is a little pointless. Let this chips fall as they may. Also, this is a borderliner, shouldn't this be in off-topic?

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 3:48 am

Brian wrote:The manager of a retail store, any retail store, is simply the guy who's been there the longest, no? Or was my professor at University totally incorrect?

Your professor was most likely a genius.

Yes, it's certainly a great candidate for online play, but I believe the underlying sentiment of the western fanbase/potential customers being largely ignored isn't completely unfounded.

That's the point that nobody's getting. The only people being let down are a small handful of.... well, I'll just say "people" and leave it at that. Of course they dont' give a fuck about what 1000 people who MIGHT buy a DC verision think. You can't make dick for money appeasing an incredibly small nitche. Piss off their fanbase? Hardly.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:19 am

GaijinPunch wrote:
Brian wrote:The manager of a retail store, any retail store, is simply the guy who's been there the longest, no? Or was my professor at University totally incorrect?
Your professor was most likely a genius.

Yes, it's certainly a great candidate for online play, but I believe the underlying sentiment of the western fanbase/potential customers being largely ignored isn't completely unfounded.
That's the point that nobody's getting. The only people being let down are a small handful of.... well, I'll just say "people" and leave it at that. Of course they dont' give a fuck about what 1000 people who MIGHT buy a DC verision think. You can't make dick for money appeasing an incredibly small nitche. Piss off their fanbase? Hardly.

Yeah, but WHY not also give it a DC port if it's a friggin' GD-Rom Naomi game?? Western fanbase?? What about Japanese gamers who might purchase this game?

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:29 am

nZero wrote:Is there international play via XBox Live? Maybe I don't understand very well, but I was thinking the online servers were as region-locked as the games.

Early on in the Xbox Live history, XBL game servers were region-specific. Then after about a year they famously opened up MechAssault to global Xbox Live play (any country against any country) and since then a large number of games have featured global play. Some games still use regional-only servers though, it depends on the game.

I don't know how X360 Live will be setup though.

One of the best kept secrets of Xbox 1 gaming however, is that a large proportion of Xbox games with emphasis on Xbox Live online play are actually manufactured on Region-Free game discs so you can import them freely. I believe MS leave it up to the publisher of each Xbox Live game to decide if they want their particular title to be Region-Free or not, but sometimes there are also legal considerations with licensed games.

We should probably all write letters to G.Rev and ask them to make Senko No Ronde a global online play title, distributed on a Region-Free disc, if that's possible for them.

nZero wrote:Also, this is a borderliner, shouldn't this be in off-topic?

Yes, it's a pseudoshmup, but Shmups Forum policy has been to make an exception for Senko No Ronde chat for the time being out of consideration for G.Rev.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:54 am

Yeah, but WHY not also give it a DC port if it's a friggin' GD-Rom Naomi game?? Western fanbase?? What about Japanese gamers who might purchase this game?

1: There's a lot more to it than that...otherwise EVERY Naomi game would get a DC release (which they don't).

2: There are apparently no more DC releases.

3: They are thinking about the Japanese people that might buy this game. Personally, I think they'll sell more on the 360 than the DC.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:07 am

GaijinPunch wrote:
Yeah, but WHY not also give it a DC port if it's a friggin' GD-Rom Naomi game?? Western fanbase?? What about Japanese gamers who might purchase this game?
1: There's a lot more to it than that...otherwise EVERY Naomi game would get a DC release (which they don't).

2: There are apparently no more DC releases.

3: They are thinking about the Japanese people that might buy this game. Personally, I think they'll sell more on the 360 than the DC.

Fair enough, but this will probably be an import 360 release. And there's no way (and I seriously doubt I'm alone in this) that I'd shell out for an import 360, because even if it get's more support from Japanese shmup developers, it will still be way behind the PS3 and probably the Revolution as well, in terms of shmups.

Sad about the DC shmup announcement!

