Posted February 18, 2014
Enebias: I think it's because Japan has always been the leader in console production, and in that country those were a lot more widespread than the far more expensive PCs of the time. Now japanese people are so used to consoles that they see PCs only as work tools (or at least, that is what a japanese guy once said to me). You could rightly point out that today many games are also ported on PC, but remember that they are exclusive property of big corporations, and you know they don't feel much love for DRM-free policies.
That's a fair point, though I guess the way I'm looking at it is that, if these same stubborn Japanese corporations could be convinced to take the plunge into porting their games to PC, maybe they can also be convinced to support stores other than Steam. Sega, in particular, feels like they've embraced a more western approach to publishing as of late. I don't see the obstacles to convincing a Japanese publisher to be on GOG to be significantly different from what GOG normally deals with, and that's why I wonder if it's just a lack of interest on GOG's part. And even outside of the games published by bigger Japanese corporations, there's quite a bit out there. What about fare like the Melty Blood: Actress Again PC port that never got a proper retail release, or the PC port of Grandia II (which was published by Ubisoft?) There are opportunities out there, even if GOG can't reason with some of the more rigid companies.