Xbox Live Arcade Shotest Sales(13/09/08 & 20/09/08)

Here are the links to Xbox Live Arcade Sales by By Benjamin Schlichter

Xbox Live Arcade Sales, 9/13/08 + First Day | VG Chartz.com

Shotest Shogi was in the 34th place, 1,171 units were sold in the week.

Xbox Live Arcade Sales, 9/20/08 - FF2 5.7k, DM 2.9k | VG Chartz.com

Shotest Shogi was in the 57th place, 504 units were sold in the week.

Comments

[iiifrank]

That's a real shame. After the XBL commission they've made almost no money.

I think they need to focus on making a shogi web site like chess.com. Right now there are no real good ones available in my opinion.

[wannabewatanabe]

2 reviews:
http://www.gamestats.com/objects/142/14241424//articles.html

IGN rated it a 6 out of 10, which is not that impressive. It's clearly written from the point of view of someone who normally reviews Super Mario Bros and the like, so I wouldn't take it too seriously. Although I haven't tried Shotest, I wonder what these people expect for 10$. If I owned an XBOX and had the chance to learn an ancient game like Shogi the easiest way possible (you don't have to know the kanji, there's no need to read a book), I would immediately buy it, regardless whether the graphics are great or not. That's the least important aspect. After all, you have learnt a beautiful game without putting too much effort into it at a rather moderate price. Hard to believe that this is not appreciated.

[iiifrank]

I disagree that graphics are the least important aspect. There are so many games to play out there and there needs to be some way to make yourself stand out. IMO, the Shotest guys dropped the ball a bit since the PC version looks much nicer and the XBLA layout does not take good advantage of an HDTV's widescreen.

Either way, there's nothing special about this game that would make a non-shogi player get it. The graphics are only ok, the sounds are poor, the tutorials are too difficult, and the online functionality is extremely primitive. I still have never found a game online and I don't know if it's because I'm doing something wrong or because the interface isn't working correctly, or if it's just that nobody is playing.

People like puzzles, so perhaps it would have been wise to add a tsume shogi section outside of the tutorial.

I don't know, maybe it's just that the West already has chess and doesn't need another chess game. Personally, as an owner of Shotest Shogi for PC and XBLA, I'll just say again that I love their work and I wish these guys would focus on making a beautiful web-based shogi site like chess.com. I'd definitely pay an annual membership fee for turn-based shogi with a pleasant interface alongside tsume shogi and other learning material.

[takodori]

> iiifrank

I didn't know chess.com until reading your comment. It seems to have started since May 2007. It's amazing that the number of the members exceeds 270,000. Thanks for valuable input.