Oh well, it had a good run, much longer then anyone expected-and there are still 2 "unofficial" home-brew shmups in development for it-Drill, and then the one (can't remember the name) being worked on by one of our own forum members.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:25 am

dave4shmups wrote: it will still be way behind the PS3 and probably the Revolution as well, in terms of shmups.

How do you know this? What shmups have been announced for either the PS3 or Rev? None as far as I know. The PS3 is supposed to be the hardest to develop for, technically, which could scare away smaller developers (which includes most shmup developers). For all we know the X360 could be the new JP PS2 of the next gen, in terms of shmups. And so far the Rev doesn't have much third party support.

Anyway we'll just have to wait and see, but already having Senko announced for the 360 puts it ahead of the other two systems in the shmup count. I really don't care what system gets the most shmups (I will be getting that one, whatever it is!), but I don't think you can make shmup predictions on the next gen based on the current gen.

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:53 am

twe wrote:For all we know the X360 could be the new JP PS2 of the next gen, in terms of shmups.

We could also see several shmups released for X360 via its broadband download distribution channel for old school games (X360 Live Arcade)...

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:58 am

twe wrote: How do you know this? What shmups have been announced for either the PS3 or Rev? None as far as I know. The PS3 is supposed to be the hardest to develop for, technically, which could scare away smaller developers (which includes most shmup developers). For all we know the X360 could be the new JP PS2 of the next gen, in terms of shmups. And so far the Rev doesn't have much third party support.

Actually, the PS2 was also originally stated to be very hard to develop for and would scare away all the smaller developers but that obviously didn't become the case. Programmers will definitely get used to the hardware, at least enough to create a shooter; that really isn't an issue.

However, I agree that Xbox 360 is really looking to be very strong with its support or at least consideration from numerous JP companies, something the original Xbox only got from the likes of Tecmo. And it's excellent news for US shooter fans since Microsoft doesn't discriminate against 2D games here. As much as I like the PS2, I definitely wouldn't mind buying a 360 if that becomes the dominant console. SCEA needs a rest to learn from their errors just as NOA did during its overly successful SNES era.

Kron · Post by **Kron** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:23 pm

Microsoft have just announced at the pre TGS conference that the 360 will be region locked for games and movies so anyone who wants to play this will have to buy a Japanese console

KBZ · Post by **KBZ** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 2:38 pm

As far as I know, the dc page and community is still up and running on sega.co.jp, but there's no upcoming games shown. One would assume this is because nothing's been announced yet. Feel free to tell me wrong if it isn't so. But I recall the forthcoming titles page to have been gone after trizeal, which was the last release.

although I could of sworn I saw an add for ring age just the other day..

either way, I look forward to the support of pro dc port members registered here.

Personaly, I'd be very happy with Senko No Ronde being the last dc title ever. Either that or Radirgy/Radilgy/Rajirugi.

peace,

King.

dai jou bu · Post by **dai jou bu** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 3:42 pm

After a long hiatus, I've returned to post in this thread.

This game has essentially sealed my fate to get an Xbox 360, if the online play isn't region protected. Heck, even if it is, I'd still get the console AND get the DC version if they announce it for the platform so I don't have to worry about people mugging me on the street/carrying a huge, fragile console to show this game to people.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:33 pm

Yup... even though I'm not too excited about this game, I'll probably pre-order it anyway. I might not even buy a Xbox 360 any time near launch, but at least I won't be regretting not having the game (much like how I am Border Down and Trizeal-less and don't want to pay the appreciated price to get a copy..)

neoalphazero · Post by **neoalphazero** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 7:25 pm

Frogacuda wrote:Really, when you think about this, isn't it all Kron's fault?

After all, he told us he had it under control, that we didn't need to write and show our demand for a DC port...

Not quite...

1. Kron informed us that Psyvariar 2 and Chaos Field were DC bound, he has only told us about DC games that developers told him about. He hasn't said a word on Melty Blood or Radigy for example so I believe he communicated what he was told.

