Key Online Xbox RPG falters in Japan
True Fantasy Live Online slips further from grasp
Microsoft's ill-fated Japanese push suffered a fresh setback overnight, as it emerged that its key role-playing offering, True Fantasy Live Online, will miss its most recently allocated release slot of spring 2004.
The revised launch period is now set at an undisclosed point in the winter of this year, an announcement that will sourly damage Microsoft's ongoing campaign to achieve a modicum of credibility in the region.
Indeed, the massively multiplayer online RPG is perhaps the most anticipated Xbox game in Japan, with undertones of being a capable Final Fantasy XI beater well established in the Japanese press.
The slippage, which has been written off as the development team needing extra time to ensure the game meets exacting standards, will force MS Japan to completely revise its PR strategy and garner further coverage for the game as the new date approaches - not an easy task in a region that sees around twice as many game releases as anywhere else on the planet.
The revised launch period is now set at an undisclosed point in the winter of this year, an announcement that will sourly damage Microsoft's ongoing campaign to achieve a modicum of credibility in the region.
Indeed, the massively multiplayer online RPG is perhaps the most anticipated Xbox game in Japan, with undertones of being a capable Final Fantasy XI beater well established in the Japanese press.
The slippage, which has been written off as the development team needing extra time to ensure the game meets exacting standards, will force MS Japan to completely revise its PR strategy and garner further coverage for the game as the new date approaches - not an easy task in a region that sees around twice as many game releases as anywhere else on the planet.
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Comments
almondVanHelsing 2 Mar 2004 13:30
1/5
MS should give up on Japan until they have a console the size of PS2 or GC and not the size of a suitcase.
Waste no more money on Japan, Bill! Even if it is pocket change for you. Waste it in Germany where it will do some good, hee, hee.
Waste no more money on Japan, Bill! Even if it is pocket change for you. Waste it in Germany where it will do some good, hee, hee.
scanman 2 Mar 2004 13:39
2/5
almondVanHelsing wrote:
>MS should give up on Japan until they have a
>console the size of PS2 or GC and not the size of
>a suitcase.
Excellent! Microsoft's abject failure to get the Japanese to buy Xbox has nothing to do with mismatched marketing and cultural differences - it's all because the Xbox will give you a hernia just looking at it.
I'll buy that!
Well, I won't, because there are limits to the ugliness of hardware I'll have in my living room, and I can hardly hide the damn thing. Right now, a silver SFF PC with an overly bright blue LED is on the cusp of that.
I shudder to think how (un)small the XB2 will be, given its multi processor/GPU, 14 bazillion terra quads of memory and transdimensional architecture.
>MS should give up on Japan until they have a
>console the size of PS2 or GC and not the size of
>a suitcase.
Excellent! Microsoft's abject failure to get the Japanese to buy Xbox has nothing to do with mismatched marketing and cultural differences - it's all because the Xbox will give you a hernia just looking at it.
I'll buy that!
Well, I won't, because there are limits to the ugliness of hardware I'll have in my living room, and I can hardly hide the damn thing. Right now, a silver SFF PC with an overly bright blue LED is on the cusp of that.
I shudder to think how (un)small the XB2 will be, given its multi processor/GPU, 14 bazillion terra quads of memory and transdimensional architecture.
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almondVanHelsing 2 Mar 2004 13:48
3/5
scanman wrote:
>Excellent! Microsoft's abject
>failure to get the Japanese to buy Xbox has
>nothing to do with mismatched marketing and
>cultural differences - it's all because the Xbox
>will give you a hernia just looking at
>it.
When you remember that Japaneese houses are apartments in towers and noone has much room, big consoles are a problem. House space is part of culture too, so we are both right, I think.
And with this game they try an RPG, as Japaneese like RPG games, and they have to give up. So when they try to match marketing they fail.
Again, bring money to Germany to waste, we need it more than Japan!
>Excellent! Microsoft's abject
>failure to get the Japanese to buy Xbox has
>nothing to do with mismatched marketing and
>cultural differences - it's all because the Xbox
>will give you a hernia just looking at
>it.
When you remember that Japaneese houses are apartments in towers and noone has much room, big consoles are a problem. House space is part of culture too, so we are both right, I think.
And with this game they try an RPG, as Japaneese like RPG games, and they have to give up. So when they try to match marketing they fail.
Again, bring money to Germany to waste, we need it more than Japan!
Nobo 2 Mar 2004 14:53
4/5
almondVanHelsing wrote:
>When you remember that Japaneese houses are
>apartments in towers and noone has much room,
It is, for us, a very simple choice. We can have an Xbox, but to do so, we must kick out our venerable grandparents, and make them live on the street.
It is true that the streets of Japan are very clean, and have many modern amenities such as underfloor heating and machines on every corner that sell hot and cold drinks. But in Japan, we afford a very great deal of respect to our ancestors, and we would much rather do without a huge and ugly console than the wisdom and love of our grandparents.
>When you remember that Japaneese houses are
>apartments in towers and noone has much room,
It is, for us, a very simple choice. We can have an Xbox, but to do so, we must kick out our venerable grandparents, and make them live on the street.
It is true that the streets of Japan are very clean, and have many modern amenities such as underfloor heating and machines on every corner that sell hot and cold drinks. But in Japan, we afford a very great deal of respect to our ancestors, and we would much rather do without a huge and ugly console than the wisdom and love of our grandparents.
TigerUppercut 3 Mar 2004 11:49
5/5
Nobohiro Fukasaki wrote:
>It is true that the streets of Japan are very
>clean, and have many modern amenities such as
>underfloor heating and machines on every corner
>that sell hot and cold drinks.
Also highly degrading violent, yet strangely edited pornography I hear. We'll not mention the used panties, pubic hair clipping and bottles of schoolgirl urine that are also widely available. So if your grandparents are using these machines, like, what's the deal? Are your grandparents into some kind of depraved wrinkly sex stuff or what?
Seriously, if I caught my grandparents buying bottles of piss, I’d not be very happy. It would also put me off their trifle. “Sherry eh? Yeah, sure you pensionable pervert bitch!”
>It is true that the streets of Japan are very
>clean, and have many modern amenities such as
>underfloor heating and machines on every corner
>that sell hot and cold drinks.
Also highly degrading violent, yet strangely edited pornography I hear. We'll not mention the used panties, pubic hair clipping and bottles of schoolgirl urine that are also widely available. So if your grandparents are using these machines, like, what's the deal? Are your grandparents into some kind of depraved wrinkly sex stuff or what?
Seriously, if I caught my grandparents buying bottles of piss, I’d not be very happy. It would also put me off their trifle. “Sherry eh? Yeah, sure you pensionable pervert bitch!”