Konami dev: many Western gamers have no interest in Japanese games

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 4 November, 2011

"The industry has changed," says Tak Fujii.

The Konami producer of N3: Ninety-Nine Nights II has had his say on supposed decline of the Japanese video game industry.

"It's hard," Konami's Tak Fujii, famous for his bizarre E3 2010 on-stage presentation, told Siliconera. "As you know, the industry has changed. It's a totally different business here compared to five years ago. This is my personal guess, but many Western gamers don't play Japanese games anymore or maybe they never played Japanese games. They have no interest in Japanese games."

Mega Man main man Keiji Inafune followed up his infamous 2009 "Japan is dead" comment by saying last year that Japan was "at least five years behind" the West.

"I look around Tokyo Games Show, and everyone's making awful games," Inafune, who no longer works for Capcom, said.

Fujii is also downbeat, and pointed to Call of Duty players as evidence of his claim.

"OK, there is a big FPS franchise in the West, the biggest one from somewhere," he said. "It has massive numbers. Maybe half or more than half of those players may have bought hardware just to play that game and no other games. They only have one game and they keep purchasing downloadable maps, additional content, DLC, DLC, DLC. And then a new one comes out and they just buy it. They never play sports games, action games, and have no interest in Japanese games.

"Before Microsoft came into the console business, the centre of development was Nintendo or Sony," he continued. "It was very handy for us to discuss hardware and technology with them because everything was in Japanese.

"Now, reports have to go through the American division and are translated into Japanese for the technical division and then if anything comes back we have to translate that into English for support. It's hard. Once America started getting into the console business, there is only English support and they are in the Western market. It was handy for them and so the roles changed."

Earlier this year Bayonetta, MadWorld and Vanquish developer PlatinumGames lamented the decline of originality in video games and Japanese game development.

In an open letter published on its website, president and CEO Tatsuya Minami said: "The 'fresh surprises' I mention are becoming few and far between, especially in our home of Japan. Not so long ago, Japan lead the world's games business, and it was not a stretch to call games a uniquely Japanese specialty; however, now it appears that Japanese games companies have lost their vigor.

"Series grow ever-longer; original titles are on the decline. Games with new at their core are disappearing. Japanese games that garner worldwide acclaim are slipping away. This state of affairs deeply saddens us."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (90) Latest comment 7 months ago

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  • cowell #1 7 months ago

    You will be sucked.
    Extreeeeeeeeeeeeeeme.

  • Dizzy #2 7 months ago

    Maybe because a lot of Japanese games are actually crap?

  • sonicyoda #3 7 months ago

    We do have interest in Japanese games but we don't have any interest in Ninety-Nine Nights II because it was shit.

  • joelstinton #4 7 months ago

    Perhaps a different approach is needed in terms of bringing the games over to the western market, or making them sell well. Perhaps having a Japanese store on the european and American store with demos and selling them at a slightly reduced price is the way to go.

    Exposure is the only way people will buy or see japanese games. I think Dark Souls is a testimony to what can happen (a roaring success) to a japanese game when sold right to western audiences.

  • King_Edward #5 7 months ago

    Don't give up. I still love Japan!

  • SheffAl #6 7 months ago

    Very true. Japaneses games don't interest me as they are not to my tastes, too many pointless generic sequals and just downright poor. I salute his honesty though.
    Edited by SheffAl at 06/11/11 @ 17:46

  • Cobalt_Jackal #7 7 months ago

    Maybe because Japanese games are still stuck in the 1990's/early 2000's (in terms of esp game mechanics/design and in terms of graphics at times as well), and J-games just in general are pretty crap.

    P.S. Although i do still love/enjoy my Japanese Yaoi games. ;)
    Edited by Cobalt_Jackal at 04/11/11 @ 19:53

  • azix2 #8 7 months ago

    @Dizzy more like Japanese don't make FPS games or generally driving and shooting games.

  • dsmx #9 7 months ago

    Gaming has moved on from the late 90's and early 00's and japenese devs have not.

  • doragonpawwa #10 7 months ago

    Hmm, don't know I believe western devs... and of course Japanese have interests in absorbing our money from our wallets than build exciting games for the sake of preventing risk...bah.

  • MrChuckles #11 7 months ago

    Maybe bring out a decent turn based strategy game on the 360 (Not just the PS3) and some of us might buy the thing?

    I wanted to play Culdcept Saga (Yes, i'm a geek), and although it was translated for the US market, they region locked it and only released in the US... So even if i wanted to import it, i couldn't.

    That's just stupid.

    Hrmpf...

  • consoledelight #12 7 months ago

    more than half my megadrive collection is Japanese imports, the are all the usual cute big eyed things fighting cute big eyed things. And to a certain extent it hasn't changed much. But the big japanese hitters such as Shenmue that the west has been crying for a sequel too never gets made. We had yakuza, but its no shenmue.
    They need to modernise, release games that are not solely unique to the japanese market, and once they have done this, it will rectify itself.
    More DMC, More Shen. . . .
    Then again, when you play a fighting game, only the japanese can do it justice.
    We had Mortal Kombat, and it was no streetfighter.

  • MattEdWithCheese #13 7 months ago

    Personally I was rather a fan of how you can compear in tha onlyne-leeda-bords and battle wiz armies of morzan won mirrion twoops, one mirrion twoops, WOOOOOOOW...

  • Jenova #14 7 months ago

    It is pretty true that Japanese games haven't grown up, I used to love J-rpgs back in the ps1 days but there's only so much a man can play.

  • tomjoadsghost #15 7 months ago

    ... and yet somehow western software companies were somehow maagically able to make software for japanese consoles without suffering analogous problems?

  • Colin8703 #16 7 months ago

    I think people who were interested before still are just as interested but the quality has gone way down with only a few companies releasing anything worth buying which doesn't help in getting new players interested.

