For The Umpteenth Time: Western Game Makers Target Japan

News Reader · Post by **News Reader** » July 17th, 2007, 11:01

For The Umpteenth Time: Western Game Makers Target Japan

Lock your doors and hide under your futons, Japan. According to Japanese financial news source Nikkei, Western game publishers are coming for your yen! While Electronic Arts makes buckets of cash in America, the global leader ranks up less than 10 percent of its sales in Japan. What's worse, EA shuttered its Japan studio earlier this year. Electronic Arts still continues to throw Sim City and The Sims at Japanese Wiis and DSes, hoping that they'll stick. Elsewhere, Microsoft has teamed up with Final Fantasy creator Hironobu "The Gooch" Sakaguchi for a handful of RPGs and also bundled its console with Namco created RPG Trusty Bell. Still, Japan is a tough market to crack — just ask Sony with its PS3. Zing!

Game Makers Target Japan [Rising Sun of Nihon]

Author: Brian Ashcraft
Category: Ea Electronic Arts for the umpteenth time Japan Microsoft Namco PS3 sim city Sony The Sims Trusty Bell Xbox 360
Publish Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 04:00:55 EDT
Read more...

Source: Kotaku

Post by **FatherJack** » July 17th, 2007, 12:22

A shitload of RPGs with the FF creator on board seems a good bet. Wish we'd see more of them over here. MS=Worth a try.

Spamming them with the same crap they didn't buy first time doesn't look such a great strategy. EA=Fail.

Post by **HereComesPete** » July 17th, 2007, 16:20

Having never really been anywhere near the sims, does the game possess asian/antipodean looking characters? I may well be making a sweeping generalisation here, but if the intention is to provide an empathic link between player and sim, then giving them the option of someone who could BE them would surely increase the chance that they would play the game. Also, throwing countless add on packs at stupid rich merkins=win, throwing them at game obsessed yet picky Japanese=fail.