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Why Are Japanese-Developed Games Less Popular? 118

Posted by simoniker from the mahjong-next-breakthrough-western-hit dept.
Thanks to GameSpy for their 'Sole Food' editorial discussing the decline of the Japanese-developed videogame in the U.S. console charts. The article doesn't deny there are still big Japanese-developed hits in the West, but suggests: "It's not uncommon for there to be only two or three Japanese games among the top 20 sellers each month; this would have been unheard of less than ten years ago." As for explanations, it's argued that "Western developers are doing a better job of servicing core genres that are popular in the U.S.", but a "financial and creative slump" in the Japanese games industry is also blamed - "A quick glance through the games shown at last weekend's Tokyo Game Show reveals little that is truly new."
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Why Are Japanese-Developed Games Less Popular? More

Why Are Japanese-Developed Games Less Popular?

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  • Isn't it obvious? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Tom Courtenay ( 638139 ) on Wednesday October 01, 2003 @01:45PM (#7105998)
    Perhaps it's for the same reason that US developed consoles aren't popular in Japan:
    It's cultural

    • Re:Isn't it obvious? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Kalak ( 260968 ) on Wednesday October 01, 2003 @02:01PM (#7106261) Homepage Journal
      In other news, Chinese developed video games sell poorly in Africa and someone in Tibet eats a pizza for the first time and declares: "What is this s^&t?"
    • I think it also has to do with marketing though. In the US the current trend seems to be to make games for non-gamers (ie: sims, madden 2004). By making games that appeal to the general populace they can sell more games. It seems to me that the japanese are still making games for gamers. I could be wrong though, I'm no expert on japanese culture.
      • Maybe it's actually xenophobia in the current world climate. Like it or hate it, a LOT of people are becoming suspicious of other countries. Even if not conciously, I wonder if subconciously the market is down due to that?

        Japanese games are great. In fact two of my top 3 video games of all time are Japanese (Gran Turismo 2 and Fire Pro Wrestling G).

        I really don't see it as western developers developing better games though. I certainly don't perceive an increase in originality here. If anything it's still
      • How is Madden 2004 a game for a non-gamer? The sports games genre has long been a staple of both console games and PC games. I can see how the Sims can be seen as a game for a non-gamer as it does not have the typical requirements for learning to play the game (just as games like Bejeweled and everything else on popcap.com could be called games for non-gamers) but Madden? Come on. If you're using the logic that the popularity of a game with the general populace (i.e. people who haven't owned generation afte
    • It's cultural

      I won't deny that US consoles aren't particularly popular in Japan, XboX proves that. However I disagree with the idea that it is cultural. I would in fact say one of the reasons some US games/consoles do as well as they do is because part of Japanese culture is that they are half-obsessed with US culture. This is why we get Engrish all over the place. If a US console isn't doing a very good job supporting the translation of US titles to Japanese and what have you then why buy the console? No

    • This is utter crap. Who does Gamespy blow to get these articles put up here?

      A couple weeks ago we had their thoughts on the most Overrated games ever. Or was it the most Overhyped?

      Now they're talking about how creatively lacking TGS is when E3 is..wait for it...EXACTLY THE SAME DAMN THING EVERY YEAR. But somehow, this level of insight isn't put into the GameSpy E3 coverage.

      Here's Psylancer's wrap-up of E3:

      "I guess, in some respects, this year's E3 showed how the business is maturing. Even though ther
    • As someone who has lived in Japan for nearly a decade, this doesn't surprise me. If you could see how much repetition goes on in Japan it would make your mind explode (or atleast it did mine a few years back..) In the U.S. most spinoffs and sequels are born in corporations. Companies trying to make money off of a known winner. There is nothing inherently wrong with that unless you're a commie pinko dirtbag hippie freak who hates money. But it does get boring and Americans soon enough tire of the series and
  • yep. enough said right there, i suppose. even if they aren't true sequels....course the innovative japanese games don't really do so well in the US anyway...
  • My own feeling is that Japanese culture is in a depression even deeper than the economic malaise of the past decade. Their political system has moved from crisis to crisis, scandal to scandal. Their mass media has gotten steadily more insane. Their population decline on the demographic front looks grim -- and, as in the West, is accompanied by a collapse in social tradition and in values. There is also a serious bleakness about the future that has infected their society, corrupting an already somewhat a
    • The same thing is true externally -- Japan isn't perceived as The Future any more. Even if it's still the second most important economy in the world, and the most influential on many technology and engineering fronts, it doesn't command nearly the attention it used to.