    I've enjoyed Japanese games since I imported a Sega Megadrive but there hasn't been much to say buy me of late but you could argue that at the time, the Japanese were the kings of great games as they all dominated the arcades and most western developers just converted those to home systems.

    Western development has obviously changed considerably and is massive as Train Dating Horse Monster Sim 7 will still sell millions in Japan, western games don't as a rule and this is reversed outside of Japan.

    It's called cultural differences.

  • PinktotheLast #17 7 months ago

    My 5 favourite games of the last decade:
    Shadow of the Colossus
    Mario Galaxy 2
    Resident Evil 4
    Fallout 3
    Wind Waker

    Four of those are Japanese-developed.

    My 5 most anticipated games:
    Skyward Sword
    Last Guardian
    The Journey
    Skyrim
    Mario 3D Land

    Three of those are Japanese-developed (The Journey isn't but it somehow feels Japanese influenced!)
    Edited by PinktotheLast at 04/11/11 @ 14:33

  • berelain #18 7 months ago

    I think he has a point. Gamer's just aren't interested in what Japanese devs make these days, and it isn't because the game's aren't good. Even the likes of Bayonetta - which was wonderful - didn't generate huge sales, and even the more sucessful Japanese devs like Capcom are making games tailored for the Western Market.

    A lot of it seems to be a question of patience. Western gamers want instant gratification from games - take the standard western approach to RPGs compared to J-RPGs - in most western titles you have real-time, action-packed combat, whilst Japanese devs go for more strategic turn-based options. And I really do think that the COD generation is largely to blame for this; gamers want to be thrilled every single second, they don't want to have to put in the effort to get the returns like we used to have to.

    Sweeping generalisations, of course. But I think you see what I'm getting at here.

    And for the record, I was one of the few who adored Ninety-Nine Nights and all of its bonkers storyline.
    Edited by berelain at 04/11/11 @ 14:30

  • Xardan #19 7 months ago

    Times are a changing. The games industry has become a gigantic global business and you are surprised that the majority arent playing Japanese games?

    Wake up you close minded man, your country isnt the centre of the world.

  • MattEdWithCheese #20 7 months ago

    @PinktotheLast nah Journey's from "that game company" who did flower and that and they're american as far as I know but it's still a fair majority so, yeah!

  • bdc #21 7 months ago

    Noone wants to play shitty anime games.

  • PinktotheLast #22 7 months ago

    @MattEdWithCheese
    You are indeed right about ThatGameCompany. But both Flower and Flow felt so Japanese to me!

  • Whatascoop #23 7 months ago

    Konami peaked in the late 80s anyway. The costs of making a game ensure that the majority of big releases are generic, realistic, grey piles of boredom these days because that's what people 'want'.

  • -cerberus- #24 7 months ago

    No, you've got it all wrong, Mr. producer. I LOATHED the americanized Silent Hill spin-offs, which were (and still are) developed outside of Japan by nitwits. But I LOVED Silent Hill 1 through 4, which were developed by a Japanese team that knew what they were dealing with.

  • Ironic_War_Criminal #25 7 months ago

    @tomjoadsghost ... and yet somehow western software companies were somehow maagically able to make software for japanese consoles without suffering analogous problems?

    Not huge, but they are gaining very rapidly. GTAIV and Modern Warfare 2 did extremely well in Japan, for example. And Donkey Kong Country Returns was a huge seller in Japan, granted, it was a Nintendo published game but it was developed by Retro Studios in the US. To put it bluntly, Western games are cracking the Japanese market easier than the opposite and that's what has Japanese publishers worried.

  • King_of_Hyrule #26 7 months ago

    The most popular console and the most popular handheld of the past decade were created by a little Kyoto based company known as Nintendo and the succes was based on first-party (japanese) titles. So I wouldn't dismiss the japanese video games industry quite yet.

  • killemoff #27 7 months ago

    It's because they force us to mash the XXX and the YYY.

    *shows self out*

  • King_of_Hyrule #28 7 months ago

    On a slightly related note, I'm in Japan at the moment (for the first time ever) and I was surprised to see that every video game store seems to have quite a large Xbox 360 section (not as large as Nintendo & Sony but still) and there are even kinect ads on the tokyo subway, I thought microsoft had given up on Japan but aparantly not.

  • cowell #29 7 months ago

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-01-fifa-12-on-ps3-tops-2011-best-seller-list-so-far

    Sales for 2011 would suggest that Nintendo aside, the appetite and commercial success of Japanese developers is low on a global scale these days. It looks like all of the games of that top list for sales in Japan were home grown. But if you look at the US, only 3 were Jap developed (all Nintendo) and in Europe 9 titles were Japanese developed (8 Nintendo and 1 Polyphony).

    Its a shame but its true. Whilst Bayonetta and Deadly Premonition have been 2 of my favourite games in recent years, I have no interest in fighters and RPGs so the majority of my games are western.

  • zegerman1942 #30 7 months ago

    Maybe it's because 99% of all japanese games either being hardcore grind games or make no sense at all to a western person not completely immersed in the manga and weird stuff over there, that western people just don't give a damn?

    there are a few exceptions and a few exceptional japanese games, but with the majority i just go like "WTF is this??"

  • butler` #31 7 months ago

    Demon's Souls.

    "Gamers" don't care where games come from, they just like good games.

  • GamesConnoisseur #32 7 months ago

    Not all of Japanese games are crap, but very disheartening when you look at the top 50 games chart of any week in Japan. Too many dating games, train, farm sims, variations of monster hunter and so on.

    I remember years ago, used to look at their chart with envy, but now I see Western developed games in the Japanese chart as their saving grace! Though gems like Ace Attorney, Professor Layton, Mario, Zelda remains the highlights of my gaming year .. any times!

  • epiazk #33 7 months ago

    Well to be quite frank they need to up their game. Pokemon, final fantasy (8 remains one of my best memories of an RPG), metal gear solid...clearly the ability to shift massive units is still there, making dynasty warrior clones is never going to appeal though.

