This is interesting rhetoric that I have noticed from Xbox fans for a very long time, albeit one that I have decided to never actually comment on much so far. But between the cancellation of Scalebound yesterday, Gravity Rush 2 getting a 9 on Gamespot today, and the comparison of PS4 and Xbox One lineups in the wake of those two things, and seeing Xbox fans' comments and responses to all of those, I decided that it was time to set the record straight.
'No one cares for weeaboo games.'
That's what Xbox fans usually say when PS4 exclusives such as Gravity Rush, Persona, or Nier are listed, instead falling back on old, tried and tested mass market genres like shooters and racers as things they do prefer. Here's the problem with what they say:
- For starters, it is now very clear that people do care for 'weaboo' games. Not literally, and in the same sense as they care for Uncharted or Gears of War- Persona 5 will not sell Halo 5 numbers, and Yakuza 0 is not Grand Theft Auto. That's not what I am getting at. I'm saying that these so called weaboo games add depth and dimension to a system's library, flesh it out beyond the mainstream AAA games that can be had on any platform, provide for a nice change of pace. They expand appeal to more demographics beyond just the average mainstream customer- someone who is interested in anime, or otaku culture, or Japanese games, is now going to consider your console because you have a massive library appealing to them.
And yes, that demographic is significant- the other arguments that Xbox owners make is that not enough people care. But if that's the case, I have a question: why is it that Sony, who actually take the time to flesh out their library and lineup every generation, with games of all kinds including Japanese games, have outsold Xbox every single generation so far? Why is it that the only time Xbox put up a competitive performance, with the Xbox 360, they actually had some significant Japanese support on the system, exclusive or multiplat? There is a very clear correlation here- tell me, if no one cares about weeaboo games, why has Xbox had its ass handed to it every single generation by Sony or Nintendo (who are also big on Japanese game support, coincidentally enough), except for the one time that Xbox actually had some Japanese games worth a damn? - The best part- Xbox owners do care about 'weeaboo'games- as long as they are actually on their system. Seriously- look at how excited Xbox owners get about Lost Odyssey. Look at how much general anticipation there was for Scalebound- people who absolutely loath the Japanese game making style and aesthetic were mysteriously hyped for Scalebound. Hell, right now we have a certain Xbox fan spamming a list of upcoming Xbox games that includes a title like Raiden V, which is literally the nichiest of niche Japanese games that there is. There are prominent Xbox fans who claim to have been Sega fans first, simply transitioning to Xbox because it seemed to be the successor for Sega- and Sega was the most Japanese company out there in terms of the games it put out. Xbox owners don't hate Japanese games, they hate games not on their system, and convince themselves that's because they don't care for literally entire genres, and a subset of the market and development community, in the process.
- The highest rated games of any generation are Japanese, 'weeaboo' games. I'm not going to get into the general dominance of Japanese games on consoles prior to the Xbox's debut- that is, at this point, well known. Instead, let's look at the generations since- in the PS2 era, Japanese companies still dominated the scene, with games like Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Solid 2, Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and so on. In the Xbox 360 generation, when the so called decline of Japanese gaming started, some of the highest rated games came from Japan. Metal Gear Solid 4, as an example. Street Fighter 4, as another. But arguably one of the most influential games of the previous generation was Dark Souls (ironically a sequel to the kind of game that Xbox fans on this board dismiss as 'weeaboo crap'), and that was a Japanese game. This generation, Japanese games like Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, Final Fantasy 15, and highly anticipated upcoming games like Resident Evil 7, are all Japanese games. The highest rated Xbox One game of the generation so far is a Japanese game!
So the Xbox fan argument that tries to explain the lack of depth in the Xbox lineup, or dismiss upcoming exclusives in the PS4 lineup, is facile. it is an inconsistent argument that mysteriously stops applying when the Xbox does get a prominent upcoming Japanese game, factually incorrect, which can be demonstrated and proven with irrefutable numbers and statistical correlation, and completely ignorant of the larger state of the medium. So, my plea to all Xbox fans- wake up. People do care for weeaboo games, if as a whole. That's the reason Xbox gets its ass handed to it every generation by a platform that is full of them.
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