Final Fantasy XIII is steeling itself for launch in Japan, ready to release on December 17. In preparation for the game's imminent arrival, Tokyo's wacky Akihabara is going absolutely mental with Final Fantasy mayhem, plastering imagery from the new game all over the bloody place. This is what market saturation looks like when taken to its literal conclusion.
There is basically no way you could walk into a game store on Tokyo and not know that Final Fantasy XIII was coming out. If only they'd do that for games that actually need the promotion, and we might see things like Okami sell more than five copies. Ah well.
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Contest:
8:20 AM on 12.03.2009
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I mean, sure there will a be a few of us that are excited, the hardcore gamers, the elite if you will, but I very much doubt any of my local stores will be opening at midnight for the launch, the same stores that were ALL open at midnight for MW2.
Such a shame that a mainstream piece of crap like MW2 get's fucking fanfare from every direction while FF XIII will just show up, maybe, if it's lucky in a promotional stand, on launch day.
It's kind of linked to rev's rant on legitamizing gaming, the huge success of mainstream, run of the mill games will no doubt eventually undermine the more artistic, creative games and we'll be left with nothing but Fifa, Madden and Call of Duty over and over and over.
it's almost like FF is seen as a game for geeks, but MW2 or Fifa or Madden are like socially acceptable "real-mans games".
No thanks! Give me an epic, personality altering, world view changing, 60 hour story about relationships, global domination, trust and betrayal anyday.
Personally I'm sure the FF series has had an impact on my development, since I've been playing it from such a young age, throughout my growing up / development, I'm sure I must have learned something along the way. Metal Gear too, another game that's been with me since my childhood.
THESE are the important games, not the annual itterations of the same old shooter / ball game. It's such a shame that all the fanfare goes to the boring non-important games over here in the West.
Guess what I'm trying to say is, well done, jolly good show Japan.
Have you actually even played MW2? I really feel like the quality of the game itself justifies the hype and excitement the game generated. As they discussed on a recent podtoid MW2 actually takes steps to show how compelling video games can be.
Also you have to remember that alot of the hype for MW2 was based on the marketing juggernaut that is activision. The knew that the have a hot franchise and they marketed accordingly. SquareEnix knows they have a hot franchise in the final fantasy series and they are marketing accordingly in japan.
My main issue with what you said is that you are basically blaming people for not being interested in games you are interested in. Well buddy that is a fact of life that not everyone is going to like what you like, deal with it.
@SR388 - Yup, I've played a whole lot of CoD, the only interesting bit of the new one (and I agree, it's fucking brilliant) is the 5 hour campaign. Now, in my eye's that is a piss poor excuse for a fully fledged-extra expensive-biggest release of all time, game, despite being brilliant for the short time it lasts.
5 hours of awesome campaign, stale old PvP and some set pieces (which are a great idea, but stink of DLC revenue generation)
All I'm saying is there is a whole generation of these "monogamers" I have a number of them in my friends list; "playing FIFA 10, playing FIFA 10, playing MW2, Playing FIFA 10" - It makes me do a *sadface* thinking about how the FF XIII sales will compare to MW2.
When from an artistic standpoint, seeing games as art, it's worlds ahead of FIFA 10 or MW2, it's a completely different (non)ball game.
I feel that if mainstream sequels and sports games consistently outsell the shit out of the more important, more edgy, arty games we'll end up with a games industry that looks like the music industry.
I've said it before, but MW2 is the johnas brothers of gaming, or the (insert random Xfactor winner here) of gaming. It's not something that's created with passion. It's something that's created through the dollar sign shaped glasses of the middleman / publisher.
Now don't get me wrong, everyone wants to make money, but it's a fine balance between mainstream cash cow and genuine artistic creation.
I loved MW2, for about 2 weeks. then it got boring and i moved on. Each CoD game I play bores me quicker than the last. - It's not a good sign.
