areseris said:
I think the problem is that most people aren't reading the title correctly. They see gaming and think "only" consoles. Many of which weren't around for the Atari and pre-Atari so they think gaming = japan (which is understandable if you're young). You have to look at the whole body of work... not just the last 5, 10, 20 years... keep going. And look at every type of "video" gaming. What about PC/Mac gaming? What about arcade gaming? even console and handheld gaming. None of it started in japan. What about almost every gaming genre we have today? FPS, RTS, RPG, MMO games, Platformer, Adventure, Sports, Sim games, Race & Flight sims, etc.... Also didn't start in japan. A lot of young gamers like to referrence the "video game crash" and how thank god Japan saved us all from doom and gloom. You obviously didn't live during those times because PC gaming exploded when the console crash happened. PC developers flurished with ideas, creating all the genres that modern day gamers enjoy today. Seeing as how almost every innovation that console gaming gets each new generation has come from PC gaming, I can't see how anyone would say Japan has contibuted the most. Digital Distribution.... again, not japanese. Cloud computing (the eventual future of gaming)... also not japanese. I don't see how creating almost everything associated with "gaming" could put you in 2nd place. And for those that love to post sales, you're forgetting that PC sales aren't tracked here, Mac gaming sales aren't tracked, nor are digital distribution sites like Steam, Impulse, Direct2Drive, iTunes (iPhone/iTunes gaming), etc. PC/Mac gaming is ruled by US/Canada & Europe but weren't not seeing how much of an impact they truly have on overall game sales. Not that sales are a big deal anyway. Sales do not = contribution to gaming history (imo at least). Looking Glass Studios is one of the biggest contributors to gaming imho, and all of their games sold like poo. Now has Japan contibuted a lot to gaming? Of course! They've come up with great games and great mascots that millions of people love. But imo, they're definitaly second. UK third, Canada fourth, France & German & south Korea have also contributed a lot so they get honorable mention. |
it even goes beyond that my friend. Sorry but the Sales = contrubution argument is very weak or you don't see what the thread is about. Of course games like Mario and Zelda and GT are huge sellers when you got Nintendo and Sony dominating the console market for more than 20 years and bundling the hell out of Mario and GT.
Most if not all the technologies behind gaming (which the game industry being built on now) are US driven every single CPU GPU and Motherboard in almost every mainstream Japanese console is created and developed originally by US minds. Japan give us a lot of great games that's true, but guys like Miyamoto wouldn't even been able to make everything they wanted without the US companies driving the industry and the technology forward, companies like IBM, Intel, AMD, ATI and Nvidia to name a few.
I'll go as far as saying if it weren't for the US I would say that gaming (and a lot of other industries) would probably be 20 years behind by now.
The last thing I'll say is think about any invention you think came from Japan then look it up and do your research 9 times out of 10 you'll find it's based on a US Idea, Invention, Creation.
