Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Jetsetter: Japan still wins when it comes to console launches

Anthony John Agnello
By
jetsetter visiting ghosts console launches past ps4 xbox one arrive dqx smap tease 005
Image used with permission by copyright holder

And Jetsetter looked, and beheld a pale console launch: and his name that sat on him was the 7th Console Generation and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto PlayStation 4 and Xbox One over the living room, to rule with high-end graphics, with social features, with death, and with the beasts of the Earth!

Or not. Today we freak out after coming off of long lines fresh with a new machine (or for Xbox One purchasers, mentally preparing themselves for long lines). From here we head off to unbox and play new games, then go online and read about those new games and watch other people unbox their machines. Then it’s off to Twitter to either slag on people hating the console (or hate on the console yourself), or attack developers for not making better launch games. Then it’s on to gloating with your peers as you ready up for your next Battlefield 4 match. This is the face of the modern console launch and Jetsetter, devoted as we are to import gaming, can’t escape the gravitational pull of the new machine onslaught.

Recommended Videos

There’s a lot to be hopeful for in the future on these consoles for import gamers. This may well be the very last console launch that comes with disc-based games as the primary means of distribution, but for now that mean importers and collectors will still be able to snatch up games with alternate covers from foreign lands. With the PlayStation 4 region free, those intrepid souls will also be able to snatch up games not guaranteed to come to America from Japan. Sega is delivering a sweet looking medieval Japan spin-off of Yakuza for PS4 called Ryu Ga Gotoku Ishin, and given Sega’s reluctance to publish those games abroad, it may be just one of those scarce foreign delights on Sony’s new beast.

Related

kqWiOLiThere was a time when Japan was the focus of video game technology and design, and consoles made it into Japanese gamers hands long before they ever made it to America. Japanese launches were, even back in the early ’90s, attended by huge lines at electronics stores that have become de rigeur in the U.S.

Midnight launches for gaming hardware in the U.S. have become curated events. They are parties, hyped up and captured by the manufacturer to increase the appeal of the systems. Next week when the Xbox One launches, in New York City fans will not only be grabbing a console, they’ll be attending a concert featuring Macklemore and Ryan Lewis; fans in LA will get deadmau5. But while Americans rally strong for our console launches, Japan still dominates the launch enthusiasm contest.

It’s well documented across the web and even here in Jetsetter that the popularity of Dragon Quest games in Japan is nothing to sniff at (even though the series has in many ways been supplanted by Monster Hunter in the hearts and minds of Japanese gamers). Dragon Quest VII‘s release on PlayStation best exemplifies how even new Monster Hunter entries can’t compete with how crazy those classic DQ launches could get.

Think the pre-release hype for the PS4 and Xbox One is crazy? Look at the above commercial for Dragon Quest VII. That’s people praying for the game to come out. The game came out on Saturday, August 26th, 2000 and sold just under 4 million copies over the next two weeks. That may seem like a small number compared to blockbuster releases today, but consider the size of the market. The best selling game in Japan over the past ten years, New Super Mario Bros., has only sold about 6.5 million copies total since 2006.

You may wonder why a marquee release like Dragon Quest VII broke convention and came out on a Saturday. The Japanese government asked Enix and other game companies to release the biggest games on a Saturday so people wouldn’t skip school and call in sick to work, and that tradition actually began with a console launch. As detailed in Steven Kent’s (now woefully outdated) 2001 The Ultimate History of Video Games, Japan went bananas when the Super Nintendo came out in November of 1990, with people fighting over consoles in the streets. And thus, Saturday releases were born.

Gaming was a smaller business back then, though. Just 300,000 consoles shipped out in that Super Nintendo launch in Japan, a far cry from the estimated millions that Sony and Microsoft are delivering this November. How things change in this strange little medium, this oddly beguiling pastime.

Editors' Recommendations

Anthony John Agnello
Anthony John Agnello
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
All Baobab Tree locations in Tales of Kenzera
Zau fights a dragon in Tales of Kenzera: Zau.

While it wasn't marketed as being a particularly punishing game, Tales of Kenzera: Zau is by no means easy. You will have plenty of environmental challenges that can instantly sap your life, and the enemies you face -- especially the bosses -- are no slouches. When you first begin, it will only take a couple of bad hits to send Zau to the land of the dead himself. Alongside the Trinkets you can unlock through hidden challenges around the map, there are also Baobab Trees where Zau can stop to reflect on his journey thus far, have a short dialogue with Kalunga, and get a small addition to his health bar. Like everything in the game, these trees aren't prohibitively hidden, but you could easily pass one by and have no idea where it was when trying to backtrack. These are all the Baobab Tree locations so you can max out your health bar.
All Baobab Tree locations
There are six Baobab Trees to find in Tales of Kenzera: Zau and each adds a small segment of health to your total. When you collect them all, you will roughly double your HP bar. Here are each of their locations in the rough order you should naturally find them in. Most can be picked up on your first time through that area.
Ikakaramba

This one is very hard to miss as it is directly on your critical path. If you do, you can fast travel to the nearby campfire to grab it.
The Great Cliffs

Read more
All Fallout games, ranked
The courier in his nuclear gear and holding his gun in Fallout: New Vegas key art.

Who would've thought the post-apocalypse could be such a fun time? The Fallout franchise has taken the idea of a Mad Max-like future and not only made it into a wildly popular game franchise but also a hit TV series. The core franchise has been around since the late '90s, and yet we've had only a handful of mainline entries in the series since it was revived by Bethesda with Fallout 3. With Starfield in the rearview mirror and the next Elder Scrolls title currently being the dev team's focus, it could be close to another decade before we can set foot in the wasteland ourselves once again. What better time, then, to look back at the franchise and rank all the games from best to worst?

Fallout: New Vegas

Read more
NYT Strands: answers for Wednesday, April 24
NYT Strands logo.

Strands is a brand new daily puzzle from the New York Times. A trickier take on the classic word search, you'll need a keen eye to solve this puzzle.

Like Wordle, Connections, and the Mini Crossword, Strands can be a bit difficult to solve some days. There's no shame in needing a little help from time to time. If you're stuck and need to know the answers to today's Strands puzzle, check out the solved puzzle below.
How to play Strands
You start every Strands puzzle with the goal of finding the "theme words" hidden in the grid of letters. Manipulate letters by dragging or tapping to craft words; double-tap the final letter to confirm. If you find the correct word, the letters will be highlighted blue and will no longer be selectable.

Read more