Is the Japanese game market dead here in the USA?

What is your opinion on this since there are still Japanese games here in the United States. One of the biggest ones was release couple of weeks ago but seem to not get as much as attention compare to lets say God of War or Dead Space.bluedeathking

I think it is at least on some sort of decline. I can't think of the last time there was real hype for a Japanese game.

I think it is. I'm not big on Japanese games. But, I just started Crisis Core on my PSP and I have MGS4 for the PS3. 

Its not dead. Plenty of Japanese games come over here and do well. Some, such as Metal Gear Rising and Ni no Kuni, end up nabbing some exceptional scores. But they'd probably get a tiny fraction of the advertising God of War and Dead Space would get. IF they get any that is.

Pretty much. 

For a while, the Japanese were the only ones making RPG games and complex stuff that wasn't arcadey. 

But US gamemakers have caught up since then and so people have more options and don't have to put up with annoying traits from Japanese games.

Not dead, some JP games sell OK.
But the JP games industry has become a minor player that's for sure.

Its not dead. Plenty of Japanese games come over here and do well. Some, such as Metal Gear Rising and Ni no Kuni, end up nabbing some exceptional scores. But they'd probably get a tiny fraction of the advertising God of War and Dead Space would get. IF they get any that is.

Lucky_Krystal

[QUOTE="Lucky_Krystal"]

Its not dead. Plenty of Japanese games come over here and do well. Some, such as Metal Gear Rising and Ni no Kuni, end up nabbing some exceptional scores. But they'd probably get a tiny fraction of the advertising God of War and Dead Space would get. IF they get any that is.

bluedeathking

I'm not 100% sure on how Ni no Kuni sold in the US. According to what I've heard, Ni no Kuni sold something around 112,000 copies. Though that might have been first week numbers, I don't know how much more they've sold by now. The special edition of the game was also sold out after a while in the US. I'm assuming it did pretty good over here. Ni no Kuni also sold out in the UK.

And yeah, Disgaea and all those other games NIS America localizes have a small but pretty dedicated fanbase. They only print a small number of copies for their games, though I think they did do a reprint of the first Neptunia game when it sold out.

It's not dead, it's just incredibly niche compared to last gen. There's so many titles out there now, so only the hyped mainstream big budgeted games tend to do very well in sales in the US. I hate the terms "weaboo" and "bro gamer", they're just used by immature people who like throwing mindless lables around.

@Bigboi500 to be quite honest the word waeboo kind of remind me of the 50s phrase n***** lover that the hicks and biggots would use. personally I only heard the word use online and it confuse the crap out of me (still does) when I first heard it. the japanese game i notice that usually does well here is because they took a western theme ( Resident Evil, Dead Rising, and Metal Gear) or a western approach to game design (Dark souls and Street Fighter 4). seem like anything out side these requirement it suffer in term of sells.bluedeathking

It's just another one of those labels that people use to differentiate "them" from "us." I assume weaboo came about by anime fans who generally enjoy the medium but didn't want to be grouped in with the hardcore crowd that worships Japan, will insult anything non Japanese, butchers the language, and does socially unacceptable things usually seen in anime (like glomping). Same with "dudebro gamer." Its just some term to insult anyone who dares to enjoy mainstream gaming, in an effort to give the accuser some kind of credibility or whatever...

And to be honest, you're choice of words ("suffer in terms of sales") suggests that you think all of the less popular Japanese games are doing poorly over here. Well you have to think for a minute about what's "poor" to small little niche publishers like NIS America, Aksys, and Atlus. Like I said, they know they have a limited fanbase. But the sales from that limited fanbase is enough for them to keep bringing over these titles. So like BigBoi said, the genre is extremely niche but its still there. If Japanese gaming were truly dead, then we'd see far more titles being skipped over for localization here.

Since they're so niche, they aren't going to be selling 500,000+ copies, with a few rare exceptions like Catherine. But even still, they sell enough for the companies to usually earn back all the money they spent and keep bringing more games over. There a few things these small companies do to save money and keep bringing over these niche games. Like I said, they usually print a small number of copies (which explains why the 3 companies mention above's games tend to become extremely hard to find after a while). Due to their limited budget, they'll never get the kind of advertising games like Resident Evil and God of War get. Though its fine because usually the people who really want these games will already know about it. I also noticed that for some small companies (namely NIS America) they never credit their English voice actors.

This means the voice actors are doing non union work on that specific game. It ends up being far cheaper, and is sometimes all these small companies can afford. Voice actors from the union can do non union work, but unfortunatley it means they aren't creditied. That's the simplified version of that story anyway...

Dead? Not really, at least in the portable gaming market. I tend to like some japanese games every now and then, although I do buy more western games. Back in the 90s, it was the opposite, lol. The majority of american companies back then really made terrible games. *looks at acclaim*

[QUOTE="bluedeathking"]@Bigboi500 to be quite honest the word waeboo kind of remind me of the 50s phrase n***** lover that the hicks and biggots would use. personally I only heard the word use online and it confuse the crap out of me (still does) when I first heard it. the japanese game i notice that usually does well here is because they took a western theme ( Resident Evil, Dead Rising, and Metal Gear) or a western approach to game design (Dark souls and Street Fighter 4). seem like anything out side these requirement it suffer in term of sells.Lucky_Krystal

It's just another one of those labels that people use to differentiate "them" from "us." I assume weaboo came about by anime fans who generally enjoy the medium but didn't want to be grouped in with the hardcore crowd that worships Japan, will insult anything non Japanese, butchers the language, and does socially unacceptable things usually seen in anime (like glomping). Same with "dudebro gamer." Its just some term to insult anyone who dares to enjoy mainstream gaming, in an effort to give the accuser some kind of credibility or whatever...

And to be honest, you're choice of words ("suffer in terms of sales") suggests that you think all of the less popular Japanese games are doing poorly over here. Well you have to think for a minute about what's "poor" to small little niche publishers like NIS America, Aksys, and Atlus. Like I said, they know they have a limited fanbase. But the sales from that limited fanbase is enough for them to keep bringing over these titles. So like BigBoi said, the genre is extremely niche but its still there. If Japanese gaming were truly dead, then we'd see far more titles being skipped over for localization here.

Since they're so niche, they aren't going to be selling 500,000+ copies, with a few rare exceptions like Catherine. But even still, they sell enough for the companies to usually earn back all the money they spent and keep bringing more games over. There a few things these small companies do to save money and keep bringing over these niche games. Like I said, they usually print a small number of copies (which explains why the 3 companies mention above's games tend to become extremely hard to find after a while). Due to their limited budget, they'll never get the kind of advertising games like Resident Evil and God of War get. Though its fine because usually the people who really want these games will already know about it. I also noticed that for some small companies (namely NIS America) they never credit their English voice actors.

This means the voice actors are doing non union work on that specific game. It ends up being far cheaper, and is sometimes all these small companies can afford. Voice actors from the union can do non union work, but unfortunatley it means they aren't creditied. That's the simplified version of that story anyway...

handhelds and nintendo is the japanese market. AAA titles are getting fewer and fewer on consoles...