In a comparison of the
Japanese and American video game markets, Gaming Steve asks the question: "Why
do American games fail in Japan?". Although the article isn't directly related to the Xbox 360, it does help
explain the problems that
Microsoft has had to face in that country. Out of the top 100 best selling games in Japan for 2005, only one title
was made in America. In comparison, the U.S. market has a much greater demand for Japanese titles. As Steve puts it,
"Americans are simply more interested in playing Mario Kart or Metal Gear than Japanese are in playing Quake 4 or
Madden". The cause of this problem appears to be the result of a combination of ignorance and apathy from American publishers towards the Japanese market. Whereas Japanese publishers are willing to go the extra mile and carry out excellent localizations, their American counterparts seem reluctant to even bother getting their games translated to Japanese. As a result, the Japanese market is flooded with a multitude of bad American titles mixed in with the games that the Japanese public should be buying.
The greatest irony that this article seems to suggest is that the Japanese public want to play American games, but find it nearly impossible to find decent titles due to poor translation and an absence of marketing.
