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Forums - Sales - Japanese Gaming Companies Struggling

Kenryoku_Maxis on 22 September 2009
grapeape said:

Koei really has no one to blame but themselves.  They basically have two titles outside japan, Romance of 3 Kingdoms and Dynasty Warriors and keep remaking them over and over while sales drop lower and lower.  Changing the titles doesnt fool anyone (bladestorm, Gundam and Samurai Warriors come to mind).  They are more of a one trick pony in western eyes than factor 5 was.  The sad part is they actually do have a rather diverse portfolio, they just dont release them anywhere else.  Perhaps they are not confident in taking risks or just really dont care about sales outside Japan.

 

Bingo.  Japanese companies really haven't been interested in other markets for the last 20 years.  They make games for the Japanese market and only release games in America and Europe when it was convenient and with limited appeal, but never with much effort or marketing.  Now they're beginning to understand that you can't just flush out the same product over and over with a crappy dub and the same old marketing networks and expect it to sell a million units.  And this goes for games from Dynasty Warriors to Soul Calibur to Final Fantasy.



Six upcoming games you should look into:

 

  

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noname2200 on 22 September 2009
Kenryoku_Maxis said:

Actually the reason people are flocking to XIII is because its returning to many of the gameplay and design characteristics of the past titles, mostly VII.  However yes, FInal Fantasy use to be a series which altered itself often.  The problem is, fans of the series itself were hte ones who complained whenever Final Fantasy tried to alter the gameplay or alter the flow of the game (speaking specifically about games such as FFVIII, X and XII).

And Final Fantasy aside, there's plenty of JRPG series who are reinventing themselves or improving on their game design.  Also, its pretty weak to be saying JRPGs are bad for not changing enough when WRPGs have gone through a total revival and change recently just to get noticed.  5 years ago, no one even thought of WRPGs at all aside from PC fans.  The only reason people are now having this big fight over 'WRPGs vs JRPGs' is because a few select companies actually took the effort to revive the genre in the west and create some original top quality titles.  Whereas, like I said before, RPGs have been popular and consistently one of the most successful genres in Japan for almost 25 years.

Just because you like 'WRPGs' better than the ones made in Japan doesn't mean the ones made in Japan are inferior or they should change their winning formula to fit your tastes.  Its been working for them for a lot longer than you probably have been into RPGs.  And once again reverting to the main topic of this thread, its not the reason Japanese games aren't doing as well in America.

I don't really agree with the part about FF XIII being a return to the gameplay of VII (design, plot, etc., yes, but not gameplay), but it's an ancillary issue, so I propose we drop it.

I DO seriously disagree with how you characterize WRPGs, though. They've been quite big on PCs for decades now, which means they've been quite big PERIOD, and while the expansion to consoles has further bolsetered their popularity, that's a far cry from saying they "revived" the genre.

However, this is pretty off-topic. If you wish, I propose we take it outside elsewhere.