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MRORANGE · Apr 18, 2014

Holy crap in what a few years can make, from kickstarter campaigns to Steam getting involved in Japanese developer sessions, shows that Japanese devs and publishers are finally understanding how their games can reach a wider audience outside the traditional market place in Japan and retail publishing.

Capcom

One of the first big ones to start putting their flagship titles on Steam with games such as Street Fighter, Devil May Cry and Resident Evil being the best versions of the game and running extremely well. In recent times they've helped indie Japanese devs publish games on Steam such as Exceed, Fairy Bloom Freesia, Cherry Tree High Comedy Club and others.

Square Enix

In most recent news, FFIII will hit PC, shows that SE is happy with sales of FF7/8 to port further games of the series onto PC, this is going to continue. Although the output isnt that large at the moment, the acquisition of Eidos has made SE understand how DD is a big way to embrace new audiences and sell games to western audiences.

SEGA

Sega more and more is becoming a PC dev, it's doing fantastically well with it's offerings on the PC side, such as Shogun, ROME, CoH and Football Manager being some of the most played games on PC. At the moment the focus is getting more Japanese games onto the PC as the latest petition on Gaf shows there are more than 10k who want games such as Bayonetta, Vanqusih, Valkyria Chronicles and Virtua Fighter on Steam.

Konami

A slow starter in getting their main games onto PC but the fact that Metal Gear Rising is on PC is a fantastic sign of things to come, we alos have the new Castlevania series on PC. Hopefully the main MGS franchise will hit PC at some some time as well as all their other games.

Namco Bandai

Dark Souls II being the best version this time round shows that they are listening to the PC crowd, their output is starting to grow with games such as Nauroto hitting Steam.

Other Devs

in recent times the PC has got games such as; Guilty Gear Isuka, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, Half Minute Hero, Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae, Vanguard Princess, Killer is Dead, Go! Go! Nippon!, Long Live The Queen, Recettear, Fortune Summoners, Chantelise, Ys series and many more.

What needs to improve?

- Getting older console titles ported to PC
- More options on ports to choose custom settings
- Focus on getting legacy support onto PC for handheld/iOS games
- Using DD services to sell their games

List of nearly all Japanese games on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/tag/en/Japanese/

.

Liquid_Bike · Apr 18, 2014

Here's hoping they bring over mainline Final Fantasy games and Metal Gear. I want to see more JRPGS past and present too.

Corpekata · Apr 18, 2014

I don't know about amazing, but it is nice. I'd say the only company on that list that deserves that title is probably Sega and sort of Capcom (Dragon's Dogma is a big hole though). The others have a lot of room to improve (well, Sega and Capcom do too). Square's been great on the Eidos side but pretty slow on the Japanese stuff, though in the past year that's been improving.

kswiston · Apr 18, 2014

I wouldn't say it has been amazing, but it has been better than the non-existent support we were getting outside of maybe Capcom.

I'm looking forward to the Trails in the Sky games.

Grief.exe · Apr 18, 2014

Don't forget Tecmo with Ninja Gaiden Yaiba and the recently announced DW8! I hope they are looking into Ninja Gaiden Black/Sigma port.

I see Dark Souls as a catalyst to the Japanese support as of late. Bandai has reportedly sold around 1.4 million copies and that number will only grow if they remove GFWL for Steamworks.

I always say these late ports are great, but we need games day one to further the health of the platform. See: MGS: PP, FFXV, KH3, etc.

sixteen-bit · Apr 18, 2014

Just need to get Namco and Sega on board for Tekken Tag 2 and Virtua Fighter 5FS respectively.

And Tecmo Koei for dat Gaiden.

HoosTrax · Apr 18, 2014

Technical execution could be better, but points for effort.

Anteater · Apr 18, 2014

They have been pushing region locking on Steam more than ever too.

What needs to improve?

Stop region locking their shit so I could actually buy their fucking games.

Kouriozan · Apr 18, 2014

Also, Half Minute Hero 2 which was never localized/translated on PSP.
It got a Steam release and was translated!

vareon · Apr 18, 2014

XSEED's pretty kind to Steam, too. Still not amazing or anything, but yeah I like the trend.

Grief.exe · Apr 18, 2014

Kouriozan said:
Also, Half Minute Hero 2 which was never localized/translated on PSP.
It got a Steam release and was translated!

Can't ignore that Steam money.

The profit margins and earning potential are just too good.

Knurek · Apr 18, 2014

Minor nitpick: games Carpe Fulgur brought over aren't exactly recent - Recettear was released on Steam 3 years ago.
Same with Ys games, both hit Steam in 2012.

Mauricio_Magus · Apr 18, 2014

Don't forget about Ys, we're also getting some Trials in the Sky love this year!

Lunar15 · Apr 18, 2014

Now if only Atlus could put their own japanese games on there, I'd be dangerously close to never needing consoles again.

