Jimmy Soga was not a hardcore gamer when he joined US publisher XSEED three years ago -- and unlike his ten compatriots at the tiny company, he has never worked for Square Enix USA. But when he got back to his Los Angeles home after a stint as a Japanese interpreter for Tokyo Disneyland, he knew that he wanted to help build world-class entertainment; and was given the chance right here in sunny California.

But really, that's what XSEED is all about -- finding hit Japanese products with Western flair, signing a few deals, and giving them the chance to shine in the US marketplace. The difference is that we're talking about video games -- and now, as assistant marketing manager for XSEED Games, Jimmy is one of the many voices that determine which Japanese titles the company will bring stateside.

That's right -- at XSEED, marketers have a part in the decision-making process. But when I said "many voices," I wasn't just referring to each of the company's 11 employees -- I meant yours. In this interview with XSEED's Jimmy Soga, we find out not only how the tiny publisher was founded and how it currently fares with new partner Marvelous Entertainment, but also get a good glimpse at how their entire hand-picking process works, and how gamers like you can be involved.

GameCyte: We've heard that XSEED began in November 2004, and composed as a sort of offshoot of Square Enix USA. How did XSEED get started?

Jimmy Soga: The company was founded by ex-Square employees, including our president Jun Iwasaki (We call him J.I.) He was the president of Square Enix USA, and he and some of the managerial staff left. First, we had six people, and all six were ex-Square employees, and about a year in I joined them. I came from a totally different field.

GameCyte: Oh, I’d like to hear a little bit about that – but before we get there, can I ask why? Why did they break off from Square, and what did they want to do here with XSEED?

JS: They just didn’t really agree with how Square Enix of Japan wanted to handle business in America, and they went different ways. There were a lot of games, especially RPGs, that didn’t quite make it over here – since RPGs are sort of niche games.

Unless it’s a big seller, a lot of publishers tend to stay away from them, 1.) because they’re a niche title, and 2.) out of all the genres, RPGs have the most text, so they take a while to localize.

GameCyte: So J.I. and company said “They aren’t localizing these titles; we’re going to do it”?

JS: There were a lot of games people wanted to see brought over here, so we thought it would be great to bring those quality titles that other publishers don’t bring over to the US gamers. That’s where the whole concept of XSEED started.

GameCyte: I have to say, that’s the reason I’m really interested in XSEED. I certainly see games and think, “Hey, why isn’t that coming over here? I’d like to play that. How come only the Japanese people get that game?”

JS: (chuckles)

Yeah, so if you see any title that you don’t think is going to make it over here or for some reason isn’t coming over here, give us an email and we’ll start looking into it.

GameCyte: That leads right into a question I’d planned to ask later, but I’ll just ask now: How do you decide which developers to approach, and which titles to look at? You do seem to accept email suggestions from fans – I’m reading a thread on NeoGAF right now where there’s a gentleman who sent you guys email, and Ken responded back basically saying, “We’ll have a look into that for you.”

JS: We really want to take care of the fans, so every email we receive, we will always reply back to.

GameCyte: Really?

JS: We might not disclose everything…

GameCyte: (snickers)

JS: …but we will definitely get back to them; and usually we pay attention to all kinds of news on the web. We always take a look at NeoGAF, and especially Japanese gaming magazines like Dengeki Playstation or Famitsu – we always look at those titles, and if we don’t think it’s coming over or we haven’t heard an announcement, then we start talking about it and if it’s worth bringing over here.

From there, our president uses his connections to talk to the people in Japan, and we try to get the ball rolling.

GameCyte: How do you choose whether a title is worth bringing to the US?

JS: I don’t know how other publishers do it, but at XSEED, everybody in our company needs to play the game. We only have eleven people, but we all play the game and fill out a form that includes our score, and from there we start discussing “Is it worth bringing over,” “Is this game fun,” “Would this work in America,” and then if we all agree then we start pitching.

GameCyte: So you’ve actually got this roundtable, where you kind of… review the game, then?

