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PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

MGS Creators on 'Masochistic' PS2, U.S. Popularity 46

Posted by simoniker from the flagellation's-what-you-need dept.
Thanks to GameSpy for its article interviewing Hideo Kojima and Scott Dolph of Konami about the continuation of the Metal Gear Solid series. Notable sections include Kojima's comments about the programming difficulties of Sony hardware: "People on my team are masochistic. They enjoy the difficulty of working with PlayStation 2 and we assume that PlayStation 3 will be even more difficult. We know nothing about the system; but it's from Sony, so we assume so", as well as Dolph discussing Metal Gear Solid's regional popularity: "You know, it sells better in the United States. There are more people who buy the game and are waiting for the game. Also, the hype from the U.S. travels and that helps sales in Japan. If the game is big in the U.S., it will do better in Japan. And I do not think that the hype works for you the other way around."
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MGS Creators on 'Masochistic' PS2, U.S. Popularity More

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

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  • I guess you can call me a fanboy, but I've been with MG since it's humble beginnings on the MSX computer.

    Worked all my way up to the PSX version, PC version, PS2 version and last but not least, the GC version (which is just a remake of the PSX version with updated graphics and a Nintendo reference here and there that could have been kept out of there in my opinion).
    From what I've seen online (movies, interviews, snippets, rumors), MGS3 is going to be one hell of a game.
    In this episode, you also have to kee

  • Eastern focus (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dakiarai ( 688640 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @08:13AM (#8846486)
    "And I do not think that the hype works for you the other way around."

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

    • Re:Eastern focus (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Emperor Igor ( 106953 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @08:38AM (#8846651)
      It's probably because the games from Japan (which is what I assume you mean by East) are very innovative and strange. Games from the West focus overwhelmingly on killing monsters/people. And, don't get me wrong, they are spectacular at it. You just need a change once in a while. And the Japanese take more risks with their games, focusing on more abstract concepts or brightening up a more hum-dum, every day concept to be more fun.

      • Re:Eastern focus (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Rayonic ( 462789 )
        Where do you get the idea that "Japanese games are more innovative and strange"? I mean, sure, a lot of Japanese stuff might seem strange to you, but much of it is just commonplace there.
        • You're right. Strangeness is relative. But I am, as always, speaking from my own cultural context. You can take that as a given almost always.

          And I wouldn't say it's totally commonplace there. I'm sure some of those games are considered innovative even there.
        • Nonsense. We're talking about 21st century entertainment here. People went to see "The Matrix" because it was so far out, the result of several long leaps outside of the formula. Japanese games *are* more innovative and strange, because Japanese game authors are encouraged and incented to write a "Blair Witch"
          or a "Matrix" instead of a "Rocky XXVII" or a "Spiderman 14".

          • Re:Eastern focus (Score:1, Insightful)

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

            For every innovative Japanese game, I can name two innovative non-Japanese games.
            • Um, no. Actually, you're right and I'm wrong.
              The markets are identical and the organization
              resources marshalled to exploit those markets are
              similarly identical.

              Okay, I'm being sarcastic. I admit it.

              You have a good point that franchises work in both
              markets, and organizations use that in both markets.
              However, I think that my underlying point remains
              well-justified by the body of games. The chances
              that any given console game made in japan is an
              innovative departure from the then-current formulae
              seem to be
          • Do you know anything about the Japanese gaming industry?
    • Another big thing that keeps Japanese games from coming here...besides licensing($$$), is that they make some really weird crap. The population of people who will buy stuff here just because it is popular in Japan is much different compared to the reverse. Fanboys (like me) will buy stuff that is cool in Japan, where "normal" Japanese people will buy stuff that is cool in America.

      For some reason I feel like I didn't make much sense...oh well.

    • Re:Eastern focus (Score:4, Funny)

      by PhotoBoy ( 684898 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @09:16AM (#8846967)
      Boonga Boonga:
      http://www.sixsixfive.com/229.html

      I can't see Sony bringing out this game and its peripheral for the US and Europe somehow...
      • The only problem is that, while everyone assumes that is a Japanese game, it isn't. It's a Korean game, and neither I or my coworkers have ever seen it in an arcade in Japan.
    • well, maybe there would be a market if it wasnt so damn difficult to get and play games from overseas.

      if there wasnt any region coding, if games that have text came with optional english/foreign subtitles or optional western/asian numbering, then I'm sure a lot more people would be importing games both ways.

    • Re:Eastern focus (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Ectospheno ( 724239 )
      Most games from Japanese game companies release in Japan first. The American divisions of Sony and Nintendo decide whether or not they want them in America. So, its hard to get super excited about a hot new Japanese game when you aren't even sure if Sony or Nintendo will bother to bring it over here. Then even if they do bring it over its a months long wait (if not longer).

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

    • Re:Eastern focus (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Phil Wilkins ( 5921 ) *
      Insightful??? How about, completely wrong. US and European gamers have played many more Japanese games than the Japanese play western games, going back as far as Space Invaders. Japanese developers even make games specifically for the western audience. For example, Tecmo didn't finance Ninja Gaiden on the predicted japanese sales.