      Anyway, a different and less pessimistic thought: as game hardware gets more powerful, there is less emphasis on simple, elegant games as developers can do more and more complex things. Maybe the Japanese esthetic was better suited to develop

    • We have a lot of Japanese people here at work. None of them want to go back to Japan anytime soon. A lot of them are going to try to still stay here in the US somehow after their Visas expire.

      They say Japan in general right now is just a depressing place to be where there's no real hope that anything will get any better in the near future. Despite our problems here in the US, they'd rather raise their kids here than over there at the moment.
      • Teach them a few phrases in Spanish and tell them to call themselves "Undocumented Workers". After that, go to California, get a drivers license, use that license to get an ID in another state.
  • Okay, US and Japanese markets have different tastes, and the game producers from each market cater to their local markets and do better there. Frankly, that's not particularly surprising and in fact I'd think it would be almost expected.

    However, blaming it on a lack of variation in Japanese games seems a little unfounded... New and groundbreaking concepts are pretty damn rare in both markets. In fact, I'd wager that US developers focusing on the genres that 'do big' in the US, and pumping out clones a

    • Re:Hmmm... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by GreenHell ( 209242 )
      However, blaming it on a lack of variation in Japanese games seems a little unfounded... New and groundbreaking concepts are pretty damn rare in both markets.

      It would seem someone else remembers all the C&C & Warcraft clones from back in the mid 90s. (Along with all the Quake wannabes that plagued the industry at the same time.) And before that there were all the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat clones that we put up with for years in the arcades.
      Hell, if you want to go all way bacl the beginning

      • Re:Hmmm... (Score:2, Informative)

        by CaptMonkeyDLuffy ( 623905 )
        The examples they use in the article make the argument that N.American/European game markets are more original a real joke.

        Prince of Persia: Okay. A reimagining of a really old game, that is yet another platformer.

        Sly Cooper: A platformer, with a little stealth mixed in. Not much new.

        Deus Ex: Invisible War: FPS with plot and some RPG elements. System Shock 1, 2, Deus Ex 1, Thief 1, 2.

        Tony Hawk 3: I hope I don't need to explain why a third in a series isn't original.

        Now I am not critici

        • Re:Hmmm... (Score:2, Insightful)

          by GreenHell ( 209242 )
          I'd say that one line was more than just one line. When reading the article I couldn't help but get two things out of it:
          1) Japanese companies are producing games for Japanese gamers (Well duh!)
          2) Japanese game companies are somehow less innovative than their Western counterparts.

          We both agree on the latter, so I won't go into it again. But I find it odd that he in the paragraph before he mentions the Tokyo Game Show he makes a reference to EA's Madden series.

          Just a hint to the author over on GameSpy, if

  • What you say?! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rayonic ( 462789 ) on Wednesday October 01, 2003 @01:56PM (#7106191) Homepage Journal
    Gamers being U.S. are of not text liking schoolchildren by translated?!

    MOVE ZIG!

  • Different tastes for different cultures (Score:3, Insightful)

    by lightspawn ( 155347 ) on Wednesday October 01, 2003 @01:58PM (#7106217) Homepage
    Japan:

    Epic RPGs
    Music games
    Platformers
    Fighting games
    Wacky/insane games

    U.S.:
    Sports
    Extreme sports
    FPS
    RTS
    Anything online

    This is a gross oversimplification, but the fact is different genres have different degrees of success in different territories. Plus, Japanese developers have no concept of how to not offend western media (I'm sorry, SEGA, a game that lets kids join a gang and spray paint anything in sight while running from the law is just not a very good idea, no matter how good it could be if you'd just fixed a few usability issues).
    • Plus, Japanese developers have no concept of how to not offend western media (I'm sorry, SEGA, a game that lets kids join a gang and spray paint anything in sight while running from the law is just not a very good idea, no matter how good it could be if you'd just fixed a few usability issues).

