Why Aren’t Mobile Suit Gundam Games More Popular in the West?

Giant robot mechs are not a hard sell to gamers. Metal Gear Solid, Armored Core, Starcraft, Helldivers 2, and Titanfall are all proof that gamers have a soft spot for the lumbering mechanical colossi. So why does the most influential and enduring mecha franchise in the world with a history of over 40 years of games struggle with markets in the West yet sees massive success in Japan and the rest of Asia?

The Gundam franchise has released roughly 250 games over the past few decades. Some like the infamous Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire are admittedly awful examples of what the franchise has to offer. However, many entries such as the Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs series, Mobile Suit Gundam: Bonds of the Battlefield, and Mobile Suit Gundam Federation vs. Zeon are considered to be not just great Gundam games but excellent games in general. That is, at least among fans in Asia and the few dedicated fans that have played them in the West.

A Gundam-Shaped Hole in the Fabric of Western Pop Culture

It’s no secret that the gaming community has strong ties to the world of anime and manga. The foundations of video gaming culture are rooted in Japan leading many video game enthusiasts to inevitably find their way to these other aspects of Japanese otaku and popular culture.

The reverse is also true. Games such as Street Fighter 2, Castlevania, Dragon Age, and Pokemon are made into anime and vice versa with Dragonball Z, Naruto, and of course, Mobile Suit Gundam. Game mechanics, tropes, settings, and such are the basis for the current boom of isekai anime and manga.

Both games based on anime and vice versa such as Attack on Titan or Cyberpunk: Edgerunners respectively, do fairly well in the West but Gundam is something of an outlier. The franchise is a cultural juggernaut in Japan with both the anime and games selling so well and being so beloved that several 65-foot-tall statues of different Gundams have been erected over the years to tower over the people of Tokyo with one even capable of limited locomotion.

Despite Gundam maintaining a prominent position in Japan’s anime pantheon alongside the likes of Dragonball Z, Death Note, and Neon Genesis Evangelion (a series heavily influenced by Gundam) it does not enjoy the same level of success experienced by its peers in the West.

Gundam’s Journey to the West

Mobile Suit Gundam developed into a cultural fixture in Japan throughout the 80s and 90s, but was like many anime, a niche curiosity in the West. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that the franchise gained traction in the United States and Europe.

These were the days when the term “Japanimation” was still being used by some and animation as a whole was considered by many in the West to be a medium exclusively suited to children. Gundam managed to get its foot in the door with Western audiences first with its latest spinoff series at the time, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

In 2000, about half a decade after its debut in Japan, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing aired on the now legendary Toonami programming block on Cartoon Network alongside Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, and other classic anime to massive success. What many new fans did not realize was that it was actually the 11th entry in the franchise.

Why Gundam Did Not Take Off in the West

The West’s entry into the world of Gundam at such a late stage is a major contributing factor to its lack of popularity here compared to Japan and the rest of Asia. Having a franchise rich in history and lore built over years of media releases is a double-edged sword that provides depth to a fictional world but can also make entering into it intimidating.

Marvel and DC have been struggling with this same issue for years as only a trickle of new readers consume their work since most people balk at entering a world with over 50 years of drama that can leave them scratching their heads as to what is going on. Gundam is no different.

There are currently 12 different timelines for the 50 anime series, films, and OVAs that make up the Mobile Suit Gundam canon give or take a couple of timelines depending on your interpretation of attempts to tie several of them together with later shows. This is not counting the additional manga, games, and novels. Many have had their interest piqued after catching a glimpse of the cool robot they would come to know as a Gundam but shy away from the undertaking of figuring out how to navigate the vast array of its associated media.

Some people choose the obvious route of starting at the beginning which presents another problem.

The Aging Canon of Mobile Suit Gundam

A major point of apprehension in the West’s embracing Gundam is just how dated the original show and even some of its sequels are. Mobile Suit Gundam was released in 1979 and it boasts great characters, a riveting war story, and timeless mobile suit designs but many of its other aspects have not aged so well.

Specifically, the animation quality leaves much to be desired. Even for the time it was made, the actual animation of the Gundam was considered to be subpar compared to other anime of the 70s.

Despite its reverence now, the show was a bit of a dud on its initial release with low enough ratings that its original order of 52 episodes was cut down to 39. It was not until the show’s syndication and the release of the now iconic Gunpla model toys that it started to develop a following.

