Sony Japan: Last Guardian named with US, Europe in mind
Yasuhide Kobayashi, vice president of Sony’s Japan Studio, has revealed that the hotly anticipated PS3 outing The Last Guardian was named as such in order to appeal specifically to western audiences.
Chatting at the recent DICE Summit Asia event in Singapore, Kobayashi outlined the importance of Japanese development studios appealing to overseas territories in an effort to maximise profitability as the home market continues to decline.
"There are so many issues we have to solve, and the biggest challenge is that the market in Japan is shrinking - they key is gaining success in the US and Europe," he stated.
"At the time of the original PlayStation the Japanese market was one third of the global market, and production costs weren't that high - so we were able to generate profit from that market alone."
"But now we're in the era of the PlayStation 3, and the Japanese market is only one fifth of the global market - when it comes to production costs, those are swelling, so it means that unless we gain success in the overseas market our studio will go bankrupt. It's a crisis we recognise," he added.
Kobayashi also divulged that big name Japanese publisher’s such as Sony, Nintendo, Capcom, Namco Bandai and Konami witnessed roughly 70-90 percent of sales generate from the domestic market during the first half of 2008, a fact that highlights the importance of catering to western territories.
He added that Sony has in the past conducted various surveys in regards to flogging its products overseas, singling out PS2 extravaganza ICO as an example, before showcasing two box arts for the game – one for the U.S., and one for Japan. The former includes a bigger title and a clear shot of the male lead character, while the latter incorporated an elaborate art style more suited to the feel of the game.
Despite shifting a respectable 2760,000 units in North America, Kobayashi felt that ICO could have performed better had the packaging been tweaked: "If the packaging was designed differently, we think it would have sold more - in fact on the internet many people have said that the Japanese version was better,” he stated.
As a result, the name of Team ICO’s latest effort, The Last Guardian, was conceived with the idea of appealing to western markets. He also shared his thoughts on budgeting, revealing that he considers a big budget title for PS3 at around the JPY 1-1.5 billion mark, and a small budget offering around JPY 100 million.
Wrapping up, Kobayashi had a stab at what folk consider as a “new game” throughout different parts of the world: “The concept of a game shouldn't be complicated,” he said. “For instance, those people in the US market are very happy to release a game that is something similar to something that's come before, because they think it is easier for people to understand.”
"But actually we don't like this - it's like you're simulating, following suit, combining two titles into one. It seems the definition of a new title is different in the US and Europe to Japan. It means a new genre, that's what we call a new game.”
"But people in the US especially seem to have a little bit of a different view - if a game has a something that's slightly different, people take it as a new game..."