      Umm, your saying a non violent GTA type game would violate western sensibilities? The possiblilities for sarcasm here are endless here, but I will leave that as an execerise for the readers imagination.

      After GTA, T

    • I wouldn't call Japanese RPG's epic. Not a lot of play, a lot of CGI filler, a lot of blue and purple hair, and a lot of really stupid dialog. Just because its a "large" game doesn't mean its an "epic" game.
    • And that's why I don't bother with game console anymore. I dislike Sport and most sports games, they never interested me. FPSs suck on consoles if you have a nice PC with a mouse. As for RTSs, what RTS games are there for consoles? Most of the ones I can think of are the PC... Online... eh, my PC is online already and I've never really been much for one on one competition anyway, especially with someone I don't know. Online RPGs? Can you say timesink? No thanks.

      Some of the racing games seem kinda nea
      • Wow, let's recap your thoughts.

        You like two genres (FPS, RTS) and you kinda like two other genres (driving, "simple" RPGs). And you long for a fifth genre (shooter).

        Your gaming universe is very, very small.

        • But really what else is there besides sports games? There's strategy, but those are few and far between now it seems. There's strategy/puzzle. There's 3rd person action games, but those are always all so different, you kinda have to take those on a case by case basis.

          So I guess to recap, I pretty much hate all sports games which seems to be 80% of the current console game market, FPSes without a mouse (read as, on a console), and any games that is impossible to play a quick 30 minute game. I avoid stuf
      • Okay...I would also like to take a shot at summing up your post.

        1- You don't like competition.

        2- You don't like sports

        3- The original Need For Speed was good, because you could drive on a 'beautiful course'.

        4- The current Neef For Speed has over the top scenery, and is so impressive with visuals that it doesn't look real.

        5- You like games on the Amiga and NES

        My responses:

        1 & 2: You don't like competition, you long for your Amiga and Final Fantasy games- of course you don't like sports! (Not just
        • Some comments ;)

          3- The original Need For Speed was good, because you could drive on a 'beautiful course'.

          Yes, with wide open roads, which all made for great gameplay.

          4- The current Neef For Speed has over the top scenery, and is so impressive with visuals that it doesn't look real.

          No it's not as good (nor as it done as well) because it's got crappy low resolution graphics and god awful frame rates (at least on the console versions) and the handling is inferior. MSR was released ~April 2001 and the l
          • I liked midtown madness 1 & 2, although 2 was ruined for me by not working right with the latest nvidia drivers which I needed installed for other games to work, so that game got shelved all too quickly.

            The last NFS game I played I was just annoyed and dissapointed with. I did like the wide and open roads of original NFS, the freedom to do what you wanted. The the new ones are cramped, with specific objectives:

            - Race this course and get away from the cops to win and unlock the next map.
            - now pull ov
        • Well of course the graphics for the original NFS aren't as crisp as the newer ones, but they were better. It didn't have town after mini town that you go thru, the original had forests, etc. Plus as the other post said, the physics were better. I remember the coures on the NFS demo was amazing, you'd rip around a corner too fast and you'd could actually flip over, crash, etc, something that doesn't happen in the newer ones. In the newer ones you just dink aganst the side of the guard rail, which would
    • Although I'm not familiar with the game you mention, I'd rather kids get there kicks from games than actually going out joining a gang and spraying paint anything in sight while running from the law.
    • JSRF is a blast, it can't be anymore harmful for the kids than GTA or something similar. I enjoyed the smooth sounds of DJ Professa K, and they way everyone would be dancing while they talked to you.
      • The best part about JSRF is that you don't have to do missions if you're not in the mood; you can just skate around Shibuya, do stunts, slide along the bannisters, and so on. It's a hell of a lot of fun after work when you don't really want to get wrapped up in something, and just want to fool around a little...

