WIRED: Q&A: Mega Man Creator Wants Japan to Admit Failure

[dharh]

Panama said:
Meh.

Japanese games sell in Japan, and Western games sell in the West. Difference is in some instances Japanese games sell well in the West too but Western games never sell well in Japan. There is also a hell of a lot of bias from Western critics. Japanese review outlets at least have the common decency to score both Japanese and Western games well if they're deserving of it. I've read some Western critics on certain JRPGs that actually mock anime aesthetics and personally that's just pathetic, especially coming from individuals who should be deemed as professionals.

The slump is all in developers' heads and the consumers' wallets that have been hit hard lately for obvious reasons. It's hard to take people claiming Japanese games have gone to shit when you see CoD and Fifa sell more and more each year despite literally adding the most miniscule of new features. If anything "gamer's" tastes have gone to shit.

This isn't a JAPAN MAKES BEST GAMES GRORIOUS NIPPON argument, it's just fact. The way in which we Westerners buy CoD and other million sellers, Japan buys MH and DQ. Last thing I want to see is Japanese devs try to appeal to the West, and vice versa. That's when the real bad games will start flooding the shelves. We've already got some fine examples of this this gen.

Japanese gamers don't care much for Western games yet we Westerners still look forward to countless Japanese games. Nintendo, Sony, Square, Capcom and many others are a testament to this. Not to mention smaller companies that localize and develop niche Japanese games such as XSEED, NIS , From Software and Atlus are only growing in popularity in the west. If I'm not mistaken Catherine is Atlus' best selling game to date in the West and yet their most recent.

Also going off tangent, but it's hard to take Inafune seriously after Neptunia MkII. Perhaps it's a metaphor for the Japanese game industry, a complete joke, nice one Inafune.

Just venting my spleen as usual.

This trend will not last forever if japanese developers continue with the status quo. My favorite Japanese games are pretty much all OLD era, exactly like Inafune points out. Everything new is pretty much not as good as the old stuff. The Western market is huge compared to the Japanese market, like mind boglingly huge. Catering to one country is niche. Catering to a whole bunch of countries makes you a winner. As Inafune pointed out, its not about copying what western studios are doing and shovel out games. It's about working _with_ western studios, learning what best to do and making whole new games that could appeal to both japan and western countries.

The Wii, the complete winner in the japanese market, trampling everything else. Top 10, all 1st party games. Second 10, 8 1st party, 2 3rd party. Those first party? Sega and Namco. Third 10, 8 1st, 2 3rd. And that constitutes all the games that sold over half a million copies. It's all pitiful junk from there.

The PS3, the 2nd place by a fair showing. Can't even muster more than 2, 1 million sellers. Although it does have a good variety of 3rd vs 1st party in top 30, only the top 13 are over half a million copies.

Only in the handheld segement is there any saving grace for the japanese market. But, its not very cozy there either.

The facts are if you aren't Nintendo you probably aren't doing too well in the game software biz. If you are bucking the trend, chances are you've only done so with one or two good selling games, with the rest of your linup doing piss poor.

I don't want Japenese studios shoveling out 'western' games either. I want them to evolve and make new exciting games with _traditional_ controls. Which to be honest they have not done much of this whole last decade.