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I understand people’s pain at Capcom’s recent announcement that they are canning Mega Man Legends 3 for 3DS. The original PSone games were fan favourites, and by all accounts an incredibly good RPG. Legends 2 left the story unfinished and the anticipation for a conclusion has now been building for ten years. When the third chapter was announced in September of last year the patient devotees were obviously overjoyed so have it now snatched from their grasp seems, frankly, cruel.

Don't hold your breath on this getting a revival now Inafune is gone from Capcom.

Mega Man Legends 3’s cancelation is especially unexpected as the game was already well underway. This combined with Capcom’s almost complete lack of scrutiny of their recent Mega Man titles (the twenty-four year old character currently possess one hundred games to his name many of which are iffy), makes the deletion of this game from existence almost unfathomable to passionate gamers.

Perhaps if we take a step back from the passion of the situation Legends 3’s unfortunately fate would seem more understandable, though no more palatable. Capcom is of course primarily a business, and on a financial level Mega Man Legends 3 is unappealing. RPG’s have always been a huge sink of recourses; they are long games with a lot of content and they take a significant amount of man-hours to produce. Then of course account there is the 3DS platform it was destined to adorn, with it lower than expected install base no doubt affecting any projected sales expectations.

I was interested to see how a big name fan favorite would fair, unfortunately Capcom didn't want to satisfy my curiosity.

The final and perhaps key element of course is that fans of the game, while vocal, are limited. Indeed I suspect that many at Capcom never wanted Legends 3 to enter production, but the influential producer Inafune probably used his clout to push it through. His subsequent resignation from the company then probably gave the moneymen a chance to cut their losses before any further investment was made. Basically for a time the greatest Mega Man supporter ran the company who produced it, and thus forced it into existence for the 100,000 or so people who could be consider fans of the series (that is how many copies the second game sold). Once Inafune left Capcom pulled Legends 3’s life support, and they were happy to see it die.

It sucks, I won’t pretend it doesn’t, but fans getting bent out of shape simply have to see this for what it is, a wise business move. The money it would make simply not justify Mega Man Legends 3’s existence. While it MAY recoup the cash they invest, Capcom could easily pump out another set of three Battle Network titles in the same time for half the money while cashing on the Battle Network’s current and proven fan base. Ultimately, I am sure Capcom knows good business and if they think they think Legends 3 won’t make money they are probably right. But that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have been a great game, or that we have to be happy about their decision.

Last month saw the release of a number of significant titles from Japanese designers and developers, most notably Child of Eden and Shadows of the Damned. For a long time gamer like myself they represented hugely significant titles marking (in Eden) a spiritual successor to a classic (Rez), and (in Shadows) a collaboration of some of Japan’s greatest talents. Yet while my excitement was nearly over flowing at their release, the gaming playing community at large responded with a near inaudible, ‘meh’.

For all of my protestations and despite having bought it before huge price reductions, I am not enjoying Child of Eden.

The 360 timed exclusive Child of Eden, the first ‘core’ game for Kinect, shifted 90,000 worldwide, while Shadows of the Damned mustered even fewer at 60,000 despite being aimed more at a Western market and releasing for PS3 and 360. This is all set against the sales of the critically panned Duke Nukem Forever, which has (at the time of writing) had sales totaling of 750,000. I say these figures represent worldwide sales but in fact these games have only released in Europe and America, despite their Japanese roots. Interestingly in the same time frame the PS3 exclusive, Yakuza: The End, released in Japan and has managed sales of 400,000 units, proving Japanese games can sell to the right/home audience.

But should this be a surprise to anyone? Having followed gaming in both the East and the West it is becoming increasingly clear that games do not transcend culture as some once believed. There was a time when the limited number of games (and a focus on the pure mechanics of play) allowed sales of ‘good’ games to cross cultural boundaries. Yet with the market and range of games growing, a title’s ‘dressing’ has becoming increasingly important.

Shadows of the Damned lack of success in the West is a mystery to my, let's put it down to poor advertising.

In much the same way that all entertainment media struggles outside of its cultural home, games are now finding that the environment they are created proves an increasingly limiting factor. A fact that can be clearly demonstrated with Call of Duty: Black Ops, which sold a total 10,300,000 units, only 300,000 of which came from Japan.

The natural conclusion to this for companies will be that they should only release massive games, or those deemed able to cross cultural boundaries, outside their of home territory. In other entertainment media this would leave it to small, specialised companies to bring a title to foreign audiences, but in gaming the cost of translation and distribution are considerably higher, increasing the risks involved. Even endeavors such as fan translations are faced with the struggle of media that is hard to alter, and so doggedly protected by its owners that even purchasing a legitimate foreign copy is often frowned upon and expensive.

Attempts to bring Call of Duty to Japan have always been half hearted in the knowledge sales will be limited.