    • I'm amused when game developers manage to sneak one by the censor.

      For example, I'm playing "Golden Sun" on Game Boy Advance, and the teenage female character just got some "armor" which consists of a Geisha-type robe. One of her attacks is to open the robe, reducing the enemy's chance to attack by distracting him. He gets surrounded by little heart symbols. So now I have a teenage girl who distracts giant gorillas by sexually arousing them... Oh yeah, that's an "E for everyone [nintendo.com]" game all right.

      Also, when p
    • Well, that list was just silly. Japan has not now, or ever had, a monopoly on "Epic RPGs". You need to crack open some PC RPG games there, 'boy.

      Also, non-Japanese developers have been making tons of platformers lately. Spyro, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, etc. etc.

  • the look (Score:3, Insightful)

    by phantomlord ( 38815 ) on Wednesday October 01, 2003 @01:58PM (#7106225) Journal
    a lot of it, for me at least, is the look of japanese games. Seems like every time I check one out, they look very cartoony/anime looking (especially on the GC). It's not that I value graphics over gameplay, it's just that certain styles of graphics turn me off enough that I don't care if it's a fun game to play because I simply hate looking at it.

  • unless, of course, you own a gamecube (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fireduck ( 197000 ) on Wednesday October 01, 2003 @02:01PM (#7106259)
    in which case almost all of the top selling games are by a japanese developer (namely Nintendo themselves). Here's an interesting chart listing the gamecube's best selling games. [biglobe.ne.jp]
    • Wow, that is a very interesting list. It shows that some of the best selling Games in the US are very poor sellers in japan. For example Metroid Prime is number #26 on their list and #4 on ours. Star wars Rogue Leader is #78 and #7 on ours. Eternal Darkness is #57 on theirs and #29 on ours.

      Metroid Prime is my favorite GC game, and they hated it in Japan.
      • 26 isn't that bad. And Rogue Leader isn't that surprising given the entire 'Star Wars is a very cultural thing.' Eternal Darkness doesn't surprise me much, but dissapoints me. On both counts. It's an instant classic in my book. Best use of mood and developing a style for the story that I've seen.

        (WARNING Eternal Darkness spoiler...)

        Of course, it helps that I was on a big Lovecraft kick at the time... The real ending(after playing all three variants) is so perfectly Lovecraftian... All along it
      • Well, Metroid never sold well in Japan. That's why their was no N64 Metroid. There's only a GameCube Metroid because every time Miyamoto came to the US, people repeatedly asked him about a new Metroid. This is really obvious when you realize that Metroid Fusion was developed in Japan, but released in the US several months before the Japanese release.

        As to Star Wars, I'd venture to say the movies are probably much more popular in the US than in Japan. So you'd expect game sales to match.

        Eternal Darkness ju
    • Wow, this list [biglobe.ne.jp] is even more interesting. 3 of the top 4 US games were not even released in Japan.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday October 01, 2003 @02:02PM (#7106275)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Finances (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Iscariot_ ( 166362 ) on Wednesday October 01, 2003 @02:05PM (#7106306)
    One reason for this could very well be the funding behind the games. Here in the states, even though our economy isn't exactly doing the best, people still find the time/money for games. It's a huge industry, and is still encroaching on the film business. Because of this, those who fund games are willing to put more money behind them, and thus create better, longer, and more 'American Aimed' games.

    Meanwhile, in Japan, their economy is doing much much worse than in USA. Worse to the point that people are buying less games, thus the funding is going down. Obviously, with a drop in cash, you take a hit in one way or another (shorter games, less-pretty graphics, etc.).

