Why Japanese PS3 Games Not Sold In North America.

Can someone tell me why is that Japanese games on PS3 is not sold in North America. Case in point "Macross 30 Ginga o Tsunagu Utagoe".
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Anything having to do with the Macross franchise is unlikely to come to the West. It has something to do with complicated legal issues. In short, anything with the name Macross is unlikely to come here due to some legal complications and tension between the North American licence holder (Harmony Gold) and the Japanese license holder (Big West and Tatsunoko). Its exactly why we never saw a release of the anime Macross Frontier in the West, and its probably why we won't get this game. You'd be better off googling it, because my knowledge of the situation is kind of sketchy.

Now in the general sense of all Japanese games, some just don't make it over to the West. It always been like that. It could be licensing problems like the one I stated above. It could be because no company sees the specific game as profitable and won't bring the game over.

A lot of thier games are really wierd and wouldnt sell well here.

the general problem is localization. they want to be sure that the money they make from sales can cover translating the text, getting english voice actors, and all that.

i think a lot of problems would be solved if more publishers embraced digital distribution. the problem with physical media for the more niche games is that not only do they have to cover localization costs, they also have to worry about producing too many copies. with digital distribution, they at least don't have to worry about the latter problem. that's how some of the more niche jrpg's made it onto the PS3. like i'm surprised something like record of agarest war found its way west (with a prequel, no less).

Western gamers tend not to like Japanese games. They'll dismiss games like Mugen Soul as sissy anime crap.

Unless it's a Japanese games that tries to mimic western game design conventions.

Appeal to the majority of western gamers. Sales. That is the reality of it.Elann2008

Most Japanese niche games dont get localized here. Because they wanna make sure it is worth their investment to spend money to localize it. Unless you are a brown game with derivative action or lots of guns and pew pew pew it wont sell in the U.S.

Sad but true. 

Well Japan has gone mostly handheld. Heck the 3DS has already outsold the PS3 in Japan. The actual niche console releases cater to a small fanbase in Japan, sometimes not turning a profit over there, much less a global audience.

hahah so much salt

Most games should allow you to play import games but some do have region coding..look on the playstation website it may be able to tell which games are region free.

Can someone tell me why is that Japanese games on PS3 is not sold in North America. Case in point "Macross 30 Ginga o Tsunagu Utagoe".
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Chaloner11