Playism aims to make indie games as popular in Japan as they are in the West

Playism wants to bring the wide and varied world of independent games to Japan, but doing so isn’t as easy as you’d think.

In the West it’s much easier to get indie games — for any platform. Popular digital distribution stores such as Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Valve’s Steam are happy to host this growing segment of the $78 billion game business (according to Digi-Capital). The growth is so hot that Sony actively hunts for new indie titles for its PlayStation Network, scouting at indie meetups and the like. But various challenges, including distribution and localization, are roadblocks for independent developers hoping to broaden the reach of their creations. And with the limited size and resources of these studios — with some being as small as a single individual — taking on another territory ends up being too much work, not to mention costing way too much.