    But my biggest problem with japanese games is they are ALMOST NEVER ON PC, thus I don't even get the option of buying the damn things.

  • [STARS]TyranT #34 7 months ago

    Dark Souls, the Yakuza series and no doubt Skyward Sword beg to differ.

  • nickthegun #35 7 months ago

    Its because they spent too many years stuck in a rut, catering to OCD freakshows.

    Even the games that do make waves over here, like fighting games and whatnot, there is still the pokemon element of trying to get people to collect all 8000 costumes or 20000 little statues of sonic and pals.

    I dont think western gamers give a shit about that.

    Also, they are behind in the basic fundementals of video games now. Online, for example, is an area where they lag enormously. Its like they just dont understand the basics of matchmaking and lobbies.

  • evnewell #36 7 months ago

    Well, I think the CoD FPS trend has hurt all of us. I don't buy those games, but then I grew up on Metroid, Megaman, Zelda, Chronotrigger and Street Fighter. I love Japanese games, but they aren't what they used to be.

    I love Bayonetta, Okami and Vanquish - I'm afraid of Dark Souls, but I bet I would love that too if I had more time.

    The truth is the spirit of 90's era Japanese games lives on among many of the western Indi-Devs. Looking at Bastion, that has so many of the older Japanese games in its DNA.

    I was playing Viewtiful Joe 2 when it came out (years ago) and a 15 year old kid saw the game and literally said, 'awwww, you like nipper games, eh? I don't play those.' I was shocked, but all he wanted was more GTA - it's a problem, but I still love Nippon.

  • vizzini #37 7 months ago

    I think many Japanese developers are still doing a great job to produce games that are special when played, whether single player or multiplayer.

    Virtua Fighter 5 is as pure a game experience as you will find, technically and mentally, and yet it has only sold ~1.5m units(~1m PS3, ~0.5m 360) worldwide.

    The recent low worldwide sales figures (~0.5M) of Ico HD collection (vgchartz.com) shows just how few real connoisseurs of games make up the game paying audience, versus the 6m per console sales of any COD game.

    The big issue is luring people away from the addictive mundane FPS experiences, to invest time and effort back into a variety of game genres.

    I think the solution for game developers in Japan could be quite simple. They could just get their professional play testers to spend half their days perfecting their COD, Fifa, Gears and Halo skills online(in the US) to become the top tier of players in all popular western games.

    Once your average western player works out the gulf in play standard from Japan's best, there will be a large multi player exodus from these games in the west, leading the consumer back to variety of games experiences again.

    The content that is out there is great. It is just sad that so few people sample elements from all genres.

  • Springchicken #38 7 months ago

    Regardless, I wish Japanese developers would stop trying to emulate Western games when chasing international sales success. It's just embarrassing, seeing stuff like Quantum Theory released.

  • DrStrangelove #39 7 months ago

    Well, many Japanese devs seem to have no interest in western gamers.

    Back in the days, consoles were totally dominated by the Japanese, there was not much choice. Either you played western games on PC or Japanese games on console.

    Today, there's enough western content for consoles too, and players of a certain region naturally tend to buy what's more in touch with their own entertainment culture. And it's safe to say that the Japanese entertainment culture is very different from the European or American. So if you make a game for Japan first, it will very likely not be accepted by the western audience.
    Edited by DrStrangelove at 04/11/11 @ 15:31

  • electrolite #40 7 months ago

    Maybe half or more than half of those players may have bought hardware just to play that game and no other games. They only have one game and they keep purchasing downloadable maps, additional content, DLC, DLC, DLC. And then a new one comes out and they just buy it. They never play sports games, action games, and have no interest in Japanese games.
    Isn't that the definition of casual that was widely applied to people buying the Wii for Wii Sports? Confusing, this 'casual/real gamers' crap

  • RawNinjaKid #41 7 months ago

    With Western developers having caught up on the stationary console front, I actually think there's not much of a decline in Japanese output except since the PSP/DS/3DS and soon the Vita; a lot of development focus has gone to handheld projects, since handhelds are popular in the country.

    Japan has always produced action-adventure titles (for the western audiences), lots of RPGs, dating sims, and lots of ther stuff that don't make it here. Big Japanese titles still exist for Western consumers, so the output hasn't changed. The content is always debatable.


    Western games are though very different, as they lack that overall quirky innovative nature, that is so immersive. I hope Japan still continues to contribute lots of good stuff for western gamers.
    It's just unrealistic for Japanese gaming to be as dominant as before.

    And both Western and Japanese titles recycle and recycle-- innovation only come once in a while.

    Just to add though, the MSFT entry to the console market has changed things for Japanese developers targeting the "American" audience. All of a sudden a successful franchise/title needs lots of DLC, online multiplay, VC, achievements. All these changes that were not designed with the Japanese gaming and development community in mind; exposes cultural differences in game design.
    Edited by RawNinjaKid at 04/11/11 @ 16:13

  • marmaduke #42 7 months ago

    I think he's forgetting that Dark Souls has sold pretty well over here, and so will Skyward Sword by the looks of it.

  • Dabs #43 7 months ago

    Three words:

    The Last Guardian

  • cowell #44 7 months ago

    @vizzini

    I think you make some good points but never ever quote vgchartz. Their "data" is utter bollocks in alot of cases.

  • SuicideLoveStory #45 7 months ago

    Because of the success of COD and the like the west gets bombarded with shooters and not man people will try anything thats different. I believe Japanese developers are still the best as they diversify their game catalogue.

  • Xardan #46 7 months ago

    Did you guys actually read the article? He is not saying that Japanese made games are no longer popular, he is lamenting the loss of total Japanese dominance in the games market. He just wants Japan to be the centre of the games world again.

    Just another xenophobic japanese businessman then. He clearly is not happy that 'America started getting into the console business' and thinks 'Games with new at their core are disappearing' and he no doubt blames it on 'those foreigners.'

