Videogame nationalism annoys me

[Kire]

Y'know what grinds my gears? The fact that the majority of Japanese gamers won't play games that aren't Japanese. Most game stores even seperate foreign games from the Japanese ones. Sure, the console industry was reborn there w/ the NES, but it's been 20 years, and there's just as many good American (or other country's) games as there are Japanese games. Look at the sales charts at any time over there, and this is highly evident. Everyone knows this is why the 360 is failing over there hardcore, because there really aren't that many Japanese games for the console yet.

I'm not saying that this will change anytime soon, it just ****** me off that a lot of the incredible games made over here won't reach most of the gamers over there for this reason. Will we ever be able to bridge the gap?

Consider these: God of War, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Metroid Prime, Call of Duty 2, Ratchet & Clank, Jak 3, Half Life 2, GTA, Halo, Star Wars: KOTOR, Jade Empire, Oblivion, Warcraft, Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, System Shock 2, Tony Hawk, SSX Tricky, Guitar Hero, Amplitude, Madden, NBA Street, Def Jam: FFNY, Chronicles of Riddick, Legacy of Kain Series, and Eternal Darkness.

[Jamos' Old Account]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

I'm not saying that this will change anytime soon, it just ****** me off that a lot of the incredible games made over here won't reach most of the gamers over there for this reason. Will we ever be able to bridge the gap?

I'd say that there are some good games from here, but I'm not too sure about increadible.

[John Mora]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

I don't think I bought a single American game for about 5+ years. About the only genres that Americans/Europeans really make the best games in are sports (the majority that are published and go on to become American successes are, surprise, primarily American sports) and FPSes, which the Japanese aren't really keen on because of motion sickness.

[Gustaff 13]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

Glancing over at my shelf, the only non-Japanese developed titles out right now are:

JAWS: Unleashed - Appaloosa (Greece)
Ecco: DotF - Appaloosa (Greece)
PoP: Sands of Time - UbiSoft (Canada)
Smuggler's Run - Rockstar (USA)

[Valkysas]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

Japanese gamers have different tastes than american gamers do. some games from japan that are very popular in the US arent that popular in japan, like Metroid (not counting the US-based Prime games), Metal Gear, and even Megaman sell better in the US than they do in japan. Maverick Hunter X for the PSP never even sold 10,000 units in japan.

The US market is much more diverse, so its easy for any type of game to find an audience. No one ever knows what will sell well in japan. you would have thought DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball would have sold a lot of X Boxes in japan based on the popularity of that type of game over there. it didnt. just further proof that no one ever knows what will sell in japan, because if there was ever a game tailor made to sell to the general otaku population... that was it.

I havent bought a single US-made game (other than the recent Metroid games) since the SNES days. Its not because I intentionally avoid them, I just buy what I like. I don't like most US-made games. They tend to be sports or FPS titles, which I'm not a fan of. neither are the japanese.

[Kire]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

Vessel, if you think that, please consider God of War, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Metroid Prime, Ratchet & Clank, Jak 3, Half Life 2, GTA, Halo, Star Wars: KOTOR, Jade Empire, Oblivion, Warcraft, Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, System Shock 2, Tony Hawk, SSX Tricky, Guitar Hero, Amplitude, Madden, NBA Street, Def Jam: FFNY, Chronicles of Riddick, Legacy of Kain Series, and Eternal Darkness.

I added these to the top for reference.

[John Mora]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

It may just be my personal aesthetics, but I tend to find that most American/European games have butt fugly art direction in comparison to a lot of Japanese offerings.

[Kire]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

I'll agree that it's probably a personal asthetics issue, and American games tend to be grittier. Still, God of War is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played, and Splinter Cell has been the gold standard for "pretty" for quite a while now.

[Jamos' Old Account]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

Vessel, if you think that, please consider God of War, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Metroid Prime, Ratchet & Clank, Jak 3, Half Life 2, GTA, Halo, Star Wars: KOTOR, Jade Empire, Oblivion, Warcraft, Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, System Shock 2, Tony Hawk, SSX Tricky, Guitar Hero, Amplitude, Madden, NBA Street, Def Jam: FFNY, Chronicles of Riddick, Legacy of Kain Series, and Eternal Darkness.

Actually, I did have those in mind. I love most of those (except I hated Splinter Cell), but I don't think of them as increadible. They have some increadible aspects to them, for example the Legacy of Kain storyline. They just have some faults that seperate them from that level of greatness. Of course, that can be said about alot of japanese games as well.

[Valkysas]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

I hate the way Splinter Cell looks. I hate everything about that series.

[John Mora]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

You just would never see something as visually daring as Okami or as charming as Katamari Damacy come from over here, though. And MGS3 is damn pretty, if you're gonna bring up Splinter Cell.

[Biggie]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

I believe games like God of War and the Jak series have achieved success outside of the states, even I am not interested in Splinter Cell, when spoiled by MGS, its kind of hard to get into a boring game like that. by the way Gustaff, PoP was developed in Europe, not Canada.

Also Kire, many of the games you mention were not even successful here, such as Psychonauts, PoP, and Eternal Darkness.

[The Dark Jester]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

To me most US games that are produced are boring, bland or whatever.

The Japanese tend to think outside of the box more, so I play more of their games.

[Kire]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

IMHO, MGS3 doesn't come close to Splinter Cell in the looks department...actually I thought MGS2 looked a whole lot better than MGS3.

I will concede that you'll never see an Ookami or Katamari over here because of the nature of the American game development beast. Perhaps some independant developers in the microtransaction era could break that trend.

And Bigfoot, I'm not sure of the success of PoP1&3 and Eternal Darkness, but they were three of the greatest games I've ever played and had huge critical success.

[Shard]

Re: Videogame nationalism annoys me

It seems like realism is the default for western artistic direction while anime is the default for eastern. I understand that most developers simply target where they think the largest audience lies, but what impresses me most is when the visual style is integrated into every aspect of the game. Ex) Psychonauts, Prince of Persia, Beyond Good & Evil, the Max Payne series, the Sly Cooper series, etc.