JAPAN: Wada urges gamers to go West

Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada has (not for the first time) levelled some harsh criticism at the Japanese games market, stating that Japanese gamers still harbour an unfair bias against Western-developed titles.

Wada was speaking in a YouTube interview, spotted by Kotaku, about the Japanese word ‘youge’. Directly translated it means ‘Western games’ and is, in Wada’s opinion, still used in a defamatory manner.

Even now, there have been people in Japan using the label youge with a terribly discriminatory meaning,” he stated, referring to Square Enix’s decision to publish Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in Japan.

I’d like them to try it once. If they play it once, they’d realize how incorrect that label is."

That Japanese publishers are increasingly looking West is no huge surprise considering the tumultuous 2009 that the Japanese market has endured. Wada has not been shy in expressing his Westward aspirations for Square Enix, a desire that ultimately lead to the purchase of the home of Lara Croft Eidos earlier this year.