THE EIGHTH GLORIOUS GENERATION OF SHMUP

[Pretas]

My prediction is that the Xbox One will not be released in Japan, for a number of reasons.

It's a device aggressively geared towards the tastes of the stereotypical American male (cable TV, American football, and Call of Duty), which MS made no attempt to conceal during their presentation. The overlap between the markets for a high-end cable box and a game console is negligible in Japan. They are even more dependent on the used games market than the Western consumer, because renting out games has been an illegal practice since the Famicom era. As Sony learned with the PSP Go, any system that restricts or eliminates it will be dead on arrival in Japan.

Furthermore, Microsoft Japan never attained the success they wanted with the 360, failing to sell two million units even after providing financial incentives for a large number of JPN publishers to release their games as permanent or timed 360 exclusives. And not even bishoujo idol games could save the Kinect from being a complete failure there. Most likely, they won't think it's worth it to try again.

[stryc9]

Well, they are advertising it on the Japanese Live service.

Thing looks awful

[Cuilan]

My prediction is that the Xbox One will not be released in Japan, for a number of reasons.

It's looking like that will be the case. Aside from what you said, the JP dashboard and Xbox website show very little info on Xbox One. The JP website doesn't even have a dedicated section for Xbox One like the US website does.

I could maybe see MS regarding the whole of East/Southeast Asia as a single large region for the Xbox One's marketing and distribution, instead of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan/Hong Kong being their own separate ones. This would only further alienate MS from the consumers in those countries though, but it really looks like MS doesn't care what any of them think. Again, this is just assuming MS even releases the console there.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Oh god I hope that Vita doesn't become the next home of "AAA" shmups, Que David Lynch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iWWf6KqIQw
It's bad enough that all the rail shooters are exclusive to the 3DS, it's such a waste when these genres need a big screen. It's so fucked up and backwards about Liberation Maiden, the 3DS gets the Rail Shooter, while console gets the visual novel

Personally I was hoping the WiiU would be CAVE, Grev etc new home. The touchpad just makes it the best way by far for expanding the playerbase. Unless the console is a total dead duck with Ninty dropping support then I still think CAVE will make games for it (unless Sony / MS moneyhat them into exclusivity). Given how popular shmups are on mobile that touchpad is crying out to be used and if CAVE won't do it, someone else will, even if it's an indie using Unity.

My next choice obviously is the PS4 since the Xbox One might aswell be called the Set top XBox Amurica Fuck Yeah! with all the best features probably exclusive to US / Can and the dropping of XBLA/ XBLIG makes it suicidal for niche digital games as they have to duke it out in the Metro 2.0 dashboard with mainstream crap and MS published exclusives that get promoted on the home page like FEZ did. Even if CAVE are stupid enough to go Xbox One I doubt Grev will given how pissed off they are with MS and the 360.

There's also the possibility of the 360 becoming the next DC with shmups still been made in 2023. Hopefully Caladarius will be the last region locked shmup given the lack of localisers atm.

[Cuilan]

It's bad enough that all the rail shooters are exclusive to the 3DS, it's such a waste when these genres need a big screen. It's so fucked up and backwards about Liberation Maiden, the 3DS gets the Rail Shooter, while console gets the visual novel

Sony is supposedly going to release a revision of the Vita with HDMI-out, so that would take care of the big screen issue.

The overlap between the markets for a high-end cable box and a game console is negligible in Japan.

After thinking about this a bit more, I don't think it's quite true.

Sony's Torne device for the PS3 is apparently quite popular.

But that's moot since MS doesn't seem at all interested in the Japanese market anymore, and even if they were, it's highly unlikely that the Japanese would ditch PS3+Torne in favor the Xbox One.

[Stevas]

Oh god I hope that Vita doesn't become the next home of "AAA" shmups, Que David Lynch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iWWf6KqIQw
It's bad enough that all the rail shooters are exclusive to the 3DS, it's such a waste when these genres need a big screen. It's so fucked up and backwards about Liberation Maiden, the 3DS gets the Rail Shooter, while console gets the visual novel

Personally I was hoping the WiiU would be CAVE, Grev etc new home. The touchpad just makes it the best way by far for expanding the playerbase. Unless the console is a total dead duck with Ninty dropping support then I still think CAVE will make games for it (unless Sony / MS moneyhat them into exclusivity). Given how popular shmups are on mobile that touchpad is crying out to be used and if CAVE won't do it, someone else will, even if it's an indie using Unity.

