For example, games set in a more western setting, such as the Metal Gear Solid and The Legend of Zelda, seem to do fairly badly when compared to the PAL and North and South American releases. Then, western produced games usually fair much worse, such as Halo 2 (and pretty much any FPS in general in Japan). Finally, the Xbox, a western created system that has done great in North/South America, but did worse in sales then the Playstation (During this console generation) in Japan. It's just odd...It may be me, but it seems like many Japanese developers try to go more for the Western games market then the Japanese games market (Metal Gear, Legend of Zelda, Biohazard/Resident Evil, Sonic, Metroid, Dead or Alive, etc).
i think the failure of xbox in Japan has more to do with the inexperience M$ has with that particular market than anything else... heck even in Korea M$ screwed up big time and people desert xbox to ps2 that SONY is providing much better service... I'd think M$ thought you see we are the biggest computer company so when we release our mighty xbox Japanese public will bent backward begging for our consoles... well M$ should have wake up call if they think what they did rather successfully in Western market will work in this part of world as well... seeing M$ is doing little bit differently with xbox360 it'd be interesting to see the outcome. now back to the topic, i think the western titles are predominantly developed with western gamers in mind and vice versa.. so you can't expect them to do well in Japan - of course there will always a exception but the taste of genre in Japan is far more diverse and vary compared to western market.... And I think Japanese market is fairly saturated now that many publishers are eyeing the western market for the slice of pie... ?!?
well said, though recently some western games have suprisingly done well in japan, then thing is games made here or europe seem ot appeal more to their respective region, hell japan has games released here that are very japanes and they bomb like crazy here, such a ka or known as mister miqito here, i was really dissapointed it didnt do well, since that prevented part 2 from coming over here, i really did enjoy that game. Hell i wish nintendo would release games here for ds at a faster rate, they have an advatage over sonys psp gap in terms of number of games ready for release.
with DS/PSP I don't see the point of delaying the release... sure you need to localize but can't they factor in from the drawing stage since the games for these formats are region free anyway? I wish us Down Under to be classified as Asian block rather than PAL (so we don't have the tie with silly monarchy and stuff) since that will allow us to get hold of a lot of titles only released in Japan/Asian markets... rather than waiting the publisher to finish to dub in half dozen languages for Europe... Or get the all language stuff in the game built-in and let the console decide what language to use per user setting...
Zelda and MGS are pretty awful examples of that point though. Both of them sell like hotcakes in Japan (and US, and Europe). That's the beauty that the Japanese developer has that the US/European developers don't: the possibility of selling boatloads in both in all markets. Only a very select few western developed games do that in Japan. AFAIK, GTA sold 3-400,000 in Japan which isn't too shabby. You can even see Max Payne and the like on the shelves, but I don't think they set any sales records.
well the slow releasese are do to nintendo constantly strategizing, the thing is nintendo limits 1 release to ever platform of theres, so even though noj release games at a rapid rate in japan, noa still does 1 release a month strategy, though its anoying i can see that they in no way want to overflood the market with games, but still i think that 2 a month for ds wouldnt be a bad thing to do since the libar in the U.S. hasnt gotten that big, i just wish the 3rd party compaines would just start releasing their games at a faster rate, i mean god look how many titles are in japan and the thing was release a month later then in the U.S.
You know, the games that sell the most are probably the ones that, even if most of us can see their cultural background, can adapt to diverse cultural backgrounds without being typecast into one specific. Zelda and MGS have distinctly Japanese features, for example - but also many ones that seem universal, and others that are references to other specific cultures. That can make the appeal of the titles work in different cultural contexts. If you, however, take games that are too american (for example, titles that Success localized, like the Tony Hawk series, or Deadly Skies with Ozzy Osbourne) - they become a "niche" market item, more than just a game. The same would happen with titles deemed "too japanese" for the american market (Tokimeki Memorial, Tengai Makyou). The problem comes in the way these titles are marketed, and in the broadness of the mind of who markets them. Not all 2D titles are "too japanese", but many were not brought out of fear of financial loss, back in the 90s... and they would have been hits, probably. So I guess it's a question of scope from the companies, correct marketing, adaptation/localization but no mutilation, and cultural differences overcome by common cultural aspects or interests.
No matter what the western press have you believe NO western game sells like hot cakes in Japan. I remember reading in a British magazine that the Japanese were going ape shit over Grand Theft Auto on the PS2. I must have been living on a different planet that month because I never saw anything special. There are a few which are sort of popular but none ever stay popular that long unlike Japanese games which can stay in the Top 10 for months. Also those Japanese top ten charts that they sometimes print in western mags are full of shite too half the time. I never knew any of this until I started living here. I could go in to a major games store tomorrow and take a photo of the top 20 PS2 games for you and you'll be lucky to see more than 2 western developed games in there. Yakumo
I don't understand what japanese people find in neverchanging 2D-text adventures. They are the same from Saturn times and usually (judging from some translated things that I tryed to play) are very boring/or have no gameplay.
Guess so Still when I want to read s story, I grab a book, not videogame. Well, guess it's just our way of life
I remember when Japanese government publish their annual report in manga everyone went out and read whereas before that no one really bothered to read... so yes they don't like to read in letter form but in manga/interactive game... (I know this is very simplified statement but it's basically what it is like in Japan from my point of view)
What I'm trying to point out is that the other side always makes things seem better than they really are. Like in Japan they tell us that Japanese items or people are really popular in other countries when in fact this is BS. But the average Joe doesn't know this a believes what he reads or sees on TV. Yakumo
