Is There Prejudice Against Western Games In Japan?

When you think of the word prejudice and all its possible connotations, the last one you would think of would be in relation to the games industry. Sure you might think a game might show prejudice, but for there to be prejudice against a game just because of where it was developed, you would never think that. In the "West" all games are accepted, we love the ones that are designed here by western studios such as EA. However, we also highly enjoy the somewhat limited selection that gets shipped over from Japan, with a large majority of Japanese games never seeing a western release date. However, in a recent interview with Edge the head honcho of Square Enix Mr Wada himself says that its not the customers or Japanese tastes that deserve the blame for poor releases of western games in Japan. Rather its the retailers fault for them still bearing prejudice against western developed games, whether they think they are not to a high enough quality or just because they are western is unsure. However, Wada in his interview mentioned that in his personal opinion western games did suit Japanese tastes.

"Something like Batman: Arkham Asylum, for example, is something that is very like the Japanese taste in games, in fact it caters to very much the Japanese taste."

“Arkham Asylum is like the best aspects of Metal Gear Solid, but evolved”.

He Said the actual reason behind why western games are not selling well is that many retailers don't even order them to allow there customers to choose. Wada had stated in a previous interview with Japanese Media (via Kotaku) that western games were still being referred to as 'youge' which is a derogatory word in Japanese for western game. Wada also stated that,

“I’d like them to try it once. If they play it once, they’d realize how incorrect that label is.”

This ties into the piece of news I wrote earlier relating to the potential cancellation of FF XIV. With this interview seemingly clearing the way for Square Enix, to try and develop more western stylized games since their acquisition of Eidos. (now renamed Square Enix Europe)