Arc System Works: No East, No West, Only Gamers

BlazBlue director Takeshi Yamanaka has dismissed the notion of distinct western and Japanese audiences, saying instead: “I only see gamers.”

[Yi-Long]

... Just make a great game, and there will be people who love it, and there will be people who don't. But everytime developers start making compromises in the hope of reaching both audiences, it mostly succeeds in pissing off both...

We don't want westernized japanese games. And I'm sure the asians don't want a 'chinked up' version of Gearss of War or GTA4.

However, each and everytime dubs get pushed upon a game, which usually pisses their potential audience off, instead of bringing in a bigger audience. And sometimes cuts get made, which pisses off the people who were looking forward to a game even more.

If there's a great japanese game out, most of the time the people who are looking forward to it already know about it, and want it just the way it is. Not changed with new characters, a new language, cuts, etc etc.

If a japanese game only has an english dub, it's immediately a 'no buy' for me. Same for cuts by the way.

[ComboBreaker]

Finally, a developer that understands.

There are many different types of gamers. Some like JRPGs, some like WRPGs, others like FPS, etc.

You should make the game the way you want.

If you want to make a JRPG to target JRPG audience, then make a JRPG.

It doesn't make sense to make a JRGP, then Westernize it to target a WRPG audience. Why not just target the original audience, the JRPG audience? Or if you really want to target the WRPG audience, then just make a WRPG game in the first place, intead of making a JRPG, and try to westernize it. Waste of time, effort, and resources.

[evrfighter]

Finally A Japanese developer that's beginning to think like the rest of the world.

[Neckbear]

Now, THIS is how developers should act!

About fuckin' time someone in the industry with half a brain said something like this.

Ya listenin', Publishers and Developers? Just focus on makin' a good game and that's it.

[Baka-akaB]

I agree with you dear Takeshi Yamanaka ... except on a side and a tad unrelated note , that your colleagues managed to take almost a year to release each blazblue game in europe

[Redempteur]

i Agree ...

Only gamers with different tastes ...

[iMaim]

The gamers Gandhi.

[baodeus]

about time someone make some sense. People do have different taste. Trying to westernize or asianize would only eliminate and divided gamers. And yeah, blazeblue is the shitz. Who say 2D is dead?

[Whitefox789]

probably the same guys who said PC gaming is dead :D

[baodeus]

It is true that certain region prefer certain games, and some regions have more opportunity for business growth. However, eliminating the core which make them unique, isn't a good idea in the long run. What happen when everyone just end up playing the same type of games?

I think making a game region free might be better, but of course, there will always be the language barrier issue.

[kesvalk]

the ironic thing is, no one ever asked for them to do it (westernize JRPGs or such) but they did nonetheless...

it's sad, the japanese audience don't buy ocidental games, because it's not made by japanese devs, at the same time, the japanese devs don't publish their games on english, because they think we are the same way, and we don't want japanese games, something that is completely wrong...

TL:DR - devs are making a lot of wrong decisions, and we pay for it.

[Feylynn]

Thank god, the thing I love about BlazBlue and Guilty Gear is the heavy over the top wtf Japanese Anime style and super cool characters that they would definitely not target at North Americans.
As a Canadian it pisses me off every time a really great game gets held back from english release or changed for us.
Fatal Frame 4, Nier (I WAS going to buy it but nooo, they had to Westernize it, I refused out of principle.)

[Tuxedo_Mask]

If more game companies focused more on making good games and less about the location of their audience we'd never run out of quality titles.

[Enigma_2099]

*Golf Clap...*

[Ponurasky]

Finally someone states the truth. This whole east-west thing is worse than cancer.

[laaakokaracha]

Best Game News I read for a long time!

Hopefully other developers will follow!

Xenoblade and TheLast Story as well as ALL Tales games have fans all over the world!

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