Pro Yakyu Spirits 2010 pre-release thread

[beau21]

Quote: Originally Posted by truckie16

All they would have to do is give the option for the menus to be in english. It can't be that hard. FIFA 10 has the option of what 4-5 languages. On a side note if any of you are willing to sell last years version I might be interested for the right price.

My thoughts exactly.

[JoeRyan33]

PYS outside of Japan is such a niche market and Japanese companies are insular enough. I doubt we'd ever get the English option, but for me, it would make my gaming year.

[strawberryshortcake]

Quote: Originally Posted by JoeRyan33

PYS outside of Japan is such a niche market and Japanese companies are insular enough. I doubt we'd ever get the English option, but for me, it would make my gaming year.

Japanese animation (aka Anime) is very important to Japanese culture, and it is also considered niche in the United States, but there is still a market for them. Anime needs be translated and dubbed into the English language to have greater success in the States.

Therefore I don't see why PYS being niche outside Japanese would be a gigantic problem. Plus, I doubt menu, navigation, and control translations and implementations would require much resources. I'm also pretty sure it's "niche" outside Japan because not a lot of people know about it (because there's no translation and there's no advertisements).

I never heard about Professional Baseball Spirits (PBS) until a couple months ago. Youtube videos alone were impressive enough to make me want the game even more so than TheShow or MLB2K. Having never played PBS, I was sold on the visuals alone.

Unless it's a legality issue, I don't understand why Konami would want to restrict Professional Baseball Spirits to Japan seeing as how Konami has many titles available to the United States.

Pro Evolution Soccer is another Konami sports title. I'm not much of a soccer fan (or Japanese baseball fan) at all, but why is Pro Evolution Soccer available for retail consumption in the United States while Professional Baseball Spirits (PBS) is technically and essentially limited only to Japan (due to language barrier)? Note: I did see team USA in the PBS6, so why not tap into the US market?

[MukaMuka]

Quote: Originally Posted by strawberryshortcake

Japanese animation (aka Anime) is very important to Japanese culture, and it is also considered niche in the United States, but there is still a market for them. Anime needs be translated and dubbed into the English language to have greater success in the States. Therefore I don't see why PYS being niche outside Japanese would be a gigantic problem. Plus, I doubt menu, navigation, and control translations and implementations would require much resources. I'm also pretty sure it's "niche" outside Japan because not a lot of people know about it (because there's no translation and there's no advertisements). I never heard about Professional Baseball Spirits (PBS) until a couple months ago. Youtube videos alone were impressive enough to make me want the game even more so than TheShow or MLB2K. Having never played PBS, I was sold on the visuals alone. Unless it's a legality issue, I don't understand why Konami would want to restrict Professional Baseball Spirits to Japan seeing as how Konami has many titles available to the United States. Pro Evolution Soccer is another Konami sports title. I'm not much of a soccer fan (or Japanese baseball fan) at all, but why is Pro Evolution Soccer available for retail consumption in the United States while Professional Baseball Spirits (PBS) is technically and essentially limited only to Japan (due to language barrier)? Note: I did see team USA in the PBS6, so why not tap into the US market?

I am really happy to see so much love for PYS on OS but you seriously can't compare Japanese Baseball to Anime and especially SOCCER. I think calling Anime niche is a bit of a stretch. With popularity of shows like Dragon Ball and Pokemon, Anime is pretty mainstream. As for soccer, I hate soccer too, but it is the most popular sports in the entire WORLD. Pro Evolution Soccer is available worlwide in 15 languages because it features teams, clubs, and players on a world level. This game, Pro Yakyu Spirits, features only the 200 Japanese players in the Japanese league. Nobody in the western world outside of the perhaps 15 hardcore gamers who read about it on the internet are interested.

Bottom line is, I get what you are saying; translating some baisc voabs like "Difficulty" and "Pitch Speed" to English can't be that hard, but at the same time, why would they even bother just to cater to the, what, 15-20 non-Japanese speaking importers of this game? I am not sure if there are 20.

[truckie16]

Quote: Originally Posted by MukaMuka

I am really happy to see so much love for PYS on OS but you seriously can't compare Japanese Baseball to Anime and especially SOCCER. I think calling Anime niche is a bit of a stretch. With popularity of shows like Dragon Ball and Pokemon, Anime is pretty mainstream. As for soccer, I hate soccer too, but it is the most popular sports in the entire WORLD. Pro Evolution Soccer is available worlwide in 15 languages because it features teams, clubs, and players on a world level. This game, Pro Yakyu Spirits, features only the 200 Japanese players in the Japanese league. Nobody in the western world outside of the perhaps 15 hardcore gamers who read about it on the internet are interested. Bottom line is, I get what you are saying; translating some baisc voabs like "Difficulty" and "Pitch Speed" to English can't be that hard, but at the same time, why would they even bother just to cater to the, what, 15-20 non-Japanese speaking importers of this game? I am not sure if there are 20.

There are probably 100 people on this site alone that would import, if there was an english text menu.

[aga11ah]

this game is expensive as hell. 6 looked good though from the youtube vids. other than the chunky bodies. Jeter looked like he had a beer belly lmao.

[strawberryshortcake]

Quote: Originally Posted by MukaMuka

I am really happy to see so much love for PYS on OS but you seriously can't compare Japanese Baseball to Anime and especially SOCCER. I think calling Anime niche is a bit of a stretch. With popularity of shows like Dragon Ball and Pokemon, Anime is pretty mainstream. As for soccer, I hate soccer too, but it is the most popular sports in the entire WORLD. Pro Evolution Soccer is available worlwide in 15 languages because it features teams, clubs, and players on a world level. This game, Pro Yakyu Spirits, features only the 200 Japanese players in the Japanese league. Nobody in the western world outside of the perhaps 15 hardcore gamers who read about it on the internet are interested. Bottom line is, I get what you are saying; translating some baisc voabs like "Difficulty" and "Pitch Speed" to English can't be that hard, but at the same time, why would they even bother just to cater to the, what, 15-20 non-Japanese speaking importers of this game? I am not sure if there are 20.

I'm sure there are more than 20. Plus in order for something to gain momentum, the word needs to be out. There needs to be advertisements. Once it's available to markets outside Japan, I'm sure with enough advertisement (and word of mouth), the product will catch on. Definitely not like MLB, but it could make some sort of dent in the baseball market (almost like: aka Backbreaker football in the world of football).

With regards to Anime, although the traditional Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Pokemon are basically mainstream with a devoted following, I'm actually referring to niche anime.

From what I have read and come across, most of your "true" anime fans don't consider mainstream products to be "anime" if that makes any sense. By niche anime, I'm talking about stuff like "Ergo Proxy," "Lain: Serial Experiments," "Texhnolyze," "Haibane Renmei," "Beck Mongolian Chop Squad," "Mushi-Shi," "Red Garden." These do not have mainstream popularity. They're pretty much niche, but they do sell in the United States.

A single 22 minute anime episode with proper translation and a proper dubbed English audio track costs a rough estimate of approximately $10,000 USD dollars (I believe that's the correct value). And seeing as how most animes span across a total of 26 episodes, the cost comes to around $260,000 per anime series simply on translation costs.

If not Professional Baseball Spirits (PBS), I would love to see Konami's video game baseball technology outside Japan. And seeing as how PBS is already a finished product and what looks to be a good representation of baseball, I'd figured the next logical step would be to market a translated product, even if that means having it on an on-order status with an added cost.

[ARMORALLL]

Does anybody know if World Baseball Classic teams will also be in the new version?