Rolling back gore in Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma
This morning I read an
article on WhatTheyPlay about how the PS3 version of Ninja Gaiden 2
will not include the gore found in the Xbox 360 version that was
released two years ago. The article goes on to say how surprised they
are to see a game developer removing the blood splatter from a game
without external pressure from some group. I have my reservations as
to why the developer might be doing this.
To give you some perspective on this story you should know that the real team that developed Ninja Gaiden 2 is no longer with the development studio. The original staff left after the published reneged on some bonus payments. The secondary team at Team Ninja is developing this PS3 port of the formerly Xbox 360 exclusive game.
It just happens that the lead developer of that former team showed off Ninja Gaiden 2 as a technical feat highlighting the blood splatter. The 360 version of the game featured very realistic blood splatter and even had a moment the main character, Ryu, would flick his weapon to remove the excess blood. Personally I though this was great. I loved watching the blood shoot out from beheading or dismemberments I inflicted on the enemy ninjas and monsters.
I wonder if the real reason Team Ninja is removing the gore is because they hope to have a bigger sales impact in Japan? The same web site has another article up today about how game sales are down 24% in Japan over last year. In Japan the original Ninja Gaiden 2 got the highest content rating a game can receive. It was essentially treated like a XXX movie in stores. This new version will still be considered mature because it still contains the beheading and dismemberment but there will be no blood. By giving the game a lower content rating in Japan is should sell more units there.
The sad thing is Japan is the home of gaming but from a marketing standpoint is a fairly irrelevant region. Last year the Wii sold 600,000 units in Japan. That's a good month in the US. There just isn't that many consumers in Japan to justify making games solely for that market. I have a hard time believing the PS3 version of Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma will sell over one million units. Instead of wasting their time porting the 360 version over to the PS3, Team Ninja should have been working on creating a new Ninja Gaiden game that could dial down the gore and tell a new story. That game would have sold millions of copies.
Source:
http://www.whattheyplay.com/blog/2009/07/06/ninja-gaiden-sigma-2-tones-down-the-blood-and-gore/
To give you some perspective on this story you should know that the real team that developed Ninja Gaiden 2 is no longer with the development studio. The original staff left after the published reneged on some bonus payments. The secondary team at Team Ninja is developing this PS3 port of the formerly Xbox 360 exclusive game.
It just happens that the lead developer of that former team showed off Ninja Gaiden 2 as a technical feat highlighting the blood splatter. The 360 version of the game featured very realistic blood splatter and even had a moment the main character, Ryu, would flick his weapon to remove the excess blood. Personally I though this was great. I loved watching the blood shoot out from beheading or dismemberments I inflicted on the enemy ninjas and monsters.
I wonder if the real reason Team Ninja is removing the gore is because they hope to have a bigger sales impact in Japan? The same web site has another article up today about how game sales are down 24% in Japan over last year. In Japan the original Ninja Gaiden 2 got the highest content rating a game can receive. It was essentially treated like a XXX movie in stores. This new version will still be considered mature because it still contains the beheading and dismemberment but there will be no blood. By giving the game a lower content rating in Japan is should sell more units there.
The sad thing is Japan is the home of gaming but from a marketing standpoint is a fairly irrelevant region. Last year the Wii sold 600,000 units in Japan. That's a good month in the US. There just isn't that many consumers in Japan to justify making games solely for that market. I have a hard time believing the PS3 version of Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma will sell over one million units. Instead of wasting their time porting the 360 version over to the PS3, Team Ninja should have been working on creating a new Ninja Gaiden game that could dial down the gore and tell a new story. That game would have sold millions of copies.
Source:
http://www.whattheyplay.com/blog/2009/07/06/ninja-gaiden-sigma-2-tones-down-the-blood-and-gore/
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