2. Most DC fans have been trying to be respectable and not bombard publishers with requests. It's only in this month anyone has really thought the DC version was dead in the water. The "new" version of Sendo No Rondo fro example was supposedly the upgrades for a DC home port.

Anyway, I'm hoping for port but if it doesn't happen it doesn't happen. *-NEO

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 2:05 am

Ganelon wrote:
twe wrote: How do you know this? What shmups have been announced for either the PS3 or Rev? None as far as I know. The PS3 is supposed to be the hardest to develop for, technically, which could scare away smaller developers (which includes most shmup developers). For all we know the X360 could be the new JP PS2 of the next gen, in terms of shmups. And so far the Rev doesn't have much third party support.
Actually, the PS2 was also originally stated to be very hard to develop for and would scare away all the smaller developers but that obviously didn't become the case. Programmers will definitely get used to the hardware, at least enough to create a shooter; that really isn't an issue

Exaclty, and since there will be region lock-outs, you'll have to get an import 360 anyway.

I don't exactly know, but there's nothing wrong with going on experience , and even when the J-PS3 launches it will have more shmups available for play on it then either the Revolution or the 360. More Japanese shmup developers might indeed sign up for the 360 then did the XBOX, but there's no reason not to assume that most will go for the PS3, given the PS2's already well-established shmup-base. Will Taito, Cave and others jump ship all of a sudden from Sony to Microsoft? It's possible, but, IMO, not the least bit probable.

@Gaijin, don't be so sarcastic about game store employees or managers. They have to know their product knowledge as much as anyone else who works in retail. That doesn't mean that they're all geniuses, but it doesn't mean they're all idiots either, and it's been my experience that most are pretty knowledgeable

Speaking of which, the 360's domestic line-up is looking pretty good! However, there is simply no way of knowing, as I was told by a VERY knowledgeable Game Crazy employee whom I know, what backwards compatibility will even look like with the 360. And I sure as heck am not shelling out for one at least until the answer to that question is known.

I'd personally like to see the DC finish off with Rajirugi, but it evidently isn't going to finish off with any game, unless it's a home-brew. WHY Sega made this decision when developers are still working with Naomi, I don't understand. Developers often release games for multiple platforms, so other consoles could get Naomi developed games, and the DC could still benefit from some more releases.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 4:47 am

@Gaijin, don't be so sarcastic about game store employees or managers. They have to know their product knowledge as much as anyone else who works in retail.

Funny analogy. After living abroad for 7 years, I find myself bitching and moaning that nobody in retail knows their business at all, and doesn't exert any effort to learn. A poster were was even turned down from a job in video gaming retail for knowing too much, were they not?

WHY Sega made this decision when developers are still working with Naomi, I don't understand.

B/c the DC is in the past, and Sega is trying to concentrate on the future It's not that hard to understand really. Everyone thinks you can just press a GD-ROM and the rest will magically happen. It won't. Besides, they have to officially end Dreamcast support at some point. I'd love to see more DC releases... especially of Naomi games over PS2 releases since it most likely won't support progressive scan, but I'm just facing the facts.

ThirdStrike · Post by **ThirdStrike** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 7:47 am

http://www.grev.co.jp/ronde/index.html

G.Rev Updated with their 360 Senko No Ronde Site

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 12:11 pm

ThirdStrike wrote:http://www.grev.co.jp/ronde/index.html

G.Rev Updated with their 360 Senko No Ronde Site

Essentially the message Grev gives us about Senko no Ronde on the 360 consists of the following main points (as translated by me from their website):

1)development for the 360 port has just begun. All screenshots and game footage at TGS will be from the Naomi version.

2)they ask to please wait a bit for screenshots and new info on the 360 port.

3)they say adding Xbox live compatibility will be challenging, but they do NOT plan to just do a simple port. Instead they want to "power up" the port with Xbox live support (and other things).

4)They ask us to keep supporting them as they work on this port.

5)The game will be released Spring 2006.

