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Nintendo Gaming / Castlevania
« on: February 24, 2003, 03:46:51 PM »Quote
Originally posted by: RickPowers
I'm getting pretty tired of this "Konami hates us" crap.
It's a BUSINESS decision. You look at the machine that has the highest installed base, and you make your top-tier games for it. Simple. They don't "despise" the GameCube, we just don't have a high enough installed base to entice them.
Well Rick your right in one regard, PS2 has the largest userbase but as Perfect Cell said...money has a lot to do with it. MS literally pays people to put games on their console. If the largest userbase was the main factor, why has Sega heavily supported X-box despite poor sales. Why did Dead to Rights, Splinter Cell, etc. hit X-box first when its userbase doens't come close to PS2. Yes userbase is a factor but so is money. Before FF7's release, the Saturn was killing the PS1 in Japan, Sony had money though so it hit PS1, the PS1 surpassed the Saturn and it ensured the Dragon Quest would also be on PS1. So userbase is a factor but so is money. Perception is more important than reality in the videogame industry. From Sega's mythical "blast processing" contrived to make it appear that the Genesis and its faster CPU made it more powerful than the SNES, to Sony shunning 2D development on PS because it was "dated".....when it reality it was because the lack of the PS's 2D prowess, perception often becomes reality in gaming. We all remember how Capcom suspended all PS1 development for a short while because Sony told them to stop making 2D titles because they looked better on Saturn. So userbase is a factor, but the biggest factors are money, perception, and politics. The perception is that Nintendo is dead in the water, the reality is that they are making the most money of any of the big three. Nintendo's Gamecube is perceived to be an inferior, kiddie, underpowered console. Konami put a version of Silent Hill on GBA, yet the Gamecube is "too kiddie" to receive a version of Silent Hill. The average age of a Gamecube owner is higher than the average owner of the GBA. So the GBA would be more "kiddie" than the Gamecube but the GBA has the larger user base. That and the fact that Nintendo isn't will to throw huge gobs cash at Konami like MS did for MGS2: Substance is the reason why Konami is not putting marque titles on Gamecube. Yes the GC has substantially lower userbase that the PS2 but its actually ahead of the X-box worldwide and is killing the X-box in japan. MGS2 sold 750,000 copies on PS2 in Japan. If every Japanese gamer bought MGS2: Substance twice it couldn't sell that many on X-box in Japan. Yes MGS2 has the potention to sell more copies in the US on X-box but if you look at worldwide sales, it would sell better on GCN. So userbase and money hats determine which games go where. From a business sense PS2 is expected to receive the most focus from third parties.....that doesn't explain the GC and X-box situation, but money hats do.
Darc Requiem
