What the hell is wrong with Japanese developers?

[Shadowsafter]

Okay, I tend to leave sites alone for a few weeks at a time so I can watch a batch of episodes of shows at once, as such I only just saw the Extra Credits episode featuring Operation Rainfall and what they said really raised my ire.
The fact that Nintendo can misstep so horrifically as they have done over the last four goddamn years and yet still make so much money shows what giants they were in the industry before this generation of consoles, and yet now they've not just lost their bridge to the hardcore gamers, they've covered it in semtex and lit the fuse by eating a bowl of chili and shitting on it. Their callous disregard for the people of operation rainfall shows a complete lack of understanding of the western gamer's experience.
The same is also (albiet less) true for Sony. They lost their considerable lead on the xbox from the PS2 days by overpricing their console, providing shit online support (free online services are still a scam, they cost me useful time and lose my fucking details) and again lack of understanding of western gamers. I even remember a statement by someone high up in Sony about the PS3's starting price that "We want people to get second jobs to afford one."
So my question is, why are Japanese developers so callous and lax about their relations to foreign gamers? They seem to have no understanding that their entire companies exist at OUR tolerance, and eventually even fanboy enthusiasm will be eroded under endless waves of nintendogs and fucking mario clones. Why can they not take what makes them so popular here - their fascinating culture, art style etc. and leave their retarded business practices and terrible treatment of customers on their little, overpopulated island.

 

[AlternatePFG]

This is more of a publisher thing than a developer one. But yeah, the attitude of some Japanese publishers towards bringing certain games to the west is a bit odd. Major examples would be the Tales series and Operation Rainfall. Which is a shame, because all of those games in Operation Rainfall I would buy in a heartbeat, considering the Wii's JRPG library is extremely small. (Outside of Virtual Console of course.) All I can think of as far as Wii JRPG's go is Tales of Symphonia 2, and that was terrible.

 

[madwarper]

They seem to have no understanding that their entire companies exist at OUR tolerance,

No. No, they don't.

Rather, you seem to be under the misunderstanding that every company exists merely to serve your beck and whim.

and eventually even fanboy enthusiasm will be eroded under endless waves of nintendogs and fucking mario clones.

They'll stop making them when they stop being profitable.

Sure, you can try to blame the increase in shovelware on the increase in the 'casual' gamer, but that doesn't change the business model of what makes money is made.

 

[Hyperme]

The whole Operation Rainfall thing is more a Nintendo of America thing, since the games focused on are being released in Europe. Which is nice, considering the end of the stick we got for ages.

There's probably also a culturew clash. What goes well in one place might not go well in others, due to different views on a large amount of topics. Which means moving to another market id risky. And businesses dislike risks, because that means less profit, and making less money than you did last year is seen as a terrible loss.

 

[mireko]

Are you serious? NOA isn't a developer. More obviously, NOA isn't Japanese. Publishing decisions like this are usually handled by Western subsidiaries of Japanese companies, and they're where the call for a localization is made. Evidence for this is the fact that certain "Rainfall" games are being released in Europe. Had their cancellation in the US been the fault of Nintendo or "Japanese developers"(?) , they wouldn't show up there either.

NOA hates the "core" market with a fiery passion. They don't believe any of the more complex Japanese titles will find a profitable market in the US, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they were right. Publishing these games like they would publish Mario Wii Metroid Party 2 would probably net them a significant loss, as there are fewer "fans" than the Internet protests would imply. The solution suggested by Jim Sterling (basically, print them like Atlus USA printed Demon's Souls) seems plausible enough, though. No idea why they're so pointedly not doing that.

Oh wait, NOA hates the "core" market with a fiery passion. That would be why.

 

[RicoADF]

*SNIP*They seem to have no understanding that their entire companies exist at OUR tolerance*SNIP*

I find it funny you think that you can speak for every western gamer with your views on Nintendo & PS3. I have a PS3 and I'm very satisfied with the console. And no I don't think Sony has gotten it wrong, its an entertainment system not just a game console, and I use it as such.

 

[The Wykydtron]

The only Japanese devs i care about are Capcom and Atlus, Capcom just for the Ace Attorney games mostly though.

I have no opinion on Nintendo since the only product of theirs i own is an old DS and the Wii just doesn't interest me. Though i will say that what what i've seen from Capcom and the like a lot of games that would probably would do well in the west don't get ported at all or get really weird release dates.

Maybe because of finding publishers or translators, perhaps a bit of both

Now i'm not even sure if i've answered the right question... D'oh well

 

[Neverhoodian]

Nintendo's leadership has a long history of ignoring the wishes of its fans with regards to international releases. While they might have gotten away with it back in the 80's and 90's, it just doesn't work anymore in an era where pretty much the whole of the industrialized world has access to high-speed internet. Back in the day you had to rely on mostly printed media like magazines to get your gaming news, but online coverage nowadays allows you to stay informed constantly.

This isn't just limited to Nintendo either. It seems that Japanese developers as a whole tend to have a "we know better than the fans so why bother listening to them" mentality, and it's really starting to hurt them now. It would behoove them to take some lessons from western developers like Valve and Blizzard when it comes to considering customer feedback.