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Sony Interactive Entertainment launches the MENA Hero Project

Killer8

Member
30 minutes?

K9Yg7SQ.jpeg

People always forget that sites like How Long to Beat exist. We've got a thread right now about the Silent Hill 2 remake apparently being too long now, when the data shows a not insignificant number of people already took that long to beat the original version. Another favorite is "Resident Evil 3 remake is so much shorter" when there is only about 45 minutes difference between the average time to beat both games (and the rushed time is the same).
 

iamvin22

Industry Verified
They type of investments they are doing in Japan make sense.

A "Japan Hero Project" does not.



This is not true. Yes mobile is big, but tradional gaming is also big.

Trad for Nintendo for sure because they picked a hybrid model.
 

Felessan

Member
I'm talking about creating new studios, reviving and/or licensing old IPs and so on.
No one is saying they shouldn't invest elsewhere, but do it also in the place PlayStation was born.
The problem is much deeper than you think. Japan really "moved over"
This problem was highlightened by CyGames who were trying to expand from gaas to SP games and were making GBF:Versus and GBF:Relink at that time. Market moved to a mobile gaas games and all people in gamedev mostly moved there. And it became increasingly hard to find people for creating SP game as it's considered unfavorable job and even if one doesn't follow the crowd, he most likely apply to established big house than newcomer studio. Widespread expertise in SP games pretty much vanished in Japan - there are just no people to support revival.

Also, Rise of the Ronin is mediocre and Bloober's raping of a cult classic is not even worth mentioning.
Ronin is good and exactly a game you should expect from "Japan Hero project" - a game made in Japan for Japanese people (it's quite popular there afaik). Not japanese game made for westerners - you have Capcom, SE and others for that.
 
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CosmicComet

Member
I love it .

Expand gaming to the world so we aren't just stuck with the mental illness having west coast devs + mental illness having european devs making the bulk of games.
 

vivftp

Member
Yes, it's a free demo that can be finished in 30 minutes or even less. A small taste of what Astrobot (2024) will be.
American adaptations don't count. That's why I didn't even bother quoting you about the "transmedia" projects. Other than the fact that they're not video games, obviously.
Again, educated guesses mean little. If and when they announce a new From partnership I'll gladly eat crows, hats and so forth.
Moneyhatting has no merit.
Forspoken is a turd. That's what I meant. I couldn't care less about how much it sold.

Lol, 30 minutes 😂

Yeah, I think we're done here. Enjoy the rest of the gen 👍🏾
 

CamHostage

Member
Can't wait to play some Bollywood inspired action games where your MC powerslides his horse under a speeding train, reloading a shotgun in mid-air while smoking a fat cigar!

Fuck yeah!!!
I mean, I'm down, but that would come from India Hero Project if it did. (So far, nothing is that crazy in the IHP lineup, but one can hope they take some lessons from Bollywood/Tollywood.) This is a sampling of the flavors of games Indian game makers are into currently. (The game Mukti here became one of the IHP candidates.)



MENA entertainment tends to not be so wacky as Bollywood, as far as am aware.Productions. (Admittedly, the stuff we've seen is mostly Oscar-bait.) But I'm sure these developers will bring some unique style to their productions.
 
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Masterri

Member
30 minutes?

K9Yg7SQ.jpeg
It's really not that long. I'd say half an hour for a normal playthrough, two hours for 100%.
The problem is much deeper than you think. Japan really "moved over"
This problem was highlightened by CyGames who were trying to expand from gaas to SP games and were making GBF:Versus and GBF:Relink at that time. Market moved to a mobile gaas games and all people in gamedev mostly moved there. And it became increasingly hard to find people for creating SP game as it's considered unfavorable job and even if one doesn't follow the crowd, he most likely apply to established big house than newcomer studio. Widespread expertise in SP games pretty much vanished in Japan - there are just no people to support revival.


