Why JRPG Doing So Bad Outside Japan
Monday, December 22nd, 2008Valkyria Chronicles 
JRPG can do better
As a big fan of JRPG whenever I read about bad sales when they hit US or Europe I always wonder.
People love jrpg in our side of the continent but still don’t buy it much, why is that?
- I think the answer lie in the delay between Asia releases and translated version releases for outside Asia.
We love the game but don’t want to wait 3, 6 month or even a year for a game we love to be translated while I already even see all the spoilers videos online even the ending videos some dude post on YouTube.
Now how can it be improved?
I think right now the simple solution is worldwide releases or at least a very short delay between Japan and outside Japan releases.
Some might argue but will you buy a game twice? Maybe yes if you are really a pro or fans but the simple truth is most gamers are just casual players, so it will take lot of passion to own an import and still want to buy the translated version.
Companies should start adding at least foreign subtitles to their games, people who import games don’t really need the audio to be translated , they only care about subs as most people really preferred the original audio since the beauty of it sometimes is the accent.
Final Fantasy Dissidia for PSP out in Japan and sold about 350000+ copies in first week and imagine just adding an English subtitles to it how sales flood the demand will be, but now people who import it have to rely on internet for translation and maybe even a patch which greatly refrained them to buy the game again even if its translated version been released.
Another issue is the universal playback where you don’t even need to hack your consoles anymore, wherever you buy a game it will work on your console like the PS3(x360 and Wii still have regional lock though).
My New Year message to the gaming world is : “please JRPG developers, start adding foreign subtitles to your games and you can minimize the cost (audios translation) and maximize your sales, or less the gaps between .jp and .us, .eu releases dates.”
If internet was not around companies can still get away with this long gaps but with internet, game videos sites, YouTube you can’t afford to let customers watch every videos in the game online or even the ending online before decide to buy it as the suspense and surprises which push you to the end of a game already extinguish.
If you can do it worldwide or even add subs, do it, don’t let people see every hidden videos in the game online before make up their mind and doing so can reduce greatly piracy as well , killing two birds with one stone.
