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

"the... popular simulation genre"

[KNicolson]

Unfortunately, the most popular facets of the simulation genre in Japan are those of "rapist", "pedophile", and "incestual pedophile rapist", judging by Something Awful's review pages.

On a serious note, they say:

If a game like Dragon Quest VIII came out on PC, they could easily sell 4 or 5 million copies, but there's just no incentive for Square Enix to move away from consoles

but surely there's not much bigger an incentive than 4 or 5 million sales for a port?

Japan's model firearm subculture

[heldlikesound]

In case people are unfamiliar with this "subculture" they are referring to the sport/hobby of Airsoft, which are exact replicas of real firearms, accurate to every detail, including weight. These guns shoot plastic BB's, and are either spring loaded, or, on the more expensive models, gas-powered.

Aside from just collecting this guns, there are people that actually play with them ala paintball guns, with teams and everything (think real-life Counterstrike).

When I was a kid, me and brothers would have killed for a good, solid plastic BB gun, so in my quest to relive my childhood days, I bought a few cheap Airsoft Glocks (33 and 17) just for plinking around.

Here are some relevant links:

http://www.redwolfairsoft.com/redwolf/airsoft/Ho me
http://shop.airsoftdynamics.com/home.shtml
http ://www.airsoftelite.com/

Also, these are GREAT for shooting girlfriends/cats!