Isn't Sega an American Company? It started out that way, it's names is a shotening of its full name, SErvice GAmes, they produced games for the American Armed Forces, if I am not mistaken. Would they count as one of the few brands that can crack the golden egg? One of their games made it to the top Twenty.

Will you be covering the Australia/NZ markets too? I would be very intrested to see how they relate to other countries.

There is "Sega of America" which is the American arm of Sega, but Sega's games are developed in Japan. Sega Corporation is Japanese: http://www.sega.co.jp/

I'm actually more excited for Rogue Galaxy than I am Final Fantasy XII. I was playing Dark Cloud 2 this morning and talking to a friend about it. I hope you cover it in one of your podcasts. Also, I would be very interested in results on Canadian gaming. Especially compared to the US.

Wow, that's really interesting stuff there! Thanks for typing that up and doing that research, Steve, it really clears some things up.

Hi Steve,

Not trying to whine but in the first text block you have the word "stuck", if I am not mistaking this should be "struck".

All in all a great read Steve! Are you going more in-depth on the next podcast?

Awesome read Steve ! It was great to have the actual sales figures as a point of reference for your explanation.

Hmm. As innovative as Maxis is, I would've thought they would be up there.

Excellent read... I look forward to reading more of your insights.

Sega is definitely a Japanese company, but it was founded by an American.

Nice article, Steve. My Nintendo fanboyism is grinning that stupid grin.

This list makes it easy to tell why I can't get any Japanese RPG love. I seriously crave that genre of games, specifically, those type of RPGs. I wish we could get more in the Americas.

For example, I don't think there is a SINGLE RPG on the Xbox that has that Japanese feel. I've looked at Kameo, and also have played Sudeki, but they're both pretty much "action/adventure" titles. The rest, like KoTOR and Jade Empire (totally rockin' games, don't get me wrong) have a distinctively American feel to them.

And if a Japanese RPG does come to the North America, it's for the PS2, Gamecube (though I can't think of any titles off the top of my head), or other primarily Japanese console.

Pretty interesting. I can't help but wonder if there's a similar trend in film. As far as Japanese films being more popular in America than American films are in Japan.

Normal films I mean, you'd have to probably discount the "blockbusters" like Star Wars and such just because they are pretty popular everywhere, or so it seems anyway.

Movies and games are different. US movies are much, much more popular in Japan than Japanese ones are here. The average Japanese person knows a libarary of US actor and directors where the average US person knows almost zero Japanese actors or directors.

There is definitely a cultural clash. I wonder if the stats have anything to do with the possibility that a wider variety of people play video games in Japan than the do in the US. Sort of like how free online games here in the States have a huge variety of people playing them whereas video games is sort of a niche market here in the US.

Why weren't PC games included in your findings? I'd be more interested to see how they sell abroad than I would console games. I've already deemed Japanese tastes in console/portable games as weird.

Really interesting breakdown, Steve. I can't wait to see the related material for the next podcast. Keep it up, take care.

It has always been this way, the Japanese do not like American games. Microsoft should just give up and focus on the part of the world that actually wants to play their system.

Awww, American games don't sell in Japan. Let's all have a cry...

It's not that they don't like american games, they just don't like crappy american gaming systems. ;)

"Why weren't PC games included in your findings? I'd be more interested to see how they sell abroad than I would console games. I've already deemed Japanese tastes in console/portable games as weird."

Yeah, I'd like to know that aswell. I however doubt pc games sell very well in Japan, except for the MMO's maybe.

I guess what I'd like to see is where PC games sell best, and where MMO's have the most subscribers.

Japanese gamers don't like FPS games because all you see on the screen is a gun. They want to see a character that they can associate with. American gamers want to BE the hero. Japanese gamers want the hero to be like them.

You refer to "American sports" games. Does this mean games based on popular sports in the US, or sports games that are developed in the US? If it's the former, I see at least one baseball game on the list.

