Steve over at gamingsteve.com has a new article that poses the question Why Do American Games Fail in Japan?
By way of preamble, Steve documents the abysmal state of Xbox sales in Japan, with only about 1% of total game platform sales in the country. That figure of one percent includes all sales of the previous generation Xbox since it’s launch in 2002, as well as Xbox360 sales to date. He goes on to list the top 100 game titles in Japan, and points out that there are no Xbox-related games in that list and that the only US-made title to be found there appears at 70th position, and that game is for the Sony PS2 platform.
Nintendo is number one in the Japanese game market, both in hardware and software. In 2005, the Nintendo DS portable gaming system, with it’s 2 screens, outsold the Sony PlayStation Portable (the 2nd best selling platform) by a factor of 2 to 1. The best selling game in Japan for 2005 was Nintendo’s Oideyo Doubutsu no Mori (aka Animal Crossing Wild World), just edging out Sony’s well-received Gran Turismo 4. The best selling game and platform are shown together in the top graphic.
Why is the most difficult of the five W’s. The article suggest that U.S. games do not sell well in Japan because they are American-centric and geared to U.S. tastes. Examples being games based on U.S. sports and first-person-shooter games.
Others suggest that the reason may be cultural, because FPS games seem to do well elsewhere, such as in China. Additional reasons that are offered include brand loyalty, cultural bias, dislike of American marketing techniques, the placement of the controller’s buttons or the lack of Xbox game titles.
Or it may simply be a Japanese dislike for the bulk and girth of the previous-gen Xbox, as depicted in the above chart. Or some reverse-synergistic combination of all of the above may be implicated.
Why Do American Games Fail in Japan? – gamingsteve.com, Feb 1, 2006
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Or many Japanese people might simply buy Japanese games out of national pride and to help their economy, just like many Americans feel compelled to buy American. (Wasn’t “buy American” even an advertising slogan for a long time?
I didn’t realize 1st-person shooters was an american thing. I wonder what kind of a statement that makes.
i was surprised to read this b/c so many other aspects of american culture are popular in japan.