Are JRPGs important anymore?

[Dodece]

@Jordahn

You perhaps are unaware of massive multiplayer online role playing games. Which actually exceed twenty million users globally. While generating large profits based upon subscription models. Probably a market that dwarfs the traditional JRPG market at this time. You must understand that this genre is paradoxically counter to your claims.

When these twenty million or so gamers play these games they typically spend months or even years playing them. That hardly seems like instant gratification in fact in comparison a JRPG is instant gratification since they can be pounded out in a few weeks.

Just look at the current sales trends thus far this generation. This site tracks Oblivion at over three million sold. This site tracks Mass Effect at over two million sold, and both estimates are probably on the light side since PC sales of these games are not being tracked. Oblivion has even scored 150,000 units sold in Japan. Which is actually on par with most console JRPGs released this generation in the region.

Instant gratification is merely a cop out if anything the majority of role playing gamers have gotten even more hardcore. This is not just about my taste it is about the tastes of the majority of gamers that play role playing games. They prefer large worlds with freedoms of choice. That is part of why the massive market is so damned huge. No worlds are more massive.