"Japan is always a problem; it's difficult for us to penetrate that market," Guillemot explained to MCV. "Because the titles coming from Europe and the United States are tagged as 'foreign games' they are not seen as 'normal' games. There is a special section for games coming from export markets and that is not helping us at all."
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"We are not so much concentrating on the Japanese market," added Guillemot. "We try to create games that can sell in Europe and America not only because it's easier, but in addition, we will have specific product that we will sell only in the United States or only in Europe."

Guillemote has a valid point to some extent, in that many Japanese gamers do have preconceived notions about Western-developed games. However, he doesn't seem to understand why that is; his explanation is essentially "just because." Meanwhile, Apple's iPod dominates Japanese pockets, Microsoft's utility software has huge usage on Japanese computers, and American films see enormous box office returns in Japanese theaters.

The "problem" is with the games themselves. Many Japanese games are unsuccessful in Western territories; most games released in Japan are never sold outside of Japan. However, many of the most successful or well known games worldwide are Japanese. Which ones? Final Fantasy, Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, and plenty of others. What do these games have in common? They all take just as much, if not more, influence from Western cultural traditions than from Japanese ones.

Final Fantasy is perhaps the "most Japanese" of the franchises listed above, yet it still features many references to various Western mythologies and traditions--even most of the swords are European broadswords rather than Japanese katanas. Zelda was conceived as a straight Western swords-and-sorcery fantasy; Metroid is like an American sci-fi movie; Mario is an Italian plumber; Metal Gear Solid feels like a Western espionage thriller (though I admit there's some crazy stuff going on there); Resident Evil clearly borrows greatly from Western zombie films. Then take a look at something like Splinter Cell, conveniently a Ubisoft product. That game is all Western, and more specifically all American, even if it's frequently developed in Canada or France. There is no mixed cultural influence there at all. It's Tom Clancy. What appeal would that hold to Japanese gamers, other than those particularly fascinated by modern American culture? Even then, they can play Metal Gear Solid, which takes inspiration from both cultures.

When Mario first arrived on the scene--and the bizarre fantasy world of Mario games can hardly be pinned down on any particular culture, even if we now associate that sort of world with Japanese gaming--the previous major force in Western gaming, Atari, was practically sunk. At that point, where were the Western developers establishing footholds in Japan? There never were many significant efforts in that regard back then, and there rarely are now. Microsoft is making an admirable effort with Xbox 360 in Japan, but, honestly, how much hype would it have generated even in the West with the lackluster launch lineup it had in Japan? The situation is slowly improving for the console, but the snail's pace of new releases that are suited to that market are hardly an incentive to drop the equivalent of hundreds of dollars when PS2 already offers years' worth of games and more are released each week.

If Western developers really want to make inroads to Japan, they have to actually consider the market to which they're trying to appeal. Simply taking titles that are Western through and through, then trying to Japanesify them in the localization process hasn't had any widespread success, and it probably isn't likely to in the future.