I think it's "games based on North American sports leagues." Powerful Pro Baseball is a bit of an entity unto itself (same with Mario Baseball), but it wouldn't shock me in the least if games based on the Japanese baseball leagues were popular. Matsui and Ichiro may be (CLICHE ALERT!) Big In Japan, but asking a Japanese baseball gamer to play as the Mets might be as weird as expecting a Mets fan to play as the Tokyo Giants.

As for why there's no FPSes on the list... well, I'd think it's obvious why no Japanese person would want to play any of the WWII games on the market, even setting aside the cultural aversion to handguns.

Nice article but I'm disappointed in your lack of mentioning the historical aspect of Japanese vs. American game development.

"Americans are simply more interested in playing Mario Kart or Metal Gear than Japanese are in playing Quake 4 or Madden."

Why is that? It's because consoles and their games were developed almost exclusively in Japan for years. Generations of American gamers grew up knowing nothing but bad translation and Japanese-esque games. Now, while an American game culture is finally emerging (if not a bit too directed by marketing), many Americans still play the types of games they always did. In Japan, however, they're doing the same tried-and-true thing they've done for years, and these 'newer' game companies aren't making much of an impact there.

Also, it's worth pointing out that FPSs are a PC genre that only recently became playable on consoles. America was much more an internet & PC gaming culture and tastes developed differently from that.

Trivia Tidbit: Ratchet & Clank was the only Western title ever to be bundled with a Japanese console in Japan.

It is kind of funny when you compare the Japanese and Chinese gaming markets. Chinese gamers are far more likely to play American games (PC games) than Japanese gamers are. Case in point, Counter Strike and World of Warcraft are huge there.

I didn't mention PC games for two reasons. One, PC gaming is not very big in Japan. Console gaming (and cell phone gaming) totally rule in Japan. PC gaming is a very small market in Japan, barely worth mentioning. Second, I didn't have reliable numbers for PC sales in Japan.

Also, I disagree that "Generations of American gamers grew up knowing nothing but bad translation and Japanese-esque games." True there are a few games here and there which came to America that were horribly translated, but this wasn't as big of an issue in the days of NES and 16-bit gaming. Most of those games had very little text to translate into English and no voiceovers to worry about (since there weren't any!). And many those games which had terrible translation -- I'm looking at you Mega Man 1! -- the gameplay was so good that it didn't matter.

Today, however, when the average game has hours of voiceovers and hundreds of pages of text, translation and localization is more important than ever.

The saddest part is that back in the 16-bit days I can remember many AMERICAN titles which so poorly written that they might as well have been translated from a different language!

Thank you for the great article, Steve. Since I'm from Japan, I was aware that Japanese people have different(someone here said"weird") taste in games. However, I did not know about the translation, quality control, etc. that were going on.

It's no surprise that Xbox brand is having hard time in Japan, when Microsoft simply don't try to figure out the Japanese market. Maybe ladien(poster) is right, maybe MS should just give up on the Japanese market....... or they can try to beat Sony and Nintento at their own game by adapting.........

Steve - a very thoughtful analysis. Thanks!
Do you have similar, in depth sales stats for the U.S.? Would love to see the top 100 for the states...

The entertainment industry as a whole, is entirely subjective. To over analyze why certain people like certain games is just silly, people are just different, thank goodness.

Heck, why do American Games fail in America? I think I heard Warren Spector saying that most games Americans make lose money, with the exception of sports games.

From my POV, most of the critically acclaimed non-sports American-made games have either failed or just barely got by. I'm thinking of games like Deus Ex and System Shock 2, or Beyond Good and Evil.

The successful American-made games in America all seem to be sports games, extremely violent GTA-style crime spree games, or hunting games. Yikes. It's like everything has to appeal to the Wal-mart crowd or it doesn't make any money at all.

Please don't post the top 100 U.S. games... it will remind me just how horrid our tastes are... :)

I prefer Japense games... shooters, fighters, Squaresoft, pretty much anything Nintendo.

