why do sony hate us?

[FelixofMars]

In the words of Ctrl+Alt+Del - "We are SONY f**k pants!"

In other words they can do whatever they like because they are Sony and we will buy it as we have no choice. Well thats what they seem to think, I haven't been very impressed by my PS2, its the least used of all of my consoles and is being used as a DVD player until the Europe release of Colossus, one of its saving graces. Was kinda intrested in the PSP over the Nintendo DS but to be honest both have only a few games I want to play, and well its still expensive considering how much use it would get.

[Kubrick]

But all those quotes are just from other posters going by rumours. I've never seen an statement from an insider or company saying they were denied a release simply because it's 2D.

That last quote I posted came from Shinya Mori****a, the manager of SNK's overseas operations. Interviewed here

The very fact that there are lots of 2D games on the PS formats seems to suggest that the ones which run into problems when getting a western release are due to issues with the publishers.

There are American 2D games, but they're always released at a lower price point than "normal" games. Look at the RRP of the shooters that have got a release in the US. They're all $30 or less, even those with "3D" graphics like R-TYPE Final & Gradius V.

[Sony Fanboy]

That last quote I posted came from Shinya Mori****a, the manager of SNK's overseas operations. Interviewed here

It seems to be more of a case of SCEA not liking retro games to be released full priced. SNK have released more 2D than 3D games in the US so it's likely a dispute about pricing.

There are American 2D games, but they're always released at a lower price point than "normal" games. Look at the RRP of the shooters that have got a release in the US. They're all $30 or less, even those with "3D" graphics like R-TYPE Final & Gradius V.

? What does that suggest towards? Most niche market games are released at lower prices. Whereas, all the PS2 2D SRPGs were released at full prices.

[Sketcz]

Forcing older styles of games to be budget releases is a bad thing.

If publishers are forced to release 2D games at lower prices (such as several excellent PS2 shmups), then they make less profit. Meaning they're less likely to

a) Put the effort into making it a good 2D game, so we end up we average titles that don't really push the 2D medium (XIII Stag was good fun to play, but I've seen better 2D scrolling on MD games).

b) are relcutant to develop them at all. Why bother when pumping out generic 3D gets you the full price tag and higher profits.

I would be perfectly willing to pay full market prices for a decent 2D game that had the kind of effort put into it that we were seeing during the 16-bit era. 2D games today, despite improved technology, have arguably worse visuals and gameplay mechanics than before. The styles of gameplay possible are immense, and yet already the only titles we can get are fairly derivitive.

I love Metal Slug, but it's getting slightly stale now. Why won't SNK make the effort to create high-res visuals and evolve the gameplay. Or maybe even make an entirely new franchise? I don't think it's because the actual gamers themselves wont buy it, I think it's because the hardware manufacturers don't want those kinds of games released.

One exception was Alien Hominid, which not only looked lush, but played like a dream. My game of the year. But I was very pleasantly surprised to see it getting a release. It was an indie game of course, and I'm wondering how happy Sony were to have it on their machine at first. I wish more companies put the effort into titles like that.

[Ady]

I personally have no objections to paying less money for games...

[Kongster]

Europe has always been treated badly *looks at Nintendo and Sony in particular* - Thats one of the reasons we import

[Sony Fanboy]

If publishers are forced to release 2D games at lower prices (such as several excellent PS2 shmups), then they make less profit.

If that were true, they would have stopped releasing budget 2d games. But we're now seeing even more released and more planned.

Note that it's not just 2D games that are released at a lower price point - it's all games by a budget publisher. Take 505, Midas etc, all their games regardless of 2D or 3D are released cheaper.

Just because 2D games rarely make it into the charts doesn't mean they're not making a profit. They are selling well enough for the publishers/developers.

And being realistically, higher costs = lower sales.

[Ish]

I personally have no objections to paying less money for games...

Nor do I. But the idea of multiple price points for new product can be a slippery slope. Price something higher and the masses tend to think its better whether or not it actually is. Marketing types use this to push what they think you should be playing and what they want people to create. Leading to the situation Szczepaniak was highlighting.

[Sony Fanboy]

Slippary slope if you're the only company releasing a particular product or have a virtual monopoly. (Intel used to delibrately set prices on their CPUs which were not indicative of performance).

But when there's a hundred publishers, they're not all going to stick to the same tactic.

There are many UK publishers who intentionally categorize themselves as budget publishers; so obviously they're going to set lower prices.

[Kubrick]

Budget or not, the fact remains that Sony don't want us (Westerners) playing certain games.

[Sony Fanboy]

Hentai/sexually explicit games. Can't think of any other genre they would refuse.

[Kubrick]

Posted earlier in the thread:

"Goemon, Dodonpachi, and Soul Hackers are but a few of the many games denied a US release by the company's approval department"

Can't speak for the other two, but there's nothing sexualy-explicit in Dodonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou, or Metal Slug 3. No Japanese speech in them either (something else Sony don't seem keen on allowing...)

When they do allow 2D shmups to be released (at a budget price), they are heavily butchered - Shikigami no Shiro II being a prime example.

[Sony Fanboy]

Posted earlier in the thread:

Can't speak for the other two, but there's nothing sexualy-explicit in Dodonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou, or Metal Slug 3. No Japanese speech in them either (something else Sony don't seem keen on allowing...)

When they do allow 2D shmups to be released (at a budget price), they are heavily butchered - Shikigami no Shiro II being a prime example.

lol - this seems more and more like issues with SNK. And how many games on any console even has a Japanese language option?

And editing is done by the respective developer/publisher who chooses to release it here. Shikigami II was translated by XSgames or KidsStation (or whoever the people who translated it was (a Texan based US developer I think)).