It is hard to admit, but the reality is that the market for translated foreign titles is not present, making doing so an unattractive proposition for companies. It is a sad truth for long time gamers (like myself) to accept that despite the affection we have for Japanese titles it isn’t enough to convince a company, whose main focus is profit, to localise them for us. We are lucky to have companies like Atlus importing niche titles, and even more fortunate to have had EA sponsor a title like Shadows of the Damned, but if sales continue the way they are such projects will become increasingly rare. When that happens we can only hope that holders of their copyrights will be willing to loosen their grip and allow fans to find some (at least vaguely) legitimate way to experience their games.

(All figures courtesy of VGChartz.com)

It has been a while since I did one of these link posts, and if all you do is follow me on DoFuss you could be easily mistaken for thinking that something horrible has happened to me — especially if you are still waiting for the last DoFuss Show (believe it or not it is still planned). I checked back the other day and I have posted alarmingly little in the past six months despite previous promises of increased content.

I will not make excuses, but my life has been turbulent and my attention drawn away from the site by my search for work and my writing for other sites. In truth though for all of this I have had more than enough time on my hands, and can’t really place how I wasted it all.

Things have been changing though. Firstly the number of sites I now contribute to has grown, now including Games Jobs Japan, a site set up by gaming recruitment agency Interactive Selection to help place foreign workers in Japan. On top of this, while my furious hunt for work has met with a number of refusals recently I have at least been responding to follow up emails and even a few interviews.

A change came for me last week though as I realised that, in order to really get my first foot on the ladder of gaming employment, a bit more direct experience was need. So I joined the Train2Game design course. This two to three year is specifically constructed to help its pupils train for work in the industry. Backed by TIGA, and supported by a range of other gaming institutions, the design course I am on is set to give me a basic grounding in the skills I need to enter the production side of the industry.

But I don’t intend to rest on my laurels or let DoFuss fall to the way side, yes I will be busy studying… and writing… and hopefully working… but my love for this little site endures. With that in mind the direction is to shift slightly. My hope for the next few months is to post daily, but with a more eclectic range of topics (with gaming remaining at the core). The plan is to add news that catches my eye, links to my other writings, diary entries about my course and, on occasion, the kind of musings you have come to expect from DoFuss.

So starting soon, maybe tomorrow, expect DoFuss to get busier. Until then (like you can’t wait) below are links to everything you may have missed since my last link post, just to prove I have been keeping myself out of trouble. Also, for the record these big link posts may look lazy but they are a pain in the arse to do, so this will (thankfully) be the last one.

Scared Gamer Reviews- DJ Hero 2, Super Meat Boy, Braid (PS3), Dr Kawashima, Costume Quest, Dead Space 2, Dead Space Extraction, Dead Rising 2, Dead Rising Case West, Stacking, Pilotwings Resort, Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Portal 2, Steel Diver, Gatling Gears, Beyond Good and Evil HD, InFamous 2.

Reporting Gamer Previews - Yoostar 2, Ninja Gaiden 3, Serious Sam 3: BFE, Catherine, SSX: Deadly Descents, Rayman Origins, Ridge Racer Unbounded, Orcs Must Die, Prey 2, Blood Rayne Betrayal, The Darkness 2, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, Call of Juarez: The Cartel, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, Track Mania 2: Canyon, Alice Madness Returns, Soul Calibur 5, Hunted the Demons Forge, UFC Personal Trainer, Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City, Wii Exerbeat, Red Johnson Chronicles, Dark Souls, Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Silver Earring, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Solider, Dead or Alive Dimensions, Child of Eden, Anarchy Reigns, Star Wars Kinect.

Game People Podcast - Alan Wake, Stacking, Flower, Uncharted Series, LA Noire.

Reviews – LA Noire, Faery Legends of Avalon, Soldnerx 2: The Final Prototype – The Last Chapter, Mircobot, Zeit, Spare Parts, Hard Corps: Uprising, Nintendo 3DS, Pilotwings Resort, Super Street Fighter 4: 3D Edition, Nintendogs and Cats, Steel Diver, Dead or Alive Dimensions, Strania: The Stella Machina, Ghostbusters Sanctum of Slime, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile.

Previews – Bullet Storm.

Articles and Interviews – Nine Things to Remember About Japanese Business Culture, Interview with Q-Games Ariel Angelotti, Interview with Q-Games Jaymin Kessler.

Welcome one and all to your fortnightly bit of gaming audio delight from the DoFuss (Darren and I). With the stale whiff of the weekend’s alcohol still lingering on our breath Darren and myself embark on a quick foray into the world of gaming news and issues to see what we can find.

Gaming news and talk of what we have been playing sits as ever at the front of the show, but this time the feature topping our metaphorical cake is whether playing online games could make us better people. This is an idea put forward by Jane McGonigal, a designer at the Institute for the Future, during her talk at TED in February. While it may seem like a bizarre idea, much of what she said got me thinking that there maybe something to it, as did looking at her online games (including Evoke, pictured) that have been designed to harness the power of the game playing public for good.

Regular listeners may notice the lack of Darren’s Old Games, feel free to let him know your displeasure in the comments below (he does promise it will be back next time).

Enjoy the show!

The DoFuss Show – Productively Doing Nothing. [ 1:03:51 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download