The only U.S. (?) games I think I really liked in 2005 was Star Wars Legos and the THQ Spongebob games.

I'm with with you Aaron. I can't even remember the last US made console game I enjoyed.

Last US-made game I really liked was Eternal Darkness.

(Unless Burnout 2 was released after it, in which case that would win)

Great, insightful article and for the most part I think it's totally spot on. While I agree that Japanese game designers do make some great games, I wouldn't have worded it in quite the same fashion, so as to make it sound like they're the only ones making great games. I think one rather annoying trend as of late, sponsored mainly by Japanese fanboyism, is to proclaim all Japanese designers as the best game designers ever. Simply not true. Great game designs have come from all over the world (not just the US or Japan) and it's important to fight that single-minded prejudice wherever it rears its unfounded and ugly head.

Myself, I find hardly ANY Japanese games enjoyable at all; they're either too cutesy/childish or just flat out bizarre (even the supposedly 'well translated and localized ones'). Most of the RPG stories and plots are trite or far too culturally specfic to the Japanese gamers and hold little to no interest for most discerning fans of good storytelling.

beyong good & evil is french.. what is it with americans thinking that if its western its american? there are ppl who think the beatles were american for example... also gta and tomb raider are british but a lot of ppl think they are american too..........................................................

Though there are a few minor discrpencies I take issue with (GTA has indeed made the top 100 lists in the past - granted, you did cite a lack of data reaching more than 2 years ago, so I should cut you some slack there - and the usual "those Japanese are so wacky with their quirky and wacky slot machine games" comments still made it in), I am very impressed with your overall thesis. It's nice to see someone using their head instead of jumping on the "they're a bunch of nationalistic racists!" bandwagon.
Bravo.

"I didn't mention PC games for two reasons. One, PC gaming is not very big in Japan. Console gaming (and cell phone gaming) totally rule in Japan. PC gaming is a very small market in Japan, barely worth mentioning. Second, I didn't have reliable numbers for PC sales in Japan." [Gaming Steve]

LOL - can i here you say "hentai" - and whats the number one reason most japanese gamers dont mention having a pc in their home when interviewed about games, yes bob, because the most commonly sold pc games in japan have a *cough* sexual basis.

The Japanese make far better coders than westerners. They have a greater aptitude with mathematics on average, and Japanese games are coded much more tightly, both structurally and in terms of resource allocation.

How often have you run into a sloppy, badly coded EA game, which sold well regardless. And yet the Japanese games that get translated (admittedly not an accurate representation of the entire Japanese scene) are rarely buggy, apart from translation problems.
Look at what Square can get out of the PS2 architecture with FFX, FFXI etc. Now look at some of the best western graphics, perhaps God of War. No contest. That isnt a difference in art style or cultural differences, that is one country that knows how to get the most out of the hardware, and one that doesn't.

And thank you for reinforcing the point that I made in my earlier post about vapid Japanese fanboy-ism. LOL

Thx Steve your research was pretty much important for me.
Acutally currently I am doing a presentation on EA & Global Game Industry and I was really surprized not to get any solid reason that why EA is not able to get into top 10 with Nintendo.
Now I have got idea to much extent but still I have got one question that...How Nintendo..established brand loyalty..do they develop games exactly as Japanese culture???

Please anyone answer my question...i need tht answer till coming saturday....i ll be so thkful

Don't you all get your panties in a bunch now. I plan to release my BC trilogies including Universal Combat for the Xbox/Xbox360 EXCLUSIVELY!!!! If this doesn't increase sales for these consoles, and mark the death of DS and PS2, I don't know what will. Check out more news on these exciting games at my website. These japanese fanbois are as good as SOLD!!

