Choices on Which Games to Localize

[Raiser]

So I was just wondering during my reading on some "The Last Story" article; why is it that companies choose to bring a bunch of shitty games overseas while leaving games that would clearly do much better in their own country?

For example, Gundam games on the PS2. I don't think any of the localized Gundam games were any good. Then comes along Rengou VS ZAFT II Plus. It still might suck to people, but from what I've seen, it's the best Gundam game on the PS2.

Same with the Tales games. Although arguable, they bring Tales of the World over, but not Graces or any of the other "better" games?

Now before any of you go "well, those games really do suck so ur wrong", that's not the point.
The point is that companies bring over the shittiest games (fact, not opinion) while leaving their best efforts unavailable to us.

 

[Hells Malice]

Bamco brought the first Tales of the World over...and ironically that was the only bad one. Morons.
Bamco hates money, therefore they make and produce shitty games, instead of localizing good ones. Now Bamco america is broke.

People seem to think The Last Story has a high chance of being localized.
I think so too considering how excited people are for it.

As for other games...no idea. Outside of Bamco I can't really insult any other company.

 

[Raiser]

Bamco brought the first Tales of the World over...and ironically that was the only bad one. Morons.
Bamco hates money, therefore they make and produce shitty games, instead of localizing good ones. Now Bamco america is broke.

People seem to think The Last Story has a high chance of being localized.
I think so too considering how excited people are for it.

As for other games...no idea. Outside of Bamco I can't really insult any other company.

I think The Last Story will too. It's just that how people are still pondering over it considering how it hasn't been announced yet got me thinking.

Most of the potentially good, unlocalized games are of the Mecha or RPG genres.

 

[GameWinner]

I would say Sega, who bring us the lamest Bleach games ever just because Bleach isn't the most popular thing here, while Japan keeps the good ones to themselves.

 

[Nathan Drake]

Basically, you have to look at the profit margin. Now, you have to consider how well a game could potentially do. If you notice, they only localize a handful of games each year, most of the time giving no thought to their popularity in America. It's just because they know they have to localize some to keep sales in a good place and to keep people happy.

In the end though, it just isn't profitable enough. Sure, we can say "Well, I WOULD BUY IT!" but that means nothing. The fact is, games popular in Japan don't have a solid foothold in America. The cost of localization would outweigh the projected profit. When you think most American games in general, what do you get? Shooters and sports games. RPG's, puzzle games and the like make up a very small percentage of the games out there that sell well. I have yet to see any RPG or Japanese localized fighter sell as well as CoD4, MW2, or Black Ops.

Now, if sales were to rocket sky high on content mostly popular in Japan, we would see more of those games localized.

Remember, it's all about the money.

Also, I mention America, but I basically mean NA as a whole. :3

 

[Hells Malice]

Games like Tales games make money.
I'm sure Graces would have made a hell of a lot more then Splatterhouse.

Localized games often make money. Saying it isn't profitable shows you have no idea what localized game sales are like, unless you've only seen crappy localized game sales.

 

[Nathan Drake]

I'm not saying localized games don't make money. Don't misconstrue what I said. I said they make less money. They don't make enough money. The odd gem here or there that makes a good amount of cash is great, but it is no reason to start going crazy localizing every popular Japanese game. As I said, no localized game is pulling off Black Ops esque sales over in the America's that I've been aware of.

You also have to consider cultural boundaries. Many things may not make sense when somebody from anywhere other than Japan tries to understand it unless they are really into Japanese culture. That cultural boundary can lead to sales being affected which leads to less games getting localized anyways.

Until the gaming interests take a turn, we aren't going to be seeing more of what we want to play. We will be seeing more of what is popular, what more people want to play, and ultimately, what more people are willing to buy.

 

[8BitWalugi]

They're starting to localise Inazuma Eleven, but even then I doubt they're going to localise the sequels.

 

[Nathan Drake]

It depends on how well it does. If it does awful, we certainly won't be seeing sequels. If it does okay, we may see one sequel so they can test the waters one more time, but if sales don't do well past that point, I don't foresee more coming over.

 

[Goli]

I would say Sega, who bring us the lamest Bleach games ever just because Bleach isn't the most popular thing here, while Japan keeps the good ones to themselves.
Sega? I don't think so. Just because they don't bring over Bleach games makes them a bad company or anything. In fact, I'd say they're one of the most "experimental" regarding game localizations. They've brought over pretty much every RPG they've published in Japan to the west, save for 7th Dragon.

Basically, you have to look at the profit margin. Now, you have to consider how well a game could potentially do. If you notice, they only localize a handful of games each year, most of the time giving no thought to their popularity in America. It's just because they know they have to localize some to keep sales in a good place and to keep people happy.

In the end though, it just isn't profitable enough. Sure, we can say "Well, I WOULD BUY IT!" but that means nothing. The fact is, games popular in Japan don't have a solid foothold in America. The cost of localization would outweigh the projected profit. When you think most American games in general, what do you get? Shooters and sports games. RPG's, puzzle games and the like make up a very small percentage of the games out there that sell well. I have yet to see any RPG or Japanese localized fighter sell as well as CoD4, MW2, or Black Ops.

Now, if sales were to rocket sky high on content mostly popular in Japan, we would see more of those games localized.

Remember, it's all about the money.[...]
There are popular franchises on Japan that despite their high sales (in Japan) don't come over. I think it's more of a market difference thing. Shooters are the "big thing" in the west, and RPGs are in the east, like you said yourself.
QUOTE

Also, I mention America, but I basically mean NA as a whole. :3

Wouldn't that sentence make more sense if "America" and "NA" switched places?

 

[Nathan Drake]

Nah. I say I mention America (as I use the word America throughout the post I mentioned that in), but in the end I mention that I mean all of NA (North America). I mentioned it because it would be easy to think that I was just mentioning the USA.

 

[Vigilante]

Also add all of those great super robot taisen warsmost od the cool one are in jap