Agreed.

No, I don't know how you think that what I'm saying implies that. What I am saying is that English speaking content is more easily exported among other English speaking regions, while for non-English speaking countries a localization is required and some of what made the original good is inevitably lost in translation, and this is true. This is why the English speaking markets in video games align much more closely than non-English. Why do you think the 360 has the edge in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand when the PS3 has the edge everywhere else?

It is not about "having an impact on our culture", it's about being culturally identifiable and relevant. Westerns are in English speaking regions because they were widely exported to English speaking regions.

The Japanese are simply the extreme end, because unlike other non-English countries, they get a lot of content made specifically for them.

@Demotruk:

Why do you think the 360 has the edge in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand when the PS3 has the edge everywhere else?

Yeah, because in the rest of Europen people speak Japanese. That's why the PS3 has an edge there. I don't really understand the point of your argument. The 360 is a video game console. Don't get why you stress the importance that it's made in the US. Developers from all over the world make games for it, and console video games are always localised in most countries (plus English is one of the most widely spoken language in the world, and is probably the most popular "foreign" language to learn). By your logic the most sucessfull video game in Germany (for example) should be one made by Germans, for Germans (taking into consideration their culture) and in German. Guess what? If you look at the gaming charts in Germany, you'll see that Germans buy roughly ythe same video games that all European nations buy, which are roughly the same video games that people in the US and other English-speaking countries buy.

Westerns are in English speaking regions because they were widely exported to English speaking regions.

American movies are widely exported all over the world. Actually in pretty much every country (at least those in the West) American movies are the most watched movies (and it has always been this way due to the huge head start the US had during the war).

They probably just don't like western games because they have different tastes...

I mean... I usually don't like western games and I'm western :P the only western games I like in this gen are God of War III and Heavy rain.

I usually find western games' art style very ugly, I don't like the character's design, I find the story for most of those games taken too serious, too short and boring for some reason :P I also don't like the "macho" characters in the games :P I also don't like FPS games which seems to be what most people here in the west prefer (at least in this gen ¬¬) and don't like playing online very much. I find japanese games' soundtrack better than western games' soundtrack, too.

I usually can't play western games for longer than 30 minutes because they get extremely boring way too fast for me. I really don't know why, but that's how I feel and I can't help it.

I didn't know what starcraft was either until I started seeing news articles and threads about it here in VGChartz. I had never heard of it before... I did know about Age of Empires and Warcraft, though.

I don't know if you are purposely misreading my points, but I'm not going to argue with you any more.

How am I misreading your points? Did you not say that the language is the main reason why Western (you said English language games) games aren't successfull in Japan?

What I am saying is that English speaking content is more easily exported among other English speaking regions, while for non-English speaking countries a localization is required and some of what made the original good is inevitably lost in translation, and this is true.

This is true.

This is why the English speaking markets in video games align much more closely than non-English.

This is false. The rest of Europe alings largely the same as the UK, and most of Europe is part of the non-English market you speak of.

Why do you think the 360 has the edge in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand when the PS3 has the edge everywhere else?

Why would you say the PS3 has an edge over the 360  in France? Is the PS3 aimed at French speaking countries? Your language argument is downright stupid (and it would be a better argument to explain software sales, not hardware sales).

It is not about "having an impact on our culture", it's about being culturally identifiable and relevant. Westerns are in English speaking regions because they were widely exported to English speaking regions.

Like I said, American movies (including Westerns) have been exported all over the world, especially in Western nations, regardless of of wether or not those English was the langiage of those countries. I can assure you that Westerns are as culturally identifiable and relevant to an Italian as they are to a Brit (if not more so, considering that there are Italian made westerns).

The Japanese are simply the extreme end, because unlike other non-English countries, they get a lot of content made specifically for them.

The Japanese are not the extreme end, they're an unique case (somewhat). If you look at the non-English speaking market you talk about you'll find that, except the Japanese, with some exceptions (like South Korea), these markets align almost perfectly with Elnglish speaking markets. Language and localisation isn't an issue as you said, considering that in the Japanese's case, they prefer specific genre's that are very popular mostly only in their country (JRPG, dating sim, pet sim, etc.), while they show no interest for genre's that were developed in the West (FPSs, WRPGs, startegy games etc.). The differences are cultural, but since games made in Japan have proven to be popular in the West too (Final Fantasy) while the Western games have always failed in Japan, one can come to the conclusion that the Japanese are simply xenophobic when it comes to video games.

Wow this article is comedy gold!

I waiting for the "360 jet engine do do do" comments and "shit western games have too many guns and violence, no story. Great games like Hot Shot Golf more enjoyable."

It's probably most western developed games have shitty stories and have very little originality or creativity involved with them. I personally like some western games, Like Uncharted and Infamous but most of them are inferior to anything the Japanese can make.

We went nearly a whole page without an East vs. West argument, everybody! Let's give ourselves a hand!