Square-Enix CEO Calls Out Japanese Gamers on Western Bias!!!!

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

makingmusic476 said:

Kenryoku_Maxis said:

makingmusic476 said:

outlawauron said:
It's entirely stupid as it happens both ways. Western gamers are xenophobic outside of the big, advertised games (Nintendo stuff, FF, etc.)

Eastern gamers are xenophobic outside of the big stuff (GTA, MW2, Halo, etc.)

I disagree.  In the West, or at least in North America, you have a large number of anime loving, game playing, Japan fans like us.  Western Otakus, if you will.  Our numbers are strong, and we can make even a game like Valkyria Chronicles sell somewhat decently (and it's still selling!).  In japan, you don't have a fringe group of Western gamers that'll eat up games like Call of Duty.  Heavily advertised Western games sell poorly, and games that aren't advertised are destined to not even reach 10k. 

A Japanese game still only sells well in the 'west' if it has advertising to back it up.  Look at such games as Dragon Quest IV and V, Muramasa: The Demon Blade or even Okami.  They didn't sell well, even with hype from the 'Anime obsessed JRPG loving underground'.

It works the same way in Japan.  Nearly all western released games in Japan aside from the highly published ones like Modern Warfare or GTAIV don't get any media or recognition, and see similar sales to the games I listed for the Japanese side.

Also you really should stop using the word Otaku.  It means something quite negative.

There are numerous Japanese franchise that hang with the best Western franchises in the West.  You have games like Final Fantasy selling 3 million in North America alone.  Don't even get me started on Gran Turismo or Pokemon.  Even Super Mario Sunshine on the GameCube of all systems managed 4 million in North America.  Meanwhile, the most advertised Western franchises don't come close to Japan's top sellers in Japan itself.  GTA: SA was the best selling Western game in Japan last gen, and it sold 410k.  Titles like Dragon Quest topped that by a factor of 8-10. Even smaller franchises like Devil may Cry beat it handedly.

And while many smaller Japanese titles don't recieve much recognition here in NA, you do have a few that manage a rather strong cult following, selling better than you'd expect.  Valkyria Chronicles being chief among these.  You don't hear any such success stories about niche Western games in Japan.

And...I agree with all of this.  I was mearly pointing out that both sides have games that sell well and do poorly based on market saturation.  And as I said in another post, Final Fantasy is an established franchise which sells well because of prolongued market exposure (aka, long-term marketing and installed fanbase).  Many of the games you're citing that did 'poorly' in Japan don't have this installed fanbase.  Japan doesn't have 3 million people waiting for the next Grand Theft Auto, God of War or Fallout title.  If the companies who make these titles want them to do good, they need to prepare to do some long term saturation of the Japanese market with some heavy advertising.  As Square did with Final Fantasy already and Nintendo did with Pokemon when it first came out in the west.