    The other main reason, and this is totally my opinion, is that american game developers have finally caught on. No longer are we limited to the FPS genre. We have become masters of all genres, from RPGs (KOTOR) to inventing our own (GTA3). In part, we have Japan to thank for this, as they pretty much started the industry. We've just taken their ideas, run with them, and we are now beginning to surpass them. Metroid for the GameCube is a great example. A very terrific game, with a new spin on FPS mechanics, created by an American develompent team. What was once Japanese is now American. Maybe it's time that Japan start 'borrowing' some ideas back from us?
    • Don't let Americans take too much credit; GTA3 was developed in Scotland (although financed by an American company), and the UK overall is experiencing a rough consolidation period in its game industry. Although I think certainly your point could largely be extended to much of North America and western Europe, with the possible exception of Germany, whose economy is more resembling Japan's these days.
    • KOTOR wasn't developed in the US, Bioware is a Canadian company.
    • Other commenters beat me to it, but i post anyways.

      Neither GTA nor KOTOR were developed by american companies.

      I think the real reason that American games sell better is because the Japanese dont really attack the american football/sports market, which makes up a fairly large percentage of videogame sales.

      For the record, Ive never really enjoyed sports games. Other then NBA Jam and blades of steel (NES), I cant really think of any sports games I like _that_ much.

  • Article written by an Elitist Japanophile Snob? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Rayonic ( 462789 ) on Wednesday October 01, 2003 @02:05PM (#7106312) Homepage Journal
    His words, not mine:

    "I'll always be a Japanophile gamer at heart, though, so I can only hope that Japan's gaming industry figures out a way to escape from its financial and creative slump. Only then I can get back to being an elitist, Japan-loving snob."

    Well, I guess if he's happy with his own self-image, then the more power to him. Still seems kinda sad, though.
  • In the thread about Atari reducing its Gamecube support:

    The market is finally going to mature and splinter. Microsoft will be the "other" console in the US and Europe and Nintendo will be the "other" console in Japan. This will allow the companies to taylor their products to the different audiences, which continue to grow more and more different everyday. The niche fanboy crowd can always import of course. This is good news for third party publishers too. With only two consoles to worry about in either
    • How exactly does what the article talks about relate to your quote? The article was about the originality and inovation (or lack thereof) of developers, not the success or failure of consoles.

      As a lot of people here have already said, pointing to the Tony Hawk and Grand Theft Auto franchises as bastions of originality is really stretching. Besides that though, if he had been talking about consoles instead of developers his conclusion would have been that XBox would rise to dominance in America while GameC

    • Nintendo won't die over here. They still have a monopoly on portable systems (for now, at least, Sony could change that, we'll have to see,) and there are enough people who want to play Metroid and Zelda and Mario that they'll still be able to make a good profit here; however, I can see them being the Apple of the console market here.

  • hmm... (Score:4, Informative)

    by PainKilleR-CE ( 597083 ) on Wednesday October 01, 2003 @02:17PM (#7106468)
    "It's not uncommon for there to be only two or three Japanese games among the top 20 sellers each month; this would have been unheard of less than ten years ago."

    I'm not even sure if this is completely true. Maybe we're questioning the fact that more western games are in the charts than before, but the last charts I saw showed more like 9 Japanese games in the top 20 (though 3 were the different versions of Soul Calibur 2, 3 US titles were the different versions of Madden NFL 2004).

    As for questioning matters like originality in the titles, there are problems on this front on both sides. After all, 4 of the top 11 games are football games (Madden for GC was #11, NCAA Football was #5), and who would you get to develop an American football game outside of the US? 5 of the top 20 are US-centric sports games (the above 4 and NBA Street), with Mario Golf making 6 sports games in the list (though obviously not in the same realm of sports games as the others). The best selling soccer (football for the non-US people) game in Japan is a game made by a Japanese company, while the best selling soccer game in Europe is an EA title. Would anyone in the US be likely to play a Japanese-developed baseball game today? Well the Japanese certainly are, and it's right up there in the Japanese top 10, too.

    Something else to note would be the longevity of titles on the US charts. Games rise and fall on the Japanese charts in a matter of weeks. In the US, we still have Vice City and Halo in the top 20. Pokemon Ruby & Saphire's combined sales keep it in the top 20 in Japan, while in the US they're listed individually and both still on the top 20.