Sounds good.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 5:21 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:
@Gaijin, don't be so sarcastic about game store employees or managers. They have to know their product knowledge as much as anyone else who works in retail.
Funny analogy. After living abroad for 7 years, I find myself bitching and moaning that nobody in retail knows their business at all, and doesn't exert any effort to learn. A poster were was even turned down from a job in video gaming retail for knowing too much, were they not?

WHY Sega made this decision when developers are still working with Naomi, I don't understand.
B/c the DC is in the past, and Sega is trying to concentrate on the future It's not that hard to understand really. Everyone thinks you can just press a GD-ROM and the rest will magically happen. It won't. Besides, they have to officially end Dreamcast support at some point. I'd love to see more DC releases... especially of Naomi games over PS2 releases since it most likely won't support progressive scan, but I'm just facing the facts.

Good points about retail Gaijin, but I'm talking about Game Crazy here, they ask you questions about video game knowledge, unlike other stores, before hiring anyone.

Yeah, I guess it's time to face reality with the DC.

*Plays "These Dreams"*

azmun · Post by **azmun** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 3:36 am

I never knew people could get so wrapped up in a game that's a generation old for the upcoming Xbox 360. But then again, maybe people's expectations have gone down (at least in this genre). Personally, I would much rather see games developed that would take advantage of, utilize and show what the new hardware can do.

ThirdStrike · Post by **ThirdStrike** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:37 am

Screw G.Rev

My Dreamcast is hungry for more ports.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 7:54 pm

ThirdStrike wrote:Screw G.Rev

My Dreamcast is hungry for more ports.

Then starve it will.

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 8:04 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:
ThirdStrike wrote:Screw G.Rev

My Dreamcast is hungry for more ports.
Then starve it will.

Not quite...yet.

neoalphazero · Post by **neoalphazero** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 8:59 pm

Ya know someone could email G.Rev or Sega of Japan for that matter and simply ask if DC software support has been offically stopped. I'm sure they'd love to answer us and save themselves a stream of emails over the next few months.

Also a few more notes:

1. Sendo No Rondo 360 will be out Feb 2006.

2. The latest G.Rev magazine seems to state their second game at TGS is a portable Sendo game, I'm thinking PSP or (god forbid) cell phone. *-neo

ThirdStrike · Post by **ThirdStrike** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 9:54 pm

neoalphazero wrote:Ya know someone could email G.Rev or Sega of Japan for that matter and simply ask if DC software support has been offically stopped. I'm sure they'd love to answer us and save themselves a stream of emails over the next few months.

Also a few more notes:

1. Sendo No Rondo 360 will be out Feb 2006.

2. The latest G.Rev magazine seems to state their second game at TGS is a portable Sendo game, I'm thinking PSP or (god forbid) cell phone. *-neo

PSP would satisfy my Need for Senko No Ronde

Where are the PSP Naomi ports outside Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper?

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 10:06 pm

I'm just waiting for a US publisher to pick this game up so all the people like, "OmGZ the only reason this news suxors cuz I don't wanna buy a JP Xbox 360," will be silenced.

Kron · Post by **Kron** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 10:45 pm

Because everyone outside of Japan live in America don't they.

ThirdStrike · Post by **ThirdStrike** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:15 pm

Kron wrote:Because everyone outside of Japan live in America don't they.

Mack Nack Crack

I dont get that

People who play shmups are everywhere.

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 1:15 am

Kron wrote:Because everyone outside of Japan live in America don't they.

If it would get a US release, it would likely also get a PAL one as well. The point is, most people are whining because they don't want the best product, they just want what's most convenient. People here don't really champion the DC, because if this game was announced for the PS2 instead of the 360, more people would be celebrating than criticizing it as they are now.

Kron · Post by **Kron** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 8:18 am

Just because something is on higher specced hardware doesn't mean its going to be a better product, Look at the Xbox shmups for a start.

To be completely honest I could care less about the majority rule on this site that "champions" the PS2 everytime, For a group of people supporting a supposidly niche genre choosing to do so on a single hardware set is just limiting options even more.