JS: Sort of. We have a week or two to play the game, and then after that we all evaluate it, and if it’s not up to our standards, we just say sorry… But there are also games that we want to bring over, but it just doesn’t work out one way or another.

GameCyte: What are typical reasons why a game might not make it over here?

JS: It varies, but one will be that we think it’s fun, but retailers don’t want to carry it, or they’re not so hyped about it; and if we can’t sell into retailers, that means we can’t really sell any.

GameCyte: You start out with this roundtable of sorts, and then the next phase is to pitch it to these retailers?

JS: We get together, we talk about it, and then from there we talk to the publisher in Japan who has it, and then come up with a minimum guarantee, or figure out how we might proceed, or whether we even have a shot at it. At the same time we’ll be talking to sales reps and retailers, saying “We’re thinking about this game, what do you think?” and we try to gather all this information together.

Namco's Tales of Hearts shocked fans by having two different versions. Anime is a no-go, but might XSEED consider bringing over the CG?

GameCyte: The original publishers, US retailers – who else is a part of the conversation before you actually decide to begin work on a game?

JS: That’s pretty much it. The sales reps and retailers – that’s more for our information purposes. Let’s say we have a really solid game, but the characters are a little too anime-ish, for example. They’ll say “Yeah, it’ll be sort of hard to sell an anime title, we’re not sure how much that will sell, but roughly you’ll probably be around here,” and then we’ll start discussing numbers internally, and how much we’ll be making if the title turns out really good and whatnot. If at the end, we don’t think we can really do it, we have to let it go.

GameCyte: What are some other reasons titles might not come over? You say one possible example is that the characters might look a little too anime-styled.

JS: One is if it’s not suited for a US audience, but the second will be simply if another publisher outbids us, or provide a more attractive offer.

GameCyte: But what kinds of traits in the games themselves might make them not suitable for an American audience?

JS: It depends, but certainly anime-looking titles will be a little harder to sell in America; others that do really well in Japan but not over here will be titles like Monster Hunter – something where you grind and grind and grind and keep leveling up, it does really, really well in Japan, and there are a lot of titles that mimic that, but it just doesn’t work over here because there’s no core story or incentive to keep playing other than the grindfest.

GameCyte: Well, they are bringing Monster Hunter and Phantasy Star Portable to the US, but…

What traits, on the other hand, do make a game suitable for XSEED to pick up? What do you look for other than just fun?

JS: Because of our founders, we are strong in the RPG division – we can play a game and kind of assess how much it will make, or what the audience will think because we know the RPG genre and its target audience pretty well.

Other than that, it’s basically any game that we think will be fun. In the beginning, we only had RPGs like Shadow Hearts, Wild Arms, Valhalla Knights, but little by little we’re starting to expand our lineup. Last year we had a Wii title called Victorious Boxer Revolution, and it was anime-based, but it was the first boxing title on the Wii so we thought it had that edge.

One thing to consider is since we are a small publisher, we can’t afford our titles to flop –
if a title flops our company would be in a really bad position – so we really have to hand-pick and see how much a game will make. There’s good and bad; we don’t have to make that much profit to stay afloat, but at the same time we can’t have any titles flop.

GameCyte: How do you perform those estimates of how much a game will make?

JS: Just looking at other, similar titles in the genre… we try to assess it from the NPD data, and what the audience is thinking… we try to gather as much information as possible.

GameCyte: What does the US audience think about RPGs right now, in your opinion? I’ve heard that it might be a dying breed, but perhaps you have a handle on the market…

JS: Uhhh… that is a hard question…because there are so many next-gen titles, but not many in the RPG division. Graphics have definitely been improving, but at the end of the day I think it’s all about the gameplay, the story needs to be solid, and if you have something of an edge, that other RPGs in the market don’t have – those will be the solid three to look for.

GameCyte: So you were telling me that you answer all these emails – what kind of email volume do you have?

JS: It varies… I’m not really heavy on the email side, that’s a Ken [Berry, head of Marketing and Business Development] question. I’d just have to throw a number out…

GameCyte: Well, is it overwhelming, or…

JS: No no no. But we get a fair amount every week.

