February 19, 2009 - The videogame business is global and competitive and big budget games can no longer afford to appeal to a limited audience. Jun Takeuchi, a producer on both Resident Evil 5 and Lost Planet, took the stage at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas to discuss how Capcom has created "un-Japanese games" that appeal to a western audience.

Takeuchi began by talking about the different ways the West and Japan view each other's culture. "Japanese people, when they come to a place like this, have a very strange and unique feeling." He claims the isolated and complex past of Japan has caused its people to view the West as a place defined by its "non-Japaneseness." And, in turn, the West has its own views of what Japan is.

Capcom wants to sell games outside of Japan, particularly because the Japanese market is just 6% of the global market (according to Takeuchi's data). Capcom would like to make North America and Europe 70% of its total software sales.

This is easier said than done.

Takeuchi listed several paths Capcom took to failure. Simply trying to understand how foreigners think is not enough. Onimusha 3 was created with this philosophy and its sales suffered, even with a relatively good critical reception. "I guess you could say we dyed the game blond."

Despite several failed attempts to break into the US market in a big way, Capcom continued to try. Though Japan is an isolated country, there is a lot of contact with other cultures. Takeuchi then questioned why they couldn't appeal to other cultures given the fact that they are a multi-cultural society. One of the problems, he claims, is that risk reduction can actually increase risk. Making a game that will first try to make its money back in Japan, and then see the worldwide market as a bonus, inhibits overall success.

This is a central argument for Takeuchi. Japanese games that are made with a risk reduction method will generally not succeed in the global market. Simply making a game for the Japanese market with the goal of making your money back there first will almost ensure that it is not received well in the West.

Capcom has broken into the Western market in ways that other Japanese companies have failed to do in recent years with hits like Lost Planet and Dead Rising. Takeuchi listed the secrets to the success of these titles. The secrets were more focused on business strategy and management than creativity.

First and foremost, says Takeuchi, the team must keep staff turnover below 10% annually while still growing the team by 10%, keeping cost fluctuations within 10%, and investing 20% of the total development budget on new IP. "Japanese developers view switching companies as a big risk," says Takeuchi, so it is important to keep talent.

Takeuchi then continued by talking organizing a company with a flexibility that allows it to change in response to growth and adapt goals and objectives to external forces. He used Square-Enix's ability to shift the Dragon Quest franchise to the DS when the handheld became popular as a good example of this.

He then spoke about how management can ensure that a game succeeds or fails. "When a problem occurs at a company, it almost always occurs within the developers," says Takeuchi. For this reason, reform must come from the bottom up and management must support this with no taboo areas. Likewise, management must not set unachievable targets.

Though, if you can't make games the users will enjoy, "you leave the reason for your company to exist," says Takeuchi. This is the most important rule. We have different cultures, but he says, "I don't think there is any difference in our understanding of what is fun...there are no borders to fun." Takeuchi listed BioShock and Call of Duty 4 as games he likes as examples.

Takeuchi closed with a single English sentence, "Thank you for playing." You're welcome.