Newsweek article on video games

[Andy Sheets]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6161529/site/newsweek/

 

Kind of an interesting read. It basically says that Japanese publishers haven't been making very good financial decisions over the past few years and that western publishers are more in tune with what North American gamers want (I guess it makes sense that American companies have a better idea of what American gamers want...). The writer isn't really bothering with considerations of quality or fun; simply what's selling for whom.

[iainl]

Mind you, this works both ways. As Microsoft have so comprehensively proven, many western developers are still out of tune with what Japanese gamers want.

 

I think what we're really seeing here is a larger divergence between the two markets, rather than that one side doesn't 'get' the other. Team Ninja and Kojima are two obvious examples of Japanese developers that sell well in the West, rather than do well at home.

[Big Daddy Bling Bling]

I think it's more of a quality shift. In the past, all of the best games were coming out of Japan, but now it seems like western developers have surpassed their counterparts. This is helped by the fact that quality games that would have stayed on the PC in the past are now coming to consoles too. Also, the Japanese market is becoming less and less important, both financially and strategically.