Perhaps the biggest gripe about Japanese game companies is that they take forever to localize their products for the Western market. Companies like Square Enix and Sega don't realize that the longer time it takes them to localize their game after it releases in Japan, the less we care about them as the hype dies down.

Take Final Fantasy 12 for instance, it took Square Enix about a year to localize that game to the Western audience. The result of that long delay cost Square over a million in sales due to the fact by that point the Western market was all geared up for the next generation of consoles.

When we look at the world wide market for the video game industry, Japan is the last in the long line of vital markets for this industry. From a business standpoint, this doesn't make much sense for these companies to continue these practices when Western publishers are producing and making games faster then they are.

Of course not all Japanese developers and publishers are like this. Hideo Kojima was smart enough to release MGS4 simultaneously worldwide. Of course this is because of the popularity of MGS franchise in the West. If this was Katamari, they can take all the time they want. However, for sure titles like Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo which will do well in the West, taking time to localize it after releasing it in a market that has shrunken so much over the years like Japan, it just does not make much sense. 

Now of course I'm not saying some of these titles won't sell unless they are released simultaneously, but life time sales will be compromised at some point.

There is reason half of these games take forever to come most japaneese companies don't have localiztion teams except the big companies ( Squarenix,Capcom, Sega,Konami..etc) Now if you are complaining about only these companies then you have a point about everthing else is finiancially or physically possible.

Perhaps the biggest gripe about Japanese game companies is that they take forever to localize their products for the Western market. Companies like Square Enix and Sega don't realize that the longer time it takes them to localize their game after it releases in Japan, the less we care about them as the hype dies down.

Take Final Fantasy 12 for instance, it took Square Enix about a year to localize that game to the Western audience. The result of that long delay cost Square over a million in sales due to the fact by that point the Western market was all geared up for the next generation of consoles.

When we look at the world wide market for the video game industry, Japan is the last in the long line of vital markets for this industry. From a business standpoint, this doesn't make much sense for these companies to continue these practices when Western publishers are producing and making games faster then they are.

Of course not all Japanese developers and publishers are like this. Hideo Kojima was smart enough to release MGS4 simultaneously worldwide. Of course this is because of the popularity of MGS franchise in the West. If this was Katamari, they can take all the time they want. However, for sure titles like Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo which will do well in the West, taking time to localize it after releasing it in a market that has shrunken so much over the years like Japan, it just does not make much sense. 

Now of course I'm not saying some of these titles won't sell unless they are released simultaneously, but life time sales will be compromised at some point.

Some your choices don't make sense. Capcom don't have long localization times anymore. Konami and Namco Bandai releases niche games theat usually do better in Japan than in the west so what the rush? Everyone else is generally agreed on or or case by case...

Perhaps the biggest gripe about Western game companies is that they take forever to localize their products for the Japanese market. Companies like EA and Activision don't realize that the longer time it takes them to localize their game after it releases in the West, the less we care about them as the hype dies down.

Take GTA3 for instance, it took Rockstar 2 years to localize that game to the Japanese audience. The result of that long delay cost Rockstar over a million in sales due to the fact by that point the Japanese market was all geared up for the next generation of consoles.

When we look at the world wide market for the video game industry, Japan is the 2nd largest in the long line of vital markets for this industry. From a business standpoint, this doesn't make much sense for these companies to continue these practices when Japanese publishers are producing and making games better than they are.

Of course not all Japanese developers and publishers are like this. Hideo Kojima was smart enough to release MGS4 simultaneously worldwide. Of course this is because of the popularity of MGS franchise in the West. If this was Katamari, they can take all the time they want. However, for sure titles like Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo which will do well in the West, taking time to localize it after releasing it in a market that has shrunken so much over the years like Japan, it just does not make much sense. (I'm sorry, I can't satirise this paragraph. there are no western devs that have simultaneous launches, and the Japanese market is quite clearly growing at about 70% the rate of the American market)

Now of course I'm not saying some of these titles won't sell unless they are released simultaneously, but life time sales will be compromised at some point.