    The article's author even takes the time to say that Nintendo's part of the problem, even though Nintendo has 4 games in the US top 20, surpassed only by EA's 5. The only other company with more than 1 is Namco, and that's the 3 listings for SC2 (as EA's listing is for 2 games + 3 listings for Madden).
  • In America the Japanese games seem to be becoming less popular, but it makes sense. Americans and Japanese are very different from each other. So now that the American game developers are developing better games which "all Americans" seem to like, the Japanese games just kind of seem to fizzle out and die.

    Then again from my experience Americans don't seem to like puzzle games, and other such games that merit better game play over graphics. Don't get me wrong people. I know there are plenty of great America

  • I beg your pardon? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by silentbobdp ( 157345 )
    I can certainly see that Japanese-developed games are selling slightly less than usual, but as far as being in a creative slump...are these guys on fucking crack? Have they PLAYED Viewtiful Joe? I can't remember the last time a US developer took a HUGE risk - they're all pretty much sticking to defined genres. At last count the best sellers were still sports games. I don't see too much creativity there.

    And yes, I am an import snob.
  • citizens can't read or speak Japanese!?! Duh!
  • ...but I personally have three reasons why I prefer western games over Japanese ones:

    1. Complexity. I find Japanese games to be very simplistic and repetitive. If I want to lean back and watch what's happening on the screen I rent a video. If I want to control what's happening on the screen, I play western games.

    2. Game style. I prefer either low-action games or full-action, not the combinations with all those minigames that Japanese titles are known for.

    3. Graphics. While graphics don't play a m

  • Japan got both inovation (example: super monkey ball) and a long line of repetetive sequels.

    the key is to remember that sequels in themself is not a bad thing, as long as they try to improve gameplay to perfection (example: Virtua Fighter) - just like chess the first version is not perfect, and new versions of it will arrive until it reaches that hight. Now the problem with 'perfect' games is that you can make money off the sequel as well, but how do you improve a perfect game? (example: Advance Wars).

    -

  • The Japanese only manage to squeeze out two or three good games a year. The rest are absolute crap that are usually clones of the crap that managed to eke out some success.

  • Different Angle.... (Score:2, Informative)

    by jxa00++ ( 322387 )
    I posted this months ago, and it still seems relevant to this article:

    I pulled up the TRST Data from last year, and I counted how many of the top titles for Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 were made in Japanese top 10, top 20, top 30.

    On PlayStation 2, two of their top 10 were made in Japan, and two of the next 10, and three of the next 10. That's got to be a record for low games from Japan.

    On Xbox, there were none in the top 10, two in the next 10, and none in the last 10.

    On GameCube it was six, five,
  • 7 words for you:

    All Your Base Are Belong To Us

  • Way back when I was growing up, being a console gamer, more often than not, meant you were also something of a Nipponophile, either just for the games or anime freaks. All of the games that were worth beans came from Japan, because that's where the consoles came from. People who didn't want to buy a Japanese console had old Ataris or Intellivisions. The market for US developed console games was pretty much limited to sports titles, and crappy comic book/movie/TV licensed crapfests. No one who cast scorn
  • Japan basically "invented" modern videogames, while american computer text adventures and pong were the first videogames ever created it was games like space invaders, pacman and Mario bros the once who defined it as a new way of entertainment. The rest of the world has been trying to keep up with japanese videogame advances since then.

    However that situation is beginning to change, over the last 10 years there has been a significant increase in quality in American and European games, while yesteryear a v
  • Probably due to the fact that most Games Consumers are Zombies, and buy whatever the company that owns the console market. The largest userbase being Sony's Playstation 2, and the most marketed game being Britian's GTA shows that. Ditto with EA's sports games, which barly change year-to-year. Most people just can't think for themselves...
  • I think a big part of this downturn in Japanese dominance is perhaps because Western gamers are getting sick of bad scripts, dialogue, dubs, and the like. I actually hope this is the case, though some of the article's reasons are probably on the money too (especially Western devs being more innovative lately).

    Much of the localization work being done on Western releases of Japanese games is horrendous. Sure, actual script translation are finally getting better, more or less. They still aren't good enough, u

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