shouting at the void
by alzabo
Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 I really dislike sending email to PR talking heads, the responses you get are almost always vapid and clearly c&p'ed from a giant text file they use to store all their canned responses. I do sympathize with their situation, I know first-hand what it's like to deal with whiney fanboys who think they know more than you day in and day out; it's a rough job.But sometimes, your ire is so great you simply have to share it with someone who might be able to do something about it instead of just bitching about it on the internet like some whiney little fanboy.
I sent the following letter to Microsoft's PR Guy Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb about the disturbing lack of SHMUPS in the xbox 360's forseeable future.
Larry,
I honestly didn't know where to turn with this question, so I hope that you can help me get this into the right hands if you are unable to give me an answer.
Background on me, I'm 25 and I've been into video games since childhood. I recently purchased an xbox360 (gamertag: [redacted]) in August because of a Elite for $349.00 deal and the fact that a whole mess of overhead scrolling arcade shooters have become available or are coming soon for the Xbox360. However, I must admit that peer pressure had something to do with it, all my co-workers at have them as well.
After buying my 360, I've noticed that all these Shooters (aka "SHMUPs") that I was so looking forward to are NTSC-J only. Here's a list:
Title (English): Raiden IV
Publisher: Taito
Website: http://raiden.mossjp.co.jp/
Title (English): Raiden Fighting Aces
Publisher: Success Corporation
Website: http://www.success-corp.co.jp/software/xbox360/rf_aces/index.html
Title (English): Otomedius Gorgeous
Publisher: Konami
Website: http://www.konami.jp/products/otome_g/index.html
Title (English): Death Smiles
Publisher: Cave
Website: http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/Xbox360/deathsmiles/index.html
Title: Dodonpachi Dai Ou Jou
Publisher: Cave
Website: http://www.cave.co.jp/
I want to make it perfectly clear to you that I bought a 360 just to play games from the SHMUP Genre. The SHMUPs currently available on XBLA were a great teaser, but reading rumors that Microsoft has decided not to pursue further arcade SHUMPs saying "We are going to cut down faithful arcade ports" makes me upset that I bought an xbox360 in the first place.
I understand that games like these need a domestic publisher to be released in our region, but why are the discs being region coded in the first place, is it purely a publisher decision? This is really breaking my heart Larry, I love this genre so much, I have an arcade cab dedicated to SHMUPs in my house for goodness sake!
Thanks for your time and attention,
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