Oblivion producer predicts breakout hit in Japan

I can't really say I see it happening.

Inasmuch as the Japanese love watching numbers go up, maybe, but the setting is just so generic high fantasy, and not in the pleasant Enix way either.

Blue Dragon-backed 360 sales were but mere pocket change. There was a momentary spike and then BOOM! The 360 went back into hiding. I doubt a Western RPG will do better or even match that.

You know how sometimes North American gamers got pissed off when some of the cult games don't make it to NA????


Well, when I was living in Japan, I know a few people, my roommate particular, was very angry because western games like these dont get imported to Japan; GTA is two years late, and more games (cant think of any more now)

I honestly don't think it's the "GREAT CULTURE DIVIDE" that prevents great games like these to go aboard. It's them pussies at the marketing department who are responsible for these kinda crap. Now, of course ppl have different tastes in games, but to worry about truly great games like Oblivion won't sell in certain region just because their "culture is different" is nonsense.

Well, Oblivion is a really good RPG. It is better than Blue Dragon overall, though the Japanese may see BD as more their taste.

The fact that it is coming to PS3 within the next 3 years makes the 360 version a non-factor. The Japanese are not going to buy Xbox 360's. Period.

MS shouldn't have even launched their console over there. Why even bother? Focus on the US and Europe. The Japanese have two consoles from their own country. They aren't going to buy one from someone else's country.

*crosses fingers* that the 360 breaks the 4k mark in weekly japanese sales in the near future.

Oblivion does NOT have: Big head characters, spikey-haired androgenous she-males, bad/cheesey dialogue, big robots, or magical little girls in school uniforms/sailor suits.

Japan will not be impressed.

It is 4th on the Amazon sales shat in Japan. http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/bestsellers/videogames/ref=pd_ts_vg_nav/249-8348343-6681167?pf_rd_m=AN1VRQENFRJN5&pf_rd_s=left-1&pf_rd_r=0FX2KA5V3GR6MQNPH8ZR&pf_rd_t=2101&pf_rd_p=50133006&pf_rd_i=home

You never know, the Japs might bite after a while.

I really don't think when they decide not the buy a 360 or Oblivion that they are thinking "Oh! American?! No, we must support our own." Because a lot of American products have done well over there i.e Nike, and Apple.

Your comments: Not enough androgynous males with spikey hair and themes of friendship and believing in yourself.

But I hate boring, tolkien wannabe worlds too so....

im gonna have to say that i dont agree with oblivion doing anything in japan either. the line has been pretty much drawn between "american" games and japanese games, and oblivion is firmly on the american side.

meh, there's only so much of a shockwave a title can make on the weakest platform in a region, look at all the GC gems that swept the GC userbase in America, but didn't even get on the radar when compared to titles of the more popular platforms

But its not like the Japanese don't like Western-styled fantasies, Zelda and Dragon Quest are based far more off our mythology than theirs (FF can go either way)

I laughed so hard reading this article, I need new pants.

Too first-persony. Won't fly.

Is Ashely's last name Chang or Cheng?

Japan LOVES this kind of genre of High Fantasy. "Record of Lodoss War" ring a bell or even "Magic Knight Rayearth"? I think Oblivion should do okay over there.

I pray this makes waves in Japan. As much as I love the classic, colorful, sometimes off-the-wall Japanese console RPG, they desperately need to learn some things from Western RPGs. Namely that heroes can actually be men and that heroes are more fun when they're of the player's own design.

Someday someone will put the two types of games together and will create an absolute masterpiece, only to be topped by someone who does the same things but throws out the tired fantasy cliches.

If any game can do it, then it's Oblivion. Unlike Blue Dragon ,Oblivion is actually a pretty (pun intended) decent game, where Blue Dragon is quite possibly one of the worst games I've ever had the misfortune of playing. Then again, if Oblivion and Halo 3 can't drive Xbox 360 sales in Japan, then I doubt nothing can.

Modern Japanese RPGs:
Story. Story sometimes with themes of relationships and religion.

Modern American RPGs:
Story? Story? We don't need no stinkin' story! ORCS! ELVES! ORCS! ELVES! ORCS ELVES! WTF IS A STORY! Here, have some trees.

...Bioware excluded. Modern Bioware games have more in common with Japanese RPGs.

I can't wait for clips of the japaness sheogorath(sp?) to pop up. I got a feeling hereing a japaness guy trying to do a bad shawn conory impression will be funny as hell. I also wounder how the plot will look from a japaness view. Will it acculy be something they would find interesting, or will all the deepth and lore to the world be something they wouldn't get into, maby even a turn off?

c.c

"Halo and Elder Scrolls are some games that leep to my mind when I think of story. Codemed: crimenal Origins also had a great plot. Full of mystory and supense, I was on the edge of my set waiting to see what happens next."

1) Only one of those is a god damned RPG.
2) The Elder Scrolls games have terrible stories. What in the hell is so good about them? They're totally bottom of the barrel. Some of that whole "Let's give a little bit of story, cover it up by saying "DAHURR WE DON'T HOLD YOUR HAND DAHURR, and pretend we did something positive!" tripe that Western developers love to throw around.
3) Western developers have serious problems with creating characters with personalities. They can, rarely, create decent enough stories, but almost always, they're going to have one dimensional characters, set on one goal, that has either no personality at all, or as minimal as possible.

This isn't about gameplay at all. This is about story, and the Japanese are light years ahead in the realm of story and presentation, as far as all games in general go.

Well according to Oblivion's first day sales in Japan. It has a very good chance of surpassing Blue Dragon's first week total. It looks like Ashley Cheng may have been on to something after all.

http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2006/07/29/japanese-jones-for-oblivion/

I think it will do well.

Orenthal called it, (to the tune of me LMAO) and "GamerExtrordinaire" (who couldn't be bothered to even spell "GamerExtraordinaire" correctly) shat himself.

Notice that this person did not even bother (lazy? insipid? if he (and I know it's a 'he') reads this, he'll have to look up at least one of those words, maybe both) to tell us what he thought was a GREAT game. He just flung 'stuff,' like a monkey in the zoo.

Oh, and he did that other thing, too.

So his words are meaningless, a tale of sound and fury told by an idiot, signifying nothing.

Patrick: what the hell is ESO. Please, spell it out, and feel free to abbreviate from there. We're making history here, son.

OMG and Orenthal's comeback, heavy with sarcasm is cracking my sh*t up! Work it, baby!

That being said...

Since Darcrequiem and slyecho's comments (I had to cut-paste those freaking names), I began to wonder:

What if the Japanese are just curious about what 'we' like, and want to sample it for themselves, put themselves in a "Westerner's" "mind" (notice that "mind" is in quotes... where's the mind, etc.)...

In the same way that certain of us play their RPG's, to get in their minds.

However, having played both sides, I must be secretly Japanese. Asian. Whatever. I love their ideas WAY more than the crap that America churns out.

There is a subtlety and EMOTION to their stories that seems lost on some American audiences (read: uneducated and barely literal teenage males who were raised on American television violence).

To understand the story behind Metal Gear Solid, to understand the emulated history of the FF epics, one must have read books, one must know some history, one must be literate, and must surely have contemplated such social dynamics on one's own...

I'm afraid that in the America of TV's and Taco Bells, one does not always know these things...