Mauricio_Magus · Apr 18, 2014

Lunar15 said:
Now if only Atlus could put their own japanese games on there, I'd be dangerously close to never needing consoles again.

pretty much, if Atlus/Falcom released all their games on PC I'd never buy non-Nintendo console ever again. I'd still get handhelds because they are awesome.

Grief.exe · Apr 18, 2014

Lunar15 said:
Now if only Atlus could put their own japanese games on there, I'd be dangerously close to never needing consoles again.

Sega is a huge fan of PC at this point. Would love to see the SMT series or other ATLUS titles.

GhostTrick · Apr 18, 2014

What I fear is that this support could be just a cash-in for in-between generation. I'd like to see this support being an usual thing, and not that we have to port beg them.

Tecl0n · Apr 18, 2014

We still need them fighters, though.

Shiina · Apr 18, 2014

Maybe they're starting to realize that PC doesn't equal piracy anymore. Or much less than before anyway.

kudoboi · Apr 18, 2014

Anteater said:
They have been pushing region locking on Steam more than ever too.

Stop region locking their shit so I could actually buy their fucking games.

yeah. MGR had one of the most aggressive region locking i have ever seen. Konami games are still missing on steam for asia

Grief.exe · Apr 18, 2014

If you guys are interested, go sign the Change.org petition for Sega to port more games to the platform. Over 11,000 people have signed.

https://www.change.org/petitions/sega-increase-the-number-of-pc-releases-segapcports

Tain · Apr 18, 2014

OP said:
in recent times the PC has got games such as; Guilty Gear Isuka, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, Half Minute Hero, Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae, Vanguard Princess, Killer is Dead, Go! Go! Nippon!, Long Live The Queen, Recettear, Fortune Summoners, Chantelise, Ys series and many more.

BlazBlue is a fairly old port not even handled by ArcSys if I'm remembering correctly, and GG Isuka is much older. The Ys ports are pretty ancient as well, only XSeed's localization of them is recent. And doujin circle stuff like Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae and Recettear has existed on PC since the dawn of time.

I think that, when talking about future Japanese releases on PC, it's important to note which projects are initiatives by Japanese developers and which aren't. I'm way more excited about Japanese developers getting interested in the platform themselves (like Treasure with Ikaruga) because that means we're more likely to get everything and not just whatever Western publishers think we should have. I want everything.

cloudyy · Apr 18, 2014

Really? I don't feel like much has changed. There always were some japanese releases on PC here and there.

Louis Cyphre · Apr 18, 2014

It's getting better but it still has a long ways to go to reach amazing status.

gngf123 · Apr 18, 2014

It has improved a lot, but it is still merely satisfactory. Consoles still get more support, and handhelds get much more support.

Treasure seem to have done well with their Ikaruga port, and have said that they might release a PC exclusive in the future. That makes me very hopeful.

We need to start getting fighting games more often. When we do, most of the time it is ports of 1-5 year old games with an already dead community.

Easy_D · Apr 18, 2014

Lunar15 said:
Now if only Atlus could put their own japanese games on there, I'd be dangerously close to never needing consoles again.

I'd definitely be interested in checking out the Persona games if they were on Steam

GhostTrick · Apr 18, 2014

Louis Cyphre said:
It's getting better but it still has a long ways to go to reach amazing status.

This. I'd consider it amazing when it'll reach the same level as Xbox. Why Xbox ? Because it's a westerner console. I can't see why this one get Japanese release but not PC.

Camp Lo · Apr 18, 2014

I thought this was a troll thread. Mainline JRPGs on PC are SERIOUSLY lacking.

Danny Dudekisser · Apr 18, 2014

I wouldn't say "amazing," but it's starting to look up.

Sega, in particular, could be doing a lot better. There's a looooong list of games I'd want to see from them on PC that they seemingly refuse to even consider.

I'd complain about a lack of JRPGs, but... what's the point when modern, console JRPGs have been shit for the most part? I'd kill for Lost Odyssey, but it will never happen.

Canis lupus · Apr 18, 2014

- Getting older console titles ported to PC

- Focus on getting legacy support onto PC for handheld/iOS games

No thanks, I'd rather want effort put into newer titles getting ported.

Plywood · Apr 18, 2014

I can only hope more japanese devs warm up to this.

Guymelef · Apr 18, 2014

Good times for two worlds.
PC having japanese support and consoles typical PC games.

koutoru · Apr 18, 2014

Some of the big Japanese publishers are starting to look at PC as a platform to care about.
But still an overwhelming majority stick to handheld and mobile.

VariantX · Apr 18, 2014

Amazing is going a bit too far. It's been okay at best (mostly due to capcom's excellent ports) and slowly starting to get better. It'll be amazing when we get stuff like the naruto games at 60 without the game running at double speed or pc ports day and date with console versions.