  • bad09 #47 7 months ago

    I like the way this guy likes to blame COD :)Inafune sums Japan up nicely for me for the last 10 years.

    "I look around Tokyo Games Show, and everyone's making awful games"

    The western devs upped their game and left Japan behind, even long standing giants like Capcom and Konami look dated and tired.

  • bengaming #48 7 months ago

    I would have played Ninety Nine Nights II, but it was a 360 exclusive. Not trying to make any kind of console fanboy comment here, I just feel like more fans of that particular genre are on PS3, myself included.

    Still, it's true that way too many Japanese developers are stuck in the past. Hell, most of the ones that are successful in the west are still stuck in the past, they just happen to be stuck in something western gamers like.

    There's definitely some aspects of Japanese culture, especially in the business world, that stifle creativity and innovation. Anyone interested should check out Tim Rogers' article "Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore". It's quite long and spends a lot of time on some subjects that seem to have nothing to do with video games, but stick with it and it paints a larger picture of Japanese culture and how it affects the video games that come out of Japan.

  • Alestes #49 7 months ago

    I mostly play on the PC, but since the 80s I've been getting consoles to play JRPGs (the first one being Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System).

    As I see it, the problem is that JRPGs gotten predictive and boring. Not only from a gameplay point of view with the random encounters, linear design and so on (the JRPG gameplay hasn't really evolved since Chrono Trigger back in 1995), but also when it comes to the character stereotypes. The hero is so often a tsundere teen who behaves like an emo ass with a rotten personality and doesn't care about anything, but then suddenly changes and save the world. It's such an easy, cheap way to build an evolving character and I hate being forced to play as an idiot, where is the fun in that? How about giving the lead to a mature character? What if Basch had been the main character in FF12 instead of Vaan? Let the main character be a cool character with a brain instead of a clueless idiot so you keep wondering why the heck all the veterans keep following this inexperienced kid.

    The character designs in JRPGs are also often really out of this world, with very strange constumes. In the past we wouldn't really notice, cause it was just a tiny sprite anyway. But now you see how wacky the designs are and some people are wondering "are they fighting and saving the world in an outfit like that!?". The cosplayers love it, of course, but they aren't the majority of the gamers.

    Konami used to be very good with JRPGs though. Suikoden 1, 2 and 5 are my favorite JRPGs of all time, but Suikoden Tierkreis had so many flaws. And I am a bit worried that they won't bother to translate the new PSP Suikoden game to english now, cause I'm still interested in the series.

    But Konami hates Europe for some reason. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was released on US PSN back in 2007 but we still don't have it. When the heck will we see SotN, Suikoden and Suikoden II on EU PSN?

    Not that all hope for JRPGs is lost or anything, the recent Radiant Historia is excellent (best JRPG I've played since the PS2 days and while the hero is very quiet too, he's mature, caring and his actions speaks for him. Not to mention the story, music and other things are top notch. But it's probably a good thing that the characters are just tiny sprites in it! And Xenoblade Chronicles is quite excellent too.

    Anyway, just a quick recap, there are several things I think they can do to improve their JRPG games.
    *Give the characters more realistic designs, with just minor outlandish quirks
    *Evolve the gameplay, make it less linear and for gods sake avoid random encounters
    *Make characters that are easy to relate to, do not let the hero become an idiot
    *Keep the cutscenes to a minimum, it's a game, not a movie.

  • DirectAim #50 7 months ago

    Dark Souls and Demons Souls are immense.

    The japs just need to follow their lead!

  • th3duckst3r #51 7 months ago

    if they dont give us then how can we not have an interest.
    that being said who wonts love/silly txt anime games anyways.
    any other developers outside of japan have multiple languages in there games.
    so do this and make region free.then atleast we can if we wont to......

  • Ironic_War_Criminal #52 7 months ago

    @King_of_Hyrule

    Nintendo is the worst example to bring up as they heavily invested in the west when they started up and their offices in Redmond, Washington weigh up their decisions as much as the ones in Kyoto. If you saw that excellent BBC documentary a few years back (It's pretty aged now though), Ol' Grumpy Puss Yamanuchi established a US Office with Howard Lincoln as soon as he could and made every idea the Kyoto group had filter through Redmond to see if it was marketable in America and the extremely fickle Toy and Department stores post-crash in the 80's (Also he went to Washington because he wanted a baseball team. Nintendo still own the Seattle Mariners). Nintnedo always worked like this where they consult their offices globally before committing to ideas and that is why they maintain a global appeal.

    Also, They have been working with Western developers for years (Rare and Software Creations in the 80's, Argonaut and Left Field in the 90's, Next Level Games, Retro Studios, Kuju/Headstrong, Silicon Knights and Monster Games in the 00's etc) and even established Nintendo Software Technology Institute in the US to use top development talent starting off in the field and have lead the pack when it comes to completely global development.

    When Keiji Inafune (Or "Old" Keiji as he's calling it. He's "Shin" Keiji Inafune now, for those keeping track) and Capcom had a falling out, it was because Inafune saw that Nintendo's success was because they reach out to global studios and assist them rather than just expect them to dump out a game like most Japanese publisher/US or Europe developer relationships. Next Level Games aren't the greatest developer on the planet and produce some pretty bland games normally, but under Nintendo supervision, they do produce some really good games like Punch-Out Wii.

    Nintendo are successful because they work globally rather than work just in Japan and other publishers simply cannot see that. Konami sorta got it when Kojima supervised MercurySteam on Castlevania, but none of them seem to have copped on to what makes Nintendo so successful globally.

  • TRUTH #53 7 months ago

    I like Demons/Dark Souls, King Of Fighters(2D) and plenty of other 2D beat-em ups; esp looking forward to KOF XIII, enjoyed Shadow Of Colossis and Ico(played on PS3).

    Don't go Fps, shoot, kill, swear, must have blood as many Western games seem to be doing to sell!

