Shuhei Yoshida Regrets Not Bringing More Japanese Games to the West During the PlayStation 1 Era
Former Sony executive Shuhei Yoshida has become a valuable source of insight about the PlayStation world since retiring from the company.
In one of his latest interviews with GamesIndustry.biz (thanks GamesRadar), he shared that one of his biggest regrets from the PlayStation 1 era—and from his 31 years working with PlayStation—was that many Japanese classics never made it to the United States or Europe.
Small Store Spaces Limited Releases
“Because of limited retail space for both the European and the US teams, they didn’t approve many Japanese games,” Yoshida explained. “So some Japanese games, especially from third party companies, didn’t see release in the US and European regions.”
Unfortunately, this meant that some hidden gems of the time, such as Policenauts by Konami and Deep Freeze by Sammy, were only available as imports from Japan — something far more complicated back then due to high costs and language barriers.
Another reason many popular Japanese games were left behind was the transition from 2D to 3D graphics. Titles like Panzer Bandit or Mega Man X3 were overlooked in favor of more modern projects like Final Fantasy VII.
“I remember 2D games were not approved to be released in the US,” Yoshida recalled. “Or at least there were impressions like that.”
Timing also played a role. The PlayStation launched in Japan a year before reaching Europe and the U.S., giving Sony more time to fine-tune its lineup. “For the Japan launch, we had only a limited number of games to launch with. And of course, we had Ridge Racer – that was really popular in Japan, so that really helped carry the system.”
“However, when it came out in the US and Europe in September of 1995, there were many additional great games. So all the games made in Japan […] plus European games from Psygnosis, [and America had] this range of sports games. So the lineup of games was much stronger.”
Today, those old problems almost don’t exist anymore: consoles now launch worldwide at the same time, 2D and 3D games coexist comfortably, and digital stores have no space limitations.