XShadows69 · Apr 18, 2014

Grief.exe said:
I always say these late ports are great, but we need games day one to further the health of the platform. See: MGS: PP, FFXV, KH3, etc.

A Final Fantasy XV PC E3 announcement would kill me. I want it so bad,

Twilightzoney · Apr 18, 2014

If we started to get Persona games on PC I'd get them in an instant just to play on PC.

Hoping we'll see newer games come instead. But its a start that's for sure, definately wasn't worth the over half year wait for Metal Gear Rising (did those problems ever get sorted out?). Would love to start seeing the mainline Ninja Gaiden games to come out.

RaikuHebi · Apr 18, 2014

It isn't amazing unless MGSV, FFXV and KHIII are PC at launch.

Sentenza · Apr 18, 2014

I wouldn't really say "amazing".
Their early attempts have been extremely clumsy at times, with baffling choices of what titles to port and what not plus underwhelming technical achievements, but things are surely improving over time.

GhostTrick · Apr 18, 2014

XShadows69 said:
A Final Fantasy XV PC E3 announcement would kill me. I want it so bad,

Didn't Square-Enix said that they're waiting for PC users to show they want FFXV on PC ?
As far as I'm concerned, I have yet to see that... well maybe if you count FF games sale on Steam, which I hope is high enough for them.

Son Of D · Apr 18, 2014

XShadows69 said:
A Final Fantasy XV PC E3 announcement would kill me. I want it so bad,

I remember hearing that Nomura teased about a potential PC port for XV. Maybe not KH3 though, depends if Disney would want it there.

Forkball · Apr 18, 2014

Where's this news about FFIII coming to PC?

I'm glad more Japanese companies have jumped on board. It is an untapped market and if they have the manpower or money to make a good port, then people will buy it. You'd also have to imagine it would have a lot of legs considering all the PC gaming sales.

Arthea · Apr 18, 2014

I wouldn't say amazing, but it's a start. I was praying for PS3 Trails to be localized and we'll get steam ones, that is mindblowing.
I wish for so many games to come to PC, some for revisiting purposes, some for being able to forget atrocious loading times and frame rate. It's only beginning! but it is happening, we are getting odd VNs on steam fgs (I still hope that Steins Gate will make to steam one day too)! Who would have believed that?

Orayn · Apr 18, 2014

Yeah, I wouldn't say it's amazing quite yet, but we are seeing steady improvements that will hopefully continue throughout this console generation.

Kind of heartwarming in a way, since it seems like some of these successes are coming from studios who genuinely didn't know that there was a market for their games on PC, and they've been met with open arms by a new audience they didn't know existed.

Grief.exe · Apr 18, 2014

Forkball said:
Where's this news about FFIII coming to PC?

I'm glad more Japanese companies have jumped on board. It is an untapped market and if they have the manpower or money to make a good port, then people will buy it. You'd also have to imagine it would have a lot of legs considering all the PC gaming sales.

Yep, news broke today

http://www.siliconera.com/2014/04/18/square-enix-bringing-final-fantasy-iii-pc/

elyetis · Apr 18, 2014

RaikuHebi said:
It isn't amazing unless MGSV, FFXV and KHIII are PC at launch.

Pretty much, heck even if it's a couple month later.

Sega is still quite lacking, Capcom is far from perfect ( where is dragon dogma ? ).

But yeah things still got far better, I just wouldn't call it amazing ( yet ? ).

Linkark07 · Apr 18, 2014

Hopefully Sega influence might rub Atlus and we can get Shin Megami Tensei titles on PC.

O.DOGG · Apr 18, 2014

RaikuHebi said:
It isn't amazing unless MGSV, FFXV and KHIII are PC at launch.

As if that's ever gonna happen. I'd be amazed if we got those titles within six months of their respective console releases.

Dreamgazer · Apr 18, 2014

As someone who grew up playing Japanese PC games, a part of me is sadden by the fact that console ports are considered to be "amazing support for the PC." If anything, I can't help but feel this is going to drag more attention to the little amount of PC-centric Japanese games there are.

Yes, I know, it's great for today's PC gamers. It's great for western gamers.

Let me have my post and let me be sad.

Aquashark · Apr 18, 2014

Capcom ported so many Resident Evil games, i don't even know how that's lucrative..
especially when everyone seems to be asking for Asura's Wrath or Dragon Dogma

also Street Fighter x Tekken has fubar netcode on PC, which they acknowledged, but didn't bother to fix and left the game for dead (not to mention with GFWL shutting down, they haven't said anything of porting it over to Steamworks).

StuBurns · Apr 18, 2014

I played Resident Evil 2 on PC, Metal Gear started on PCs, and MGS1/2 were both ported, Final Fantasy has had two mainline titles before, so some DS port is hardly notable.

None of those are very meaningful examples.

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