By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Sales - japanese needs to learn about simultaneous release

nofingershaha on 26 October 2009
scottie said:
nofingershaha said:

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.
 

 

Repeat after me

 

"The world does not revolve around the western world."

That was not the point I was trying to make, with the Japanese market shrinking and the rest of the world's video game industry still growing, it just seems wiser if they release it worldwide simultaneously if they want to compete with Western publishers.

Sales come from hype but the longer it takes to localize the game, the less hype there will be.



Around the Network
Kenryoku_Maxis on 26 October 2009
scottie said:

 

Repeat after me

 

"The world does not revolve around the western world."

Repeat after me.

Repeated failed business practices lead to repeated loss of sales.

Just because games are made in Japan doesn't mean they shouldn't try to sell them internationally.  And if they keep doing it half-assed, they will sell poorly.



Six upcoming games you should look into:

 

  

reaver_x on 26 October 2009

well if ur talking about the smaller companies like NIS, Koei, Atlus i can understand why they would have a japan release first. But if ur a company like SE, Capcom, Konami you really have no excuse. I mean look at FFXIII. Japan is getting the game for the holidays while we gotta wait about 6 months for the game to reach here WTF!!! Seriously they really should have simulataneously released this game. And especially since its the holiday season too, just imagine what the sales could have been like. it could have very well make it up to 7 mill WW for LTD if they did that. But alas thats not going to happen now




 

 

                     

swyggi on 26 October 2009
nofingershaha said:
scottie said:
nofingershaha said:

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.
 

 

Repeat after me

 

"The world does not revolve around the western world."

That was not the point I was trying to make, with the Japanese market shrinking and the rest of the world's video game industry still growing, it just seems wiser if they release it worldwide simultaneously if they want to compete with Western publishers.

Sales come from hype but the longer it takes to localize the game, the less hype there will be.

Most constant sales come from appeal.  If someone wants a game, then they will get it no matter what.  If they are riding on hype (newcomers to a game generally fit in this category), then they were swept by dogma's fury.  "Everybody is so eager to get this game! It has to be good!"

 



This will only take a moment of your time. *steals your watch*

nofingershaha on 26 October 2009
swyggi said:
nofingershaha said:
scottie said:
nofingershaha said:

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.
 

 

Repeat after me

 

"The world does not revolve around the western world."

That was not the point I was trying to make, with the Japanese market shrinking and the rest of the world's video game industry still growing, it just seems wiser if they release it worldwide simultaneously if they want to compete with Western publishers.

Sales come from hype but the longer it takes to localize the game, the less hype there will be.

Most constant sales come from appeal.  If someone wants a game, then they will get it no matter what.  If they are riding on hype (newcomers to a game generally fit in this category), then they were swept by dogma's fury.  "Everybody is so eager to get this game! It has to be good!"

 

However, people do lose interest if a game takes too long to get released.



Around the Network
scottie on 26 October 2009

Uh, the japanese game market is growing, not shrinking. 2009 has so far been down YoY, yes. But that is only because you're not looking at the big picture.

Hardware sales are the msot obvious way to observe that the Japanese game market is growing

7th gen
DS 28.2
PSP 12.9
Wii 8.6
PS3 3.7
360 1.2
Iphone Not many, it only just released
Total 54.6 million in 4 years for most consoles, 3 for others

6th Gen
PS2 21 million
GBA 16.7 million
GC 4
360 0.5
DC 2.2
Total 50.4 over about 10 years or so

The 7th gen consoles have already outsold the 6th gen. How is that shrinking?



Dgc1808 on 26 October 2009
Xxain said:
SQUARE ENIX, SEGA, CAPCOM, KONAMI, NAMCO BANDAI, NINTENDO <------- these guys have no excuse not to dual localize

You forgot SONY.



4 ≈ One

Xxain on 26 October 2009

^ your right..let me edit them in...i knew I was missin somebody



Xxain on 26 October 2009
Xxain said:
SQUARE ENIX, SEGA, CAPCOM, KONAMI, NAMCO BANDAI, NINTENDO


Kenryoku_Maxis on 26 October 2009
swyggi said:
nofingershaha said:
scottie said:
nofingershaha said:

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.
 

 

Repeat after me

 

"The world does not revolve around the western world."

That was not the point I was trying to make, with the Japanese market shrinking and the rest of the world's video game industry still growing, it just seems wiser if they release it worldwide simultaneously if they want to compete with Western publishers.

Sales come from hype but the longer it takes to localize the game, the less hype there will be.

Most constant sales come from appeal.  If someone wants a game, then they will get it no matter what.  If they are riding on hype (newcomers to a game generally fit in this category), then they were swept by dogma's fury.  "Everybody is so eager to get this game! It has to be good!"

 

No they don't.  In America, the most consistent sales comes from hype.  And there's 2 major drivers of that hype: 1) Word of Mouth and 2) Marketing.

Since most games don't get the type of marketing a major release such as Halo, GTA, Uncharted, Mario, Zelda, etc get, they have to go for the word of mouth hype.  If you stall a games localization for many months or a year, it loses that hype and people move on to another game.

Look at the sales for recent games like Muramasa, Little King's Story or like I stated in a previous post, Dragon Quest.  These games took close to a year to be localized from their Japanese counterparts and had little to no marketing outside of word of mouth (and some limited online advertising for Muramasa).  As a result, they're selling/have sold mildly (and in the case of Dragon Quest, horribly).



Six upcoming games you should look into: