rant of the moment ~ imports.. >.<, why, o why? Options

[DivA]

okay, i have come to the realization that the USoA gets the shortest straw in regards to japanese games.. >.< there are lots of interesting titles being released at Japan that never see the light of day at the states ~ case in point.. i recently got drawn to a game called, Atelier Marie for the GBA (quite by accident, by the way..). the premise is beautiful, an RPG dealing with the ideas of alchemy by learning from the inhabitants to create various formulas, thereby progressing through the game's story.. the plus-side ~ i can import it for about $64.00 (ouch.. -.-), the minus-side ~ no translation.. =. no big deal, this is an incentive to learn the language, i suppose.. =/ but the point is this ~ why do the neat & unique games stay at Japan, while select few staple titles (things that go BOOM) make it to the USoA? & while i'm on the subject ~ what is the deal with the time lapse for game language translations? =. i can go out & purchase an anime dvd that has the options for: english, japanese, japanese with english translations or even french! O.o feh, one would think technology has reached a point where all games could be programmed with this option; but then again, that would be logical ~ can't have logic in the business world *smacks head* what was i thinking? ;p

*deep breath*

[HC82]

Crush summed up what I was going to say, but a little less emphasis on the whole odd Japanese imports. The biggest issue is of course money. Translating a video game is far more difficult then an anime, especially an RPG. Considering all the dam text/dialouge, and having to program that text/dialouge to appear/start up at according senarios requires a bit of work and planning, not just with the AO people, but the programmers as well. You have a team for both parts. I've seen how they voice anime. They hire some American guy, he reads a rewritten script, watches the anime being projected and the magic happens.

Also the productions costs alone for publishing, translating, and marketing are the real reasons games created in Japan don't make it to the US. If a publisher isn't confident that the game will sell well, they simply aren't going to bother, nor or they going to gamble with a few million just to see if the game will profit, let alone break even.

The US society is alot less "Japaneized" then Japan is "Americanized". Some unique Japanese made games simply wouldn't sell well in the US. Look at the silly mr mosquito game. The reason why it sold well in Japan had less to do with it being a really great game and more to due with the sheer "WTF" novelty of it all. They actually ported the game here, and aside from the fact that a game about playing a mosquito isn't exactly speculated to fly off the shelves here, the game recieved many average reviews from numerous game reviewers. In contrast the game Parappa the rappa recieved great reviews and it peeked peoples interest to try it out. There are alot of interesting Japanese games out there, but alot of them are just average to above averages games, whose selling point reloves only around its bizarre nature.

Then there is also the fact that many games that are good, never reach the US because publishers are simply to afraid to gamble. Even a game like ICO, which was actually a pretty good game, sold terribly in the US. It still recieved good reviews, yet still didn't do well, go figure.(I personally chalk up the terrible sales to an overall short game and poor replay value, word of mouth is what made Dynasty warriors become what it is, and it can cause people not to buy a game too)