Why do westerners not play trad shooters?

[charlesr]

Why is it that the traditional horizontal or vertical shooter has mainly fallen by the wayside in the Western world but is still a fairly thriving genre in the East?

I'm playing the US version of Raiden Fighters and Without even clearing stage 3 on my first go with one of the ships, I came 65th on Xbox Live.....

[chopemon]

I'm not sure.

Whilst I haven't played many recently due to the cost of Japanese 360 games, I do love me some shooters.

I was in the Trocadero the other day and my girlfriend was amazed to see Raiden 2 and we immediately sat down to play. People still like them and I think people would play them if they were more available.

[Team Andromeda]

I don't think that completely accurate . I'm pretty sure the likes of Gradius V , R-Type Final sold better in the west , and I don't think Trad shooters sell that great in Japan anymore (bar the Arcades )

[charlesr]

Perhaps you are right. I just made the assumption that because they are actually producing them on the 360, that people buy them.

[kernow]

Perhaps they think its a dead genre, I guess it'd need something like SF4 to get people back into fighters in the west (except the hardcore). I guess Ikaruga made people take notice in the west too.

I suppose all it takes is one good example of the genre and people will be interested.

For a bit.

[teddymeow]

I love 'em!!

If I had the money I'd instantly buy an import 360 for the recent conversions.

I remember the day Gradius V came out over here and I was blessed with an allocation of 3 copies Only sold one of 'em.

Compare that to the thread on the VGI forum I was perusing earlier and we were all going ker-azy for the Jap version.

I don't think we'll see many over here now as I expect the publishers assume that those that do want to play them will import them so why spend the money converting it for PAL systems.

I think Senko was a killer blow. Sold so well that you can find it new in Gamestation for ?2.99!!

[Jebus]

Would the difficulty not be a bit of a barrier? I enjoyed Ikaruga not that long enough on XBL (and maybe I'm pathetic here) but that game is hard!

[Soundwave]

I love 'em!!

If I had the money I'd instantly buy an import 360 for the recent conversions.

I remember the day Gradius V came out over here and I was blessed with an allocation of 3 copies Only sold one of 'em.

Compare that to the thread on the VGI forum I was perusing earlier and we were all going ker-azy for the Jap version.

I don't think we'll see many over here now as I expect the publishers assume that those that do want to play them will import them so why spend the money converting it for PAL systems.

I think Senko was a killer blow. Sold so well that you can find it new in Gamestation for £2.99!!

You can count me in to the I love them club.
Thing is I dont play them anywhere near as often as I should
Ever since I got with the missus I find I dont have the time I used to so dont give them the time & effort they truely deserve.
I think it's down to only having one TV in the flat means if I play them I'm hogging the TV & subsequently she gets huffy or moans & I die get annoyed & turn them off

I do wish they would get PAL releases though.

Neil

[Ady]

Because they're not in 3D, require skill to master, do not have a discernible "plot" are not "realsitc" and cannot be dissected for tiresome tech spec discussions about frame rates, poly counts and lighting effects on internet forums.

That said, there are still some westerners (us) that like them. Conversely the Japanese don't seem too keen on FPSs for reasons that mainly seem to revolve around xenophobia (i.e. they don't make them) which is a fine example of the sort of navel gazing conservatism that really isn't doing them any favours at the moment, but that's another topic.

[averybluemonkey]

require skill to master

I'm not sure that's fair. Plenty of skill based games do well in the West like racers, online shooters and RTS while plenty of non skill based genres do well in the East.

I think part of the problem was that they target an aging demographic in the West because you have a whole generation whose first consoles were the 32 bit generation which were virtually completely absent of new traditional shooters in the West. Sony didn't let them get published and the Saturn died too young, and the N64 lacked them entirely. These kids just didn't get a taste for them and it's reflected in their buying habits in later years.

[Team Andromeda]

Because they're not in 3D, require skill to master,

Most shooters these days and since the DC, have been 3D polygon affairs . And most games require some skill , to be good at them , so I don't get that point at all either

I just made the assumption that because they are actually producing them on the 360, that people buy them

Most are nothing more than simple ports of Arcade games , I would imagine thanks to Windows being used in Type X ECT, its makes the porting costs every cheap and easy , it's not like the shooters top the 360 charts in Japan And I think the likes of Rad IV are also coming over here too .

I think there a decent core fan base for these type of games in the West and Japan

[Kubrick]

I'm playing the US version of Raiden Fighters and Without even clearing stage 3 on my first go with one of the ships, I came 65th on Xbox Live.....

Is it worth pointing out that you need to play in Xbox Live mode to register a score? Most people won't bother since its default difficulty...

[J0e Musashi]

I love them, but they are old hat. Times have changed and they are simply a relic of days gone by. Modern games cover more bases, and so the likes of Killzone 2 will always be more fun to play over an extended period IMO. Something like that anyway.

[Riskbreaker]

I love em, so it's a real shame that alot of the decent ones being released are ports on the 360 which will never see the light of day over here, just can't justify owning two 360s.

[Salsa Party Animal]

I think the region locking and western market is the blame. I could import PS3 version but no one make them for PS3 as they all for XBOX 360.