Peter Skerrit, Managing Editor, and Shaun Hinklein, Staff Writer, pick a stance in our latest point/counterpoint article, Import Gaming - Why America Gets the Short Stick. Click Read More for the full article.

Point (Shaun Hinklein, Staff Writer):

An ideal that remains eternal in a prosperous society is a free market. Its fundamentals coincide with an outlook of global unity that branch relations amongst nations that can be forged without the need of violence, pencil-pushing politics, or abrupt jaded news reporting. I’m starting this strong because I believe in this concept quite firmly, as if it could be established the lives of the daily consumer forever would be changed for the better. Specifically, I’m talking about gaming consumers. I’m addressing how limitations have been set by the powers that be to oppress our options and limit our choices. Region coding, language translation protocol, and tactful executives have sanctioned the gaming world into zones that are discouraged to tread where their hardware isn’t welcome. For years now, the gaming world has been breaching these barriers creating import gaming in its footsteps—overcoming obstacles set by the very people they invest their income towards.

This isn’t geared at releases that premiere in countries first and make their slow transition to neighboring continents (Street Fighter IV), but at titles gamers will never recognize as they’ve obtained no publicity whatsoever in their surrounding area (Namco X Capcom). At first, the question that rings through the minds of the hopeful gamer is “Why have I been forsaken with these limitations?” and, for my point, I provide a spiteful, honest answer:

Video Game Companies like Money.

To appease an audience’s desire with high-end graphics and subject matter desirable for an age group is one thing, but to subjectively grab that audience with exclusivity is another. In the dawn of consoles, concerns for exclusivity didn’t exist as the content and distribution was more important than anything else. Sure, Dragon Quest III never made its way to the United States, but Dragon Quest did! It was all in telling the story and letting the gamer experience it for what is was worth. In the new market of this generation, priorities have shifted to fiscal responsibility and corporate productivity. The common goal by companies hasn’t shifted from the past, but they’ve become more intuitive in achieving it while escalating their profits. In layman’s terms, the vast majority of Americans could not care less about Boktai, a syndicated RPG by acclaimed director Hideo Kojima, where Japan’s primary audience won’t easily indulge into the Halo series as we Americans do. Executives know this and tend not to spend money where it isn’t needed in translation, formatting, packaging, and other localization costs.

In addition to the limitations put on console gaming, the arcade scene globally has been dwindling to extinction in the past few years. Japan and Hong Kong frequently release new arcade machines demonstrating their newest products as hundreds flock to them on a daily basis. The most recent arcade I’ve seen living in New Jersey is on the Jersey Shore—the most recent cabinet being an outdated Dance Dance Revolution. Though our appetite for the arcade scenario remains, we’ve been decided for as our youthful memories of Galaga tournaments and House of the Dead shooting sprees are all that remains.

In true determination, gamers have developed ways of establishing import gaming, though their tactics are deemed illegal as they breach the boundaries set by their original publishers. Mod chips and emulation lead to copyright infringement lawsuits in many situations, and jail time in the most severe cases. Luckily, websites such as www.play-asia.com allow import gaming to continue without a legal mess.

I wrote this because I’ve recently imported Mother 3, the sequel to the classic Super Nintendo title Earthbound, and have been enjoying it immensely with the help of a translation guide provided from www.gamefaqs.com. Its fans at www.starmen.net have spent the past 2 years creating a translation for the game as Nintendo has shown no signs of easing the demands of the growing fan populous. This is tragic. I’m well aware that businesses are in the business of making money, but what happened to concern for the players? What if I want Mother 3 and a Japanese kid in my likeness wants Madden NFL 09? We’ve deteriorated in the minds of the men in suits publishing these games as import gaming becomes a more increasing problem for gamers who desire not to be pressed by zoning issues and self-indulgent companies. Fans have taken a backseat to profit—and this is unacceptable.

Counterpoint (Peter Skerritt, Managing Editor):

I feel Shaun’s pain, but the business model for American console gaming has changed. While import gaming certainly does have more of a following than it ever has, the overall base of console video game players has expanded along with it… so it’s still a largely niche audience.

Publishers like Atlus who take chances on localizing Japanese software are competing not only for the disposable income of the gaming consumer, but also for spots on what’s become extremely crowded shelf space at retailers across the country. Sure, import gamers may want to play the next Disgaea or Ar Tonelico game, but the numbers show that far more gamers want to play Madden NFL 09 or Grand Theft Auto IV… so Best Buy and Wal-Mart are going to find shelf space to display these games more prominently than any of Atlus’ offerings. As for GameStop, it’s not the haven for import gaming that you’d think that a specialty gaming retailer would be; many publishers pay GameStop for special game visibility and shelf space, pushing many other titles to lower rows or relative obscurity.

We’ve also seen other publishers who have taken chances on localizing imports get burned in terms of consumer interest. Eidos spawned an import gaming arm to their company, called Fresh Games, during the PlayStation 2 era. Legaia 2, Mister Mosquito, Mad Maestro, and R-Type Final were all retail disasters and can be found used for less than $10 each. Working Designs specialized in localization of Japanese RPGs and other games, but saw little support from gaming consumers (and, to be fair, other gaming companies, like Sony Computer Entertainment) outside of the import niche and eventually wound up closing its doors in late 2005. They were responsible for delivering both Lunar RPGs stateside for the Sega CD and the PlayStation, plus they published games for the Saturn, TurboGrafx-16, and PlayStation 2.

Frankly, I believe that we’re lucky to see import gaming get any support at all. The console gaming community has seen a shift away from a core of enthusiasts to a more—dare I say it—casual group of people. The casual designation here isn’t meant to be inflammatory or to insinuate that casual players are lesser gamers than enthusiasts; it simply means that it’s more of a fun activity now than a serious hobby… with an acute feeling of nostalgia that drives many. These gamers are happy with sequels to games that they know and love. They thrive on familiarity, or perhaps variations on familiar themes. Import games tend to be more different than what many of today’s gamers are accustomed to. Aside from possibly Final Fantasy Tactics and its associated sequels, strategy RPGs have not caught on as a popular genre… and Tactics’ success can arguably be attributed to its Final Fantasy moniker.

I know and understand that many import gamers are angry with the system and the perceived money-hungry attitudes of many publishers, who continue to play it safe with plentiful sequels and arguably shallow or short gaming experiences. Being angry is okay, but it won’t change anything… because publishers are just like any other company and they need to make money to survive, especially in today’s highly competitive marketplace. These companies may love games, but money is a driving factor. Many of these publishers have to answer to their shareholders or investors when it comes to committing a certain amount of money on a project… and how do you convince anyone with sound financial judgment that it’s all right to drop a few hundred thousand dollars on a pet project aimed at an admittedly limited group of people? If it’s not a hit—or, at least, practically guaranteed to sell X number of copies—it’s a waste of money, time, and resources.

It’s not a perfect situation for everyone, but you can’t change the fact that this is one unfortunate side effect of the popularity explosion that has financially benefited the console gaming industry. You’re not going to be able to please everyone; however, when you look at the big picture, there are still companies willing to take chances on import titles for import crowd and there’s still the ability to import consoles and games—just as enthusiasts have been doing for years. Maybe we’ll someday yet be able to play a localized version of Mother 3, like Shaun has done; but, if we don’t, the console gaming industry will still continue to adapt to its circumstances and surroundings.