Kotaku
Fact: There are differences between Western and Japanese games. Intrinsic differences that sometimes make it hard to bring Western games to Japan. The words, the phrases, the idioms — they're familiar to you. It's English, and chances are if you are reading this, the language is either your mother tongue or a second tongue or neither and you've happened on this page by accident. But for a segment of Japanese gamers, Western games are just not playable no thanks to the language barrier. But some of those differences arise from the background of developers.
The vast majority of Japanese devs have an arcade background, and if an arcade game is going to be a hit, it needs to work, it needs to be tight and snap. If you put in a coin in a buggy game that locks up or freaks out, you'll complain to the arcade manager, who will then complain to his boss, who will then complain to his boss, who will complain to that game's publisher. Shit's gotta work. While the arcade scene is very much alive in Japan, it's not in the States, and most developers are coming in with a strong PC gaming background. If shit's broken, patch, patch, patch! "Japanese games have very few collision problems — hands, arms going through walls, etc," says Capcom producer and former localization head Ben Judd. "When western gamers see in-game collision issues, they don't care as long as they're having a good time. That's just not acceptable for the Japanese." Things like A.I. and programming is where Western devs really shine, while Japan picks up the slack on things like textures.
Other things that separate Western and Japanese games, points out Judd, include such seemingly small things like "Japanese player typically don't like controlling two thumbsticks are once — they get sick" and "Japanese players like a strong tutorial." Japanese players, says Judd, prefer that characters are skewed slightly younger and have more anime-style qualities, while Western gamers favor 30 year-old bald men. "RPGs are popular," says Judd. "Players don't typically like the first person point of view and want to see their character. It makes it easier for them to support that character." No wonder Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto has found a welcome audience in Japan.
While Japanese games have been localized to varying degrees of success on a consistent basis since the early-to-mid 1980s, Western games, save for the oddity here or there, haven't. This is nothing new, and Capcom has been bringing Western games over to The Land of the Rising Sun for sometime, even working with Blizzard to localized Warcraft III. "But it wasn't until GTA III that the company really saw the potential of Western games," says Judd. Even though a heavily censored GTA III was slapped with a dreaded CERO Z rating (the equivalent of ESRB AO), the game was a hit, fueled by US hyper carry-over as well as controversy in Japan. San Andreas moved something like 500,000 copies! Just as there are Western gamers who salivate at the idea of grinding through Japan-Only RPGs, there are Japanese gamers who cannot wait to tear through BioShock or Halo 3. Thing is, there doesn't seem to be as many of these Japanese gamers...
For Judd and his team, the challenge is selling Bionic Commando, a game developed by Swedes and clearly geared for a Western audience. One reason that game is getting made is because Western journos kept harping on a new Bionic Commando during Capcom press events and interviews! The original game, Top Secret: Hilter no Fukkatsu (Top Secret: The Return of Hitler) wasn't a huge arcade or home hit in Japan, but the NES console port with its endearingly cruddy English localization became a cult hit. "For the Xbox Live Arcade and the PSN Bionic Commando, the question has been how much to push Hitler," says Judd. "People in Japan know Hitler no Fukkatsu more than Top Secret or Bionic Commando." Then again, while releasing a Hilter game for the Famicom was apparently totally fine in the 1980's, it's not in today's world. Instead of releasing a Hilter no Fukkatsu remake on the Japanese PSN and XBLA, Capcom's releasing a re-localized version of the localized Bionic Commando remake. While Judd is fairly confident that Bionic Commando: Rearmed will do will with Western gamers, he's upfront about how it'll do in The Land of the Rising Sun. "Bionic Commando: Rearmed will have a tough time in Japan," says Judd.
"We don't really have a team in place to localize English games," says Capcom's Gearoid Reidy. "We're either outsourcing games we're publishing like GTA or God of War to be localized or trying to tie-up loose ends in-house." Capcom is staffed with a team of native English speakers like Reidy and Judd who are both fluent in English and Capcom and who have extensive experience in localization. What about vice versa? Besides Japanese staffers who are proficient in English, there isn't a dedicated in-house team of Japanese native speakers acting as translators. That's not to say the outsourcing firm does shoddy work, that's not to say that at all. The outsourcing firm has handled most of Capcom's Japan English game releases. "The problem is that there's a delay," points out Reidy. "Since they are outsourced, it takes a bit longer than if we had an in-house team doing English-to-Japanese translation." Judd would like to create a team of Japanese native speakers doing translation work in-house. "It really depends whether these games are successful or not," he says. With Capcom publishing Grand Theft Auto IV in Japan later this year, there's a pretty good chance they will be.
Translating is hard. Translating English to Japanese is harder. "You can't do direct one-to-one translations," says Tokyo-based localizer Matt Alt, who has his own localization company AltJapan. "You often have to capture the spirit of the original text." Programming-wise, changing English text into Japanese text can be tricky. "I've really come to hate the Japanese language," says Judd, who's not only a Capcom producer, but a licensed Japanese language teacher. "There are no breaks between words in Japanese," he explains. All Japanese words are mashed together, making breaking up in-game Bionic Commando text tricky. In English, text can easily broken up by spaces, but Capcom has had to go back and create a special program for breaking up the Japanese in-game text. "We've spent a lot of money on coding the Japanese text alone."
Some games just should not be dubbed. Besides the difficulty of matching up the character's lips, sometimes dubbing just doesn't fit. Take SEGA's localization of Yakuza, for example. That game needed subtitles. American voice actors trying to pass off as yakuza just sounds strange! Bionic Commando will not be dubbed for Japan. "Some titles," says Judd, "the Japanese just don't want the language changed." Shit Japanese Western game dubs become the object of ridicule for the Japanese internet. Who wants to hear cutesy anime voice actors try to act like badasses? Nobody! Bionic Commando will be subtitled in English. Besides, when you're looking at selling 100,000 Bionic Commando copies in Japan (as Capcom is doing) and you're consumers are Japanese gamers with a thing for Western games, what's the point of dubbing, really?
Even if the game is localized correctly, the Japanese market is tough to crack. "Japanese companies don't even know what'll be hits here," says Reidy. "Who saw Nintendogs or Monster Hunter and thought those games would be hits?" Some publishers feel that it's a market that needs pandering to. "Consumers need to know what they're buying," says Judd. So when Crackdown is given anime-style style poster art, it's not exactly a fair description of what's in the box and reeks of 1980's style game promotion. While Western publishers take advantage of things like podcasts and blogs, those really have not caught on in Famitsu-press-release-fed Japan. Bionic Commando has a Japanese blog, but it's updated only once a week. If users have any questions, their identity is censored by Capcom for privacy concerns and only their sterile question appears before developers to answer, creating a very sterile community interaction. Judd explains: "In Japan, we can't do community. It's considered a liability here." There are too many unknowns with community sites. What if an employee says or does something stupid? The lack of direct corporate control is dangerous. "We just waiting for Capcom to drop the hammer on our podcast," says Judd. "Lucky they don't speak English." Lucky, indeed. 
Comments
Another coffe break well spend sitting in my chair. Good article BAshcraft. Things have always been so alien between us westerns and Japan, I really don't see a bridge forming anytime soon. We are talkign aboot Japan after all.
Nintendo used to be preety good at this gap, tough, Mario and Zelda were at home anywhere in the world, but as of late, even Japanese people have a mixed reception to Nintendo's classic franchises, embracing this whole new "blue ocean" of casual & family oriented software.
Let us wait and see what other developments in the future will change this East vs West side of the industry. ^_^
Interesting article.
Why is it necessary to bring the west to Japan?
"Capcom is staffed with a team of native English speakers like Reidy and Judd who are both fluent in English and Capcom and who have extensive experience in localization."
Fun fact: the Capcom language consists entirely of the words "sequel" and "remake".
@rannic: lol
I wonder if a there is a stigma many japanese associate with western games? Because many of the articles I've read, Japanese devs seem to take a condescending view of western games. It seems to me that many japanese have a closed mind when it comes to western games. But on the contrary, the west has been pretty open to japanese games. Final fantasy, katamari, Elite beat, Okami...all very japanese games even after localization, and the west has eaten them up. Cultural differences I guess.
As a balding 30 year old, I like games that feature bald 30 year olds. Does the age of Japanese gamers skew lower or something?
The whole issue sounds very similar to the difficulties foreign film studios face localizing and releasing films in the United States. The American audience wants certain things that are vastly different from what foreign studios are producing.
I remember you mentioned "In the Mood for Love" in one of your previous entries. The movie is a wonderful and moving piece, but most American audiences don't get the movie at all. This isn't just true moving from east to west either, the same thing often occurs within Western cinema. A Macedonian film titled "The Great Water" used a type of magical realism that is unique to Eastern European film to tell an amazing story, yet most in the the US consider the movie dull and confusing.
I think the transfer and reception of art between different cultures is fascinating. Well done BAshcraft.
Since when have the japanese been beating westerners in textures?
@rannic: I was going to point out that sentence too. I want to learn to speak Capcom!
HADOOOOOKEN!
@greeble: Try be a balding 23 year old. Sigh...
Great article Bashcraft.
@rannic: Word.
But don't the Japanese hate just about anything from the west? I always got the impression that they didn't wanted "there space invaded" by any western "garbage" and ideas about gaming. Japan has a strong "Get off my lawn!" philosophy.
I don't buy it for one minute that Western games are more buggy then Japanese games, not one minute. A big reason why games were delayed to NA from Japan in the SNES-PSX days were to fix bugs from the JP releases because the western audience has less tolerance for bugs. The Capcom quote was from a company rep that gets paid talk up his company Capcom is better than all other Japanese devs as far as bugs go but the majority of their neighbor developers aren't anywhere near the perfectionist that Capcom is.
Sure this new generation I see many Western developers come out with some buggy stuff but a large part of it is that the Eastern developers aren't doing what the West is doing as far as visuals and open environments. Japanese gamers are not buying the west's games because of bugs...
and the article says the west likes balding 30 year old characters but fails to mention how Japanese seem to love male characters that look like women
@Cpt_Bongwater: I could have sworn that Okami was not eaten up by any bar a few fanboys and the critics. Didn't it sell really badly?
Or did the Wii release sell decently?
I do admit I always wondered if there was a significant number of people in Japan that play our western games such as we do with theirs in the US. Cartoons as well. So many people into anime and such here. I always watch em and go "wow this is fucked up, I love it". I wonder if they watch out adult swim stuff (ie Aqua Teen) and say the same thing.
Just wanna know if there is some Japanese nerd out there who once said "oh gosh, I just imported a copy of mass effect and it freaking rules" and then his other nerd friends shrug him of as liking lame ass western games, but like we do in America to our one friend who is totally into that japanese stuffs. Everyone knows one guy that is way to into it... ya? no? just me?
@Cpt_Bongwater: "characters are skewed slightly younger and have more anime-style qualities" - what else is an "anime-style-quality" besides looking like a woman?
I still wish Bionic Commando was about Hitler. Blah.
They should have Ben Judd retranslate Breath of Fire I & II!
Oh, and Japanese gamers are total noobs if they can't handle controlling two thumbsticks/aiming with a mouse.
Maybe okami was a bad example...but I still think the timing was just bad for that game to sell well...it came toward the end of the ps2's dev cycle, and it wasn't hyped the way many marquee japanese titles were(metal gear, final fantasy)
Totally diggin this article, since its rare we get insight from the "other side of the mirror" you know.
Keep em comming Bash!
@MrMcdoobie: I don't do drugs: I was a balding 19 year old nine years ago. Shave your head and get on with life.
Why can't they just work together and make games geared toward both West and Eastern gaming cultures?
@Shiryu: I think that's because those games were pretty basic in nature.
As games get more complex in story and control style; the divide starts to develop.
I completely agree that Dubbing is pointless as a whole. It's money and time consuming and usually is mocked once released.
I say subtitles across the board on ported games.
@StormdragonBlue: Levi's, McDonald's, Starbucks, iPod, MacBook, Gucci, Coach, Coke, Pepsi, Microsoft (Windows/Office), etc. etc. would say otherwise.
You think Japanese people always walked around in t-shirts and jeans, drinking cafe lattes and listening to mp3's on their iPods? No, that's all western influence. They specifically sought out western influence, in fact, during the Meiji period, and other than WWII they've basically never stopped their westernization since then.
Even video games in general they took from us. You think Nintendo came up with the Famicom independently? No, they'd been importing all the American systems for years trying to figure out ways they could market similar products there. Other companies were doing the same (Bandai sold the Intellivision in Japan, for example, as a Bandai product). Their entire game industry exists because of us. The fact that the tables have turned now doesn't really change that.
They love western stuff. Love it. They don't like stuff that they think sucks. Doesn't matter where it's from.
The Japanese should be wary of western games because, as it's been mentioned, westerners are happy to play broken games. That seems to be the case with a lot of western/ Japanese things. US cars are rubbish and Japanese cars are excellent.
No one should be accepting of broken games. I don't want to fill my HD with patches. I wanna fill it with new content.
I would also imagine western games typically look boring. Westerners focus on fewer genres and get a hard-on over space marines. What fun is it to play the same story over and over?
Hollywood isn't even as bad as the US games market. They need to sort themselves out.
Too much assuming that Japanese games = anime style. Otherwise I found a lot of it rang true. By their logic I'd be an English-speaking caucasian, but a Japanese gamer.
Also, I don't really care about the new 3D BC game, but Re-armed looks HOT.
Also, if a game is released buggy, spare it no criticism when it's reviewed. Actually, I think even if there are patches, the version on disc should be the one reviewed, and the reviewers should have no obligation to go back and review the patched version. If it's released broken, too bad... If they want to go back and spend the time rereviewing later, that's fine, but they should have to note the version when they do.
@NukaCola:
Games where you have to babysit the camera constantly with one stick make me want to kill things - but not in that game! Though I've seen plenty of Japanese games where this is a problem too...