      On the other hand, western successes in Japan are the exception, rather than the rule. Naughty Dog, working very closely with Sony, made a lot of changes to Crash Bandicoot to mak
  • So...hype goes from U.S.-to-Japan, but not the other way around? Kojima is a genius, but I have to disagree with him here - I think that, in most cases, hype from Japan travels to the U.S. The Japanese in general (there's always been a small market for western stuff) are just warming up to the idea of U.S. hype and all. I think that, much more often, we see the cool games that Japan has (and let's face it, they do have all the cool games ^_^) and either wait patiently for them to cross the Pacific, or, k
    • > So...hype goes from U.S.-to-Japan, but not the other way around? Kojima is a genius, but I have to disagree with him here

      It's said by Scott Dolph guy of the marketing department, NOT Kojima.

  • Why Japanese hype doesn't always translate (Score:4, Insightful)

    by chilled ( 542681 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @09:22AM (#8847026)
    We need to remember the Japanese games playing demographic as compared to the US or the UK. Overall there is a much wider Japanese demographic, therefore there is a wider (not necessarily larger, don't know the figures on that) market within Japan which translates to a wider range of games available. There is a market for these "wierd" Japanese games in the rest of the world, but it's pretty small as a percentage of these home markets, compared to Japan.

    Feel free to disagree or disabuse any of these notions.

    • Re:Why Japanese hype doesn't always translate (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It's more than just that. Japanese humor and culture in general is very quirky. You can see it in a good deal of their television (not just anime, although a good deal of anime is indeed quirky as all hell), as well as in their comics and contemporary writing. If you get the jokes, they're often very funny. If you don't, well, it's just alienating and weird. And it takes a good deal of cultural immersion to even begin to understand the culture of any country.

      So yeah, I think you have a point, but ther

  • Last Page (Score:3, Informative)

    by Scherf ( 609224 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @10:07AM (#8847542)
    The summary points to the last page of the article. Here is the link to the first one [gamespy.com].

  • If That's So... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Painaxl ( 673056 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @10:14AM (#8847615)
    "You know, it sells better in the United States. There are more people who buy the game and are waiting for the game."

    If that's the case, then why not release those sweet limited edition packages in the U.S.? I realize that LE packages for games are considered something for the eastern market only, but why? I would buy a Limited Edition Metal Gear Solid 3 package for sure if it came with the U.S. version of MGS3.

  • I got trolled for saying that... (Score:3, Funny)

    by quinkin ( 601839 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @10:19AM (#8847645)
    I got trolled for saying something similar to this: "...the difficulty of working with PlayStation 2 and we assume that PlayStation 3 will be even more difficult."

    PS2 difficult??!!?? Ugh?!? Unbeliever must DIE!!!

    Q.

  • Also, the hype from the U.S. travels and that helps sales in Japan. If the game is big in the U.S., it will do better in Japan. And I do not think that the hype works for you the other way around."

    "Earth to Squaresoft...Squaresoft, come in. Square, *listen* to the man!"

    • Re:Earth to Squaresoft (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I don't know what specific game you're talking about but the Square side of Square Enix has put pretty much all their games out in the US and they sell very well. Kingdom Hearts sold embarrassingly well. It wasn't that good of a game. All of their Final Fantasy games come out in the US amazingly fast considering the amount of text and dialog. They clearly co-develop both versions with the English one lagging behind only slightly. Hell, they even released Xenogears in the US despite all that Christianity hoo
    • "Earth to Squaresoft...Squaresoft, come in. Square, *listen* to the man!"

      Exactly...
      Squaresoft was hoping (I assume) that the popularity of FFXI in Japan would just magically carry over to the release in the NA market. It did not.
      Sure the game is popular here, but not because of Japanese hype.
      First off, popularity is gaining slowly. It has been more than two weeks since this game came out in NA and the numbers are only now starting to raise quickly on the servers. That means there weren't many waiting
  • You know what I'd like to see? The heads of the US divisions of the big Japanese game companies (ie Nintendo, Sega, Konami, Capcom, etc) all just simultaneously quit their jobs, pool their money, and open up a studio devoted to localizing strange Japanese games with niche markets. They could make a killing with that idea.

    This differs from Eidos' "Fresh Games" (ugh) label in that Eidos started it shortly before their entire company went to pot (around the time of the Tomb Raider movie, 'coincidentally') a
  • Don't get me wrong, the gameplay was fun, and I would have enjoyed it if it weren't for the movie they were playing inbetween scenes. Maybe they couldn't code up enough gameplay scenarios (because it's hard) so they just threw in movies ('cause it's easy).
    • Back when MGS2 was being devellopped, the thinking was that the future of gaming lay in merging games and movies (on account of cinematics were so important to square, and they were making a movie, etc).

      but Final Fantasy was too much like a game, and sucked as a movie, and MGS2 was too much like a movie, and that distracted a lot of people from its awsome gameplay.

      If you'll read the article, Hideo says he thinks games should be games, and not try to be movies.
      He learned his lesson.
  • Hrm, from what I've read about Asia, and my Asian friends here, becoming more Western/American is very popular there; whereas to a lot of Americans, "turning Japanese" has nothing to do with Japanese culture.

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