Ubisoft CEO and President Yves Guillemot
told MCV yesterday that his company is "not so much concentrating on the Japanese market," resigning efforts
to break into the Eastern gaming culture. Why would a CEO of a massively successful European publisher all but bow out
of penetrating a massive market? It is hard for one side to see the other's perspective, but let us try for a
second.Guillemot cited how Japan handles games not developed in Japan: "the titles coming from Europe and the United States are tagged as 'foreign games' they are not seen as 'normal' games. There is a special section for games coming from export markets and that is not helping us at all." Thank about how, in the United States, the "adult" movies are separated from the rest of the film selection. While the analogy is imperfect, there still exists a negative connotation from splitting the games from what is popular and Japanese-made. These games are published in Japan, they are not imports (like the straight-from-Japan imports you might find from Lik-Sang).
One of the big issues, of course, is just a difference in tastes -- the Asian market tend to favor RPGs over first-person shooters, and Western games are ripe with the latter genre. A perfect example is Microsoft's Xbox 360, whose current line-up heavily emphasizes first-person games (mostly shooters) at the expense of any decent role playing games (except for Oblivion, but the RPGs we associate with Japan tend to look more like Chrono Trigger than Quake meets Baldur's Gate). Microsoft has had major issues trying to convince Japanese gamers to buy its console, and their launch lineup failed to dissuade the already-negative disposition toward the Xbox 360.
Acclaim's rebirth focuses on bringing Korean MMORPGs to American audiences, but is America ready for such a game wholly disparate from the norm? We loved Katamari, but can a game like Bots attract the same cult following?
The reverse is also true, and many mega-popular Japanese titles receive lukewarm receptions outside of its native lands (the Dragon Quest series is the most infamous example). That does not include the countless number of Japanese titles that were too bizarre for US or European shores. It is unfortunate, but maybe Ubisoft has a point: they create games with the European and American gamer in mind, so why would one expect those games to bode well in a land whose culture contrasts so greatly with their target audience?
[Thanks, Terrell Chambers]
[Update: fixed a pretty bad typo]
