[General Discussion] Are developers afraid to make 2D games on Consoles now?

Sony refuses to release 2d games outside of japan, only in compilations (think of Metal Slug 4 & 5). And theres hardly any profit gained by releasing non-mainstream games on other Xbox/GC. So 2d games are limited to japanese PS2 goodness.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Monkey King

Sony won't allow 2D games because they honestly don't sell, and Sony doesn't want to dilute their console library with "bad" games, which is how the Atari was undone.

No no, they don't allow 2d games period. At least SCEU doesn't. Metal Slug 3? The cream a la cream of the series, it was more of a piece of art then a game itself with all the stuff they creamed into it (it featured much, MUCH more ideas and almost perfect implementations of them then many 3d games do today) - and they didn't allow the USA release because it was a 2d game. It was released in Japan, in Europe, on the Xbox, but not on the USA PS2. They don't want "graphically inferior" games or some such bullshit.

2D games are still being made and released in Japan, and they are doing fine and dandy. There's just the fact that outside Japan, clever marketing can create a much bigger hype to a game, ultimately selling it even if its a turd. And what's easier to hype then fancy graphics? Do a fancy techdemo and label it Metal Gear Solid xy and you will instantly grind the sales of the competition to a halt even if your machine is not out yet. It's all about the hype, and you can't create enough hype with a 2d game for it to sell outside of Japan.

At least in Japan they actually care about the game itself so thats not a danger there, and we can still get some awesome 2d titles every now and then.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

They were pushing 3d graphics as a selling point for the original Playstation, because the Saturn completely blew the ps1 out of the water for 2d gaming. That way they killed a potential selling point of the Saturn with hype alone, and it didn't matter that 3d games looked like a turd on the Playstation because by the time the better hardware came out, they could shift their marketing to "look, we have more games! It's the games that matter".

Ironically they could do something similar with the Playstation 2 a generation later.

As for why they still do the anti-2d marketing thing, they are probably retards or something. It's not like they want to stop crap games filling the market, because they can have just as many shitty two-bit 3d titles (and they do).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Monkey King

Christ boris, get your shit together if you're going to make such sweeping arguments. Metal Slug 4+5 were released in the US. Capcom's Street Fighter Anniversary Collection - marketing focused solely on the inclusion of Street Fighter 2 - was released in the US. The Arc the Lad games were released in the US. The Megaman collection was released in the US. All 2D games.

Please do notice that all of those were released in compilations, and not as standalone games. There was even a big fuss about Sony not allowing them to release them as standalone games, and they have to go and pack them together just so they are allowed to sell the games. "retro collections" are okay, but A STANDALONE TWO DIMENSIONAL GAME? FUCK NO!
My point is, that they allow noname crap with ps1 level of graphics and atari 2600 level of gameplay released if its 3d, but a soon to be 10 year old cult classic shooter needs to be stuck inside compilations just so it is allowed to be released.

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You want me to dig up the weekly sales records from Japan showing licenced shit like the Full Metal Alchemist games and One Piece fighting games perpetually sitting at the top of the list? Or hell, just look at the wild success of Dragon Quest 7. Japan's mainstream audience is just as asinine as consumers here. The only reason that 2D games are allowed to flourish in Japan - assuming they're even any good, as a lot of games don't get ported because they're crap - is because there's no expensive licensing and localization issues involved.

Of course you do know that Dragon Quest holds such wild popularity in Japan that they had to pass a law for DQ games not being allowed to be released only on weekends because people were skipping work to buy the game.
Compared to that the USA had the Hot Coffee fiasco: a bunch of soccer moms whom politicians took advantage of in their campaign because GTA San Andreas had leftover code that could be activated to view polygon sex scenes. Which is UNACCEPTABLE for a game that is marked for ages 17 and up.

Mainstream gaming is naturally everywhere, but at least Japanese gamers are much more open to cult games (which 2d classics fall under by now) instead of shunning them in favor of Final Fantasy / GTA / World of Warcraft just based on graphics and hype.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?