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Forums - Sales - japanese needs to learn about simultaneous release

scottie on 26 October 2009

Kantor - Because they wait until they have translated it into French, German, Spanish and Italian so that they can release the game with all the languages on one disk, so that people can play the game with foreign friends



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Kantor on 26 October 2009
scottie said:
Kantor - Because they wait until they have translated it into French, German, Spanish and Italian so that they can release the game with all the languages on one disk, so that people can play the game with foreign friends

But English people have no European friends!



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Untamoi on 26 October 2009
reaver_x said:
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

Well, because 360 port isn't even nearly ready yet so they could have only released PS3 version this holiday worldwide. Or if they wanted to release 360 version simultaneously, delay japanese launch.



ShadowSoldier on 26 October 2009

Games like FFXIII are huge and I can understand that they want to get the ground work finished before even thinking of localizing it. So they probably start everything in their native language and then add in Japanese VAs later down the line then worry about everywhere else. I do agree though the wait time between FF's is way to far apart.

Konami and Capcom have actually been really good this Gen, with MGS, DMC4 and Castlevania all having WW releases



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V-r0cK on 26 October 2009

Dont be upset at Japan that they dont really care for western games lol XD ... btw how long did it take for Japan to get Gears of War again?



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Netyaroze on 26 October 2009

"But English people have no European friends!"

Why the British always have to act as they were in opposite to rest of Europe. The rest of Europe is not a country and they hate each other atleast in the same way as UK hates the other European Countrys. Its in best European Tradition that the Europeans hate each other. The British think always they are special but infact they act 100% european. Face it UK you are European not just your blood but also your mind.




Serious_frusting on 26 October 2009
nofingershaha said:
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.

I agree 100%

All of these following games were going to be first day purchases from me. Now not so much

 

Tekken 6. I would have 100% got this game first day. But the long wait for it has just made me lose interest

Final Fantasy 13. I still might end up getting this first day but before it wouldnt have been a question.

White Knight Chronicles. I would have gotten this game first week. Now i aint sure if i will get it at all.

Demons souls. I would have gotten this game no questions asked, but the long wait for it has just made me lose interest.

Yakuza 3. This game i would have got first day. Now it is just a game that i might just get if i got money to wait.

 

What do all these games have in common?

1. I would have gotten them all first day

2. not no longer

3. All from Japanese devs

 

 



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Kenryoku_Maxis on 26 October 2009
Untamoi said:
reaver_x said:
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

Well, because 360 port isn't even nearly ready yet so they could have only released PS3 version this holiday worldwide. Or if they wanted to release 360 version simultaneously, delay japanese launch.

The difference is, companies like Atlus, Koei and NIS specifically ARE doing better at releasing their games worldwide than the 'big' companies like SquareEnix, Konami, even Nintendo, who release then sometimes months later and with content missing.

In contrast, companies like Atlus and NIS are getting localizers who keep the original Japanese voice tracks and get the product out very quick.  Its a testament to their success when Atlus can pump out so many games a month (even in America and Europe) and still have MORE options (such as extra cd bundles, new missions or dual audio), and companies like Square Enix take 6-12 months just to release an inferior product with less options than the Japanese product and a weak dub.



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Kantor on 26 October 2009
Netyaroze said:
"But English people have no European friends!"

Why the British always have to act as they were in opposite to rest of Europe. The rest of Europe is not a country and they hate each other atleast in the same way as UK hates the other European Countrys. Its in best European Tradition that the Europeans hate each other. The British think always they are special but infact they act 100% european. Face it UK you are European not just your blood but also your mind.

Never! You all use the same currency!

Anyway, they could at least ship to UK/AU/NZ first, and then take however long it takes to put in the extra languages and ship to mainland Europe. Even worse is how some games take months to come to Europe: Look at God of War Collection. GoW doesn't have much dialogue. More to the point, it's ALREADY BEEN TRANSLATED four years ago! They just need to update the graphics and add trophies. Why does it take them so long to bring it across the Atlantic?

The opposite is also true. EyePet. It's out in Europe. What do they have to do to make it ready for release in America?



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darthdevidem01 on 26 October 2009

I totally agree

AT THE LEAST release games in UK at the same time as USA

we don't need all those extra european languages on our discs!



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