*braces himself for attack by golf club-wielding Squenix rep*
Otherwise, where's my overblown release for Mega Man 9? To me, that game was almost perfect and I like it more than any other recent or upcoming release that anybody could possibly name. Instead, it just kinda came and went.
Ff doesn't have the mass apeal over here like it does in japan and that makes me sad.
You bring up good points and I can see that you aren't one of the many people in the hobby who love to slag off mainstream titles simply because they are popular.
I must adress your feeling thatif these big games keep selling more than more niche games then they will cease making them. The industry tends to have genres and titles that are very mainstream yet the production of these smaller games have not stopped at all. Also even when one genre or series gets extreamly popular the industry also has a tendancy to run itself in the ground. Look at how rythem games have taken a big dip due to their market saturation.
Also it's not as though final fantasy is any small franchise. Actually we could easily point the finger at Square Enix for whoring out the franchise. Between the kingdom hearts series and the ff series they seem to be able to churn out titles at an alarming rate. I am sure some of these titles have taken sales and interest away from other possibly better RPGs simply because the others are not final fantasy.
Sorry for kind of ranting and getting off topic.
Also I am really excited for FF XIII. Although I am pissed that I apparently need to buy it and versus. I am still a virgin to the franchise so I hate that my deflowering will cost me $120.
Dude you were in love with MW2 before MAG. You need to make up your mind kid.
Also, I think FF is actually the exception to that whole "mainstream gamers suck" theory. I think FF is the one and only game most mainstream gamers know from the east and I think THAT is the crime.
It's like how everyone LOVED black and white moving pictures, until they saw a colour TV. (or tried to watch snooker on b&w)
I'm fairly confident FF XIII will last me more than 2 weeks.
All back ups, all demos, EVERYTHING.
Amazing.
makes me want to bury my face in it
Except for the back of that one box cover...looks like too much of the Internet faux box art (let's smash together all of the clip art we've been showing you for the past five years and call it a cover)
The West just prefers games like this. These days all you have to do is play Halo, Gears, and CoD and you're considered a hardcore gamer. That's just how it is. I'm no expert on the Japanese, but for all I know, the games I just listed aren't popular out there at all and someone could be upset that Final Fantasy is getting more attention than them.
At the end of the day, I'm just talking out of my behind in an attempt to sound like I'm debating. Don't take anything to heart. I'm just personally not interested in either franchise.
This is something i have a problem with, people who play these games are the mainstream gamers, not the hardcore gamers. The hardcore gamers look past the massively promoted games and play the more interesting, different titles.
FF is ony just in the interesting / different pile, but it's definitely in there.
Also, how did this become a conversation about what sexualchocolate thinks about "mainstream" and "hardcore" gamers? I swear people who go around defining that are insecure in their gaming habits. Who the hell cares? I play games, I play lots of different games, and I play competitively. I'm a gamer. There. Damn.
I am so pumped for FFXIII and I don't know why. X and XII were nothing but disappointment (well, I liked X's battle system, but the rest of it was awful). Also Star Ocean and Infinite Undiscovery (two recent Square-Enix outings) were pretty awful as well. Pretty much the last Square Enix game I enjoyed was The World Ends with You. Huh.
But yeah, I'm going to get it day 1. Hopefully I'm done with Mass Effect 2 by then. Too many damn games.
i know where sexual chocolate is coming from... it just might seem (correct me if im wrong) that he (i hope :p) is gettin mad about it because its something that he is passionate about. i have to agree because i have a bunch of friends who love cod and wont play anything else or consider anything else. ill play anything if it keeps me entertained for longer than an hour, give me viva pinata, borderlands, cod, l4d, any mario game anyday! i will try nething because i love games, to me they are art. i dont think the monogamer type could be found posting here because gaming is a hobby to us and something we love. its the odd fanboy u will get who will only play sports games and then have the cheek to boast about a ps3 wen he/she knows the difference between the two consoles (i love both). im sure FF gets the same attention as COD did here in japan or other parts of asia just because thats their homegrown game. i never grew up on FF but i cant wait to play the new one. looks spectacular.
