| Demotruk said: Resistant to change? Japan totally embraced Wii Fit, Brain Training et al before they arrived in the West. So that's not it. I'm gonna propose the hypothesis that the reason Western games are unpopular is that Japanese people have had video games that are culturally relevant to them produced 'for them' for years and years. When your options are between that and a poorly localized western game that you don't identify with, you will usually choose the Japanese game. I would say it's the same reason that Microsoft and games like CoD do better in the English speaking markets than non-English, where Sony typically has an edge.
The games that do best in both Japan and the West are the culturally neutral ones, and Nintendo are exceptionally talented at this. And I bet Retro will achieve quite some success with Donkey Kong Country too, because of this. |
How do you explain the popularity of the games during the SNES and Genesis era? Almost all of them were made with a Japanese audience in mind. Does it come down to gamers back in the 1990s had no choice, but once given with each new generation they have gravitated towards games fitting their cultural expectations?
I don't disagree with you. I just differ, it is not the West or the rest of the world who has a problem playing games from another culture. It is Japan's own problem, which is due to what you said which basically comes down to insularity.
Because, if your hypothesis was true from country to country, Red Dead Redemption would not have sold out the first week in the United Kingdom. Europe never had cowboys and the wild west to the extent of the USA.
I just don't buy that it is entirely culturally specific. I think it comes down to games that sell very well worldwide and games that sell very well in Japan. Until Japanese consumers become accustomed to games developed from another cultural perspective, then the situation will not change and Japanese developers will continue a zero sum game of catering to the smallest video game market with a declining population at the expense of making the game culturally neutral and pushing 2 to 3 million more outside of the Japanese market.
As for my claim of "with a declining population" the information is widely known and here is a source backing up my claim look under "People > Population Growth Rate": https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html
