What exactly makes certain consoles an absolute success in Japan but a flop in the west?
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What exactly makes certain consoles an absolute success in Japan but a flop in the west?
In the case of those two, timing and marketing
Arcade-centric libraries that were already out of fashion in America and never popular to begin with in Europe.
Wrong.
Yup
>there is always a divide between the people who lived through shit like the Saturn or Dreamcast and the people who speculate and won't listen to the former
Wrong.
how come neither you or anyone else addresses the fact that the saturn was actually difficult to find in the US due to stores like Walmart not carrying it? clearly that is a big issue.
Yet I bought mine at a Walmart.
Luck.
Saturn is just a moderate success ,not an absolue success in japan
The PS1 sold 4× more
The Saturn rode high off the fighting game buzz, and Virtua Fighter became the chief system-seller in Japan. This early hype meant that it had a decent following from devs and fans. PS1's first system-seller was something like Ridge Racer, I think.
PS1 sold the most, everywhere, universally. The point to emphasize is that the Saturn did best in the Japanese market, by far. To the point where if you culturally look at the numbers it appears enigmatic. Mega Drive (Genesis) was a huge success internationally, and a minor one in Japan. Saturn was a minor success internationally, but a very solid one in Japan.
>Saturn was a minor success internationally
No, it was a complete and utter failure everywhere outside of Japan. You can't just take an average of the three main markets (Japan, USA, Europe) to grade how well it did internationally. That's like saying me and my dog have an average of 3 legs.
Zoomer take. Saturn was a success all the way up until 1997 when it was murdered. PS sold so much more because it had a MUCH longer lifespan. From launch up until it's date of assassination it was a close race.
>psx only sold more because it wasn't discontinued
Wow anon, big brain take right there
That's not at all what I said, dumbass. A certain event happened in 1997 which killed all Saturn sales long before it was discontinued.
Lmfao cope more brainlet
>Event
An event called having games.
Once japs realized that the Saturn was a Virtua Fighter machine they jumped ship.
>An event called having games
Sega having games killed the Saturn in 1997
Fricking dumbass
Sega of America said stupid shit to the press, it was widely reported on in Japan and killed the brand. It's also the direct reason why barely anybody in Japan bought a Dreamcast.
>That's not what I said dumbass
Now type that without crying
Visual Novels
Taste
pc engine had a solid run from 87-95, with last handful of releases in 96
saturn had a run in japan only from 94-98, with a handful of releases in 99
7 year run vs 4 year run is huge difference
PC engine was a full life cycle, it was designed as a competitor to the NES but ran as a competitor to the SNES in Japan. Saturn got shafted by getting replaced with the Dreamcast in 98.
It's only really third gen and the PS2 that got a decent number of games released 2+ years after the console got "replaced" by next gen model. Third gen mostly because video game market was highly expensive back then so many parents bought their kids last gen tech instead.
Because unlike their American counterpart, Japan knew what the frick they were doing. Frick anyone who defends SOA because they made a lot of bad decisions such as the 32X add-on, making the console $399 instead of $299, and "the Saturn is not our future" comment which burned bridges with retailers.
we all know the real answer... anime titty and sexy bishōjo mahjong.
Why does PC Engine only have one controller port? Was it a system for lonely people?
friend havers could buy an accessory to connect additional controllers, but yes, video games are palliative care for terminal losers
The PC engine in the US has terrible marketing. NEC marketed it as needing to buy the console and all the accessories for $700 dollars. At a time when the NES was $100 bucks and the Genesis and SNES were much cheaper
Different content for different regions.
Saturn for example had loads of VNs that sold extremely well in Japan but which would've never been a sales success if released in the west.
Sony realized this early on and diversified their output right from the start. Twisted Metal sold great in USA but extremely poorly elsewhere. Wipeout was a smash hit in Europe but was barely notable in America. There are literally dozens of pachinko games on PS1 and PS2 that sold better in Japan than many of the games us westerners think of as all time greats sold in Japan.
No Bernie
More gaems
Bernie killed the Dreamcast.
Virtua Fighter
The Saturn wasn't an "absolute success" anywhere. It just didn't do terribly in Japan.
The PC-Engine being a success in Japan is a gigantic meme.
This is the list of the best sellers on the platform. Not even 150k units for the top sellers. In comparison the top Megadrive sellers in Japan sold 500-300k, and of course for FC and SFC it's in millions.
>The PC-Engine being a success in Japan is a gigantic pain in my cope
Good. Good.
i don't think anyone truly knows sales figures. there aren't any other sources for pc engine, let alone turbografx games. tengai makyou manjimaru was reported as the best selling game in the systems library and its only number 15 on the list
super darius being the 2nd best selling game on the entire system also smells like bullshit to me, when darius plus already existed. almost the same game.
i also find it hard to believe ordyne was the 2nd best selling shooter on the system too
That list isn't worth much, many of those games sales were only tracked for a few weeks or months, for example Street Fighter 2 sold 100k+ copies during the first two weeks it was available, then what?
I think a more relevant question is, "Why do we care so much about what Japan thinks?".
Honestly? As good as Japanese developers are (or at least were, modern downwards trends in gaming didn't spare them) at making games, the tastes of Japanese players are pretty fricking trash most of the time. I could name a few wonderful JAPANESE game series that were received poorly in Japan itself and only survived because they sold better elsewhere.
It's not like westerners have any better taste either.
But sales numbers reflect which games/consoles were more popular simple as..doesn't determine which ones are good or bad, thats subjective.
I don't know, why are half the boards on this damn site dedicated to media from some random far east island nation?
I wonder why
>N64 sales in Japan are considered poor according to Nintendo
>Saturn sold a couple thousand more than it in the same region
>considered as a moderate success to its fans
...
probably cuz 3rd party games sold much better on saturn than they did on n64
the only 3rd party N64 games in japan that even sold somewhat decently are those chibi ass konami baseball games
Expectations, Nintendo probably expected much higher sales in Japan, Sega just one generation before the Saturn was doing quite bad there..
Oh and the Super Famicom was easily the best selling console in Japan, more reasons for them to have expected the N64 to do well too.
Very few japanese homes are big enough for keyboards, remember they have over 2000 letters. If they want to play games at home consoles is the only alternative.