| Onyxmeth said: Lost Planet sold pretty well considering it was an early release for the 360, which doesn't have a game that has even cracked 220K yet. Now don't get me wrong, there's more to the story here. Japanese gamers that own 360s seem to be more susceptible to buying american games than PS3 owners, considering most western games sell on par on both consoles or sometimes even slightly better on the 360 even with the huge discrepancy in userbase. WRPGs from Bethesda have both sold slightly more on the 360 and Fable II has done better than both of them. However there are some telling signs that the Japanese do hold some pride in buying their own games. The top selling racing title on the 360 is Ridge Racer 6. Now racing is universally the same. There is no feeling RR gives off in the driving that makes it seem more japanese than say PGR, Forza, Need for Speed, etc. and yet it's at the top of the pack. Why? Well Namco makes it. This one I'm not entirely sure of since I'm not familar with either series, but why does Pro Evolution Soccer outsell FIFA only in Japan? In the rest of the world FIFA reigns supreme. In Japan, Pro Evo hands FIFA it's ass consistently. Is there a reason other than one is made by Konami and one is made by EA to explain the discrepancy here? It's not a science, and there will always be an exception or two, but I fully believe nationalistic pride plays a huge factor in the buying habits of Japanese gamers. Why else would they be the only region to stick so close to their own products, when americans, europeans and the rest of the world can embrace products from any region equally? |
I don't live in Japan so I couldn't say for sure, but I'm thinking what Dinomax said is probably true - they just aren't really exposed to the western games. Sure, Japan is the only region that seems to stick to their own games, but they're also the only region that has a ton of games developed solely for themselves. You brought up Ridge Racer 6 - I haven't played the game, to be honest, but I just looked up the intro. Take a look:
Let's also not forget that Ridge Racer is the established franchise there, so more people will be drawn to it.
In general, the vast majority of people don't care about where a product comes from. Americans don't buy the 360 over the PS3 just because it's American made. People do have some brand loyalty and make generalizations, however, and I can believe this affecting the Japanese interests. For example, the Japanese may associate games made overseas are largely about guns - shooting & killing, something they're not interested in. If someone tells the Japanese buyers of Donkey Kong Country / Crash Bandicoot that they're games made in the west, I doubt they'd beat themselves up for supporting a different country.
As for PES vs Fifa, I don't know the games, so I couldn't tell you. However, the same argument can be made about American sales - on the PS3, Fifa 09 sold nearly 6x more than PES 09 did in America. While the difference is bigger for Japan (~10x), I'd bet the determining factor is something other than nationalistic pride.
