Square Enix CEO: “Nobody Has Succeeded at Globalisation”

Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada has stated that he feels the globalisation efforts of the videogames industry have been a failure, thanks to the sharp divide between Eastern and Western cultures.

“We have to appeal to customers with different preferences. Sega did not succeed. Konami did not succeed. Namco Bandai did not succeed. Western publishers have not succeeded in selling in Japan. Nobody has succeeded at globalisation,” he told VentureBeat. “But it hasn’t succeeded because it was always based on Japanese direction. It was Japanese people who commissioned the western developers to make games.”

“It is important that what’s in America should be handled by Americans,” he said. “The same goes in Europe and in Japan. These people who are deeply rooted in their own cultures can engage in their own dialogues. The mistakes I have seen so far are when Japanese people try to do everything the Japanese way, using Japanese workers in different areas of the world.”

Wada feels that Square Enix are doing a much better job of creating a global market. “We acquired Eidos,” he said. “By doing this, we have incorporated them in our group. They have become part of our family. It was not like we acquired slaves. In fact, the former CEO of Eidos is the European head of Square Enix. Eidos as a studio is treated as completely equal as the studio in Japan. What I wanted to do is create an environment where completely different ethnic groups can coexist in the same company.”

Of course, he seems to have completely forgotten about Nintendo, who have absolutely cracked the global market. How could he forget about them?

[Via EDGE]