I'd like to also read about what drives Korean gamers...
...and no, that's not an excuse for people start raving on with pithy lines about a Blizzard-made RTS. I'm kinda intrigued at why MMOs have hit the big time over there.
Good article, Bash. I'm doing my part by digging into Crisis Core.
So westerners like aging bald men as their character leads? Last time I checked the variation of video game protagonist design choices was infinitely larger than the Japanese choices, who all stem from the anime design style. Am I wrong on this?
@iamspoo: He's probably talking about the effect EA has on our industry. It is common wisdom that you simply can't buy an EA game on release and expect it to work properly. Because Japanese gamers have such a skewed view of our industry, it makes sense that they judge us by the standards of our largest publisher.
Anyway, interesting article. It's always neat to hear another view on why FPS never caught on in Japan - I mean, it's one of the most immediate genres of game available, you just pick up and play and it's obvious what to do.
@Leobebes: Its a joke, but you gotta admit its odd seeing how many people were popping one over Kratos.
Dont know about that since so much shit in the US now is all SPACE MARINE everything. They even managed to get space marine in my turok.
@3xch4ng3: No dubbing? So you are saying Snake from Metal Gear should be voiced by someone other than David Hayter? Because that was a Japanese game. Really I think it depends on the game, and what nationality those characters portray.
American AI is better? I sure as hell hope not, I laughed today as I watched the AI hop on a mongoose and plow straight into a wall in Halo 3, they didn't drive straight into the wall it just took 5 seconds, they actually turned into it.
@Witzbold: I know there has been an inundation of space marine over saturation, but western games do strive for originality in their design choices every now and then. Look at the design choices for the Oddworld games, and look at GTAIV. Look how different they are in their approach. I give props to Capcom though, in my opinion they are the best Japanes based developer because all their titles strive for a different look. Kudos to them, unlike Squeenix who is the Japanese equivalent of a space marine generator.
Absolutely fantastic article.
I still can't believe that people think Japan hates everything Western. Seriously, go there. Or read a book or something. They totally embrace Western stuff -- just not video games. That said, it's a different culture with different tastes. You want to have some fun, go to the Japan PSN store and download demos and videos -- it's a whole different world, and frankly, one I find highly entertaining. You can battle over system specs and crap like that, but I bought a ps3 because it was the more 'Japanese' of the consoles, and in the end, I'll have more stuff that I'll want to play on it. At least now I understand why I like GTA too now!
@chiefpoopingpants: Typical uninformed response. Take a look at Japanese RPGs that haven't changed the formula in 10 years! random encounters, a single narrow path to follow thru pretty scenery with save point and treasure chests scatterred here and ther. You can tell a chapter ends because you get to the boss. Lather, rinse and repeat, and you have written a classic japanese RPG.
And funny I can't see how there are so many more genres of japanese games than western. This just isn't true.
Slightly younger characters? Guys that look like girls with flock of seagull hair? Japanese gamers are creepy.
@Cpt_Bongwater: You wouldnt know unless you lived here. There are more genres than the US. Since theres A LOT of shit that hasnt made it over that most of you folks dont even know about.
I still have that shirt in good condition (The VJ pre-order bonus).
Things like A.I. and programming is where Western devs really shine, while Japan picks up the slack on things like textures.
Seems to be a very broad interpretation, considering they wildly vary.
I can think of a lot of Japanese games that are both technically and artistically superior to anything else on the market upon release. RE4 comes to mind, and even Capcom approach to multiplatform development is great. Problem is, they just don't have the capacity to outsource the engine.
I guess I can sum it up with the sentence I started with.
@Witzbold: I enjoyed this article very much. Even though the article is mostly about the differences between eastern and western gamers, it goes deeper and suggests where those differences might originate from. Insightful and thought provoking.
Not to sound corny, but I think we can learn about another culture through their games, just like we can through their art, music, and language. Anything that promotes a dialogue between two cultures is a good thing in my mind. I'd like to see what challenges game developers see localizing for other cultures, i.e. India, China, Middle East, Africa...
Good stuff. Articles like this and alot of Maggie's stuff raise the level of discourse on this site.
If anything, Japanese gaming is holding the rest of the world back. For the last few years Japanese gaming has been pure nostalgia. Where are the new, ground breaking RPGs? New and innovative platformers? Japan needs to learn from us and quit being so lame and they need to want something better.
@Cpt_Bongwater: Like Witzbold said, seriously, go log into the Japan PS3 store, and watch the videos and play the demos of games (some only kinda games) that you'll never, ever see here. My current favorite is this UFO exploration game for PSP. I can't really figure out what's going on other than you fly around Japan and change outfits, but man is it entertaining to watch.
@ pylon_trooper:
WoW and starcraft.