As gamers and developers from the Western game market, we endorse this letter to Japanese developers and publishers.



This petition is to show you that we as Westerners do care about your game development and your product, and we want you to keep releasing it here.



It is unfortunate that the political climate in the Western world has lead to a situation such as this one, and some of you may be familiar with the idea that currently several large games media outlets have become openly hostile towards the video game community at large. A great deal of us in the West are just as exhausted of it as some Japanese developers have expressed themselves.



It has been found that those content creators who stand up to those actively antagonizing game development in the West are not suffering from decreased sales; if anything their titles have gained increased prominence by not caving to this pressure (one particular game of note , 'Hatred' which was released on Steam earlier in 2015 and climbed to the top of sales charts for it).



We simply ask that you stay true to the visions of your creative endeavors, and please don't deprive us of those works on account of those who would specifically seek to drive a divide between the global game culture. Many internet communities have been having active discussions in regards to our frustration and disappointment with these ongoing events. We hope that you take the words written here into a consideration as peers, consumers of your product, and for many of us as lifelong fans.



The Western games media has been in an uproar for the past few years over perceived objectionable content of certain video games. We, as the actual consumer base and market for these products in the West, find this unacceptable. The scaremongers in the media do not represent us nor our interests as fans and buyers of this product.



Titles such as Xenoblade Chronicles X, Blade & Soul, and Street Fighter V have had their content modified by developers afraid to offend the delicate sensibilities of some in Western media. Even worse, Koei Tecmo has elected to not release Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 in the Western market because of it. Considering that the Dead or Alive Xtreme series offshoot has historically sold better in the western market than any other market in the world, this is a strange turnabout.



A significant number of Western gamers grew up after the western market bubble burst in the early 1980's, when Nintendo revitalized the market with the original NES (the Famicom). A vast number of the games that we played throughout the NES lifetime (and the proceeding generations of hardware from various companies) were primarily Japanese developed. The Japanese game development scene became and remains an essential part of western game culture. For many of us, our fondest game memories have come from Japan. From globally celebrated RPG classics such as Chrono Trigger to the intense difficulty of games like Demon's Souls, games have become the tie that binds us together. Many of us remember how hard we had to fight all throughout the late 80's and 90's in order to get content localized for our market as close to the original release as possible. The only thing worse than not getting that content localized is not receiving it at all.



When many of us sit down and play titles that come out of Japan, we are specifically playing them because they are nothing like what we can get here. They often touch on subjects which are considered taboo to some western audiences, or tackle subject matter that others are afraid to tread through. We don't play Japanese games because they are representative of our western cultural values, we play them because they aren't. They allow us to grow by experiencing fiction and fun from the point of view of an entirely different culture, and we learn a new form of appreciation for the world through it.



By caving to fear and scaremongers who would do anything possible to keep you from releasing your content to this part of the world, it's saying that your culture is unacceptable, that it is not desirable, not beneficial. We disagree with that in a big way. We disagree with their factually untrue point of view that there is no market for your product here. We disagree with their point of view that your content has no value, and we absolutely disagree that the content being produced is harmful.



If there is a universal language between us, one can surely say that everyone wants to have fun. It just so happens that both of our cultures has found a great deal of fun to be had in video games, and we can and should continue to share that with one another.