Perception

by Justin Harwood

Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo's infamous president, recently made some remarks concerning the difference between American gamers and their Japanese conterparts. His remarks basically boil down to a belief that Japanese gamers crave, even demand, innovative and different styles of games and gameplay, and that American gamers are for the most part content to rehash a few game archetypes with minor variations in gameplay. While it is both easy and most likely correct to write off this comment as yet another outgrowth of the fact that Yamauchi is utterly insane, it is also prudent to consider these comments as a direct manifestation of the percieved difference between the Japanese and American markets.

There are many of these more "innovative" games produced and released in Japan which never see the light of day in America, ostensibly because the American market cannot support these games. There is some truth to this statement. It is obviously not a case of no one buying the games, but when a company has to consider localizing a game on top of the cost to print and ship said game, it becomes understandable that mediocre games with lacluster Japanese sales do not scream, "Spend the little money you've made on me localizing me and shiping me to America, where I can expect to sell fewer copies!" At the same time, there are numerous problems with this model of business. For one, the idea that games are not released in America simply on the basis that they hold no marketability or interest for the U.S. is preposterous. First off, this would mean that the whole of Europe is populated by and large by people who are simply uninterested in gaming, and we know this is not the case. Secondly, best-selling, wildly popular franchise games are often not ported, despite the fact that the company behind the title has more than enough moolah to pay for a decent localization and shipping costs. Finally, companies that do go to the trouble to give a quirky, decidedly "Japanese" game a decent localization and port said game often find a hit on their hands, such as PaRappa the Rapper, or Dance Dance Revolution.

Why then do games that can both afford a localization and have a chance at doing well in the American market never make it over? There is no one answer. For one, sometimes the console company has final say in what will be ported. Nintendo didn't want to publish Final Fantasy II or III in the U.S.. Sony wouldn't let Capcom port any of its many PS re-releases or collections to America. Why? Partly because company executives are wary to publish games that aren't sure-fire hits in the U.S. The main reason for this seems to be that companies have been burned in the past. It's usually their own fault, though they don't realize this. Allow me to explain. The company has made a great deal of money on a game that is very popular in Japan. Though initially hesitant to port the game, they surmise that they can't lose even if only a fraction of the sales figures are repeated over seas. The company decides to keep costs low, just in case, and pours only the most basic amount of money into creating a port. The localization is poor, and there is little or no money for any sort of ad campaign. Thus the average American gamer suddenly finds on the shelf a game he's never heard of with a less-than-stellar translation, appearing on a system that is by now halfway to being dead with graphics that are subpar by comparisson to whatever is new. The game sells few copies, and company executives don't understand why a game that did so well in Japan fared so poorly in America.

Occasionally, games with stellar translations and a decent ad campaign do make it over, and even then they are treated as niche market games and very few copies are shipped. What's worse, some companies simply refuse to port any game (*cough*Banpresto*cough*), making it impossible for Americans who are interested in these "innovative" games to ever help create a market for them. Also, some genres of games have never been heavily ported, meaning that these companies have created a lack of market base for an entire genre of games, and can never recover from this. A great example of this are the various types of Japanese games which center around what is known as "date simulation," in which you talk to girls and do things for them in an attempt to get them to like your character. Even hybrids of this genre that combine other elements such as RPG-style gameplay like the popular Sakura Taisen series are generally not ported (Thousand Arms being a notable exception). Giving one of these games a great localization and an intense media campaign would have the possibility of opening up a whole new genre of games for American consumption, and a whole new market for companies. Yet they refuse to do so out of a perception that these games will not sell well in America, a perception stemming largely from the companies' historical refusal to port any games within the genre.

The truth is that these games are not ported because these companies decided for themselves long ago that certain types of games would not sell well to the American consumer, and that they therefore would not port them, a descision which remains in place to this day. Yamauchi may say that American gamers are merely content to remain inside a few set archetypes for their gaming, but I say we are given little choice. When our alternatives to those archetypres are for the most part represented by poorly translated, cheaply marketed, graphically deficient games on near-defunct systems, I think it is easy to see why few gamers feel comfortable straying outside the norm. Japanese gaming companies are not being proactive towards a cultural divide. EA's The Sims is a consistent best-seller, and proves that Americans will play indeed play some very "innovative" games. No, these companies are merely proliferating a long standing gap in what games they choose to offer to various regions of the world. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think the choice of what games are offered to us should be decided by the market, not Yamauchi and whomever else's perception of what will sell well here, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. Give games a decent localization, a little bit of ad money, and let the American consumer decide for themselves just what it is they are or are not interested in. The market will speak for itself.