But then again, gaming is just more widely accepted in the East. They have game advertisements EVERYWHERE there. There's mass appeal for a lot more games over there than over here. We should all just move to Japan.
cool cool good to see. ill move to japan with u buddy, that place has so many colourful cool things, it wud be heaven :D
i guess there really is no argument here as the pic at the top of this blog clearly indicates the hype FF can cause in the east!!! wouldnt mind having sum of those posters myself....
Honestly I can appreciate both, but lately I'm appreciating neither. I enjoy Halo and I've played nearly all the Final Fantasies since the first one was released in the 80s. But I'm not going to get this one. I don't think I can stand kid characters anymore. This feels like FFVII, where the people saving the world are simultaneously having first-date and "friendship connection" problems. And XII had about three winks of plot for every hour of plodding and trodding. Bring back FFVI, VII, and X.
Seriously, let's just play the games you nerds.
Square Enix could dump in a dvd case and sell it out there, because japanese gamers are so loyal and myopic like that. Square have also previously had plenty promotion and fanfare of previous FF games in the west. Western gamers won't lose their shit over it, because we, by and large, play a vast variety of games, as well as a variety of information and reviews to help us make choices. In japan, a huge portion of gamers still cling to Famitsu's every word, and look no further for answers to make up their buying mind.
I understand your love for the FF series Sexual, (I was once like you, and Square could do no wrong) but I also think that Square have better IP in their stable that they could be using. On a wiser note, I also think I look forward to games like Mass Effect and Fable more, as these are the kinds of games many japanese devs fear making.
As for 'monogamers' as you term them (myopic gamers, would be a better term), IMO, so long as someone is playing games, it matters not what they buy and play, as it all moves the gears of the industry. Each to their own, bite your lip and disagree with them, or better yet show them what other cool games are out there, that they ignore. These types don't really know what they want, until they find/try it.
actually the monogamer term was taken from a mag sold in the UK, Dunno if its sold in many other countries but neways it came from an pyschoanalytical article that describes gamer personality types. its quite interesting and basically puts wat we're all talking about in a nutshell. no need to debate that ne further.
Whoa, that came out of nowhere! /sarcasm
A lot of gamers are becoming just as pretentious and elitist as music snobs, and it's pathetic. I'm not talking about anyone in particular in these comments, but this type of gamer is driving me up the wall. How in God's name can you be so smug about what kind of games you play?There has to be something more worthy in your life that you can get meaning and self-fulfillment from.
I'm definitely in agreement that Square-Enix's dominance of the market is somewhat tragic both inside of Japan and here in the states. In the states, talking about Japanese games with American gamers almost uniformly means talking about JRPGS and, more specifically, Final Fantasy (and a few years ago, Pokemon) games. Not only are games like Valkyria Chronicles, Disgaea, the Tales games, and everything from the Shin Megami franchise completely below the radar, but entire genres of Japanese games (arcade shmups and things like Elite Beat Agents, Under the Knife, roguelikes) barely make a dent over here.
I grew up liking Square games quite a bit, but after a while, the American appeal of their franchises seemed to gel too much with all the sexually-confused and bratty emo shit that cropped up amongst teens (and many many adults) so hard in the late 1990s/2000s, to the point of just creeping me out. To my eyes, it's just looks like the fruition of an equal and opposite reaction to the increasingly macho/sexually-immature-meathead games that have always been massive in the West. At the end of the day, the former high-school jock perfecting plays with his virtual NCAA football team doesn't seem too different from the My Chemical Romance fan perfecting his gambits in FFXII, just like some jerk shouting racial slurs during COD multiplayer is just as despicable as some geek spouting obscenities at his Warcraft guild. No matter what, gaming loses.
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