MGS Creators on 'Masochistic' PS2, U.S. Popularity

Thanks to GameSpy for its article interviewing Hideo Kojima and Scott Dolph of Konami about the continuation of the Metal Gear Solid series. Notable sections include Kojima's comments about the programming difficulties of Sony hardware: "People on my team are masochistic. They enjoy the difficulty of working with PlayStation 2 and we assume that PlayStation 3 will be even more difficult. We know nothing about the system; but it's from Sony, so we assume so", as well as Dolph discussing Metal Gear Solid's regional popularity: "You know, it sells better in the United States. There are more people who buy the game and are waiting for the game. Also, the hype from the U.S. travels and that helps sales in Japan. If the game is big in the U.S., it will do better in Japan. And I do not think that the hype works for you the other way around."

Comments

Eastern focus

[dakiarai]

"And I do not think that the hype works for you the other way around."

That's a pretty big understatement. Even now, with more games being released than ever, many of the huge games in Japan are either too complicated to translate (See: Mojib Ribbon) or the developers don't think that American audiences will like the game. On the other hand, games like Ratchet and Clank made a big splash here and went to sell millions in Japan. The Japaense are warming up to games coming from the West, so why aren't we working to bring more games from the East?

Re:Eastern focus

[Emperor Igor]

It's probably because the games from Japan (which is what I assume you mean by East) are very innovative and strange. Games from the West focus overwhelmingly on killing monsters/people. And, don't get me wrong, they are spectacular at it. You just need a change once in a while. And the Japanese take more risks with their games, focusing on more abstract concepts or brightening up a more hum-dum, every day concept to be more fun.

Re:Eastern focus

[Ectospheno]

Most games from Japanese game companies release in Japan first. The American divisions of Sony and Nintendo decide whether or not they want them in America. So, its hard to get super excited about a hot new Japanese game when you aren't even sure if Sony or Nintendo will bother to bring it over here. Then even if they do bring it over its a months long wait (if not longer).

Maybe things work better in the opposite direction. I don't really have any insight into this as there aren't that many _good_ games that release in the US before Japan.

Re:Eastern focus

[Rayonic]

Where do you get the idea that "Japanese games are more innovative and strange"? I mean, sure, a lot of Japanese stuff might seem strange to you, but much of it is just commonplace there.

Re:Eastern focus

[Anonymous Coward]

And I'm sure you think the upcoming releases of Dragon Quest 8, Final Fantasy 12, Gundam game umpteen, and MegaMan whatever will prove you right?

For every innovative Japanese game, I can name two innovative non-Japanese games.

Re:Eastern focus

[Phil Wilkins]

Insightful??? How about, completely wrong. US and European gamers have played many more Japanese games than the Japanese play western games, going back as far as Space Invaders. Japanese developers even make games specifically for the western audience. For example, Tecmo didn't finance Ninja Gaiden on the predicted japanese sales.

On the other hand, western successes in Japan are the exception, rather than the rule. Naughty Dog, working very closely with Sony, made a lot of changes to Crash Bandicoot to make him appeal to the Japanese audience. Ratchett went under a similar process. For example, he has Groucho Marx eyebrows in the Japanese version.

Mojib Ribbon, like its predecessor Vib, is a niche title, in a genre that historically does very poorly in the US. It's getting a European translation though, because there's a market for quirky titles over there. As a US resident, this pisses me off immensely, but it's how the industries been for a long time now (besides, games are generally cheaper, faster, and earlier in the US, so it kinda balances out).

Why Japanese hype doesn't always translate

[chilled]

We need to remember the Japanese games playing demographic as compared to the US or the UK. Overall there is a much wider Japanese demographic, therefore there is a wider (not necessarily larger, don't know the figures on that) market within Japan which translates to a wider range of games available. There is a market for these "wierd" Japanese games in the rest of the world, but it's pretty small as a percentage of these home markets, compared to Japan.

Feel free to disagree or disabuse any of these notions.