  • [STARS]TyranT #54 7 months ago

    From a personal point of view all my favourite franchises are still of Japanese origin, most of my current play time at the minute is playing Castlevania: Harmony of Despair on the PS3. I just love it.

    Ico/Shadows of Colossus, two games with years behind them now. Play the HD Collection only exists to show you the majesty of these games, I still feel from am emotive point of view there's only a few western developers that can get close to that kind of feeling.

  • d0x #55 7 months ago

    Maybe The reason we don't like them as much as in the past is because they seem to resist change. You have shooters where you can't move and shoot. You have action games with dated controls and mechanics. You have the same dated story over and over. There are certainly some gems coming out of Japan by for the most part they are stuck using years old formulas while the rest of the world has moved way on. It doesn't help that alot of Japanese games are downright odd lol.

  • d0x #56 7 months ago

    @consoledelight they should update the controls of shenmue 1&2 and release them as downloadable titles for like $20 each. Id buy them for the 3rd time lol.

  • 32768Colours #57 7 months ago

    I think he makes some really good points, particularly about the COD crowd. Sure we've all played them, but we also probably know at least one person who only plays COD games and nothing else. I have at least two on my XBL friends list.

    Its those insane numbers of COD-only people that really skew the financial expectations of the industry. So what we're left with is an entire industry trying to attain sales that will never be achieved unless by some miracle, COD gamers suddenly all decide they'd actually quite like to play something else for change.

    Really though, I think the Japanese / Western issue has always been six of one and half a dozen of the other.

    On one hand we have the Western developers either clamouring to make the next Call of Duty or churning out endless sequels.

    On the other hand, we have the Japanese developers either desperately trying to make games with Western appeal or - surprise surprise - churning out out endless sequels.

    Only very rarely do we see sparks of true innovation from any developer regardless of where they come from. Has it ever really been any different? Its easy to criticise "Military Shooter #145" but what about "Spiky-haired kids JRPG #980" or "One Tiny Ship is Last Hope for Mankind 2D Shmup #7896"

    Its ironic (or perhaps to be expected) that in the period of its greatest ubiquity, gaming seems to have stagnated, when in reality gaming has probably never been any different. Its just sad on a personal level that the style of games I've loved through the Japanese heyday are becoming increasingly marginalised; distributed by specialist publishers or released digitally on relatively small budgets.

  • JumpinJackFlash #58 7 months ago

    Ironically, Japanese gamers have zero interest in Western games. It's sad that the Japanese gaming industry isn't as powerful as it once was. On the other hand, i'm glad the west is dominating now as it means not waiting months on end for games to be released, especially in Europe or some games never to be released at all.

    I'd rather the Japanese market be catering to the west, rather than the west catering to the Japanese market, like it was before this gen. A lot of this can be down to PC developers switching to consoles at the start of this gen and particularly to the Xbox 360 due to it's online infrastructure.

    I've been gaming for 24 years and this is easily the best gen yet. Why? Because i've been through the previous generations and know just how far we've come.

  • Ironic_War_Criminal #59 7 months ago

    Ironically, Japanese gamers have zero interest in Western games.

    Wrong. They will get interested in the ones with potential or with aspects/features they like. GTAIV did very well and the series is held in very high regard over there (Capcom's apparently excellent localisation jobs helped). Modern Warfare 2 also did really well, though they were very annoyed by Square-Enix's botched translations (Squeenix are doing a comprehensive localization for MW3 now including Voice Acting, after taking the feedback from it). And again, DKC Returns did a significant number in Japan. Forza 4 apparently did a surprisingly good number of copies, especially for a 360 game, recently on top of that. Dead Rising 2 and Off The Record also got very favorable receptions for Western Sequels of a Japanese game as well.

    While they will tell you most western titles are "Kusoge" (Shit games), they are looking for what appeals to them as well as a good localisation (Most Western games get hampered by terrible and lazy localisation jobs. Irony, eh?) and a good western title that appeals to them will sell. The thing is, that is happening more often (MW3 has even been in Famitsu readers most anticipated list) than Japanese games getting traction in the west recently and that's what has the publishers scared. The market could turn on them at any minute if a Western developer nails a successful formula that appeals to Japan and they are getting closer and closer every time.
    Edited by Ironic_War_Criminal at 04/11/11 @ 23:32

  • Pwnsweet #60 7 months ago

    I admit, I only read this article because it was about Tak Fujii.

  • JumpinJackFlash #61 7 months ago

    @Ironic_War_Criminal

    No, i'm not! Those games you mention are some of the very few games that sold moderately well in the region. And i say few because Japanese gamers in general have zero interest in most western developed games and even consoles for that fact. Just look at the 360, it's been out for years in Japan, yet it's sold only 1.5m units.

    Just because a few western IP's are moderately successful in the region ,that doesn't mean to say western games are successful. That's just nonsense.

    The sales numbers don’t lie. Of the top 100 games sold in Japan in 2009, you have to go all the way down to No. 77 to find the one title not made in Japan — Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with sales of only 164,619. Really well or good sales is not the words i'd be using here.

    top 100 games sold in Japan in 2009

    Anyway, it's a well known fact the Japanese have a gaijin complex.
    Edited by JumpinJackFlash at 05/11/11 @ 01:36

  • Yeoung #62 7 months ago

    I'll tell you Level-5, Atlus, From Software and Team Ico don't seem to be doing bad. Some other devs might be going for the western audiences a bit rash though, where others try to compromise and end up not pleasing either audience.

    Shadows of the Damned and Yakuza: Of the End, respectively. Hope they'll bounce back, most of my favourite games are japanese, i.e Rogue Galaxy, Zelda LTTP, Yakuza, Secret of Mana, DKC, Mario and so on, and so on.

  • Turfschipper #63 7 months ago

    Thats because most of them cant handle this gens techs.

    And the 1 game genre they still make the best games: shmups. We have to wait for years and yaers for decade old games to show up in Europe.