Ronin is good and exactly a game you should expect from "Japan Hero project" - a game made in Japan for Japanese people (it's quite popular there afaik). Not japanese game made for westerners - you have Capcom, SE and others for that.
I loved Nioh but disliked Ronin. I don't think authenticity is the problem here.
 

nial

Member
Playstation install base probably non-existent there.
SK share in SB sales were less than 3%. There are no incentive for Sony to make Hero project because their benefit will be mute
I don't buy it, they wouldn't even be producing Korean games with that mindset.
Also 30K out of 1M is not bad at all for a game like Stellar Blade?
 

nial

Member
Astro and DS2 are gonna be great, no arguments there. But two games in the whole gen? It's clearly not enough.
This only works if you think like this:
Rise of the Ronin is mediocre
I don't care about racing games
Why does your personal opinion here matter when both of those games were pretty liked in Japan?
Demon's Souls is made by Bluepoint, a Texan company. I could also comment on the quality of the remake, but that's another matter.
Japan Studio literally led development on the remake, there's a reason it has the same director as fucking Puppeteer out of all games.
 

Felessan

Member
It's really not that long. I'd say half an hour for a normal playthrough, two hours for 100%.
I loved Nioh but disliked Ronin. I don't think authenticity is the problem here.
Do you native or not? Do you understand cultural reference and "everything around" or not?
Some games are made to be kinda nostalgic for target audience and everyone outside is simply out because they just dont understaqnd what that game is really about.
I would bet that 95% of outsider have zero idea wtf is going on in Wukong opening scene, who those people are and wtf they are talking about, because (outside of combat) its 99% reference of original story and chinese culture around it. And it's not really very well known outside.

I don't buy it, they wouldn't even be producing Korean games with that mindset.
Also 30K out of 1M is not bad at all for a game like Stellar Blade?
It's really bad for native market. Like really really bad.
Just compare - Wukong is 80-90%+ native market, SB is 3% native market. Latter is unusual, simply nation pride should propel it to a better number, even for a bad game, and SB is not like that. And its not like Dev completely unknown - they ARE famous across Asia with NIKKE (30% of revenue from SK).
 
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Felessan

Member
They are famous for a different kind of games, that's the whole thing about it.
They are a big name. That everyone knows.
Like everyone in a country dominated by pc/mobile gaming.
Their game will not go unnoticed. Given that publicity already good - it should have good sales relative to install base, simply on a basis of being a "native" game / famous dev / good initial perception
And SB is not that much different from NIKKE - it's still a story of visually attractive girl(s) in action based game with relatively nice story. Even the story is kinda similar.
But such massive drop in actual market penetration shows that there are no people to really sell the game (aka no corresponding installbase), one of a reason why Shift Up stress possibility (but no dates) of PC version on its stock roadshow.
 

Felessan

Member
"Native game" factor is actually a huge factor for nations that has a few acclaimed hits - both game sales and its medium sales skyrockets inside given country on a nation pride.
It's symbiotic for Sony - it develops local market and it sells playstation consoles to it as preferable medium.
 

CamHostage

Member
I don't buy it, they wouldn't even be producing Korean games with that mindset.
Also 30K out of 1M is not bad at all for a game like Stellar Blade?

The reason Sony is making games with Korean game developers is different from the reasons they're investing in Hero Project nations.

With Hero Project, they are trying to get in early for emerging territories to foster game development and encourage game productions which would build an audience interested in PlayStation-type gaming in those regions. It's a national effort with worldwide possibilities.

With Korean game deals, they're not necessarily interested in the territory; they're interested in the games.

Korea has a gaming market. It has for a long while. It also has some great and technologically advanced game studios. (And i would take a guess to say it also has a pay structure which is more forgiving to a publisher than an equivalent American or Japanese studio?) Also of note, it has a cultural style in its popular entertainment (...often heavily influenced by Japanese culture from decades prior, but i digress with a bit of race-sniping.) What it doesn't have is a robust market nationally to support a wide range of games, because online is dominant and a few whale-baits rule. So every once in a while, their talents spill out into the console space to make a play for greater global interest.

This happened with Kingdoms Under Fire and 99 Nights, this happened when MS bet on CrossFire and KartRiders (didn't quite pay off), it's happening now with Stellar Blade (big payoff, but to be seen if it can be capitalized on?), kind of happened when Sony accepted Genshin Impact (albeit that was a surprise blockbuster, also not handled directly by Sony and not necessarily in the PS mold), and it could spike in happening with the finance/tech/pop factor confluence that is making Korea a rising player in the global gaming market today.
 
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NanaMiku

Member
Great news for the MENA region dev scene! I hope the next hero project will be in SEA since there's a ton of talented indie devs in Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, etc.
Yup SEA is really thriving right now. Thailand is on the rise. Indonesia just had a National Video Game Day and one of the local gaming YouTube channel gather trailers from various local studio for that celebration



 
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