Yoichi Wada: “Some Are Not Very Happy With Final Fantasy XIII”

[Killiana1a]

Galaki said:

Killiana1a said:

If gamers love good games, then can someone tell me why Batman: Arkham Asylum sold only 30,000 copies in Japan, while both Dragon Quests sold close to 6 million? Would it have been different if Konami or another Japanese game developer created Batman: Arkham Asylum?

Different demographics like different things.

DQ is just a better game to them.

Games from Japanese developers sell just as well if not better in the US. There are exceptions in both cases where games are designed with Western or Japanese audiences in mind, not marketed in both markets, and the games end up selling well in one market but not so outside of it. Yakuza and Grand Theft Auto type games from RockStar come to mind immediately.

Just glossing over the preorder charts, there are very few games cross-marketed and the majority of those that are blockbuster titles with a long and storied franchise such as Final Fantasy.

I am unsure of one storied franchise from the West, which sells in comparable numbers to a Dragon Quest, Yakuza, or Final Fantasy game in Japan. I can name plenty of Japanese developed games, which sell well outside of Japan, but not so many Western developed games that do the same in Japan as they do in a market such as North America.