My next choice obviously is the PS4 since the Xbox One might aswell be called the Set top XBox Amurica Fuck Yeah! with all the best features probably exclusive to US / Can and the dropping of XBLA/ XBLIG makes it suicidal for niche digital games as they have to duke it out in the Metro 2.0 dashboard with mainstream crap and MS published exclusives that get promoted on the home page like FEZ did. Even if CAVE are stupid enough to go Xbox One I doubt Grev will given how pissed off they are with MS and the 360.

There's also the possibility of the 360 becoming the next DC with shmups still been made in 2023. Hopefully Caladarius will be the last region locked shmup given the lack of localisers atm.

Ugh, touchpad controls. I'd forgotten about that. Fuck them to oblivion and back.
So, yeah, looks like I'm placing all my eggs in the PS4 basket then...
(Or, as you say, hoping that the 360 becomes the next DC...)

[Ed Oscuro]

there is no generation of shmup

only full shmup

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Why is it that stg companies rarely go with Nintendo systems? I mean they may pick up a few here and there, but it seems like Nintendo never has the main stg system for that generation.

[mice]

Ouya and gamestick, aren't they part of the generation shift? Is generation all about processing power?
Until this settles, just "go play mars matrix". So the real question is will Robs review vids return with the new generation or not?

[Friendly]

Ouya and gamestick, aren't they part of the generation shift? Is generation all about processing power?
Until this settles, just "go play mars matrix". So the real question is will Robs review vids return with the new generation or not?

Gamestick is weaksauce and Ouya has bad input lag at present, we don't know if it can and will be fixed.

[malchitos]

Ouya and gamestick, aren't they part of the generation shift? Is generation all about processing power?
Until this settles, just "go play mars matrix". So the real question is will Robs review vids return with the new generation or not?

Gamestick is weaksauce and Ouya has bad input lag at present, we don't know if it can and will be fixed.

I've been wondering about Ouya...it's been an option in my mind. So how bad a lag? Worse than the wireless controllers on the 360?

[mice]

Ouya and gamestick, aren't they part of the generation shift? Is generation all about processing power?
Until this settles, just "go play mars matrix". So the real question is will Robs review vids return with the new generation or not?

Gamestick is weaksauce and Ouya has bad input lag at present, we don't know if it can and will be fixed.

I've been wondering about Ouya...it's been an option in my mind. So how bad a lag? Worse than the wireless controllers on the 360?

Worse than the JXD S5100? That runs Android 2.3.4.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

It's bad enough that all the rail shooters are exclusive to the 3DS, it's such a waste when these genres need a big screen. It's so fucked up and backwards about Liberation Maiden, the 3DS gets the Rail Shooter, while console gets the visual novel

Sony is supposedly going to release a revision of the Vita with HDMI-out, so that would take care of the big screen issue.

That's cool if true, especially as I hear the d-pad is supposed to be good. That said it would doom us to just horis and maybe the odd indie TATE Judgement Silversword.

Ugh, touchpad controls. I'd forgotten about that. Fuck them to oblivion and back.
So, yeah, looks like I'm placing all my eggs in the PS4 basket then...
(Or, as you say, hoping that the 360 becomes the next DC...)

I'm not big on touch controls too but if it grows the playerbase then I'm all for it. I wouldn't want shmups to be like the PC FPS genre 5 years back where every PC FPS was just a console port made for pad. I think many of our favorite STG devs are too dyed in the wool traditionalist to see that happen. I'd rather have iphone players brought into the fold then continue to see where the genre is going atm with loli Tits and ass otaku that would rather play a dating sim than an arcade game.

[Friendly]

I could see a combination of buttons and touchpad working for shooters. Imagine a shooter where you control your player with a d-pad and use the touchpad to precission-bomb. Or to lock onto enemies.
This could work with an Ouya controller (if they can fix the lag), or with a Dualshock 5.