How Do Niche Games Arrive Here?

Have you ever been playing a game like Retro Game Challenge, Disgaea or one of the many or Shin Megami Tensei titles and wondered to yourself, "How do these niche games escape Japan and arrive in other territories?" I know I certainly have. We keep hearing about big-budget games and how they're made, but I've always been curious about how smaller companies like Atlus and XSeed are able to operate. Both of these companies specialize in finding titles off the beaten path and translating them for western audiences, but there are some inherent risks and benefits to this that most fans couldn't even imagine. Paul Hyman over at Gamasutra had some similar curiosities and tracked down representatives from Atlus, XSeed, and GaijinWorks and asked them some inquisitive questions and got some rather enlightening answers from the masters of translation.

GaijinWorks may be an unfamiliar name for some, but hardcore JRPG fans will remember its president, Victor Ireland. Once the president of Working Designs, Ireland now leads the fledgling GaijinWorks and got frank with Gamasutra on the subject of how much it actually takes the license a Japanese game for distribution in the states...

"For an A or B+ title -- not an AAA title -- it can go anywhere from $100,000 to as high as $800,000 depending on the game," he reports. "That's the minimum guarantee. If the title is a hit, you could wind up paying an additional two to four million dollars in royalties."

"But if you're doing the developer's first game, if they are a small company, if they are hungry to license, then the cost could be less. And there are different kinds of deals -- revenue-sharing or upfront deals; there are a million ways to slice it. It really depends on your negotiating skills."

Let's just remember that $100,000 to $800,000 is amount required just to get the rights to a game. That figure doesn't cover translation, promotion, and other publishing costs. This is a pretty staggering figure range and explains why not every game is able to make its way over to our shores. But that might all change in the coming years...

According to [XSeed's Ken] Berry, he foresees the Japanese developers trying to publish online in North America without help from Western publishers.

"That's going to make it much more difficult for people like us who specialize in bringing the product to the retailers and marketing it," he says.

I'm sure that this could act as a double edged sword for some gamers out there. While many will be excited about the prospect of more games getting released in their territory, it may come at the price of translation quality or charm. Half my fun from Retro Game Challenge came from reading the masterfully crafted faux-EGM styled magazines that your character would collect over the game. Without an attention to detail on this level (and brilliant adaptation of the source material to western cultures), a lot of the subtle appeal of the title would have been lost. Hopefully there will always be room for publishers like XSeed, even if the methods of game delivery changes.

Head over to Gamasutra to discover other fascinating details on translating videogames.

[The Business Of The Japan Niche] Gamasutra