Spent about 10 days in Japan, mostly in Tokyo, it's really an eye opener to see how different the Japanese game industry is.
Just my overall impressions:
- Japan is pretty much a smartphone crazed marketplace. I rarely took any taxis anywhere so I was on the subway/metro basically the entire trip, several times a day. And yes while I did see 3DS and a couple of Vita sightings ... overwhelmingly what you'll see on a typical Japanese train are smartphones and some tablets ... everywhere. It's kinda of surreal as Japanese trains are very quiet too, and most people glued to their smartphone. Also seeing business suits asleep on a train is fairly common.
Apple is the no.1 brand it seems, with Sony no.2. Samsung oddly is very absent, guess the Japanese don't take to Western/Korean products. There's also a flip phone that seems popular with older Japanese, maybe who haven't taken to the touch only brands. The most gaming centric handhelds I saw in one place was at DisneySea Tokyo with kids.
- Had dinner at night in the Roponngi Hills area, from my restaurant I had a direct view of the Konami HQ building. Kinda bittersweet given their new direction.
- What was the most common game brand I saw in Japan? Not Nintendo. Not Square-Enix. Not Capcom. SEGA. Yes ... SEGA, oddly. Big time. But not in the way you'd expect. The bright red, huge SEGA arcades are eveywhere in Tokyo. Arcades are still huge in Japan. It's kinda cool actually. Arcades in Japan are typically multi-floor buildings, so get ready to walk up and down some (usually narrow) stairs unless you take an elevator. It was just kinda bizarre seeing the SEGA brand everywhere in Japan, since their consoles were never that big there to begin with. The Sega Joypolis theme facility in Odaiba has a massive Sonic Carnival area with tons of Sonci merchandise. In a weird way it felt like stepping back into some 1993-era fantasy world. Packchino (?) Slot/Gambling areas are everywhere in Japan too, usually adjacent to the arcade areas. It's like some weird hybrid of Las Vegas and an 80s game arcade.
- Arcades have areas specifically for girls/women that are sponsored by (from what I could tell) cosmetic companies. These areas let girls do things like change their hair color/try different hair styles.
- Yokai Watch merchandise is everywhere from 7-11 to Sega Joypolis to corner stores. It's really huge there.
- The Japanese love their Disney. And Apple. Big time. Also Star Wars seemed to be everywhere when I was there, there's a Star Wars exhibit going on in Tokyo, but one of the main Japanese airlines has a Star Wars promotion that has Chewbacca, R2, and 3PO in their TV spots.
- Nintendo actually markets quite a bit in Japan. I saw three Splatoon commercials during "mainstream" Japanese programming (some soap opera type thing) and once on one of the LCD ad screens on one of my subway trains.
- The Japanese game stores are pretty cool, but pretty cramped too and are multi-floored. Was really tempted to buy one of the white/grey New 3DS' with the Famicom buttons but I held off. Xenoblade for the Wii U too. Also used systems galore ... saw rows of used white PS4s that you could have for a nice discount over a new model for example.
- Never really been a huge Pokemon fan, but the Pokemon Center theme store in Tokyo (Sunshine City) is pretty awesome. Tons of stuffed Pokemon as far as the eye can see.
