You know how we are seeing more and more Japanese games get localized all of a sudden again, after almost a decade of Japanese localizations become increasingly rare? Well, it appears the reason for that is the PS4’s relatively poor performance in Japan, contrasted with its record breaking performance everywhere else.
Essentially, Koei Tecmo producer Kenichi Ogasawara believes that the lower audience base to sell your product to in Japan, coupled with the incredible install base everywhere else, as well as the renewed interest in Japanese products in the west, and optimized localization infrastructure, is the reason localizations have started to become common again.
Personally, all of my favorite games are Japanese – The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Persona, Pokemon, Souls, Monster Hunter, Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest – so I am glad that I have an assured chance of seeing them in the west. That said, I do wish that localizations wouldn’t take as much time as they do- right now, having to wait for over a year sometimes can get frustrating.
