Japan has never mattered.

I think the thread-starter is equating EXTREME graphics with 1337 gaming and thus only considering PS360 to be "TRUE NEXT GEN." I'm assuming that he's assuming that if both the PS3 and the 360 fail in Japan, it's due to some fault of Japan's and not due to faults of Sony and Microsoft, who are failing to make a stand against Nintendo's current domination of Japan. Japan definitely matters. With such a small population they still buy an assload of games and systems. The % of Japanese people who play games is higher than America, that's for damn sure. I don't know the exact numbers though, and I'm too lazy to calculate them.

It is well-known that threeve out of eleventeen Japanese residents regularly purchase and play video games.

I hope Japan stays important, they make 90% of the games I buy. ;_;

If western gaming takes over completely, I'll have nothing to play. ;_;

@vanguardian
7 more posts and you're 1000!!! YAY!

I am flabergasted that you or anyone would believe that the future of gaming is violence. You repeatedly assert that HD gore is turning off the Japanease. I hate to inform you but it is america the Fetishises violence. This obseesion is is what makes FPS games sucessful here and not so much elsewhere.


No matter how much Japan turns accepts 'casual' games does not make them irrelivent. Look at the sales of games liek Mario Party 8. You may not like it but that is a Next-Gen game on a Next-Gen system which has sold millions of copies all over the world and will spur more developers to immitate it.

Now I admit that because of Megacompanines like EA America enjoys far more games suited t oits tastes than ever. There was a point when we just ate what was translated from Japan. We now have two distict market tastes forming. But the Japaneasse market will never go the other way where they just consume American gmaing product.

I fail to see how any type of game for any type of system shouldn't count or is indicitive of people buying games less frequently. I have purchased ten 'casual' games for my Wii this year.

I'd love to see more of the 'quirky' Japanese games over here in the West.

I think the question "Will Japan matter?" is an interesting one and I think Japan will always matter to some degree but that it will be less and less as time goes on.  The reason I believe this is because of game budgets and the way they increase with each generation of consoles.  I know that "Wii" will likely be the first word on some people's lips but that is a system that slows down the trend, it's not going to stop it.  Eventually there will be a successor to the Wii that will likely be HD and more powerful and the same with the successor to that system. 

Now the reason why game budgets are important when talking about Japan's future position in videogames is because a game with a large game budget requires a lot of sales to break even and that will likely cause problems for many Japanese developers wishing to make Japanese-centric games that appeal mainly to Japanese customers.  This likely won't be a problem for Western developers who's Western-centric games have a large enough audience outside of Japan giving them a better chance of recovering their cost.  So it's likely that there will be some kind of shake up in Japan in the future and the number of Japanese publishers and Japanese-centric games will drop.

This leads me to something I remember from an episode of Bonus Round on Gametrailers in which they talk about Western games doing poorly in Japan compared to Japanese ones.  It mainly came down to the differences in culture between Japan and the West and how violence is perceived in them.  Someone then asked the question: "But why do American movies do so well there then?" and it was answered by someone with a lot of knowledge of Japanese culture with "Because American movies have the biggest budgets that other countries simply can't compete with".*  I think that something similar will happen with videogames as well, probably not to the extent of Hollywood movies but it will still be significant.

*Not the exact question and answer but very close, I'm too lazy to go look up their exact phrasing.