Here's the rub, said much more clearly in
this video.
The non-Asian market (the markets outside of Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, and nearby countries) has not always been the most profitable market for certain games.
Localization still costs a significant amount of money, although large companies like SEGA could drop the money on it in a heartbeat.
This is speculation on my part, but I believe that translators take their sweet time with things since they want to make sure they remain employed on a long-term basis. Why would they risk doing a fast/fantastic job, then getting fired & replaced in time for the next patch? If they're paid by the hour then it makes perfect sense for them to take as long as possible. If they're paid by the job, then it makes far less sense.
Since the post-crash of 1983, the video gaming boom was largely attributed to Nintendo's fantastic gamble at being able to revive video games as a viable economic force of entertainment. The failure of SEGA and the way Nintendo is struggling with the WiiU has many Asian developers looking to 'easier' and more profitable markets closer to home.
We (non-asian gamers) demand too much. We are less tolerant of bugs/glitches/crashes (for the most part). We're highly intolerant of 'buying power' in F2P games. We're very vocal and outspoken. Many of us are highly opinionated on how developers should do things and constantly seek to tell them how to do their job.
Asian developers don't want to deal with it. They don't care at all. They just want happy loyal profitable players that will play any shit garbage they spew out into the market. But the tides are changing.
Blade and Soul, a typical Korean-focused MMO by a Korean company, failed *miserably* in the market and was absolutely DESTROYED by the competition. Tides are changing to where even many Asian gamers are not willing to put up with shoddy quality and crappy support.
The era of 'quality over quantity' is over, essentially. We get a small bit of content with high quality, or a lot of content with very low quality. Expenses have also gone up, but so has executive compensation.
And the final bit to all this is ego. Many Asian developers have this fucking ego that says they have to have X profit projections in order to even consider a market viable. They don't care about the fans or catering to a niche market. They aren't worried about it. Many Japanese developers and gamers in particular have been infected with a dire case of Xenophobia. Their tightly-homogenized society is one that feels comfortable and familiar to them so they don't bother with anything else. Why bother? :P
I find it sad though. I wish SEGA would get their heads out of their asses and realize the non-Asian markets are just waiting to throw money at them if they started making certain smart decisions. But instead of that, they're just taking their ball and going home like a spoiled child. NO YOU CANT HAVE MY BALL I DONT LIKE THE WAY YOU LOOK HAHA!
Many of these behaviors by both developers and players are borderline-racist in their hostility and attitudes.
Non-Asian gamers have been getting screwed out of very good content for decades, and it is only getting worse as time goes along.
The ONLY good 'Back to the Future' game? Only in Japan for the Super Famicom. >_<
Originally Posted by Neferpitou
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