14 DAY TRIAL // It's true that Europe gets only a reduced amount of games or downloadable content, mostly launched on consoles, after America and Japan poked them and declared their opinions. If American or Japanese gamers say that a certain title sucks, Europe has little chance of getting it, and for all we know, Europe might be hosting a great deal of gamers that see games differently. So why should they be deprived of the opportunity to play them? The same rhetorical question is being asked over at GameIndustry.biz, where Nordic Game Program director Erik Robertson comments on the aspects of this issue:
"We know the market is very large, but certainly the Nordic viewpoint is that too much control of these markets, and the access to our markets, are in Asian or North American hands. That's the way the market looks now - it makes sense from a cultural, political and strict business viewpoint to try and change that."
Also, local developers have little shot at services such as Xbox Live Arcade. Why? Because it is US based, that's why. Robertson's suggests that the solution to this problem lies within gaining more control over distribution:
"That means digital distribution but it also means non-proprietary platforms.[...] The PC is the independent developers best tool for market access. Xbox Live Arcade is very nice but the decision to publish games is still made in the US rather than Europe. The closer that the decision is made to where the game is actually produced increases the likelihood of getting your game published. That's just a given."
Sorry to say this, but just as Roberson points out, the unevenness between Europe's market and other markets is "just a given," and it's not only the gaming industry that suffers from this. Who knows, maybe things will even up some day, but not as soon as some may expect.