GameCyte: You’re going to get more after I write this article.

JS: (snickers) Thank you!

GameCyte: No problem!

So how do you relate to AQ Interactive?

JS: Basically, when we founded this company, Mr. Nakayama – who was the ex-Sega of Japan president – he invested in our company. He had some of our stock and he also owns AQ Interactive in Japan, so eventually he handed that stock to AQI, and we became a subsidiary of AQI.

GameCyte: Does that help you to get any of their games?

JS: Yes and no. If it’s like a triple-A title, they usually shop it around a little more to other publishers, see what’s out there, and definitely we’ll be thinking with them “Is it worth it for us to publish it, or will it make more money if another publisher does it?”

The bad thing about that is we don’t get every title AQI makes, but also the good thing is, we are not forced to sell everything that AQI makes either. We have that sort of stamp in that we can hand-pick what we want to publish as well.

We will look into most titles from AQI that will work in the US but in some cases it may go to other publishers.*

GameCyte: Does it expedite the process when you do see an AQI game that you want?

JS: We definitely have more connections inside, so we have that inside information quicker, but at the end it’s all up to which option would be best for that title.

GameCyte: And now, you have this partnership with Marvelous-

JS: Yes, it’s getting a little confusing, hunh?

GameCyte: How’s that working out for you?

JS: It’s working out great so far! Our first title together was Valhalla Knights, and back then it was the best looking RPG on the PSP… and we really enjoyed working with them. The general manager of Marvelous, Wada-san, who is the creator of the Harvest Moon series, he really liked our president and thought we could work together. They had always thought about bringing Marvelous to America, but were looking for a partner who could start up the company.

I think we started talking about a year and a half ago, and we just announced the partnership this April.

GameCyte: Do you get to handpick your titles there as well, or is that going to be a broader arrangement?

JS: That’s more up to the Marvelous side; if they want to bring out the Marvelous USA titles, then we’ll help them out, but at the same time we sort of say “This won’t do well,” or “I don’t think the US audience will work for this one.”

GameCyte: I don’t know if this is a connection you can take for granted now or not, but Marvelous also has these connections with Grasshopper Manufacture, and I’m wondering how you are able to get titles from Grasshopper.

JS: We really don’t get straight from Grasshopper, but we are publishing a game called Flower, Sun and Rain that’s coming out next – March, I believe? – yeah, and that was through Marvelous. Marvelous had the title, we checked it out, and they wanted to bring it over to the States. So far we don’t really have direct communication with Grasshopper.

GameCyte: In an interview with Siliconera, Wada-san was saying that there might be a chance for XSEED to publish other Grasshopper titles. I was wondering, has that moved forward at all?

JS: If Marvelous wants us to bring it over, then yes, that will be the case.

GameCyte: You’d mentioned how AQI likes to shop around its high profile titles to others – do you know if there’s going to be any difficulty in you getting triple-A titles, period?

JS: That’s – like I said, that will be on a title-by-title basis. Of course, if they have a 360 title and they can have Microsoft sell it as a first-party, then we’ll definitely push for that, they’ll make so much more money that way. If it’s a title we think we can handle, we’ll ask them to let us handle it, because the percentage they get will be higher.

GameCyte: Are there any chances of you getting games like No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle?

JS: Marvelous… there hasn’t been any announcement, but – we’re not really sure. We can’t really say at this time.

GameCyte: I’m wondering if it might make more sense for Ubisoft to grab that, just because they’re likely to make AQI more money that way.

JS: Yeah, that’s a Marvelous question; I’m really not sure. If they wanted us to publish it, we’d definitely publish it, but at the same time, they do take care of the publishers they were working with before, like Natsume for the Harvest Moon series. It’s not like now because Marvelous has a USA branch, they’re just going to take it away from them and start selling it under Marvelous USA.

They have a good relationship and Natsume’s done a really good job selling the Harvest Moon series, so I don’t think we’re going to change anything in that direction, but I really can’t say anything about Desperate Struggle right now.

