| woopah said: http://www.asianweek.com/2008/12/06/what-is-wrong-with-japanese-game-development/
Malaise strikes Japan as gaming market shifts towards the West Since Nintendo conquered American living rooms with the NES, studios from Japan have largely dominated game development. So it is a bit of a shock that they have fared somewhat poorly in recent years, declining steadily even as the industry enjoys unprecedented growth. Are we talking decline in terms of revenue, in terms of quality, or in terms of profits? The second one is too subjective (see, e.g., Mr. Stickball posts). The first one I believe is true, but then again Japanese developers are focusing on the $30-40 handhelds, not the $60 HD games, like their Western counterparts. And in terms of profits, I'm sure the Japanese are down, but the Westerners are down much, much more... Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Shimbun last week dubbed the decline “The Melancholy of Cool Japan”; meanwhile gamers worldwide have shifted their attentions elsewhere, making Western giants EA and Activision-Blizzard the kings of the video game heap. Nintendo... How did Japanese game developers lose the hearts and minds of a consumer base renowned for its loyalty? Er...wat? The most damaging reason has been Japan’s inability to evolve alongside the rest of the gaming industry. The success of the preposterously popular Nintendo Wii is spurred on by mostly casual consumers, whose tendency to buy few games has damaged the financial prospects of third-party developers on that system. A modicum of proof for either statement, please. And a definition of terms, if you don't mind. Meanwhile, the American hardcore — who buy games at a rate that pleases publishers — have largely flocked towards the Microsoft’s Xbox 360, a platform that receives relatively little support from Japanese developers. So it is the American hardcore gamer that now define what's wrong with game development? I'll buy that, actually, but not for the same reason as the author... Microsoft’s success can be attributed to third-party support and its streamlined online service, Xbox Live. Perhaps because of Japanese gamers’ overall disinterest with online multiplayer games, Sony and Nintendo consoles have been slow to keep up with Live, and the sometimes-clunky interface found in the PS3 and Wii platforms have damaged their chances to attract the American hardcore. ..... Please define "Microsoft's success." If you mean pleasing the American "hardcore" gamer, which the article seems to, then I suppose you've got a point. A silly, useless point, but still a point. The success of the American-made console has also resulted in the primacy of genres more suited to Western audiences, particularly first- and third-person shooters, categories unpopular amongst Japanese developers. Er...didn't that type of thing start last generation? And haven't the PCs been propelling that around for a while? Japanese titles in the Role Playing Game genre, which enjoyed immense popularity on previous console generations, have been largely ignored by American consumers, who eschew the long-haired, emotionally fragile protagonists of those games for the musclebound, bald space marines omnipresent in shooters. Well, at least he's willing to stereotype both ways. Although the "long-haired, emotionally fragile protaganist" part did make me smile. The company most crucial to the JRPG’s popularity, Square-Enix, has spent the past few years capitalizing on the nostalgia of aging gamers by remaking classics like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IV for handheld platforms; meanwhile, its current-gen RPG offerings (Infinite Undiscovery, The Last Remnant) received an unenthusiastic reception from Western consumers. And Japanese ones...which is kind of important...and detrimental to the author's thesis... Perhaps most shockingly, the most notable RPGs of this generation — Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Fallout 3 — have come not from Japan, but from Western studios, an astonishing development in a genre dominated by the East only a few years ago. The most notable RPGs of last generation were Morrowind, KOTOR, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest. Bethesda and BioWare have released their RPGs so far, Squeenix hasn't. Premature? The doom and gloom does not extend over all Japanese studios, however. Capcom’s Western-influenced Resident Evil 5, for instance, is sure to sell well on these shores, and Konami scored a major hit with Metal Gear Solid 4, which was designed with Western audiences in mind. Innovative titles from visionaries like Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Grasshopper’s Suda 51 (who was profiled in this column last week) mean that American gamers ignore Japan at their own risk. Last sentence contradicts rest of article. Last sentence is more accurate than rest of article. But the Japanese gaming industry is declining, and unless more companies from that country make effective efforts to keep up with Western audiences, that trend looks unlikely to change. Alternatively, they can take Nintendo's path, and start trying to entice people beyond the 13-25 male. Or they can do the same-old, and then watch in shock as the demographics change that Japan's feeling right now spreads to the Western world a decade or two from now. Their call. |
And I'm not even that big a fan of the "Japanese" vs. "Western" split.
