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Lost Odyssey And Japan's Western Gaming Success
Gamasutra has on offer today an extremely honest interview with Feelplus president Ray Nakazato, a veteran of Capcom and Microsoft and an expert on the Japanese gaming market. Nakazato discusses a variety of topics with obvious candor, including struggle that western game companies have in Japan, the state of various in-development game titles (such as Lost Odyssey), and the history of the Japanese game market. "In the early days of the games market, Japanese games were pretty interesting back then, while many games from overseas were seen as being bad. Now, you'll find a lot of interesting and fun games coming from North America and Europe, but because of that experience that we have from the early 1990s, people tend to stay away from Western games.""
maybe... if the game seems ok from the desc on the box i might by it, look at metroid prime for the GC, wasnt that made in the USA
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I sincerely apologize... shit.
We figured out a long time ago that it's easier to elect seven judges than to elect 132 legislators.
Japan is hostile to foreign games to begin with. For example you don't actually hear World of Warcraft talking about how they do in Japan even though they seem to own the rest of the world, because Japanese prefer FF11 over that. But even if that's not the case, there's no reason to assume one culture has to like the games from another culture. It is probably safe to say that the USA will never be into dating sims line the way Japanese are. This doesn't inherently say anything about the quality of the said games, but merely a reflection of the culture.
I found some of the insight into the Japanese gaming industry to be interesting. Particularly how they develop games out there. It explains why interfaces in Japanese games, and electronics in general, tend to be so convoluted and controls in some cases unnecessarily complex. Its would help explain why Japanese consoles tend to be harder to develop for.
I also find it interesting that Nakazato finds Japan game developers tend to be behind in terms of technology and innovation. I guess it depends on what is defined as innovation. Many argue a unique controller is innovative. Others argue that more sophisticated, realistic gameplay supported by advanced graphics is innovation. Both are valid in their own right.
I could argue that many Wii and some DS games are glorified, repackaged flash games. I could also argue that advanced graphics add nothing at all to gameplay and in fact draw away resources that could be used to produce a better game. But that isn't always true in either case. Both have their place.
But I do agree than in general Western games, well PC games in particular, have always been sophisticated, at least on the back-end. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that those games are move fun. And Americans generally only have access to the best Japanese games, so we don't see all the drivel flooding the Japanese market.
When one makes a bad "all your base are belong to us" or Soviet Russia joke, the mod shouldn't be Redunant, you complete and utter moron. Offtopic? Sure. I'd even buy Troll or Flamebait because there isn't an unfunny mod. But redunant has a very clear meaning, one you clearly haven't figured out. Fuck you.
We figured out a long time ago that it's easier to elect seven judges than to elect 132 legislators.
His point was valid. He didn't actually overstate the size of dating sims in Japan. He just said they would never do as well in the US. But the sales are really good. Ignoring mega hits that commonly top the charts like To Heart, the market is saturated, the games are cheap to make and they are $80-100 dollars a pop. You would not see lines around the block like this in the US and there is a nich market for otaku goods in the US, it just is nowhere near as big and our good christian fellow would never put up with some good old loli harem story where you spank the naked bunny at the end if people were lining up to get it. I live in Japan part time and have played some of these games. There are things there that would never fly here because of cultural differences and it doesn't always involve a niche market. An example would be reading erotic manga in public. Otakus prefer to do that in their own den while its the more casual readers you see doing it in public. In the end we are talking about video games. The hardcore people often set the buzz and inform everyone. In Japan its even more tipped towards the niche to the point where they aren't a niche but powerfull group both in purchasing power and influence. I wouldn't say their preferences in games are mcuh different than the rest of Japan, just more excessive. Most of the Japanese gamers I know really don't attempt to give western games a chance and are really stuborn. It would take an extreme attention gathering method to even get their attention. MS has always gone at this half as*** so that just makes matters worse. It kind of goes both ways I guess; the Japanese are biased towards western games and western companies don't accomodate them. There is a misconception amongst them that western games lack quality, a storyline and are all shooters. If anything I think some of their preferences are rubbing off and western games are getting sexier and are including more female characters that are used by male players as well as female.