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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."
Japan:
Epic RPGs
Music games
Platformers
Fighting games
Wacky/insane games
U.S.:
Sports
Extreme sports
FPS
RTS
Anything online
This is a gross oversimplification, but the fact is different genres have different degrees of success in different territories. Plus, Japanese developers have no concept of how to not offend western media (I'm sorry, SEGA, a game that lets kids join a gang and spray paint anything in sight while running from the law is just not a very good idea, no matter how good it could be if you'd just fixed a few usability issues).
a lot of it, for me at least, is the look of japanese games. Seems like every time I check one out, they look very cartoony/anime looking (especially on the GC). It's not that I value graphics over gameplay, it's just that certain styles of graphics turn me off enough that I don't care if it's a fun game to play because I simply hate looking at it.
Don't leave your mind so open that your brain falls out. Don't close it so much that you cut off the blood.
in which case almost all of the top selling games are by a japanese developer (namely Nintendo themselves). Here's an interesting chart listing the gamecube's best selling games.
His words, not mine:
"I'll always be a Japanophile gamer at heart, though, so I can only hope that Japan's gaming industry figures out a way to escape from its financial and creative slump. Only then I can get back to being an elitist, Japan-loving snob."
Well, I guess if he's happy with his own self-image, then the more power to him. Still seems kinda sad, though.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Sounds like a good description of the PS2 and SquareSoft(er, Square Enix these days) to me. Which is hardly an accurate description of the Japanese game market... Frankly, I think the US market is almost as guilty of the T&A aspect(Tomb Raider anyone?).
I'm tired of the same things myself, but that's why I am sticking with Japanese games mainly. But I'm going the GameCube route. It's all a matter of tastes I suppose. Pikmin alone is practically a system seller for me... One of the most original games I've played in the last few years, and while it is a genre 'mix'(Bit RTS, bit adventure/puzzle, bit platformer) it is a mix unlike anything else I can think of. And I really like the cute, yet simultaneously dark in that morbid nmother nature 'survival of the fittest' sort of way...
Then again, some people absolutely hate Pikmin and want to play an FPS. It's all about preferences...
Though I still must say your complaint isn't that accurate a description of Japanese games(a portion of them, but there are a lot that aren't like that...)
However, blaming it on a lack of variation in Japanese games seems a little unfounded... New and groundbreaking concepts are pretty damn rare in both markets.
It would seem someone else remembers all the C&C & Warcraft clones from back in the mid 90s. (Along with all the Quake wannabes that plagued the industry at the same time.) And before that there were all the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat clones that we put up with for years in the arcades.
Hell, if you want to go all way bacl the beginning then look at all the Pong clones that appeared shortly after its release.
Or, for those who don't remember/care about those, how about all the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater clones and variations that we had a few years ago?
"Nothing-new-here" is the way that many video game companies make money, by riding along on the success of someone else who took risks with a new concept. Saying that the Japanese game market is less innovative than the N.American/European game market shows a profound disregard for the history and habits of the latter.
"I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
I'd say that one line was more than just one line. When reading the article I couldn't help but get two things out of it:
1) Japanese companies are producing games for Japanese gamers (Well duh!)
2) Japanese game companies are somehow less innovative than their Western counterparts.
We both agree on the latter, so I won't go into it again. But I find it odd that he in the paragraph before he mentions the Tokyo Game Show he makes a reference to EA's Madden series.
Just a hint to the author over on GameSpy, if anywhere in the article you are going to bring up one side being more innovative than the other then you definitely don't want to be bringing up sports games for any reason at all.
"I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
"Maybe people got bored of 15 year old girls in miniskirts casting spells?"
Yeah! Here in North America, we want our spell casters to at least look like legal age! And with larger breasts!