GameCyte: That’s fine. So once you’ve got a title that’s been pitched around and the publishers have agreed “Yes, let’s bring it to the US,” what happens next? I’ve heard that you have freelance localization producers…

JS: In the beginning, yes -- after we make the deal we’ll get all the text files from Japan and then we’ll assign a localization house or a localization product lead and we move from there; but lately, we’ve been doing everything in-house.

GameCyte: (surprised) Oh, really? And you said you have eleven employees?

JS: Correct.

GameCyte: (chuckles) That’s a heck of a job… especially with an RPG. That eleven includes yourself and Ken Berry?

JS: Correct. Two are the president and the CFO, and they don’t really do anything on the localization side – it’s more the other nine of us.

GameCyte: How long does it take you with that kind of a team to pump out the text – for an RPG, say?

JS: That totally depends on the word counts, but for a typical RPG, we’ll probably need two to three months to localize all the text and to finalize everything.

GameCyte: What was the impetus to take localization internal?

JS: It was just more cost-effective, and we can manage it more closely – it’s not like we had problems with our localization house. If we do have a major title or a big project, or get another we simply can’t handle, we’ll definitely outsource it.

Specifically if there’s a title in a series, and a certain localization house has been doing it for a while, we’ll definitely talk to them first and see what their cost is, because they’ll know the game better than we do, and fans will appreciate it more if the game has the same tone.

GameCyte: Any examples?

JS: Hmmm… what do we have… (hastily) Nothing so far.

If we have a title from an series, we’ll try to find out who did the localization, and we’ll definitely play the old game as well.

GameCyte: I’m curious – you’ve got all these games you have to play through, answer all this email, localize all these titles – what’s an average day like for one of your guys?

JS: (chuckles) I can’t really say for our localization team, but some of them have to handle two titles at once. Our lead is just going crazy, because he has to juggle so many at once, but… Usually, it consists of checking the emails, and in my case because I’m more on the PR side right now, I talk to our PR agency and editors, gather all the assets if possible, and prepare for the next release and whatnot. And then at the end of the day, I communicate with Japan.

GameCyte: What are your hours like, then?

JS: Right now it’s not bad – our hours are 9 to 6 – but we tend to go a little later. Depends on the day, but maybe 8, maybe 9.

GameCyte: Can you give me an example of a game you’ve localized completely internally?

JS: One of the titles where you can really see our localization efforts will be Populous DS; also, Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground. The original Japanese text was a little different, but we tried to make it a little more US-audience-friendly, but at the same time not change the vibe too much. Also, Retro Game Challenge is a really good example.

GameCyte: How about the KORG DS-10? How’s that working out for you guys?

JS: KORG is working really well. It’s a little hard to sell because it’s not really a game per se, it’s a synthesizer. When you start the game up, there’s no intro, there’s no tutorial. Once you play it, even if you don’t know any music, you just go with the flow and you can create music.

GameCyte: And you say it’s doing well?

JS: The biggest example is Amazon.com, and we’re selling it through other retailers like Fry’s Electronics as well, but the sales are doing pretty well. I think at Amazon, it was one of the most anticipated games on DS for about a week or so.

GameCyte: So when I first spoke to you, we were talking a little bit about Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and that there is an example of what – I think – has the potential to be a triple-A game. How did you land that?

JS: I think one of the standards that Marvelous is trying to set is that any new IP they bring over should be published through Marvelous USA, and since that’s a Marvelous title in Japan that’s one they definitely want to bring over.

GameCyte: And that means XSEED, right?

JS: All the Marvelous titles will be Marvelous USA, and then we will be the co-publisher – we help out more on the distribution side.

GameCyte: When you are then co-publishing with Marvelous USA, do you not do the localization, then?

JS: Oh no, we are.

GameCyte: You still are… Could you lay out your duties for co-publishing with Marvelous, then?

JS: Basically we do everything we would with our own titles, it’s just the big difference is that we’re helping Marvelous to start up a US presence, so I guess the tradeoff is that we’ll do the localization and distribution, and they’ll… let us… do it. (laughs)

GameCyte: (laughs)

JS: (still chuckling) They’ll let us put our name on their title.