    As if they dont wanna sell their good games to western costumers.

    HALLO!!!, We ARE interested.

  • Bluetooth #64 7 months ago

    Well if the Japanese devs started to churn out the FPSs, they too can have success...

  • Ironic_War_Criminal #65 7 months ago

    @JumpingJackFlash

    No, i'm not!

    Yes, you are. 160K for MW2 (And just the PS3 version at that) is supremely well done for the Japanese region because they simply don't buy that many games. Companies are lucky if they do above 200K. It's a small Island and despite what people in the west think, not everyone is into videogames there (Nor does any ever do Dragon Quest numbers all the time).

    Just because its not dropping the millions that it does around the rest of globe doesn't mean it's not a success (Again, the success of MW2 means Squeenix are concentrating on having a better localisation).

    Also, I forgot in my other post, Crash Bandicoot and Ratchet & Clank have also done extremely well over in Japan which is due to a significant amount of effort Sony put in their localisation, even changing the look of the characters to be a bit more appealing. A lot of companies underestimate the importance of localisation because the poor efforts usually seen contribute to the reputation in Japan which is why western games fail to take off a lot of the time. THQ are doing a pretty big name localization of Saints Row 3 (Though not out till next year IIRC).

  • BillyBrush #66 7 months ago

    Post deleted at 09:51:37 12-12-2011

  • Reedo #67 7 months ago

    Japan still has a wealth of extremely talented developers and designers, it's just that they all work for Nintendo now, working on titles to be put in the bin (Kirby?!)

  • MinerWilly #68 7 months ago

    Give me an updated Advance wars on PS3 and XBOX and i'll buy it .

  • Kami #69 7 months ago

    Quality shines through.

    The problem is this generation (and a bit of the last generation), it's become less about creating a brand and more about milking the ones you've already got. So often, this is a terrible idea - Resident Evil 5, Devil May Cry 4, Final Fantasy XIII to name but a few of the truly terrible sequels to come out in recent years.

    And what are we looking forward to now? The HD Remake of Halo. I mean, seriously, we've hit the point where we're just going to go back and do old games in shinier graphics (and Sonic Generations is proof that doesn't always work either).

    That said, the overlap was quite large for a few years. Japan loved Tomb Raider (which we can say was a BRITISH invention! Hooray for Boobies!) and we loved Final Fantasy 7.

    My issue is this - Western devs have, for some years, taken the ideas and quirky attitudes of the Japanese and made it their own, and made it compliment beautifully in games like Bioshock, and Deus Ex: HR. We spent years with that influence and many people who design and make games now subliminally draw inspiration from these old games, and mechanics, and do newer and more interesting stuff with it. It's what they grew up with. Therefore it is deeply ingrained.

    The Japanese, as a result, are struggling to sort of work around this. The whole point of Japanese games were they had a style and quirkiness about them that conflicted beautifully with the likes of Doom. And they're struggling to get around the idea that actually, their quirky ideas are actually... not that quirky at all now - Capcom are becoming more Westernised (which is bad), SEGA are still trying to flog that dead horse that is 3D Sonic even though it has been dead for a decade STOP IT SEGA AND JUST BURY THE RANK BLOODY CORPSE BEFORE THERE'S BUGGER ALL LEFT! Konami - well, they still have Hideo Kojima, but then, I found Lords of Shadow to be far too safe - it was a six hour setup for a five minute ending, and it was kinda dull. I even compared it to Twilight. That made me feel rather dirty.

    But, as I said at the start, truth is, QUALITY is the key here. If a game is really good, it should sell. People are starved of some game genres right now - stuff traditionally the Japanese have been really rather good at, it must be said.

    THe reason we're so down on the new DmC is it looks terrible. The reason we come down on Silent Hill is that it's been desecrated with so much rubbish. Resident Evil 5 gets a hiding because it was so bloody dull, no wit or sparkle.

    The reason we come down hard on so many Japanese games is because, quite frankly, they're crap. Or rather, the Japanese devs are turning out rather average fare in some vain hope it will appeal to us - heck, okay, we're not that imaginative over here but ahem, look at the likes of Skyrim - okay, the concept isn't original. But we can still do something GOOD with the concept.

    And that's a problem we, as gamers, can't help them with. You churn out crap, we stop buying. You throw out a game like Catherine, however, and then we'll talk.

    Japanese or Western, good games are good, and bad games are bad. FFXIII was just as bad as Dragon Age 2. Neither side is immune. Japan just has to realise quirky Japanese style can't be the only selling point anymore. We expect that. Many of us grew up with it.

    We want it to be good now. And it is so often there where they are failing...

    edit; "Give me an updated Advance wars on PS3 and XBOX and i'll buy it"

    Can't tell if troll or not very bright.

    But just in case it's the latter on this occassion - Advance Wars was made by Intelligent Systems, which is an internal development studio within Nintendo.

    Still, do want to see a 3DS version... surely they're working on it by now?

    edit #2 and #3; Umm, EG Techy Team, are these broken tag errors going to get fixed sometime soon? Please?
    Edited by Kami at 05/11/11 @ 12:04

  • JumpinJackFlash #70 7 months ago

    @Ironic_War_Criminal

    160K for MW2 isn't great, even for the Japanese region when you compare it to hits like Dragon Quest IX which can shift up to 4m units.

    160K units for a game like MW2 is pitiful. This doesn't denote Japanese gamers liking western games.

    Lastly, until western titles go on to sell 3/4m units in the Japanese region (like Dragon Quest IX, Pokemon HeartGold, etc) only then can you say Japanese gamers care about western titles.

    Until then, western titles to Japanese gamers will continue to be Yo-ge, kuso-ge (Western game, shit game).
    Edited by JumpinJackFlash at 05/11/11 @ 13:47

  • Lucodeath #71 7 months ago

    What was that Jap kissing groping peado game all about? Was mentioned on eurogamer a few months ago.

