Japan is a market notoriously hard for Western developers or publishers to try and make headway in, something EA Sports President Peter Moore said he became intimately familiar with as the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's gaming division. He notes in his blog that despite the popularity of American music and movies in Japan, games have a much harder time gaining acceptance.
In his current position, he's tried to break into Japan with the FIFA franchise without much success until now. This year Famitsu gave the game an excellent score of 36/40, and the game debuted in the country's top 10 list.
"Having said all of that, it is clear we still have work to do in Japan to more fully understand what drives that gamers attraction to sports titles. Let me be clear on this. I recognize that there are many factors that contribute to a gamer's decision to purchase (or not) a particular game, I'd just hate for the gamers in Japan to not get as much enjoyment as the rest of the world out of the best sports game of this console generation. Also, we'll continue to do our part to try to better understand the Japanese consumer - with market research, focus groups with gamers of all ages, and feedback sessions with journalists - and continue to improve on the best soccer game in the world," concluded Moore.
As insular as Japan has been over the years to foreign console games (fostered by a belief that they were inferior to their Japanese counterparts), there's an increasing acceptance towards quality Western games releasing in Japan and Japanese developers catering towards Western tastes; we think this will ultimately be for the best for both parties.
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