Video Games - Lost in Translation?

MikeDawg writes "No, it's not a case of 'All Your Base Are Belong To Us'. MSNBC is running an article about the relative popularity of some game hardware and software in the West vs. the East. This article covers the phenomenon of games vs. culture and why video games that do well in the U.S. generally don't do well in Japan, and vice-versa." The piece notes of the Japanese market: "American-made consoles such as 3DO (released in Japan in 1994) and most recently the Microsoft Xbox (released in two years ago) never seem to attract consumers in large numbers. Games such as 'Enter the Matrix' from Atari, and 'The Lord of the Rings' by Electronic Arts, both released [in Japan] last year, often vanish... without leaving a trace."

Comments

Re:Different markets, thats why

[Killjoy_NL]

Yes, there are some anime that have tentacle rape in there, those anime are for the fetishists (sp?) that like that stuff.
It's sad that one of the first anime to come out of japan was Urutsokidoji - Legend of the Overfiend.
It was released in the UK and the Netherlands under the Manga label and after a lot of people saw that, they thought "WE MUST PROTECT THE CHILDREN FROM THIS CRAP".
I think this is a shame because there is so much GOOD anime out there in all genres.

Comedy: Urusei Yatsura, Ranma
Action: Noir, Cowboy Bebop
Drama: Saikano, Grave of the fireflies
Kiddy: Pokemon, Digimon, etc

Well, you get the idea. And it just now dawned on me that you were probably trolling.
Ah well, I got to write a nice piece anyway :)

Music?

[aitsuda]

Any article which starts "despite the success of american music and movies in Japan" has got to be questionable. Japanese music and idols dominate the charts; a few foreign groups / singers hit a niche market.

Why the Xbox failed in Japan

[kir]

I've been here (Japan) for 8 years. I was here when the PS1, PS2, and the Xbox were released. IMHO, the XBox failed in this country for one reason:

Sony has completely saturated the market here. I can rent/buy PS2 games in pretty much every conbini (convenience store - 7-Eleven, Family Mart, Sunkus, etc.) in Japan -- even in "remote" areas like Yatsugatake, Aumori, etc. Hell, I think one can buy a PS2 in Doit (think HomeDepot, Lowe's, Wilkinson). I've been to some stores where they only carry PS1/2 goods (Kotesashi Seiyu in Tokorozawa for example). Of course, right before the Xbox was released here, Sony opened the spicket (sales, promotions, etc.).

Re:On Xbox's lack of success in Japan

[Lord_Dweomer]

For those who don't get Simoniker's good joke, allow me to explain.

Samir Gupta is a /. personality who makes what seem to be very insightful and informative posts.....if not for the fact that they are completely discredited by his claims of working at Nintendo, which unfortunately he does not (this has been verified). I'm sure if they hired him however, he would make an excellent marketing person.

Perhaps this famous Slashdot troll is not really a troll, but rather one man on a quest to get a job at Nintendo, and pulling a big, illegal, fraudulent stunt to get their attention.

Re:Obviously

[Erik Hollensbe]

Repeat after me:

Games based on movies SUCK. The inverse is also true.

(Repeat until you stop buying them.)

This gross generalization was brought to you by someone who thinks gameplay is more important than story. Movies have story going for them, not gameplay (for what I think are pretty obvious reasons).

Pong is highly addictive and didn't have a ton of cut and paste FMV and rendered versions of Keanu and John Rhys-Davies. Why do you need this?

Anyways,

</rant>

Re:I wonder if...

[Jussi K. Kojootti]

Maybe it doesn't make all Japanese sick but maybe we just aren't built for it.

Some industry people agree with you. This is from Scott Millers (3DRealms) blog. See especially point 2.

Compared to Europe, the Asian territories (specifically, Japan) are more challenging for selling Western games. There are three high barriers for us to overcome to be successful over there:

1) aesthetics - you've probably noticed a predilection for cuter anime style characters in Japanese games. Namely, there's a preference for characters to have slightly larger heads and larger eyes, and for environments to use a high contrast color palette. This is out of sync with the more realistic style that most of us Western game designers employ. Crash Bandicoot is one of the best selling U.S. developed games ever because they designed their characters from the ground up to be compatible with Japan.

The disconnect we have with Asian-style aesthetics is only going to be exacerbated as the average age of US gamers (currently 28 years-old) continues to increase. As adults we're obviously going to want more realistic and less cartoony games.

2) camera - games that have fast moving cameras severely limit their audience in Asian nations because people there have a tendency to get dizzy or sick from jerky movement. First person shooters are almost impossible, and 3rd person action games with simplistic follow-cams are just as bad. I remember a specific instance when working at a development company in Yokohama where I was playing a game of Descent and my Japanese co-workers had to avert their eyes from my screen because they were getting nauseous!

Games like Ratchet and Clank 1 & 2 are huge in Japan partially because their camera spin speed is very slow, and they use smart, well dampened algorithms to avoid jerkiness. This was intentional because these guys were thinking about the Japanese market from day one.

3) difficulty - games that are too difficult or punish the player too often have trouble in Japan too. People tend to get lost in complex 3D space, so I remember reading a post mortem on Sly Cooper (I think) where they said that they added lots of infomration sign posts, arrows, and clues to help guide Japanese players through their levels.