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Kamiya: Metal Gear Solid and Monster Hunter are not "World's Famous Game"

redcrayon said:
Halo isn't world famous. In terms of big game franchises of course it matters in the West, but your average non-gamer in Japan is unlikely to have heard of it. Same goes for Doom.
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even here in Russia Halo is not a big deal at all. I work in video games retail store and many xbox owners say they never played Halo. I am always like OMG WHAT? And of course any non-hardcore gamer doesn't know Halo here at all.
 
Ratrat said:
No way is Doom world famous. Neither is Tomb Raider or Halo.
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Doom was THE big thing when it came out, everybody was talking about it, it was all over news, in movies, tv shows, etc. etc. I can't think of other game that got so much media coverage and appearances on tv in general. To this day, average people in my country call FPS games not FPS games but roughly translated "DOOMalikes".

Tomb Raider is world famous because of it's protagonist. Lara even has a street in Derby and a figure in Madame Tussauds.
 
I don't know if his list is Japanese famous rather than world famous. Because Monster Hunter is very popular over there. But yes he's probably right about the rest.
 
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SinCityAssassin said:
pac-man-mega-man-sonic-mario-mascot-party-gameplay-screenshot-e3-2014-wii-u-646x363.jpg


Got four of those world famous series in one place.
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I just call it the grandma test. Grandma will recognize 3 of those. Kamiya saying a lady in sugamo is basically what I call the grandma test. Go watch any of those "my mom identifies the smash bros roster" videos on youtube. Almost all of them know mario and pac man. Some know sonic. A handful of others they recognize, but don't know the name, like donkey kong.

Might also recognize a space invader, and possibly Link (but not be aware of the game franchise he's from). Maybe.

Basically, it has to have breached mainstream pop culture, have appeared in movies/regular tv commercials.
 
mcz117chief said:
Tetris, Packman, Space Invaders, Pokémon, Doom, Halo, Tomb Raider are all world famous. I am almost certain that even my almost 60 year old parents would know all these games.
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It's funny... Kamiya is joking using some tiny sample of a demographic in the east as a litmus test for world famous status, and you counter with a tiny sample from a different demographic from the west... but not jokingly.
 
koutoru said:
I'm not so sure about Doom or Halo. Most of the older people I know would have no Idea what those games are.
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When you consider Call of Duty and how in the public eye FPS have become in recent years it's weird to think Halo isn't more well know considering it was the first FPS made.
 
Should be considered an example of region centric over global, but his point his sound. It's like the people arguing in the IGN icon thread over Halo, famous has nothing to do with quality, appeal or intended audiences. It's when people who have no interest in a medium(applies to all entertainment not just games) know a brand or image or character from some medium even though they never have and never will engage with said medium, guess what? It's famous.

The only nitpick is global, I don't think there are many things that are on a global level, from games maybe pacman or Mario, maybe.
 
Arttemis said:
It's funny... Kamiya is joking using some tiny sample of a demographic in the east as a litmus test for world famous status, and you counter with a tiny sample from a different demographic from the west... but not jokingly.
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I am talking from experience in my country. These are all games that everybody knows. And besides, I am not responding to Kamiya but to posters here on GAF.
 
Even my grandma knows what resident evil is,pls kamiya..
Even if MonHun sells a shit ton,i can somewhat agree that it's not very well known franchise worldwide,same goes for metal gear i think.
 
He is correct.

And while Dragon Quest isn't well-known in the west, it was crazy in Japan in the 1980s/90s. Children skipped school in Japan when new DQ games were released, which (iirc) prompted the government to ask Enix to release the games on weekends.
 
For those who don't know, Sugamo is a region inside Tokyo where there are many elderly people living. What Kamiya means is that he regards those videogames famous if they are famous enough that even the elderly know
 
Occam said:
He is correct.

And while Dragon Quest isn't well-known in the west, it was crazy in Japan in the 1980s/90s. Children skipped school in Japan when new DQ games were released, which (iirc) prompted the government to ask Enix to release the games on weekends.
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Wasn't that the King's Quest games series?
 
mcz117chief said:
Tetris, Packman, Space Invaders, Pokémon, Doom, Halo, Tomb Raider are all world famous. I am almost certain that even my almost 60 year old parents would know all these games.
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Replace Halo and Doom with CS.

Add LoL, WoW, Minecraft, Candy Crush, Clash of Clans into the mix.

And I will agree.
 
He's super right about that last bit, but uh what were those numbers for mgsv again?


Also DQ was big in his country back in the day, it probably still is or its yokai watch idk
 
I think it changes for every region.

Well known in US: Super Mario, DK, Zelda, Pac-man, Pokémon, Call of Duty, Halo, Madden

Well Known in Europe: Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, PES, Final Fantasy, Tetris, Tekken, Pokémon (Rayman is a national hero in France)

Well known in Japan: Super Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Resident Evil, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy

Like, I haven't met anyone who doesn't know anything about Tekken in Europe, but some of my American friends who play games were not sure about what Tekken is. Same goes for Final Fantasy, almost all of people I know in Europe know what it is.