Toonami had similar issues with Gundam when it tried to introduce the original 1979 anime to the West after the success of Gundam Wing. The 2000s were not exactly yesterday but even then the age of the original show’s animation, music, etc. did not entice the late millennial demographic looking forward to everything shiny and new the turn of the century was bringing.

Attempts to introduce the original show and the older sequels never caught on with Western audiences like Wing did and as a result, Bandai who owns the franchise, stopped taking the West seriously as a market for Gundam media.

The Lack of Gundam Games in the West

Up to the point where Mobile Suit Gundam Wing arrived to success and popularity in the West, Gundam had several games to its name released on many early platforms from the FM-7 to the Nintendo 64 although none had been released in North America aside from the PC’s gloriously bad Gundam 0079: The War for Earth in 1997 worth seeing if only for the incredibly hammy acting that makes up its gameplay of interactive live-action cutscenes.

Even though Gundam gained some popularity in the West after Gundam Wing, video games from the franchise started rolling out here but never really took off. The 2000s saw the advent of the beloved PlayStation 2 and Gamecube consoles that would host many Gundam games that would become beloved classics by fans of the franchise such as Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam and Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Assault 2 to name but a few.

These games would become popular among Gundam fans but would not become anywhere near as popular as other games of the era in North America and other Western markets. This can be attributed to several factors. For starters, a lot of these games could only be fully appreciated if one had seen and loved the anime. In most cases, the games were often clunky and plodding but passable arcade experiences when stripped of the positive association that came from the Gundam branding.

More importantly, even though these Gundam games did make it onto the Western market, they never did circulate many copies and received little if any marketing. Frankly, we were lucky to get them here in the West at all.

Why Releasing Games Outside of Japan is Difficult

Bandai does lack faith in Western markets when it comes to Gundam but there are also a variety of other obstacles that impede Gundam releases in the West. The logistics of releasing any game outside of your native country and in other markets can be demanding to say the least. Many notable franchises like Pokemon and Fire Emblem have some surprisingly good games that Gen X and Millenials missed out on because they were released exclusively in Japan.

Localization of a game for foreign audiences involves more than just putting all the text and audio transcripts through a translator. Entire game menus need to be overhauled, voice lines need to be rerecorded, and everything needs to be edited to ensure that cultural discrepancies don’t leave players confused.

This all takes time, effort, and money that a company may conclude will not be worth the return on sales generated in another market. It just makes more sense to roll out your initial release in a domestic market and then consider expanding it to others if you see potential after good sales.

Even if this is the case, Bandai and other foreign companies looking to release games in the West will need to consider how they will license their games and their franchise in general in other areas of the world which can easily turn into a Gordian knot of exclusivity contracts, different companies having licensing rights of the anime and games, bureaucratic red tape, and more. Many companies do not consider this worth the headache.

Barriers to exporting Gundam games aside, the franchise would experience another major hurdle as it only just gained a foothold in the West at the turn of the millennium.

The Decline of Japanese Dominance in Video Games

The 1980s to the very early aughts were a golden age for the Japanese gaming industry as companies like Nintendo, Sega, Capcom, Konami, and Bandai-Namco dominated the market. As we pushed into the aughts the era of Japanese dominance in the gaming industry would decline with major companies like Nintendo still holding major influence but losing their initial stranglehold over the market as a myriad of Western companies would arise and cut their own portions of the game industry pie.

Western game developers were able to make their mark by introducing their own fresh approaches to game design that appealed more to the much larger Western market. Games like Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Grand Theft Auto, Warcraft, and more arrived on the scene and changed the whole industry by introducing more immersive, realistic, cinematic, and explicit games.

Japan stagnated somewhat with a more conservative approach to game design. The West was bringing a more Hollywood sensibility that resonated with audiences while a lot of Japanese game devs were stuck within a much more conservative work culture that failed to evolve and innovate. That is not to say that there were not outliers like Hideo Kojima and Suda 51 that broke the mold but a lot of games coming from Japan at this time seemed to lag behind.

There was also the issue of the West having a significant edge in terms of development specialization. Japanese developers had an edge when it came to programming for consoles from Nintendo and Sony that originated in Japan but Western developers were more focused on PC. As the difference between programming for consoles vs PCs started to disappear in PC programming’s favor, Japanese developers were forced to catch up.

