this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2025
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We all of us do that, it's not just them.
You're seriously suggesting that games should be released in a condition that they'll never, ever, receive a negative review? Have you SEEN steam reviews and the sort of nonsense reasons that sometimes get left?
The problem is not that they're leaving negative reviews, it's that they're not leaving any positive ones to counter that. In that case, why would any game developer wish to court the tiny Japanese market if they're going to tank the game's review scores?
Maybe they need to take up the challenge of making a game that doesn't cause people to warn others about it? I dunno. People are always gonna people (be shitty) and that's something thin skinned companies need to get over, and quick. The Japanese made the games industry the powerhouse it is today. How many Japanese game mascots can you name? How many Western ones? To stop catering to that market because of a slee of bad reviews is just pathetic. Why a game developer needs to be encouraged to make a good product, instead of just buttoning down and doing their job of making a quality game to start with, send silly to me. Do I need my boss to praise me to do my job? No. But I sure as shit will hear about it if I'm not doing my job well.
I don't know how old your are, but I grew up playing Japanese games and I extremely rarely had a complaint about them other than the occasional difficulty spike, though I still finished them. Nowadays, I feel like I stop playing games and don't care about finishing them about 25% of the time. It's because they're crap and I wish I had read more of the reviews first.
I've made the decision to never buy new games anymore because I'm too often disappointed. I hope the Japanese, and other gamers too, create enough aggregate reviews to help me enjoy the games I purchase.
This isn't about Japanese games or devs. It's about Japanese GAMERS.
Answer me this: Given the situation described in the article, WHY would any dev, indie or 'AAA', want to get into the Japanese market?
Unfortunately, if you were relying on the Jap gamers, all you'd get is the number of negative reviews each game has as an indicator of popularity, since they aren't leaving any positive.
Why is it so difficult to understand that the behaviour of the Jap consumers are breaking the review system as it stands? It doesn't matter how great your game is, if there's 0 chance for positive reviews.
I agree with everything you said, but I want you to be aware that the term "Jap" has some extremely negative/slur connotations that I don’t think you intended related to US concentration camps during WW2. It’s not just an abbreviation.
Hmm. Doing a quick Google, that seems to be a US specific slur. Doesn't seem to carry the same connotations elsewhere. That's an interesting question, what is correct / expected behaviour with a term that is used normally and neutrally in some parts of the world, but is a slur in others?
Why would a developer want to get into the Japanese market? Simple really. Cold hard cash. It's why we have anything really. Including games.
I don't know what planet you're pretending to live on but here on earth there's a pretty simple rule to understand about news. It's that no news is good news, and bad news is news. Seriously. Open up any news source. Unless something is fucking stellar it won't be reported on. Why anyone needs flowery words to do their job to earn money sounds silly to me.
If you read the article above it goes on to say that most of the bad reviews were justified in their criticisms.
But I'll offer a suggestion to fix the problem of these butthurt developers. Petition Steam, or other review sites, to change the way scores are done. Change them to a percentage of players who played who gave poor reviews, instead of a percentage of the reviews. Boom, problem solved. Now instead of 20% of the reviews being bad, it's 2% of the players. 98% don't think it sucked, so it must be good.
So, if a dev were to decide not to localise for the Japanese market, they've made the decision it's not worth the cash. In that case, what's your problem with said decision?
Did you also read the rest of the article, where it mentions that this is becoming a problem for Japanese devs? And even the jap players understand this is a problem that needs to change?
When did reviews become 'news'.
As I noted in my previous comment, yes something in the system needs to change. It can be from any of the parties involved. The platform, the devs, or the gamers. I don't really care which, since it doesn't affect me. Though if we were petitioning steam, it'd be nice if they could add a frigging neutral option to reviews.
Based on everything in the article, everybody seems to be reacting very calmly. You're the most butthurt person so far.
This will be my last reply to you because it's tiring having to educate people on how the world works.
Yeah that's their choice. But if they're doing it solely because of the risk of a bad review, that's just pathetic. Which was my point and your seemed to miss that.
That's all a review is. Someone's news about the game. Ie reporting. Reporters report news.
Another person crying about a problem yet offering zero realistic feedback on fixing it, suggesting even that an entire culture change so game devs aren't afraid of reviews. No. The only thing that needs to change is how the reviews are done, and that is Steam's, or whatever other service's, problem to fix. Or you know, people could find a reliable reviews source from outside Stream and go by that. God forbid people do research that involves five clicks before spending their hard earned money.
By reacting very calmly do you mean pulling completely out of a game market by no longer localizing games or running betas there? Yeah, super chill reaction. Totally rational to just ignore so many people without spending a day brainstorming solutions and actually following through with implemented changes that address the problem.
Yes. It sucks to take it upon yourself to educate people on the workings of the world. I wish I didn't care that people were idiots, but unfortunately for me I do as I have to share earth with them. And it hurts me so. In the butt. Other places too, but the pain in my ass is the worst.
Grow up before you melt, snowflake.
Guyincognito, out.
Edited because I don't know how to close quotes
Sounds more like investing in Japanese localization costs more then the return is worth.