  • Ironic_War_Criminal #72 7 months ago

    @JumpinJackFlash


    160K units for a game like MW2 is pitiful. This doesn't denote Japanese gamers liking western games.

    Have you even read the NeoGAF thread you linked from? If you look at that list, once you get past the top 20, every game falls into the 300k-120K range for the rest of the chart. You simply do not get that Japanese people just do not buy as many games and to many developers and publishers, 150k sales in that region alone is a good number, especially for a game like MW2 designed to appeal to US and European sensibilities first.

    Also, that's a hilarious high bar you are setting that a western game has to be as popular as Pokemon and Dragon Quest to show that Japan likes western games when most top selling games do between 400k to 150k in general. Again, they only buy a few games per year there and simply don't consume as much. So when a title sells big, it sells massive because everyone wants it at the same time. Heck, look at the 2010 chart.

    http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=419169

    In 2010 Donkey Kong Country returns did 560K. Black Ops (Subtitled Edition) Did 200K on the PS3 alone. Call Of Duty is picking up a niche thanks to Square's localisation jobs. Even on 2ch they say that GTA and COD are the only western games they care about (Outside of Nintendo's) because Capcom and Square actually put effort into localizing and advertising them alongside their general appeal. And it's only going to keep on growing as long as the effort is put in.

    But then if you want to keep moving the goalposts and plead ignorance till "Western Games have to do Wii Sports numbers to show they are accepted", be my guest.
    Edited by Ironic_War_Criminal at 05/11/11 @ 19:34

  • Inmediasress #73 7 months ago

    More like western gamers aren't really interested in tiny schoolgirls.

    Now seriously there are some great japanese games but most of it, sometimes the ones that are the best aren't even released outside of japan, so I don't really get what they are talking abaout.

    The ones that get released are something that japanese people think the western audience loves, but since they are a fairly closed society they don't know shit about that, and end up doing worse games than if they never tried to accomodate western gamers.

  • Mister-Wario #74 7 months ago

    "OK, there is a big FPS franchise in the West, the biggest one from somewhere," he said. "It has massive numbers. Maybe half or more than half of those players may have bought hardware just to play that game and no other games".

    I fear that this statement may not be entirely accurate. I, for instance, would never buy a game for one console and in fact play a variety of games. And, you know, I really like a lot of Japanese games. I had the pleasure of playing House of the Dead EX today.

  • Pwnsweet #75 7 months ago

    Xenoblade - best RPG to come out in the last 6 years - only sold 260k copies. I'd say Tak Fujii is right.

  • shadowdogg #76 7 months ago

    I like Zelda. Keep making it NOW!

  • metroid455 #77 7 months ago

    Post deleted at 09:51:37 12-12-2011

  • metroid455 #78 7 months ago

    well I love playing Japanese games ( Tanoshimi!!!),
    Japan only imports and localized releases!!
    couldn't care less what the western masses play.

    hes right on the FPS issue, this COD generation of western gamers need serious help IMO

    having said that its true that this whole copying of western games needs to stop, Japanese developers really do need to get their mojo back in regards to creativity!!
    Edited by metroid455 at 06/11/11 @ 23:43

  • Hieronymus #79 7 months ago

    I for one have NO interest in Japanese games, one important aspect I hold dear is a certain kind of believability, and well Japanese games...

  • photoboy #80 7 months ago

    Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree but I think Japan's problem is that they keep trying to copy Western games, instead of focusing on improving and bettering their own games. Just recently Ace Combat turned its back on its unique and excellent heritage to go all beige and copy Modern Warfare. Coming soon is Ridge Racer which has been transformed from a distinctive Japanese arcade racer into a clone of Burnout set in generic US cities.

    It's like Japanese devs have lost all confidence in themselves and think they need to copy Western games to stay relevant. It's about time they woke up and remembered that being creative and original was what put them on top in the first place.

  • neosalad #81 7 months ago

    shame that some of the japanese games i would liek PAL versions of still havent been released over here, though not sure what sales of muchi muchi pork & pink sweets, espguluda II, Mushihimesama Futari (all shumps)would be though. almost given up on raiden fighters aces getting a pal release now with the constant delays.

    But the "average joe" on the street probably does buy the ones their mates have such as the CODS, GT5's and Forza's... and probbalt doesnt think about where they're developed... and why should they, a good games a good game to them...

  • evarofzentral #82 7 months ago

    It could equally be said that many Japanese gamers have no interest in Western games. Plus please release Valkyria Chronicles 3 here and I will buy it! You do actually have to release the game in the west for us to buy it.
    Edited by evarofzentral at 07/11/11 @ 00:01

  • BuckEntropy #83 7 months ago

    It's because Nintendo and SEGA were always the bridges and the guides for the rest of their industry.

    Then Nintendo was effectively supplanted by Sony as the console role model, and they've crystallized into a sort of adored anachronism; the relevance of arcades died out and the industry collectively decided there was no room for SEGA as a platform holder, and they lost their entire identity. Capcom seems to have managed better than most but... it's interesting to note they were always second to SEGA in their cosmopolitan arcade spirit. But without that committed example of a real leader, that a corporate first party represents, the rest seem to fall into this intellectual inbreeding. :cry:
    Edited by BuckEntropy at 07/11/11 @ 02:32

  • marty_k #84 7 months ago

    I don't get it why people cry at COD selling millions. There always will be blockbusters and it's hard to expect Lost in Translation to make as much as Transformers, yet there's enough room for both. As long as the product is good it will make money. The question is do you want to (or have enough resources) to make a summer blockbuster or a niche title.

    The Last Guardian won't make tons of money because it's not a game for the masses. It's not a blockbuster. It should be able to sell 1-2 mil copies. That said, they've been developing it for some time now so that may not be enough. Perhaps they should think how to streamline the development process to make profitable games that sell ~1 mil.

