[segadc]

http://microsoft.gam...m/gf/news/4287/

Microsoft | Xbox | News



Magatama Will Not See North America
By Mike Viscel -- Staff Writer
Published 10:12 AM CDT, September 23, 2003

Apparently our Western ways are too ignorant to understand this game.

Magatama was first revealed at E3 this past May. The game seemed to be based on old Japanese myths and took place in big 3D environments. The biggest draw to the game, however, was the fact that the senior manager at Microsoft's Production Operation Headquarters, Hiroshi Hawai, was overseeing the game. For those that don't know, Mr. Hawai was a lead programmer for both Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX.

Unfortunately for North American citizens, Microsoft has announced that the game will be released in Japan only. Microsoft claims that the game will not appeal to Westerners as it's based on old myths and philosophies from the land of the rising sun.
» Mike Viscel

[Ninja Zero]

I don't care wether I understand it or not, I wanted to play this game

[George]

segadc, on Sep 23 2003, 01:29 PM, said:

Microsoft claims that the game will not appeal to Westerners as it's based on old myths and philosophies from the land of the rising sun.

This is bogus. Will not appeal to us?

What the blood clot!

It is these kind of stupid decisions that will keep Microsoft behind Sony.

Somebody needs to some sense into these guys.

[BriannaHaskins]

What the fruit?!? Not appeal to Westerners??

"Microsoft claims that the game will not appeal to Westerners as it's based on old myths and philosophies from the land of the rising sun."

Like Otogi, right?? Oops, that appeals to Westerners and got released here...Geez. Microsoft can't be THIS ignorant, can they??

[BioFan]

Microsoft is stupid.

First, we can't play PSO with the Japanese players
then PSO doesn't have any downloadable content.
and now THIS.
What else MS??
Halo 2 only for Japan?? BAH!!!

[BriannaHaskins]

It might just be time to once again crack open Petition.com.

[RMF]

Like that would ever do any good

[RMF]

BioFan, on Sep 24 2003, 07:26 AM, said:

Microsoft is stupid.

First, we can't play PSO with the Japanese players
then PSO doesn't have any downloadable content.
and now THIS.
What else MS??
Halo 2 only for Japan?? BAH!!!

I disagree. MS were stupid to even let Sega release that crap for a third time on their console. And let's be honest, who really cares about playing the Japs on XBL anyway? I've played with quite a few on motogp 2 and to be honest it's a waste of time. Unless of course you speak Japanese like yourself, but im afraid that your a part of a tiny minority.

[George]

I disagree. MS was not stupid to let Sega release anything on their Xbox. MS is stupid for prohibiting Megatama for the reason that they stated. That is just ignorance.

[BriannaHaskins]

RMF, on Sep 24 2003, 04:29 AM, said:

I disagree. MS were stupid to even let Sega release that crap for a third time on their console. And let's be honest, who really cares about playing the Japs on XBL anyway? I've played with quite a few on motogp 2 and to be honest it's a waste of time. Unless of course you speak Japanese like yourself, but im afraid that your a part of a tiny minority.

First of all, please refrain from using the term "Jap" in the future, for it's quite degrading.

Second, if technically we CAN play PSO with people from Japan and Europe, I want that option in. Don't forget in this game you can not only use the mic but also use that universal text-messaging thing. And PSO on Dreamcast, as popular as it was, wasn't played by every gamer out there. It's an awesome game that deserves as much exposure as it can get. True, if it were up to me, I'd much rather play a full-fledged sequel, I'll give you that - but unfortunately, it's not up to me.

I'm a bit confused here, though. Why is not being able to have PSO's downloadable content Microsoft's fault?? Did they prohibit SEGA from releasing it or something?? I must've missed this.

Third, just because you're part of a tiny minority, does this mean the option to play with gamers from around the world shouldn't be put in?? So I suppose, by your logic, Microsoft shouldn't bother having games compatible with 480p, 720p or 1080p, because gamers who actually own HDTV are a minority. In fact, they shouldn't let 3rd parties make their games run on that resolution at all, right?? Oh, but wait, not only do most XBox games support 480p, but MS themselves manufactures an HDTV adapter for the XBox. Hmm...