BLA BLA BLA

Well its obvious why no american games sell over in japan, for one they are abit dull, they userly only appeal to one sort of crowd ( violent, sports loving men.) while the japanese games are always made to be somewhat epic. If you play kingdom hearts or final fantasy you could go "wow this game is so fun! i get to beat the crud out of people with a sword!" or " look at the visual masterpeice, these graphics rock!" or "the story is so great, this could be a movie!" .

a macho man (or girl) could play final fantasy for the fighting , a atristic person would love the graphics (and by graphics i don't mean a shineyer car), and a cinimatic person would love the screen play and story. anyone from your little sister to that 40 yearold golfer would probaly like them.

america has never made an rpg (that i can remember) and tends to pumpout the same sports, violent, moraly corrupt stuff it allways does (i have nothing against america by the way, i think most of the world has gone a bit immoral). in other words it is scared to be different. america would never make a portable with a touch screen and not concentraite on graphics(ds) while its competitor was making a portable with amazing graphics (psp) (ds leads in sales by the way)
america would make a good graphiced console with sports titles everyones seen before (xbox) while it does what it does best, hypeing it up so much it gets some sales.

american games try to be cool and japanese games tend to be always trying to be different, i mean america would never make a maths game right? and i swear americans are so scared of likeing pokemon, its the top selling game of all time, someone has to be buying them! its ok to play it, its so damn fun!
so while the US flippently piles up on the ever so growing mountain of the same old kill kill drive drive games they always do, japan makes a maths game or an rpg that sells so much they get worldly acnolagement, and their fun too!

While were on the same note, is it possible for American gamers to make a RPG like Final Fantasy, without being criticized about copying the game. would we be called copiers, if we tried something like that. If we could maybe we could step up gaming a notch and people will learn to respect our games, and buy them.

While were on the same note, is it possible for American gamers to make a RPG like Final Fantasy, without being criticized about copying the game. would we be called copiers, if we tried something like that. If we could maybe we could step up gaming a notch and people will learn to respect our games, and buy them.

It is true that most American games don't sell well in Japan. But in my opinion I
think it's the amount of detail put into their games and probaly the lack of
language translation. But I'm trying my best is to find out how do U.S. made
games like Ratchet and Clank, and Grand Theft Auto do so well in the Japanese gaming market. Crash Bandicoot and Spyro easily fell off after a while. Also I
play Japanese games a lot mainly because of the many characters in all of
them.

It is true that American video games don't sell well in Japan. In my opinion I think it's mainly because of the lack of language translation and the way some U.S. game developers present their games in the Japanese gaming market. but then again that wouldn't make sense because so far Grand Theft Auto and Ratchet and Clank are doing great down there.Don't forget how well Crash Bandicoot and Spyro did at first when they first debuted in gaming.I mean the gamers down in the Eastern areas might be offend by how some of the American games are displayed. It might have something to do with racial discrimination. Back in the early 70's or 80's(I'm not sure really) the Japanese Government told all companies regardless of what industry their in to expand so that foriegn companies couldn't take over thier markets. Look at Microsoft and the sales for the Xbox 360 and tell me their not getting any type of welcoming. I play a lot of Japanese games only because of how some of the characters are presented and I also want to invest in their industry so I can come up with a game that brings down the stereotypes they and europeans have about Black people.

There's a lot of talk about US games vs. Japanese games, when it's really Western games vs. Japanese games. I don't think western gamers pay much attention to whether a game is developed in Europe, Canada or the US, mostly because it's almost impossible to tell.

And while it may have been true in the 80s and 90s that Japanese games were more better coded and more polished (remember the old cliche, "Japan, where gaming is an art form?"), that's absolutely not true today. Even westerned RPGs, which used to be primarily abstract, stat-heavy, heavily D&D inspired, are now easy to play with strong story lines. The first/third-person shooter has also become a first class console genre, just as mature as older genres like RPGs, racing, and sports games.

It's a real shame that Japanese gamers are missing out on western games like Burnout, Splinter Cell, Fight Night, Call of Duty, Gears of War, etc., and I hope that Ubisoft, EA, Bioware and the rest find a successful marketing strategy.