The Last Guardian, the latest title from the acclaimed developer Team Ico, is one of the most anticipated titles for the PS3. Speaking to GI.biz, Yasuhide Kobayashi VP of Sony's Japan Studio confirmed that The Last Guardian was named specifically to appeal to the Western market.
"There are so many issues we have to solve, and the biggest challenge is that the market in Japan is shrinking - the key is gaining success in the U.S. and Europe," said Kobayashi. "At the time of the original PlayStation the Japanese market was one third of the global market, and production costs weren't that high - so we were able to generate profit from that market alone. But now we're in the era of the PS3, and the Japanese market is only one fifth of the global market - when it comes to production costs, those are swelling, so it means that unless we gain success in the overseas market our studio will go bankrupt. It's a crisis we recognize."
I mean, which would you rather buy?
Kobayashi is very sensitive towards the issue of overseas sales and how various factors affect how a game does at retail. He specifically mentioned the different box art Ico had in the U.S. compared to Japan – a change that was widely criticized and something that Kobayashi believes prevented the game from selling more than 270,000 units. "If the packaging was designed differently, we think it would have sold more - in fact on the internet many people have said that the Japanese version was better," said Kobayashi.
Team Ico has produced a couple of genuine classics in Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, so we're hopeful that The Last Guardian will live up to that standard of quality and achieve sales success.
