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theprof00 on 02 April 2013
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kain_kusanagi said:
theprof00 said:
kain_kusanagi said:


Yet that's is not how my Japanese college friend describes it.

Your sports analogy isn't as accuret many would assume. Every sport has it's region. Soccer is more popular outside of the USA, but it really is the only sport that has world wide fanship. Most sports are as tied to their culture of origin as brands of beer. But we are talking about a ball game. Reduce soccor down to it's basics and it sounds a lot like football's basics. Get the ball to the other side of the field. In that regard sports games are popular everywhere.

Video games should appeal universaly in Japan like they do in the rest of the world. Why are the Japanese the only ones that don't want to play the rest of the world's games? My Japanese friend and the respected gaming industry veteran Keiji Inafune agree. The Japanese don't want to play foriegn games because they only want stuff made in Japan.

It took a decade for Japan to catch on to what the rest of world was enjoying in Apple's iPhone. But it finaly happened. Maybe the Nextbox will be able to do what Apple finaly did. I don't know. The Japanese have to be willing to try something new and keep an open mind to having fun regardless of the products country of origin. Keiji Inafune seems to think that it will be a difficult mountain to climb even though he likes the Xbox and enjoyed western games himself. He knows Japanese culture and he believes they aren't buying the stellar western games because they aren't Japanese.

Well, I don't know why you are jut writing off my soccer vs football example, or the link with photos of a japanese video game store aisles...

but moving on, if I were just to simply accept that your friend and keiji know better than everyone else, then MS just needs to make Japanese games and secure more Japanese software. MS knew this from the beginning, and really just barely tried.

Regarding Apple's Ipod, you REALLY need to read up on Japan mate. Japan has had cheap smart-phone-like phones for a good ten years before iphone. Iphone coming out wsn't like it was here, with fanfare and gasps and holy shit. It was like "ok this phone is made by apple and can do more than other phones but is more expensive". Dude, even new features that samsung shows us with galaxy have been on phones in Japan for over a decade. I'm not saying Japan had iphone and galaxy 10 years ago, but I'm clarifying for you that there is a stark difference between our market and theirs and you should stop imagining they are the same. Iphone here was revolutionary. Iphone there was just business as usual, but more expensive, and less pretty.

I'm not writing your example off. I just don't agree that it applies. As for the photo I'm not disputing it I'm just taking my friend and Keiji Inafune at their word. They say Japan doesn't want western "shit" and from what I've seen they are right.

You say MS should make the games that the Japanese want. That's true. MS did secure tons of Japanese games and many of them were exclusive or timed exclusive. It didn't help.

I say the Japanese as a whole need to be more like my friend and Keiji Inafune. They need to open their mind and try new things. The rest of the world can't be wrong about great games. If the west can enjoy Japanese style than the Japanese can enjoy western style if they would just give it a chance.

You want MS to change for the Japanese. You're right, that what they've attempted and I'm sure they will keep doing and building on. I don't think it will matter unless the Japanese can get past their foreign product issues. I want the Japanese to change so they will enjoy western stuff as much as I enjoy Japanese stuff. If MS bought up Japanese studios and put out tons of native Japanese 1st party games I'm sure they would be more successfull in Japan. But he problem would still excist that the Japanese won't even consider playing western games.

But this is the problem with what I consider ou writing off counter-examples. MS did NOT secure tons of Japanese games. They got:
Lost Odyssey (praised by famitsu)
Eternal Sonata (which sold better than the ps3 version)
Enchanted Arms (which was panned)
Blue Dragon (which was called so-so)
Resonance of Fate (mixed reviews)
Last Remnant (praised by famitsu sold 600k)
Infinite Undiscovery
Star Ocean
Tales of Vesperia

When the 360 was getting these games it was doing ok. You forget that even ps3 was only selling around 15k for a long time in Japan, and dropped to 8 many times. http://www.vgchartz.com/tools/hw_date.php?reg=Japan&ending=Weekly

Look at the graphs. The PS3 didn't crush 360 when the 360 had games. But when was the last time MS really attempted to secure games? Last remnant was 2009, I think.

Meanwhile, PS3 was getting EVERY SINGLE GAME and making plenty of their own. SCEJ this gen has made more games than the whole list above.

I just think you're sidestepping the evidence that I'm presenting.

And what you're asking is for Americans to start enjoying FIFA games. Look, Sony makes plenty of western games. Why don't the Japanese buy them? Because the culture Kain. The culture fundamentally doesn't enjoy toting guns first person style. They literally buy any other type of game. They like platformers, adventure games, puzzlers, sports, jrpg, wrpg (depending on the title. They love Warcraft).

The only thing they don't like is fps. Jrpgs don't sell like fps games do over here, so why do you expect THEM to change their tastes just because YOU have good taste??