Gundam, Made in Japan

Mobile Suit Gundam games are exclusively made in Japan and therefore were a part of this decline in the 2000s. While Japanese games are beloved by many and make up a generous portion of the video game pantheon, they do have their own weaknesses as well.

In terms of the many Gundam games, the Japanese approach to their design was a double-edged sword. Japan excels at fighting games which works well with Gundam as seen with the Extreme Vs and Battle Assault series but their lack of immersion and weakness with shooters and military combat simulation has hurt the potential for Gundam in these popular genres.

Ultimately, the rigidity of Japanese game design is holding back Gundam from realizing its true potential. Adoption of some new approaches to adapting Gundam to games is something Bandai needs to seriously consider if it wants the franchise to develop more international appeal.

The Future of Gundam Games

Recent entries in not just the Gundam franchise but other new Mech-centric games have shown that Mobile Suit Gundam could carve itself a substantial niche in the massive Western games market. Gundam Evolution presents an optimistic although somewhat tragic case study of the potential for Gundam games in the West.

Gundam Evolution is Proof of Gundam’s Potential in the West

Gundam Evolution was a 2022 Mobile Suit Gundam-themed first-person hero shooter where players could choose to pilot different Gundams from various series each with unique traits and powers to battle in arenas. Comparisons between Gundam Evolution and other hero shooters such as Overwatch were immediately made leading to a torrent of curious players that filled its servers.

Reviews of the game were mixed with some outlets seeing the potential for the game to become a contender in the genre with enough support while others were more focused on the game's immediate state that left much to be desired in terms of balance and polish.

After the initial interest in the game waned, players started to become annoyed with persistent matchmaking issues, a lack of settings to calibrate, and poor balancing and design of the various mobile suit’s roles in the game which was made worse by the fact that several powerful mechs were locked behind a paywall.

Gundam Evolution proved that gamers in the West are at a point where they are more receptive to the franchise and that it could potentially be adapted well to more Western-dominated game genres like first-person shooters. This was still not enough to save the game brought down by a host of issues that could have been avoided had Gundam Evolution not come out quite as half-baked as it did.

Bandai’s Approach to Gundam Games

It is clear that Gundam Evolution as well as many other Gundam games were not given anywhere close to the same level of attention and care as other aspects of the franchise. This naturally leads to games that amount to little more than additional opportunities for the franchise to generate revenue by capitalizing on the recognizability of the brand.

Bandai-Namco has been able to get away with this when it comes to most of the other anime franchises they make games of since they are all battle shonen (anime for young men centered around combat between powerful characters). These are easily adapted to the fighting genre and very rarely anything else.

However, Gundam’s differences from most shonen provide opportunities for more interesting types of game adaptations. For example, real-time or turn-based strategy is one that quickly comes to mind and makes sense when you consider the franchise's major themes revolving around war.

Armored Core 6

This lack of commitment to cultivating more creative Gundam game adaptations that appeal beyond the core Japanese fandom is ironic given that Bandai has published one of the most internationally successful mech games in years.

2023’s Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon did well critically and financially both in Japan and the West and might be the best mech-focused game to come out this decade. What is more interesting is the popularity of Armored Core 6 mods that allow you to switch the cosmetic appearance of the game’s mechs to one of many iconic mobile suits from the Gundam franchise.

The international success of Armored Core 6 and the overlap of its fandom and that of Gundam is impossible for Bandai to ignore. The issue is that Armored Core 6’s success did not occur in a vacuum.

The game was brought to us by FromSoftware, inc. who have established themselves as one of the most acclaimed game developers in Japan, let alone the world with the Dark Souls franchise, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring, and of course Armored Core 6. It is also convenient that FromSoftware was also responsible for a decent 2012 Gundam Unicorn Game for the PS3 that, wouldn’t you know it, only released in Japan.

A lot of people bought Armored Core 6 due to its association with a game developer they came to love after playing the Dark Souls franchise. It is doubtful that the game would have sold as well without this association which is odd considering how Armored Core precedes Soulslike games by over a decade. Regardless of what brought them there, Armored Core 6 converted a lot of newcomers to the mecha genre and teed up Gundam nicely for Bandai in the West.

While this potential for success of Gundam games in the West is certainly attractive to Bandai, it stands in the shadow of their main objective which is to propagate the success of their main money maker which is Gunpla.

