Wada: Globalization has failed due to “Japanese direction” [7/5]

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

Square Enix President and CEO Yoihci Wada has said that Japanese publishers have failed to globalize because their games were “always based on Japanese direction.”

“That is a challenge of globalization, which is a different problem from revenue models. We have to appeal to customers with different preferences. Sega did not succeed. Konami did not succeed. Namco Bandai did not succeed,” Wada told VentureBeat during an interview at E3. “Western publishers have not succeeded in selling in Japan. Nobody has succeeded at globalization. But it hasn’t succeeded because it was always based on Japanese direction. It was Japanese people who commissioned the Western developers to make games.

“We acquired Eidos. By doing this, we have incorporated them in our group. They have become part of our family. It was not like we acquired slaves. In fact, the former CEO of Eidos is the European head of Square Enix. Eidos as a studio is treated as completely equal as the studio in Japan. What I wanted to do is create an environment where completely different ethnic groups can coexist in the same company. That is why we have made Eidos into a fully owned subsidiary.”

According to Wada, development done in a certain country should be handled by that race in order to pertain to the game’s cultural style.
“It is important that what’s in America should be handled by Americans. The same goes in Europe and in Japan. These people who are deeply rooted in their own cultures can engage in their own dialogues. The mistakes I have seen so far are when Japanese people try to do everything the Japanese way, using Japanese workers in different areas of the world.”

At this year’s E3, Square Enix brought a lineup developed by studios around the world including: Final Fantasy XIV (Japan), Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded (Japan), Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Canada), Kane & Lynch 2 (Denmark), and many more.

Source: ScrawlFX
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[Fusionist]

Yes, because there's no one outside Japan that would like Japanese games

You know, fuck it. I'm just gonna stop reading anything Wada says anymore. Appeal to the West, appeal to the West, appeal the West...That's all he talks about now.

Sometimes I do feel sorry for the guy though. It's not his fault that more people like games like Call of Duty than Final Fantasy, but I honestly believe the whole idea of turning a Japanese company into the likes of a American one will screw S-E out of the fans it did manage to take in with it's Japanese formula.

Nomura's is officially my last hope for S-E. As soon as he leaves to start his own group, I'm gonna drop S-E >_>

 

[Linnaete]

Excellent idea, Wada. Let's alienate the very people who have been buying your company's games all this time shall we? Their constant pursuit of trying to appease everyone is just going to do more harm than good. They focus so much on worrying whether or not the west will like it that it throws the actual game itself into confusion and alienates both the west and Japan.

I know why they want to appeal to the west - declining Japanese gaming industry, enormous western audience etc. - but the reason why I would buy a Square Enix game (or a game from most Japanese developers) is for the Japanese elements particularly in JRPGs. If I want something western, I would go for a game from a western developer.

 

[Hatifnatten]

In these moments I'm so glad that there are 13+ Final Fantasies and 2+ KH, and a lot of PS1 Square games - a plenty to choose from. Because idiots like Wada are about to destroy everything that I consider dear for 15 years now... Fuck you Squareenix, seriously, I'm tired from your idiotic decisions in these past two years. It seems that everything you do is targeted not to be awesome... I buy your games because they fucking made by japanese, I bought japanese PS2 and PS3 so I wouldn't hear retarded dub and read poor translations.
It's like if Gainax said: "You know what - globalization is failing, let's call american animators the do crappy saturday morning cartoons".

I still gonna torch down their HQ is I see even one Final Fantasy touched be americans.

 

[RioDragon]

Wada never really impresses me with anything he says. He just likes to make excuses for why the games they're making now suck. It's not because culture can't translate. Hell, America bought up Square's first ten FF offerings well, didn't they? It's not a problem of culture, Wada, it's a problem with the people and ideas involved. From Final Fantasy X onwards, your company has just made the games more movie-like and linear and the love for the franchise that was in the heart of the PSone era games has been replaced by a heart for profits. And this is why I don't expect Square-Enix to ever make another good FF title on their own. They don't want to deliver a message or move their audience, they just want to fill discs with more beautiful cutscenes and profit from minimal gameplay mechanics, the very thing games should be focused on.

 

[SaShman]

Well it looks like some people are jumping to conclusions very quickly.

Square Enix is a multinational company now. So it has to cater to several cultures if it wishes to succeed (especially since it has acquired Eidos). This doesn't mean it is abandoning its Japanese roots. I'm guessing this announcement was made to address those who are concerned about the development of games that were formerly being handled by Eidos.

