Western vs. Japanese Games I've played this gen

Xbox 360

15 Japanese vs. 15 Western

* UFC Undisputed (played only 2009 thus far) and the WWE games (played 2 of them) were made by Yuke's, a Japanese developer, so I count those as "Japanese" even though these games largely appeal to the west and have an American publisher (THQ).

Wii

7 Japanese vs. 0 Western

Wiiware

1 Japanese vs. 0 Western

XBL/Indie

12 Western vs. 3 Japanese (Lumines Live, Pacman Championship Edition, Ms. Pac-Man)

Nintendo DS (do handhelds count in this discussion?)

Of DS games I beat or currently own:

14 Japanese vs. 2 Western.

Out of DS games that I've played: Who knows, lost count. But it's heavily skewed towards Japanese software.


For those who say the Xbox 360 doesn't have much Japanese software, here's a list of Japanese Xbox 360 software I own or played.

Lost Odyssey
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection
Infinite Undiscovery
Blue Dragon
Star Ocean: The Last Hope (Rental)
Tales of Vesperia
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
Eternal Sonata
Enchanted Arms
Beautiful Katamari (Rental)
Mushihimesama Futari v1.5 (Import)
Espgaluda Black Label II (Import)

Japanese developed software (Yukes = Japanese studio) that is mainly considered "western"

UFC 2009 Undisputed
WWE Raw vs Smackdown 2010 (Rental)
WWE Legends of Wrestlemania (Rental)

Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection and Ms. Pac-Man XBLA were programmed by Western developers actually. Of course the original releases for all the games included were designed in Japan years ago.

yeah like Ali said

and as long as Nintendo and Capcom (and maybe sega and konami too) are japanese companies

thats the way of gaming for me

That doesn't surprise me. Sega and Namco are international corporations. They have branches in America, Europe, etc. I'd still consider those "Japanese" since the original releases were designed in Japan.

Though I believe Dead Rising (which I haven't played but many are bringing up) was actually designed and developed by an American branch of Capcom. So I question whether it's really "Japanese". Just because the parent company is Japanese, doesn't mean the game is Japanese. That would make God of War, Uncharted and some other western Sony games "Japanese". The UFC and WWE games are like the reverse of this. THQ is American and UFC and WWE are both mainly western brands but the guys who actually designed and developed the game are Japanese. Yukes in Japan. That's why in the end credits you mostly see Japanese names on there.

Though this whole discussion opens up an interesting can of worms. Is Simpsons "western" or eastern because while the game is designed by a westerner (his name escapes me at the moment) and uses western voice actors, the animation is developed in Korea. Just one of the many great examples of globalization at work. I guess if you use design as the indicator, Simpsons would be western though.

No, Dead Rising was done 100% in Japan. It's basically the exact same team at Capcom who did Shadow of Rome on PS2, and a lot of the same guys who worked on the Onimusha games. The Wii conversion was outsourced, but still to a Japanese developer (Tose Software).

Dead Rising 2 is being done by a western developer though (Blue Castle Games). Capcom also used to have a US R&D team (Production Studio 8, who made the Maximo and recent Final Fight games) but they were shut down years ago.

Yeah you're right. I just checked Wikipedia.

Director
Yoshinori Kawano
Producer
Keiji Inafune
Writer(s) Makoto Ikehara
Composer(s) Hideki Okugawa
Marika Suzuki

It's interesting how well the Japanese (Nintendo, Capcom, Sega, etc.) are able to make games seem so completely western. Even Mario is an Italian-American plumber. Even when Sega's stuff was made in Japan during the Genesis games, Sega was a much bigger force in North America and Europe.

in new ip yes. bt th best new ip this gen is lost oddessy in rpg's. othrwise assassins creed is a powerful new IP yes. bt my top game of the gen (ff13) is japanese, bt yes not new IP.

The thing that makes Japanese publishers like Konami and Capcom successful is that they know how to make games that appeal both to the Japanese and to the West.

But this gen Capcom's games are just too Western.

if you compare last gen and this gen :

7 of 20 best selling PS2 titles were made in Japan.

5 of the 20 best selling PS3 titles were made in Japan.


PS : 2 GT last gen and only prologue this gen but Gt5 will kick PES 2009 outside of the top 20 so it will still be only 5 in the top 20 when it releases...

Indeed. 101 games. That means you make up for about 7 people buying no games for their consoles.

And 60% japanese games... lots of money to the little island.