  • Kami #85 7 months ago

    That is true Marty, but the industry has built itself on chasing the minority results and showing off to please the shareholders and financiers.

    No-where has this been more telling than the MMO space, where every game has been based on chasing World of Warcraft. Thing is, even Blizzard now are losing tens of thousands of subscribers a week (Supposedly over 2 million subs gone this year) so the model that everyone has been chasing is, in itself, totally unsustainable. It's not possible to get those numbers indefinitely. Even Call of Duty will, eventually, have its day. After a while, the role brand gets boring.

    The games industry has based itself on chasing numbers like Final Fantasy 7 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time used to get, the thing is the market has fragmented so much now that getting these numbers again is at best insanely difficult and at worst, impossible. They calculate at X amount of money earned for Y copies, they can make Z amount of profit from their budget marked Q, but forget that everything works in theory and less than a percent of those theories work out in practice.

    And many good games sell a million or two million copies, and yet we never see or hear from them again. And this has been going on for years - budgets are high, returns are low and it's about getting the most from the least effort. It's exacerbated by this idea that a game need only be technically perfect - we expect technically perfect games, but more is needed to make it a perfect game. As I said in another topic, why is it we hail Final Fantasy 7 so much, and yet it's technically much better descendant - Final Fantasy XII - is all but forgotten a couple of years on?

    I think the problem is we, as gamers, very often assume a warm critical reception is enough to see the survival of a series, and whilst this can be true, it only applies to a very small selection of games. Enslaved is much loved, and yet it sold 800,000 copies in it's first few months (pretty sure there was a news post about it here on EG, but the search function doesn't love me at the moment to verify that) - not shabby at all, but not enough to justify a future. Beyond Good and Evil is loved by fans and critics alike, but its sequel has been stuck in a development limbo for longer than we care to admit, to the point it feels like vapourware. And Golden Sun - it's so beloved, so where has it gone?!

    It's sad, but I agree that The Last Guardian will not break even - it just won't. And that's... sort of okay, as it is largely offset by Sony themselves.

    That said of course, the best way to encourage sequels to games we want is to buy them when they are new, and therefore figures can be more accurately accrued to a million sales plus say, 15% of those then being second hand sales.

    It's not a reality people will like, of course...
    Edited by Kami at 07/11/11 @ 07:39

  • saku_luk #86 7 months ago

    Well the problem is that Japanese publishers keep bringing mostly crap games to the west, games that try to mimic western like productions.

    Why not bring all those cool horror story based games? sadly they won't as you have to pay for translation and voice actors, and the income from sells wouldn't be good in this cases.

    Might want to just do text translation and see how will this work? surely it will be cheap? no? right... PEGI and the likes won't allow anything that isn't dubbed to soil their children... I mean, why even bother to read?

    Oh well, personally I might be biased since I am kinda interested in what they bring or do not bring ;p learning Japanese for some time now so even without help from publishers I can play their games... tho not everyone has this privilege...
    Edited by saku_luk at 07/11/11 @ 10:28

  • FeralYouth #87 7 months ago

    It can be difficult for a Japanese game to do well in the west if you don't market it.

    Dark Souls at least tried and has succeeded to some point. Nintendo tend to do so with their own games and they don't struggle.

    French companies don't just hire French people, British don't just hire British people, and American companies don't just hire American companies. Crytek have a base in Nottingham in the UK. So Czech companies or whatever they are don't just hire Czechs.

    Japanese companies just hire Japanese people, and that's where they're five years behind, and rightly so. Though Vanquish is five years ahead of Gears Of War 3.

    Not all rosy in the west mind you.

    The Freshest game we've had this generation is Mirror's Edge, and is bargain bucket material now.

    The biggest selling games are Madden which rarely changes, FIFA which for the most part is nothing more than roster update and Call Of Duty, which is nothing more than modification that has gotten progressively worse since COD 4. We're nothing but sequels in the west.

    Next Gen will be twice as worse for the Japanese market, which will turn into a strictly handheld affair. Can't say things will be much better here.

  • ZuluHero #88 7 months ago

    Kinda ironic given that a few years ago the 360 was pretty much bombing in Japan and Microsoft was struggling to get a foothold.

    Is this a sign that not embracing western tech and with it western games and design philosophies, has caused the internal market to stagnate?

  • Ironic_War_Criminal #89 7 months ago

    @saku_luk Might want to just do text translation and see how will this work? surely it will be cheap? no? right... PEGI and the likes won't allow anything that isn't dubbed to soil their children... I mean, why even bother to read?

    It's not PEGI. Microsoft and Sony have a dubbing requirement for at least English as part of their licencing terms with publishers. You can only get an exception if you are releasing on XBLA/PSN, Games On Demand or to retail at a budget price.
    Edited by Ironic_War_Criminal at 07/11/11 @ 15:44

  • silversun #90 7 months ago

    There is a fan base outside of japan. its just not as big as the call of duty /battlefield fanbase.
    Been going through ninety nine nights (the first one) and it ok, sure i prefer a persona game over it but its fun hack and slash gameplay.
    A different approach could be good.
    They could try selling games on download on pc, it would be a great way to go.
    Japanese games seem to always be on console but it they on something like steam then it would be intresting to see how they could do.
    Or even make games of that type only download so say you can buy on pc or psn.

    I would even take intresting games like say a persona/final fantasy style game that looks more like a ps2 game or a retro final fantasy snes /ps1 looking game than a ps3 game. on a download service.
    They could create better games (been a fair bit critisim of jrpg jump to hd)
    while being cheaper to make the games.
    I just hope that there is some passion from japanes game makers about the games they make and that they could consider new ways of getting there games overseas rather than give up on it.

    Final fantasy 14 for example, i am impressed by dedication that team has to try make that game successful and it the major reason why im sticking with it when billing starts this month , plus its improved as a game a fair bit and enjoying content they put out.
    Edited by silversun at 07/11/11 @ 20:26