14 DAY TRIAL // Different territories have different types of markets, be it cars or electronics, you cannot create something that will appeal to the worldwide population. Such is the case in the gaming industry, while shooters like Halo will attract North American or European markets, if you want to be successful in Japan, you have to make a RPG, or Role Playing Game.
This recipe for success in the Asian country has been learned by Microsoft and the results are already coming in, as the Xbox 360 is for the first time since launch dominating the local PlayStation 3 console in terms of sales. This is all thanks to the wide variety of RPG titles which Microsoft has been heavily promoting in Japan, like Blue Dragon or Tales of Vesperia.
Well known Japanese developer Yokshiki Okamoto recently spoke to The Guardian about the big differences between the European and Japanese markets. He has worked with Capcom on major titles like Devil May Cry or Resident Evil and is the creative mind behind one of the most popular games in Japan, Monster Hunter. He exemplified the differences between customers by comparing his creation with Grand Theft Auto IV, a huge title released by Rockstar Games for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
“Monster Hunter emphasizes cooperation over competition, which suits Japanese audiences perfectly, since most Japanese people enjoy cooperating and being part of a group. This kind of gameplay is less suited to audiences drawn from Western cultures, which place a heavier emphasis on the independence of the individual from the group. In designing a game for a European market, I think it is vital to maintain an awareness of this sort of fundamental cultural difference. Rockstar is not unsuccessful in Japan, but their success here is on a much smaller scale than elsewhere in the world market. The low Japanese sales of the sandbox-style GTA series simply do not make any sense to me.”
He does make a good point, we have seen other games which did extremely well in the United States or Europe but barely managed to move units in Japan. It just goes to show that markets can be totally different according to regions.