EA goes BANG! kekekeke...

[Signe]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=pub&aid=3837


I suppose it's a good market and, looking at Lineage and Lineage2, not particularly hard to please.  If they include open PvP and many opportunities for griefing, they should have no trouble hawking an MMOG in Asia.

[daveNYC]

You forgot one thing, you're talking about EA.

[Murgos]

"...while Korea, Thailand and China in particular are huge markets for online titles.

Probst also believes that online gaming cafes, a major cultural phenomenon in South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and China among others, offer a potentially important channel for EA to expand in the region."

So that explains the Japanese samuari expansion for UO.  Some brightstar in marketing said "Put some Samurai into UO and we will make a bundle!  Those kookie koreans will buy anything!".

I wonder if anyone pointed out to him that traditionally Japanese and Koreans hate each other with an angry red passion and Thailand, Taiwan and China aren't much behind in the anti-japan sentiment scale.

[Daeven]

I wonder if anyone pointed out to him that traditionally Japanese and Koreans hate each other with an angry red passion and Thailand, Taiwan and China aren't much behind in the anti-japan sentiment scale.

Don't scare the marketing drone with reality! You'll only make things worse!

[Azhrarn]

Yay, Keke-Kwest (2005,2006,2007...) here we come!

[Wukong]

I wonder if anyone pointed out to him that traditionally Japanese and Koreans hate each other with an angry red passion and Thailand, Taiwan and China aren't much behind in the anti-japan sentiment scale.

Actually that animosity has been on the wane of late, much to the consternation of older Koreans. There is a large generational gap between those that were raised by surviviors of the Japanese occupation, and those that were raised on anime and video games. Samurai in UO would not remind the baang generation of the rape of their country any more than pokemon reminds us of Pearl Harbor.

But your point is valid that the asian market is a lot more complicated than it looks and that EA doesn't have a chinaman's chance there.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

Pokemon doesn't make me think of Pearl Harbor.
Seeing 'Mitsubishi' on the sports car in front of me does.

[HaemishM]

Considering the fact that it seems slapping any anime faces on avatars, creating mind-numbingly long advancement grinds and open PVP makes for huge profits (or sub numbers) in Asia, I'd be surprised if EA DIDN'T make a splash in Asia. After all, it seems the tolerance for shit is much lower than here.

However, it's EA so I imagine they'll manage to fuck it up in some spectacularly flashy manner. Or they could just go with their current single-player success formula of buying out one or two successful dev houses, making them produce inferior sequels and clones, then shutting them down a few years later. There must be 10 or 15 Korean houses they can grab for cheap.

[Arnold]

I wonder if anyone pointed out to him that traditionally Japanese and Koreans hate each other with an angry red passion and Thailand, Taiwan and China aren't much behind in the anti-japan sentiment scale.

Actually that animosity has been on the wane of late, much to the consternation of older Koreans. There is a large generational gap between those that were raised by surviviors of the Japanese occupation, and those that were raised on anime and video games. Samurai in UO would not remind the baang generation of the rape of their country any more than pokemon reminds us of Pearl Harbor.

But your point is valid that the asian market is a lot more complicated than it looks and that EA doesn't have a chinaman's chance there.

I remember when the Japanese UO shards opened up and every Korean guild I knew of on Sonoma continued to play there.  It wasn't until the Korean shards opened up that they left.

Also, I can remember being able to drive certain Korean pvp guilds into a red hot frenzy by shouting out praise for Japan.