I didn't know MS marketed the 360 like that in Japan. Whatta buncha tards...

Here it is, it's an amazing read:
http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archi...e-nationalism/

Shrimp Tempura on a sesame seed bun

No kidding.. with a dab of McWasabi..? Dreamy.

Finally lucked out and stopped at a Gamestop yesterday on the day they got their shipment. They had two wiis left and I got one of them as a gift for my wife. Now we can play crappy minigame collections

Congrats...and cute.

Now you just need to pick up Zelda, RE4 (I don't care if you've played it 100 times), Super Paper Mario and Excite Truck.

Then download Super Metroid, Mario World and Punch Out.

So has the Wii finally passed the XBox 360 in total sales yet? I know it was close like a week ago.

Yup, it was posted on the last page.

Reading that article, I was thinking how funny it would be if, say Nintendo, marketed the Wii in America in a very Japanese manner. Like if the Wii commercials were like the Mr. Sparkle commercial:

Glad to see someone make this point. You see how popular things like the iPod are in Japan and the whole "they are anti-American tech" argument falters.

MS has improved since the OG Xbox, but the system is still heavily about shooters and sports games and that is still what turns me off about the 360.

I guess I mis-spoke earlier and have taken much of what I had heard to be true, but, I was aware that the games that are popular over her are not necessarily popular over there and Microsoft does not specialize or care to specialize in the games that cater to Japanese tastes as you mentioned.

-Also, edited to add.... I know they aren't anti-american tech, I had just heard anti-american videogame tech, etc, which probably still plays off of the same crap I believed as fact before.

Call me naive, but isn't this a bit odd? Within a few days of the announcement that Wii pulled into the worldwide sales lead, this article was published:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070823/...3aIY4ApIDwPDQD

It's an article discussing the PS2's continued relevance in the battle between Microsoft and Sony to determine the winner of the war between the current consoles. Number of Wii mentions? Zero.

For those naysayers who say that the Wii can't do decent graphics, take a gander at this shot from the upcoming Cruis'n game. No, this is NOT a pre-rendered cutscene. It's not a photograph. It's an actual gameplay screenshot!



Link

Holy crap! I can only assume from that screenshot that the last firmware update enabled 1080i support!

I think Robo might have a point with his "graphics like a PS1" stance.

Nice to know publishers are still using one man development teams.
I thought Everyday Shooter was the only one.

The NPD numbers are in for July. And despite some who continue to say the Wii is only a fad, the Wii continues to outsell the "next-gen" systems and has become the fastest selling console in gaming history.


July Hardware Figures

1. Wii 425 k
2. Nintendo DS 405 k
3. PlayStation 2 222k
4. PlayStation Portable 214k
5. Xbox 360 170k
6. PlayStation 3 159k
7. Game Boy Advance 87k

source: NPD

I like Wii, but to me it's like Xavix. I like the idea of the motion controls, but it hasn't been done right yet. I hope the Wii's success makes the next generation of systems keep motion control, but executes it better. I can't wait for Metroid. It's sounding like that game got the controls right.

The scary thing is it even outsold the juggernaut that is the DS.

Sorry, but even with the price drop I see no way the 360 catches back up to it.

Yeah McD's was very smart. Love em or hate em they know how to market their product. It seems most McD's in other countries feature things on their menu that's local. Hell, even at the McD's here in Hawaii you can get a local favorites like Portuguese Sausage and Poke(poh-kay) .

MS will have to smarten up to win the Japanese over. In many ways their tastes are very different. Anyone who's seen that fuckin' CRACKHEAD game "Beautiful Katamari" should know that dealing with the Japanese gamer is dealing with a very different animal.

All that said, my enjoyment of gaming isn't dependant on "happy japanese gamers" or whether or not 360's are #1 in their country. I'm sure gamers there feel the same way about Japanese systems selling here.

You may have a point.

The obvious 360 hardware reliability "issues", the Wii's general audience appeal compared to 360's and PS3's serious gamer appeal, and the fact that even people like me who're not Nintendo Fanbo-...er ah...Huge Nintendo fans... and who haven't totally bought into the awesomeness of the Wii...still waited and bought one.

And oh, don't forget that MS doesn't make games that are cute enough and colorful enough for Japan so the Wii will reign supreme...but it's not about the graphics right?

Anyway all that stuff is nailing MS and Sony in the ass.

The weird thing is Katamari was probably more popular here than Japan.

...more Crackhead quirky Japanese game fans here.

They're spot on about star bucks. Actually a couple of japanese companies seem to have all but ripped off the brand and logo in recent times, at least the colour scheme is hauntingly familiar.

Still I think he's overly simplified the situation a little to say that they're not buying the 360 just because it's no good.. I mean, I don't know about his little backwater town, but I can walk into any store over here, and the 360 still receives decent (if not prominent) position (MS $ going to work I guess). AND most importantly, the 360 games ON THE SHELF, piss on what the PS3 currently has right now. And no I'm not talking FPS or racing games, I mean rpgs, anime games, idol simulators, etc. And yet, the PS3 is outselling the 360 more than 2 to 1 and came out later, and costs more? So I would say, there's more to it than just saying the 360 has no games, which firstly is not true, and the same, if not more so applies to the PS3.

He does mention the xbox 1, and I think this reason deserves some more attention. The original xbox has left a pretty sour taste in peoples mouths, which unfortunately doesn't look like it will go away. Apart from that, I think there is just an assumption over here that the PS3 will be the one with the exclusives, RE, FF, MGS, VF, W11 etc. The average person doesn't necessarily pay attention to the annoucements (more prominent in western media I bet) about all the exclusives moving to 360. And finally, I think that, aside from the new gen wii, there is a genuine reluctance to make that shift to the high priced, bulky, next gen systems.

To look at the racist point.. well luckily, at least on the forums I hang out, I don't see a lot of racist slurs flying around. But to be honest, I would say this feeling that racisism exists in Japan towards the MS brand stems from the occasional comment or interview we see from a Japanese customer (like that survey that was floating around a while back), where often some of the comments could be construed as racist. However, I think that even 99% of these people are not racist, it's really just a throw away excuse. Even the younger generation over here is super conservative when compared to any sort of western standard, and buying a Microsoft console in Japan (or to a lesser extent the PS3), is definitely not a conservative thing to do!

I think it's a little lower than that. I can remember being turned away from several places in Japan becasue I was not Japanese