According to Wada, development done in a certain country should be handled by that race in order to pertain to the game’s cultural style.
“It is important that what’s in America should be handled by Americans. The same goes in Europe and in Japan.

In other words games made in one country should be made to appeal to that country's culture. For example, Final Fantasy games are made in Japan so they will be made with the Japanese people in mind. Likewise Square Enix Europe is responsible for games like Tomb Raider. So those games will be made with a strong European influence. That doesn't mean that said games won't be translated and exported.

tl;dr: Very little (if anything) is actually changing.

 

[Fusionist]

I dunno...it doesn't appear to be staying like that though. Wada has said many times in the past, regarding FF at least, about how to invent it to appeal to the Western market, which is what makes me pissy in the first place >.<

This is mean to the fans that do care, but I couldn't care less about Eidos titles. Never had any interest in them before, and if S-E is merely slapping their logo on the game, that's still not enough to take in my interest if, as you say, Eidos projects remain to be developed by the non-Japanese developers

EDIT: @WolfBlack below: Again, I actually did like FFXIII (the characters especially) so I can't agree with that being used as an example of a extreme detrimental turn of events of S-E

 

[RioDragon]

I dunno...it doesn't appear to be staying like that though. Wada has said many times in the past, regarding FF at least, about how to invent it to appeal to the Western market, which is what makes me pissy in the first place >.<

This is mean to the fans that do care, but I couldn't care less about Eidos titles. Never had any interest in them before, and if S-E is merely slapping their logo on the game, that's still not enough to take in my interest if, as you say, Eidos projects remain to be developed by the non-Japanese developers

The only Eidos Series I care about are Legacy of Kain, which was completed, and Deus Ex, which is continuing with Human Revolution.

But I do feel that Wada is saying more than stating that franchises should continue to be developed by their own culture they're made to appeal to. Because the fact is the Square-Enix HAS been looking into augmenting long-running franchises with Western developer cooperation. We're seeing this with the new Front Mission game, and we're seeing this with Project Fortress. While I approve of working with experienced western developers, as I've stated in other threads, their reasoning is off, if Wada's statement is their view.

Recent FF installments have failed, IMO, not because of a cultural gap between east and west, but because the gameplay is gone in favor of graphics and cutscenes, sensible and emotional storylines with loveable/hateable characters have been replaced by in-game encyclopedias and fancy terminolgies that are never explained. But, most importantly, the heart has been ripped out.

 

[Ohri-Jin]

oh boy you guys can argue as long as you want, still wont change a thing.......FF13 is PS3's first FF title , give SE sum slack please...in due time im sure SE will be poppin well balanced FF titles again wether semi wrpg or jrpg etc.

 

[RioDragon]

oh boy you guys can argue as long as you want, still wont change a thing.......FF13 is PS3's first FF title , give SE sum slack please...

That's not an excuse, with all the time Square-Enix had to work on it. What's your excuse for FF XII then? Or XI? or X-2? X?

 

[Fusionist]

But FFX actually has s decent amount of fans, myself included, so I can't agree with that example. FFXI I never played because I only pay monthly for my cellphone, not games, and FFX-2, while a major let down in terms of games and most characters (to me anyways) was still a fun game to actually play.

As for FFXII, that's probably the most open-world FF game I played. I dropped it the first time because I got lost so easily, however people wanted a mature FF story and this is what FFXII offered to them.

I think often fans just don't know what they want - or there are as many fans that DON'T want something >.<

 

[Stoic Hero]

I was a huge fan of X and XII. XI and X-2 not so much, but they weren't bad. XI had a monthly cost so I didn't play much of it, and X-2 was a bit too girly for my tastes, but I enjoyed the little I played of both. X was linear, yes, but you weren't constantly on the run like XIII. XIII was like a strange RPG/shooter crossover. XII was open world and is one of my favorite Final Fantasies. VII, VI, XII, X, and VIII are my top 5, in order.

So far, the only Final Fantasy I didn't enjoy very much was XIII. Almost everything about it rubbed me the wrong way. Over the top melodrama, constantly moving, no towns or places of rest, interesting but ultimately unfulfilling battle system...I'm hoping for Versus to be better.

 

[Nocturne]

X-2 was horrid storywise, especially since FFX ended nicely. But the battle system was very quick and actually fun IMO.

FFXII wasnt bad either. It wasnt the best FF, but it offered alot of gameplay and I wouldnt say anything in the game was weak, just not outstandingly great.

Once again, like Ive said a thousand times, Wada is going to screw over SE.