[RMF]

BriannaHaskins, on Sep 24 2003, 09:23 PM, said:

RMF, on Sep 24 2003, 04:29 AM, said:

I disagree. MS were stupid to even let Sega release that crap for a third time on their console. And let's be honest, who really cares about playing the Japs on XBL anyway? I've played with quite a few on motogp 2 and to be honest it's a waste of time. Unless of course you speak Japanese like yourself, but im afraid that your a part of a tiny minority.

First of all, please refrain from using the term "Jap" in the future, for it's quite degrading.

Whats degrading about the word Jap? I'm Scottish, but i don't freak out when someone calls me a Scot...grow up girl.

Quote

just because you're part of a tiny minority, does this mean the option to play with gamers from around the world shouldn't be put in?? So I suppose, by your logic, Microsoft shouldn't bother having games compatible with 480p, 720p or 1080p, because gamers who actually own HDTV are a minority. In fact, they shouldn't let 3rd parties make their games run on that resolution at all, right?? Oh, but wait, not only do most XBox games support 480p, but MS themselves manufactures an HDTV adapter for the XBox. Hmm...

Actually i think that more and more people are buying HDTV's every day as it is the future of television, but i hardly think that a huge amount of U.S and E.U xbox gamers are all of a sudden going to go out and learn to speak Jap so how you can even compare the two things is beyond me. And i stand by my opinion that it's a complete waste of time, time that should be spent on something else...like in PSO's case, time they should have spent making a new game. Instead of releasing the same crap for the third time on the xbox.

[BriannaHaskins]

Quote

Whats degrading about the word Jap? I'm Scottish, but i don't freak out when someone calls me a Scot...grow up girl.

Oh, boy. It might not be offensive to Europeans, but it is to Japanese and especially Japanese Americans. Let's not go off and start a history lesson.

Quote

Actually i think that more and more people are buying HDTV's every day as it is the future of television, but i hardly think that a huge amount of U.S and E.U xbox gamers are all of a sudden going to go out and learn to speak Jap so how you can even compare the two things is beyond me.

You're missing the point. It's not about learning a different language, it's about having an option IN.

And I was talking about catering to minorities, so why not compare the two?? As good as HDTV is doing, it's still a very expensive format for the average consumer and gamers who own an HDTV system are indeed a small percentage of all XBox users. Never the less, MS is giving us the goods by offering 480p and making it standard on almost all games, first and third-party.

I'll give you another example about catering to minorities. In Brute Force you can change the language from English, to Spanish, to French (etc.) The majority of Americans don't speak French nor Spanish, so do you think it was a waste of time for MS to get voice actors to do the voice-dubbing on Brute Force?? If you do, I think you're quite ignorant towards the potential for multiple voice-tracks on games and non-English-speaking markets.

Yet another example could be custom soundtracks, but I don't think I need to go in and explain that one.

Remember that in the case of PSO, it's a port of a Japanese game, which already includes the Japanese characters, universal/international communication and everything else. It's not like SEGA would have to spend extra time and resources on adding a feature; they in fact went in and REMOVED it, for whatever reason. And that just plain sucks.

[BioFan]

BriannaHaskins, on Sep 24 2003, 02:23 PM, said:

I'm a bit confused here, though. Why is not being able to have PSO's downloadable content Microsoft's fault?? Did they prohibit SEGA from releasing it or something?? I must've missed this.

I think MS has to give the green light on everything. I can't say for sure what really happened. But I think it's up to MS when or if they want to put anything new on the server for download.
Put ESPN football for example. Months before release, I remember reading an article regarding the online franchise mode. Sega submitted the idea to MS. They were just waiting for the green light from MS. Months later, of course we know that only the PS2 ver has it.
I think ST should have given all if not most of the online quests to MS. For the DC/GCN ver, Sega can put anything, anytime themselves. As the XBOX ver is on an MS server, I think MS has the control over it. Seeing not many is playing the XBOX ver, I wonder if anything new will be put at all.
Or it could also be that the GCN online quests are exclusive to GCN.
hehe...

[BriannaHaskins]

Yeah, I realize that MS has final say. But how do we know it's MS' fault and not SEGA who hasn't delivered the download feature for XBox gamers to download. We just don't know. Even us SEGA fans will tell you that SEGA has screwed us big time in the past and I wouldn't be surprised if they screwed us again. SEGA has screwed us more times than MS has, so far, but unless we know for sure who was to blame for PSO's lack of content download, we shouldn't blame either party. It just seems that SEGA promised us something and they didn't deliver, that's all.