Did you know that region exclusive games are a thing? They are kinda interesting to talk about because it’s interesting to know and wonder why a game would be exclusive to Japan, or Europe or even the United States. Let’s talk about the probable reasons that they would have not released a game in all regions.
1.Cultural Differences
This reason was and still kinda is common. What may be okay in one may not be okay in another. This was very prevalent in the 1980s and early 1990s in which a company like Nintendo wouldn’t allow religious imagery to go to the United States in the 1980s. There were two options for video game developers wanting to publish a game with that kind of imagery, change it or not release it at all in that region. For example, Devil Maze was a Nintendo Entertainment System Pac-man clone and a pretty cool one at that but it used a lot of religious imagery in it. The cute little creature Tamagon used the Bible to shoot projectiles and the crosses replaced the pellets. The game defining feature was an enemy controlling the camera, making the player go where the enemy wants to. The enemy that is controlling the camera is a devil like creature so that couldn’t have been published in the United States. This game was cartoony but because of the religious stuff, it was only released in Europe and Japan. This still happens even today because Japan and the United States have very different cultures.
2.Lateness
Sometimes, a game is released very late in a console’s average lifetime of 5 years. It’s bothersome for companies to publish a game everywhere for the old console when they can make a game for the new one. Take for example, Joy Mech Fight. It’s the best fighting game on the Nintendo Family Computer(Japan’s version of the NES)because it runs smoothly, the characters aren’t tiny and it has a roster of 36 characters. But it was released in 1993 when the Super Nintendo entertainment system was going strong so it couldn’t be released in North America. Another example of a late game released is Dragon Ball Z:Hyper Dimension, released in Japan on March 29, 1996 and in Europe on February 1997. This game looks really good for a Super Nintendo game like it plays voice clips and it plays alright. Even the Box Art looks awesome. But this was released when the Playstation 1 was going on and the Nintendo 64 released during that time too. Now this issue nowadays doesn’t happen very often due to companies just having more money to just release a game everywhere regardless of the cost.
3.Way too Niche
Some games were very niche and had very little appeal for mass audiences. This is also a pretty common reason that happens even today sometimes. In the 1980s and 1990s, Role Playing games were really niche and most of the time, they weren’t sold in the U.S.. A couple of Final Fantasy games weren’t released like Final Fantasy 5 and two Final Fantasy games on the Nintendo Entertainment System. It wasn’t until Final Fantasy 7 dropped and RPG games got more popular that more games of this genre would be released everywhere but if it was too niche, then it wouldn’t be sold here. Another niche game is Santa Claus saves the Earth for Playstation 1 and Gameboy Advance. It was only released in Europe and it is like Donkey Kong Country if it was bad. North America probably didn’t get this game because it sold like garbage. This issue still happens sometimes because of the same reason which kinda sucks because some niche games have interesting ideas and some of them are actually good.
4.Conclusion
Some of these region exclusive games are actually pretty cool which kinda sucks when these games are only exclusive to one region. Nowadays, games that weren’t released in North America can be released in a collection or get a remaster but those options still aren’t present for some games. Overall, this is an interesting topic to talk about.
