Monday 5 July 2010

date or ditch

Another "dating sim" for the DSi-downloads, and once again, it doesn't sound like I'm missing much.

(Why do companies keep trying to make super-western-style dating sims, managing to turn off both mainstream gamers and japanophiles?)
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You asked, "Why do companies keep trying to make super-western-style dating sims, managing to turn off both mainstream gamers and japanophiles?"

That's a question worth asking on relevant forums. I don't have an answer just yet, but I have some ideas.

First, I'm not really sure what mainstream audiences like. For every "sure to sell" game with lots of press and advertising that succeeds, there's probably at least one that fails. (For instance, Guitar Hero became an unexpected hit by the second installment, while Wii Music didn't sell. Bioshock sold despite its long development time, while Too Human didn't.)

Second, I know I often enjoy eccentric and cute translated games. After all, I kept looking for Cheer We Go until I found one copy at a Meijer store. But even though I've bought two copies of a few non-mainstream games such as Dragon Quest 8, Retro Game Challenge, and Sakura Wars 5, and tried to promote them on forums, none of those succeeded.

Finally, I distinctly remember a time when western RPGs were a small market. It's entirely possible that western style romance games could become prolific and profitable in the near future. Not sure how that could happen, though. Perhaps by finding a previously untapped audience, or perhaps by fusing genres together (maybe with life simulations or sandbox games).

6 July 2010 at 23:14

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