Slashdot Mirror
Why Are Japanese-Developed Games Less Popular?
Thanks to GameSpy for their 'Sole Food' editorial discussing the decline of the Japanese-developed videogame in the U.S. console charts. The article doesn't deny there are still big Japanese-developed hits in the West, but suggests: "It's not uncommon for there to be only two or three Japanese games among the top 20 sellers each month; this would have been unheard of less than ten years ago." As for explanations, it's argued that "Western developers are doing a better job of servicing core genres that are popular in the U.S.", but a "financial and creative slump" in the Japanese games industry is also blamed - "A quick glance through the games shown at last weekend's Tokyo Game Show reveals little that is truly new."
"It's not uncommon for there to be only two or three Japanese games among the top 20 sellers each month; this would have been unheard of less than ten years ago."
I'm not even sure if this is completely true. Maybe we're questioning the fact that more western games are in the charts than before, but the last charts I saw showed more like 9 Japanese games in the top 20 (though 3 were the different versions of Soul Calibur 2, 3 US titles were the different versions of Madden NFL 2004).
As for questioning matters like originality in the titles, there are problems on this front on both sides. After all, 4 of the top 11 games are football games (Madden for GC was #11, NCAA Football was #5), and who would you get to develop an American football game outside of the US? 5 of the top 20 are US-centric sports games (the above 4 and NBA Street), with Mario Golf making 6 sports games in the list (though obviously not in the same realm of sports games as the others). The best selling soccer (football for the non-US people) game in Japan is a game made by a Japanese company, while the best selling soccer game in Europe is an EA title. Would anyone in the US be likely to play a Japanese-developed baseball game today? Well the Japanese certainly are, and it's right up there in the Japanese top 10, too.
Something else to note would be the longevity of titles on the US charts. Games rise and fall on the Japanese charts in a matter of weeks. In the US, we still have Vice City and Halo in the top 20. Pokemon Ruby & Saphire's combined sales keep it in the top 20 in Japan, while in the US they're listed individually and both still on the top 20.
The article's author even takes the time to say that Nintendo's part of the problem, even though Nintendo has 4 games in the US top 20, surpassed only by EA's 5. The only other company with more than 1 is Namco, and that's the 3 listings for SC2 (as EA's listing is for 2 games + 3 listings for Madden).
-PainKilleR-[CE]
The examples they use in the article make the argument that N.American/European game markets are more original a real joke.
Prince of Persia: Okay. A reimagining of a really old game, that is yet another platformer.
Sly Cooper: A platformer, with a little stealth mixed in. Not much new.
Deus Ex: Invisible War: FPS with plot and some RPG elements. System Shock 1, 2, Deus Ex 1, Thief 1, 2.
Tony Hawk 3: I hope I don't need to explain why a third in a series isn't original.
Now I am not criticizing the games, and I will agree that N.American/European developers have come a long way and are putting together good games. But the lack of originality claim came off as unfounded, and nothing in the article backed it up in the least. In fact, the article almost read as an example of how the non-Japanese developers were pounding out the same old same old games(particularly of the sports category).
Yeah, maybe I'm being nitpicky over a one line claim that wasn't the brunt of the article, but it really struck me as flagrantly inaccurate(probably in part due to the use of that quote in the slashdot article blurb)
T & A = Tits and Ass.
I posted this months ago, and it still seems relevant to this article:
I pulled up the TRST Data from last year, and I counted how many of the top titles for Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 were made in Japanese top 10, top 20, top 30.
On PlayStation 2, two of their top 10 were made in Japan, and two of the next 10, and three of the next 10. That's got to be a record for low games from Japan.
On Xbox, there were none in the top 10, two in the next 10, and none in the last 10.
On GameCube it was six, five, and a few more in the last 10. (Almost all of them were Nintendo 1st/2nd party titles as you prolly guessed.)
Okay...I would also like to take a shot at summing up your post.
1- You don't like competition.
2- You don't like sports
3- The original Need For Speed was good, because you could drive on a 'beautiful course'.
4- The current Neef For Speed has over the top scenery, and is so impressive with visuals that it doesn't look real.
5- You like games on the Amiga and NES
My responses:
1 & 2: You don't like competition, you long for your Amiga and Final Fantasy games- of course you don't like sports! (Not just the games, but the real thing.)
3 & 4: Hmm...how is it that the original NFS was good because it was beautiful, but you don't like the recent ones, because the graphics are 'over the top'. Of course, over the top could mean many things, but I don't think that more than two people in the world (both mentally retarded) would agree that the original NFS was more beautiful than the current ones.
5: Maybe you are just reaching the age where games are not a big thing for you now. Games are better now than ever before- but you just ENJOYED them more before, because you were younger, and they were more important to you.
Go to the arcade, and see how many kids actually play Pac Man. It's all the old farts. The ones who think that their Genesis system still rocks. The ones who think that today's games are too complicated. The ones who have been passed by in life by the next generation...
No reason to lie.