Gunpla > Gundam Games

While Bandai certainly has an interest in monetizing the Gundam brand with video games, it cares most about the tried and true profit generator of Mobile Suit Gundam which is Gunpla.

Much like Transformers which similarly originated in Japan, Gundam is a franchise that’s profits are mostly made up of sales from associated merchandise; specifically, toys and model kits.

In 2023, the Gundam franchise managed to make 131.3 billion yen which converts to around $976 million. About half of this near billion-dollar income came from sales of Gundam toys and model kits.

The word “Gunpla” is a portmanteau of “Gundam” and “Plastic Model (Plamo)” which refers to the highly successful Mobile Suit Gundam Model Kits based on various mobile suits from the franchise. The original Gundam anime was unsuccessful until the introduction of the first Gunpla kits which helped generate interest in the show.

To this day, many are initially exposed to Gundam not through anime or manga but through the highly detailed hobby model kits that have developed a culture all of their own. Gunpla is such a prominent part of the Gundam franchise that there are several anime devoted to Gunpla and the culture surrounding it.

There are currently 9 different Mobile Suit Gundam television series that feature fictional worlds where the Mobile Suit Gundam entertainment franchise not only exists but the fandom of said series in said fictional world, specifically Gunpla culture, is the main subject. The only other franchise that does anything close to this is Lego but that is another story.

Gundam Breaker and Gunpla

Of course, Gunpla’s influence is not limited to the anime but Gundam video games as well. The Gundam Breaker series is a hack-and-slash line of Gundam games that stand out due to their portrayal of the mobile suits in-game not as actual machines from the anime but as Gunpla the player customizes. The appropriately titled fifth entry in the series, Gundam Breaker 4, will be released in late 2024 and is positioned as Bandai’s biggest Gundam game release so far this decade.

Coincidentally, a major component of the Armored Core series’ gameplay is mech customization as well.

Currently, Gundam Breaker games are not half bad and have developed a small following in the West (and an expectedly large fanbase in Japan). While this is a step in the right direction, the Gundam Breaker games are still a bit clunky in terms of their combat and customization. Compared to Armored Core 6 and Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs., the combat lacks the same speed and fluidity of movement.

The customization also lacks depth and mostly amounts to mashing together large limbs and parts of notable mobile suits to poor effect. The intent is to emulate kitbashing which is the practice of using parts from multiple kits to build a custom unique model. Kitbashing has resulted in some phenomenal models whose designs rival those of the actual designers of the franchise's canon mobile suits. It turns out that model kit hobbyists tend to be rather creative which is something Gundam games should encourage.

We have seen that games that give players the tools to indulge their creativity tend to do incredibly well. Minecraft, Roblox, The Sims, Terraria, Animal Crossing, Lego, and Armored Core are examples of highly successful game franchises that exemplify this. Players feel a sense of ownership over what they create in their games which in turn creates emotional connections.

Players with this level of personal investment in a game have more loyalty and positive feelings that keep them coming back which can build lasting success.

Bandai Needs to Act Fast

Mobile Suit Gundam is poised to make a splash in the West if it manages to overcome the obstacles that have historically impeded the franchise. If Bandai takes advantage of Gundam’s propensity for creative expression while delivering gameplay that breaks free of rigid Japanese design principles, they could make a game that achieves international acclaim instead of just in Japan amongst its fanbase stronghold.

On the other hand, Bandai is likely to not change anything about its approach and will continue to maintain its steady course with priority in Asia where it can play it safe while cautiously making little forays into the international market on the side that will increase gradually.

No matter what they do, the hunger for mech games is there and will be satisfied regardless of their involvement.

The Gundam Game We Want May Not Have Gundam in the Title

Games like Mecha Break from China are already capitalizing on this international desire for a better Gundam game. Mecha Break aims to build on the success of Armored Core by providing an accessible yet engaging mech combat game with mechs that are extremely similar to the Gundam’s iconic mobile suits without having to deal with any of the baggage attached to the franchise.

Gundam fans are realizing that they do not have to wait for Bandai to release a good Gundam game and can instead make their own mechs and stories free from any constraints the franchise may normally impose.

It is looking more and more like the question of “Why aren’t Gundam games more popular in the West?” will become unnecessary as other mech games will rise to the occasion and occupy the distinctly Gundam-shaped hole in the Western games market.