Nintendo seems to have had a few more hits there. Animal Crossing, Nintendogs, Pikmin, Donkey Konga, etc. Sony has had Parappa, KA, Ape Escape, Vib Ribbon, My Summer Vacation and many, many titles that tanked. One other thing that might contribute is that, for whatever reason, it seems like the Japanese retail market supports smaller titles. In America it's like it's gotta make it to Wal-Mart or forget it. In Japan, though, you can go into a computer software store and find a few aisles of small, nearly no-market titles, like desktop background CDs, or train picture CDs. In the West, that would be considered wasted retail space. I don't know why that difference exists, but it does, which means a smaller title still has a chance to be put on the shelf.
Finale
Ok, I think I've gone through most of what I wanted to ask you. Is there anything you'd like to add?
Hmm, off the top of my head, directly related to games, no. To tech in general, well, I find it frustrating how behind the U.S. is in terms of net tech. They don't realize it, because they can't read Japanese or Korean, so all the things happening on this side of the world months or years before they happen over there are basically ignored; and they (the Western media) get all excited thinking something new is up, when, in actuality, its been there, done that. I don't know how that will translate into the future though. It could be this generation of consoles, with pretty much all of Japan having cheap broadband really shakes up the market. Twenty-four megabits for $20, 100megabits for $40 a month.
Codetta
A huge thank you to the gman, Gregg Tavares for taking the time to talk. All the PSP owners out there need to sit up and take notice of Gregg's current project, Loco Roco. You can read up on it here, here, or here.
Eric Pickett is currently residing in Tokyo where he is slowly, but surely mastering his pronunciation of "Gome nasai, nihongo ga wakarimasen."
