Inafune says Japanese devs have trouble understanding American audiences
Coming from a GamesIndustry interview with Keiji Inafune...
"Of course there are the language barriers, but it's not just that. Looking at the data for the backers of Mighty No. 9, approximately 60 percent of those people were from North America. So of course, the Japanese developers would have to make something that appeals to the North American audience, and currently a lot of Japanese developers can't actually tell what the North American audience wants. And until they learn how to be able to do that, that's one of the biggest hurdles.
For example, with Capcom and Bionic Commando, that game wasn't really a big hit in Japan but it sold quite well in North America. The people in the company didn't fully understand this, so it was hard to get them to understand there's still a possibility for profit here, still a possibility to make a good game from something like this. Until we can understand the American market in that sense as well, it's going to be hard for other private [Japanese] companies to get into Kickstarter."
Link
"Of course there are the language barriers, but it's not just that. Looking at the data for the backers of Mighty No. 9, approximately 60 percent of those people were from North America. So of course, the Japanese developers would have to make something that appeals to the North American audience, and currently a lot of Japanese developers can't actually tell what the North American audience wants. And until they learn how to be able to do that, that's one of the biggest hurdles.
For example, with Capcom and Bionic Commando, that game wasn't really a big hit in Japan but it sold quite well in North America. The people in the company didn't fully understand this, so it was hard to get them to understand there's still a possibility for profit here, still a possibility to make a good game from something like this. Until we can understand the American market in that sense as well, it's going to be hard for other private [Japanese] companies to get into Kickstarter."
Link
