On Selling Western PC Games In Japan

Thanks to GameSpot for their interview with the Japanese PC game publisher Cyberfront, discussing what it takes for a Western PC game to sell in console-dominated Japan. The company's best-sellers are Civilization III, which boasts "good name recognition", and takes advantage of "the... popular simulation genre" in Japan, and interestingly, SWAT III - apparently, "the tactical shooter struck a chord among this particular group: Japan's model firearm subculture." The company's founders argue that the first-person shooter genre can still be popular in Japan, pointing out that "Medal of Honor for PS2 sold 200,000 copies." However, the PC market is still relatively small, so "...a title that sells 10,000 copies in Japan is considered a hit."

Comments

Different culture, allright!

[obeythefist]

The Japanese have a very different market to sell for. They like smaller things that are more gadgety, which is why mobile phones and small game consoles are popular, where bulky PC's aren't seen as being as cool as they are in the West.

They also like different kinds of games, the Final Fantasy series is much bigger there than here. Games like Quake and Doom and multiplayer games are much more popular in the west. Multiplayer is a big driver for PC games that the consoles are only just waking up to (They're in "me too!" mode now.)