GameCyte: That’s pretty good… and if they’re paying you for that too, that’s even better! (chuckles)

JS: Most of the titles you’ll be seeing come out, for example our very first title with Marvelous, Valhalla Knights, you’ll only see the Marvelous Entertainment USA logo, but on the back you’ll see “Distributed by XSEED Games.”

GameCyte: But you’re actually doing more than distributing.

JS: That’s one of the things we’re having a little problem with… We’re trying to build the Marvelous presence in the US, but because we’re communicating to all the press, it’s really easy for them to say “Published by XSEED,” or “XSEED snagged whatever from Marvelous,” and that’s really not the case.

GameCyte: I’ll keep that in mind – these are Marvelous USA titles that are co-published, distributed and localized by XSEED.

We’ve noticed a recent trend where Japanese developers, who’ve noticed the market potential of the West, are building more games in Japan specifically designed for the US and Europe. What do you think of that trend, and how do you think you’ll be able to maintain your momentum?

JS: It doesn’t really change our position that much, but it’s true that Japan always used to be the top seller and they made a lot of money from just Japan alone. If it weren’t for the foreign countries, that would be great, but now it’s sort of flipping – because the US gaming industry is growing so much, there are so many users.

Since our position is to look for publishers that *don’t* want to bring it over, or that don’t have a US branch, our position doesn’t really change.

GameCyte: I’m just wondering if you’re going to have a smaller bank of interesting titles to draw from because the ones that would appeal to a US audience will have already been spoken for.

JS: I think it totally depends on the title. Populous DS was created by EA Japan, but EA America didn’t pick it up, so we had the opportunity to sell it from our side, and stuff like that is always around. I think since our company is so small, a little bit of profit will keep us afloat.

We can afford to survive on the crumbs that all the big publishers drop on the floor.

GameCyte: A related question: a variety of games being designed in Japan for this western audience are actually not being sold in Japan because of their violent content. Do you have any opinion on that?

JS: It’s sort of interesting how people look at game contents in Japan and America, because in my opinion America is more okay on violence, but when you show sexual elements in the game it becomes a no-no. The retailers as well, they really start worrying if there’s a lot of sexual content. Even if it’s the same level of sexual content as violence – the ESRB level. But it’s completely the opposite in Japan. They are more okay with sexual content, but no so much really harsh violence.

GameCyte: How do they balance that with the fact that they’re having to make these games with the extra violence?

JS: I think they think more in an American way… but another thing is, we have a lot of connections with companies that we’ve published games for, that don’t have a US branch – AQ Interactive is a good example – and if there’s a game concept that’s only on the sheet, that they haven’t created anything, they’ll swing it our way, and say “How do you think the US audience is going to handle this,” and we put a little research behind that and put a report together.

GameCyte: That’s neat.

But how do you feel about the situation where a Japanese company is making a game that its country’s own citizens might not get to play?

JS: (chuckles) I don’t think… I don’t think the companies that we’ve been working with have gone that way, yet – maybe they will, maybe they won’t – but it is sort of risky because they are a Japanese publisher and they do know what Japanese gaming is about. I do understand the market is changing, but…

If there was a company trying to make a first-person shooter for over here, I think it would be a little tough because they don’t have that experience that the US companies do.

GameCyte: The last thing I wanted to ask was about Square Enix. You’ve spoken about how this company came together because Square Enix wasn’t really jumping into the localization of their smaller titles… have you been able to get any Square Enix titles?

JS: Not Square Enix titles, but… I’m not even sure if I’m supposed to say this, but we helped them out on other games. We’ve always been working in the background so you’ll never see our names on the front.

GameCyte: Interesting… in an advisory role, like you were talking about for AQI?

JS: No, it was more like marketing and PR… back then, I wasn’t working in PR, our PR was from Square Enix, and for all of our ex-Square Enix people, there were projects that they had worked on for a long time, and they knew how the titles worked and whatnot. We did that for the first couple of years, but not anymore.

Update, 11/24: Jimmy Soga clarified that XSEED's relationship with AQI has changed such that the original statement is no longer accurate.

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