Why aren’t some Japanese games brought over to the US market? They have some creative stuff that’s addictive but it’s only found in import bins, untranslated. Was there a time where Japan did import their games to the American market only to fall flat on their face and only shill western friendly games?
What do you mean by games? Board games? Computer games?
Cost, pretty much. It costs a fair bit to translate/localize a game, and it costs far, far more to market it. Rather than bring over the more obscure (in the marketing people’s eyes) or creative (in yours) titles, North American companies would rather import the more mainstream mega-hit Japanese titles. The profits are more certain.
Mind you, this isn’t limited to Japanes games, or the game industry in particular. It extends to all international traffic in movies, books, music, etc.–the blockbuster, middle-of-the-road titles are sent away to be translated and exported, while the more interesting, creative, niche products may never get out of their home country.
(For example: if you want to buy a CD by a famous US megastar in Canada, you’ll have no trouble finding it for regular price. However, if you want to buy a CD by an esoteric US artist, you often end up paying up to double the normal price to get an imported CD, because the business folk have deemed the CD too obscure to warrent a Canadian pressing. And of course the same is true in the US if you want to by a CD by, say, an obscure New Zealand artist.)
I’ve seen both Japanese computer games–What was the name of that damnably annoying fake pet?–and board games on the market here. There is a fair sized following in this country for Shogi. Go also has a following, but it’s really a Chinese game.
The fake pets were called tamagochi. Were they ever boring.
I’m not so sure what you mean by “western” games, but a very significant portion of mainstream video games are made and designed in Japan. Think Mario Bros., Zelda, Final Fantasy and Biohazard, etc.
Shogi and Go are different because they don’t need localisation other than the translation of books. Besides, they have been around long enough to be established.
Japan and the U.S. have a lot of cultural differences, which is probably the biggest reason. Metal Gear Solid 2 died pretty quickly in the U.S., but it was huge in Japan. Grand Theft Auto 3, which sold 11 million copies in the U.S., Europe, and Australia, hasn’t even been released in Japan.
[hijack]
“All your base belong to us”
[/hijack]
Slee :::amazed that he was the first person to post this:::
If you mean computer games then I am willing to guess it is partly due to there not being as large a market. My japanese friends mother sends her playstation games in the mail, and good god are some of these things freaky. The general western palate is not used to the high-octane puzzlegaming from japan would be my guess, and while there are absolutly some who would be into it, the majority quite likely would not.
Prime example = Tetris, but with fruit, in which not only the shapes but the individual friuts can be rotated, specific combinations of fruit/shapes with other fruit/shapes give “death moves” like in Mortal combat. Gameplay is accompanied by your and your opponents avatar screaming hysterically, bouncing up and down and into your field of vision, shooting lightning from one side of the screen to the other and performing “death moves” on the other avatar. All the the screen flashes between about 8 different colours at stroboscopic speed and the music is, well, fairly damned out of control.
I play these games with her occasionally, and they are fun for like 10 minutes, mainly due to the kitsch factor, but I would never buy one, my brain would explode from the input. Japan has a much much more diverse gaming sector, encompassing young and old, guys and girls and this has led to a very diverse game selection. I think importers play the “safe card” and choose the more vanilla titles for more widespread hits here.
<nitpick>
All your base are belong to us.
</nitpick>