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The recent coming-out party for indie games has been mostly aimed at Western audiences, but has anyone wondered about the state of independent titles in Japan? When looking through Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store, I've always wondered where to find the Touhou Project or Mekuri Master games. Now, a new gaming platform hopes to bring these releases to the forefront.
A few weeks ago I heard about Playism, a Japanese service that bridges the territorial gap in the ever-evolving indie scene.
Playism’s first step is to localize Western-developed indie games like Machinarium and SpaceChem for Japanese players. It will also translate many doujin, or fan-made, games into English for enjoyment on our end.
Independent titles like Every Extend, Cave Story, and Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale made waves beyond Japanese shores, but many others have been cut off from the rest of the world.
Even if Playism succeeds, I’m not sure doujin games will ever find their way to major digital-distribution services. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo would have to deliberately court doujin developers and convince them to make their games available on home systems. Unfortunately for console owners, Playism is still pushing Windows as the main platform for Japan’s indie games.