Company News Bethesduh invades Asia with Fallout 3

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Fallout 3

<a href="http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=postmessage&boardid=1&id=0&threadid=87275">According to BluesNews</a>, ZeniMax (Bethesduh's parent company) have announced "the launch of a Tokyo-based subsidiary called ZeniMax Asia":
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<blockquote>April 28, 2008 (Rockville, MD) – ZeniMax Media Inc., the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, today announced it has begun direct publishing operations in Asia with the establishment of its Tokyo-based subsidiary, ZeniMax Asia K.K. ZeniMax Asia will be publishing titles throughout Asian territories under the Bethesda Softworks brand.
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Bethesda Softworks has a successful history as a developer and publisher of award-winning titles, most recently with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which won critical acclaim and countless Game of the Year awards. While continuing to work with strategic Asian distribution partners, ZeniMax Asia plans to deliver a range of compelling titles in the coming years, including the highly anticipated Fallout 3.
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"Establishing operations in Asia is very important to us as we continue to expand our presence in markets outside of North America," said Robert Altman, CEO of ZeniMax Media Inc. "In addition to ZeniMax Europe Ltd., our direct relationships throughout Asia allow us to bring exciting titles like Fallout 3 to gamers across the globe."
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The Asian operations of the Company will be headed by Tetsu Takahashi, General Manager, ZeniMax Asia KK. "We are happy to be part of the ZeniMax family," said Tetsu. "Extending their direct reach throughout Asia is an exciting, new phase in the Company's expansion and we look forward to building upon their excellent reputation."</blockquote>
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Considering they only name drop Fallout 3, it seems an awful lot of effort to go to in order to bring just the one game to Asia. I blame pirates.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.bluesnews.com/">Blues News</A>

 

[Brother None]

Considering they only name drop Fallout 3, it seems an awful lot of effort to go to in order to bring just the one game to Asia. I blame pirates

Not according to Gamasutra:
The new division is to be headed by general manager Tetsu Takahashi, and is currently slated to bring Star Trek: Conquest, Star Trek: Legacy, and Fallout 3 to the region from its own slate, as well as 2K's Major League Baseball 2K8 and both the PS2 and Xbox 360 versions of Rockstar's Bully.

 

[Jason]

Bethesduh

pancake, please

Was there a Japanese 360 release of Oblivion? Seems like it would've done well since Japanese 360 owners seem desperate for RPGs.

 

[Lingwe]

Was there a Japanese 360 release of Oblivion? Seems like it would've done well since Japanese 360 owners seem desperate for RPGs.

There was a Japanese Xbox 360 release. They even managed to get Bethesda to rerelease it as a fully localised version after a whole heap of them sent a petition asking for it.

I couldn't find any PC versions of it, but the electronics store I checked only had console games anyway.

 

[Section8]

Surely the Japanese won't buy into Bethesda's faggotry. Well maybe a baseball game, but Oblivion et al are a long way removed from JRPGs. I don't think they have enough of a challenge component.

 

[slipgate_angel]

That's sad that none of the japanese have never played the first two Fallout games. I like JRPGs, and I honestly don't see why games like Oblivion would take intrest to them...besides the ones that love action games.

 

[Nutcracker]

A day that will live in infamy.

 

[VasikkA]

Wasn't the Ultima series moderately popular in Japan? I'm just hoping it won't spur another horrible subculture.

 

[Jasede]

I think you confuse Ultima with Wizardry - the latter was very popular and produced a lot of furry porn and PS 2 spin-offs and dungeon crawlers.

 

[BrainSquirmingLikeAToad]

hello world

 

[callehe]

in exactly what asian country are they going to sell? it can't be japan since the xbox sales are dreadful, only 0.5 millions sold total and selling worse than ps2. And the japanese doesn't play western rpgs to begin with...

 

[JarlFrank]

Planescape Torment would sell 10 times as much as Fallout 3 or Oblivion could over there in Japland.

 

[Balor]

Planescape Torment would sell 10 times as much as Fallout 3 or Oblivion could over there in Japland.

Or Fallout 1 or 2 for that matter, hah. [Captain Obvious]PST is very jRPGlike, if in a good way.[/Captain Obvious]

 

[Suchy]

Planescape Torment would sell 10 times as much as Fallout 3 or Oblivion could over there in Japland.

no chance, during localisation they'll edit textures to give people manga eyes and blue hair.

with new, enhanced raiders.

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

No, the problem is localization for western RPGs usually means there's little more than a translated manual at best.

I bought my copies of PS:T, IWD 1 & 2, BG2, Diablo 2, over there and that was the level of localization (they weren't imports):

How the fuck can you expect to sell a text intensive story like Torment if you can't be bothered to translate it?

and for the record, Hokuto no Ken's blend of Mad Max, Bruce Lee, Conan, and the New Testament would make for a killer (western) RPG.

 

[Brother None]

in exactly what asian country are they going to sell? it can't be japan since the xbox sales are dreadful, only 0.5 millions sold total and selling worse than ps2. And the japanese doesn't play western rpgs to begin with...

Yeah they do.
"...[Asia] is an important market for us and Oblivion's critical and commercial success in Japan and throughout Asia made it clear that there are plenty of folks in Asia that 'get' the kind of games we like to make at Bethesda," Bethesda PR and marketing VP Pete Hines said in an e-mail.

Rockville, Md.-based Bethesda parent ZeniMax Media announced Monday the establishment of a Tokyo, Japan-based publishing office, ZeniMax Asia, which will bring titles to Japan and other Asian territories under the Bethesda Softworks brand.

Japanese RPGs like Final Fantasy are distinctly different from the Western RPGs developed by companies like Bethesda, but the developer managed a successful launch of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in Japan in August 2007.

Despite the Xbox 360's poor presence in Japan, Oblivion debuted at number seven on Japanese software sales charts on Microsoft's console.