Kickstarter has, by and large, been the perfect tool for veteran game

developers to get back to making the types of games that first

entranced us before they were veterans. Tim Schafer and Keiji Inafune

come to mind, though while Schafer is one of many, Inafune is one of

few. The reason being: Japanese developers have not had quite as much

Kickstarter success as their Western comrades.

Kickstarter’s base is made up mostly of North Americans.

Mighty No. 9

is a game aimed more at Japanese audiences, but even then 60% of the

people who funded it hail from the North American continent. Great as it

has been for many developers, between language, cultural, and

logistical barriers, the Japanese ones have a few more obstacles to get

through to achieve the same level of success as Western developers.

According to Inafune, one of the biggest problems is that

“a lot of Japanese developers can’t actually tell what the North American audience wants.” During an interview with GamesIndustry International, he shared his thoughts on the subject.

“Of course there are the language barriers, but it’s not just that. Looking at the data for the backers of Mighty No. 9,

approximately 60 percent of those people were from North America. So of

course, the Japanese developers would have to make something that

appeals to the North American audience, and currently a lot of Japanese

developers can’t actually tell what the North American audience wants.

And until they learn how to be able to do that, that’s one of the

biggest hurdles.



For example, with Capcom and Bionic Commando, that game wasn’t really a

big hit in Japan but it sold quite well in North America. The people in the company didn’t fully understand this, so it was hard

to get them to understand there’s still a possibility for profit here,

still a possibility to make a good game from something like this. Until

we can understand the American market in that sense as well, it’s going

to be hard for other private [Japanese] companies to get into

Kickstarter.

On the surface, a Mega Man game would be more what people might want, but when it comes down to it, it’s more about the soul,

the actual inside of what the game is and what it’s about, rather than

whether the actual robot is blue or not. And I believe the fans are

definitely looking at the soul of the game itself, rather than just the

surface.” — Keiji Inafune

This last bit is probably one of the more important reasons

Mighty was so well received. Capcom tried to cater to the Megaman audience with Megaman 9 and Megaman 10 with tepid results, especially compared to the reaction elicited by the Mighty No. 9 announcement.

Inafune also said he does not entirely want to go the Tim Schafer route, relying almost entirely on crowdfunding to make games:

“We don’t want to rely entirely on crowdfunding, but it is very important

to us that we can make something we want and the fans want. So if there is another situation where it’s something that fans

want to be directly involved in, there is the possibility of another

crowdfunded game. But that’s not the only option and we’re thinking of

many other ways as well.” — Keiji Inafune

Source: GamesIndustry International

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