Also some games are national treasures. Germans know and love Anno and The Settlers series, Rayman & Lapins Cretins are cultural icon in France and DK Country series is a British favorite.
 
Usobuko said:
Replace Halo and Doom with CS.

Add LoL, WoW, Minecraft, Candy Crush, Clash of Clans into the mix.

And I will agree.
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If by CS you mean Counter-Strike then that would be a stretch. It is known among gamers, but if you ask a random passerby if he either knows Counter Strike or Doom then Doom will be a much more common answer.

Minecraft is a good example though, since most kids today play it I am sure that adults/parents must have at least heard about it.
 
mcz117chief said:
Doom was THE big thing when it came out, everybody was talking about it, it was all over news, in movies, tv shows, etc. etc. I can't think of other game that got so much media coverage and appearances on tv in general. To this day, average people in my country call FPS games not FPS games but roughly translated "DOOMalikes".

Tomb Raider is world famous because of it's protagonist. Lara even has a street in Derby and a figure in Madame Tussauds.
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I think its fair to consider 'world famous' to me mean every region where video games matter. Doom is pretty much unheard of in Japan and people may have a vague notion of that awful Angelina Jollie film when they hear Tomb Raider. These are clearly not in the same league as actual 'world famous' games like Mario or Pacman. You know, names a random elderly person from a small town would recognize.
 
Mario is probably the only world famous game.
kids now it, middle aged people know it and grandmas know it

i don't think that applies to many other franchises. i doubt kids still know Space Invaders or even PacMan.
 
Ratrat said:
I think its fair to consider 'world famous' to me mean every region where video games matter. Doom is pretty much unheard of in Japan and people may have a vague notion of that awful Angelina Jollie film when they hear Tomb Raider. These are clearly not in the same league as actual 'world famous' games like Mario or Pacman. You know, names a random elderly person from a small town would recognize.
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Since getting a Nintendo in eastern Europe during the cold war was almost impossible barely anybody in my country knows Mario. I found out about him when I bought a bootleg cartridge for gameboy with about 10 games on it and one of them was Mario, but I noticed he is a world famous phenomenon sometime during the 2000s. It is safe to say that not many people know him in the Eastern Europe/Russian.

Diprosalic said:
i doubt kids still know Space Invaders or even PacMan.
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They know the game, but not the name.
 
novablue said:
His company just created Transformers: Devastation and Transformers is pretty well known, so wouldn't that count?
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Popular franchise != popular game. Everyone can be talking about Transformers Age of Extinction and still have no idea that Transformers Devastation exists. I doubt the old ladies shopping and gossiping in Sugamo will ever remotely mention Transformers Devastation, given how it isn't even available in Japan or in Japanese. Lol.

Also, Steamspy currently estimates that there are more owners of Trails in the Sky SC on Steam than owners of Transformers Devastation on Steam. RIP. :(

Also, also, Platinum Games isn't "Kamiya's company", and he didn't work on Transformers Devastation anyway. :) :)
 
mcz117chief said:
Since getting a Nintendo in eastern Europe during the cold war was almost impossible barely anybody in my country knows Mario. I found out about him when I bought a bootleg cartridge for gameboy with about 10 games on it and one of them was Mario, but I noticed he is a world famous phenomenon sometime during the 2000s. It is safe to say that not many people know him in the Eastern Europe/Russian.
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I'm not sure how big the console market is over there now. I have no doubt there are places all over the world where Mario is unknown, I just don't think they matter in this case.
 
kitsuneyo said:
You have a Western perspective, he has a Japanese perspective.Very few things are truly 'world famous' as in all over the world.
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Pretty sure that thinking Final Fantasy is "world famous" isn't a "Western perspective"...if anything the opposite would be true for Westerners
 
Ratrat said:
I'm not sure how big the console market is over there now. I have no doubt there are places all over the world where Mario is unknown, I just don't think they matter in this case.
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Nice to know my country doesn't matter. I guess there is no single world famous video game that could compete with truly world famous names like Superman or Michael Jackson.
 
mcz117chief said:
Since getting a Nintendo in eastern Europe during the cold war was almost impossible barely anybody in my country knows Mario. I found out about him when I bought a bootleg cartridge for gameboy with about 10 games on it and one of them was Mario, but I noticed he is a world famous phenomenon sometime during the 2000s. It is safe to say that not many people know him in the Eastern Europe/Russian.
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Well at least some people there do.
 
SystemBug said:
Metal Gear and FF are world famous tho
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Metal Gear, really?

I mean, just talking sales, Metal Gear is fairly small-time compared to some of the other names mentioned here. Even Assassin's Creed, a name that hasn't even come up in this discussion yet and which has had a far shorter lifetime has already sold twice as many units.
 
mcz117chief said:
Since getting a Nintendo in eastern Europe during the cold war was almost impossible barely anybody in my country knows Mario. I found out about him when I bought a bootleg cartridge for gameboy with about 10 games on it and one of them was Mario, but I noticed he is a world famous phenomenon sometime during the 2000s. It is safe to say that not many people know him in the Eastern Europe/Russian.



They know the game, but not the name.
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But what about the Dendy?
 
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