Same, I don't see the change in Japanese gamers' tastes. Except for the huge shift to handhelds, and those handhelds are stock full of the games previously on the consoles.
Then again it's not just the portability of the handhelds (though convenience is a factor) but this gen introduced one wildly popular console whose controls and marketing direction focused on different things, one very expensive console that failed to deliver their games for years and a Western console that got the push when it put some games of interest to them.
Western-oriented games still do very little in Japan, and while the game market there might be getting smaller, be it aging population, economic difficulties or other factors, it hasn't shrunk too significantly when handhelds are taken into account. The importance of Japan in the industry has lessened a lot but that is mainly due to the expanding market outside of Japan, and the competition Western developers have shown.
And my point is that the huge majority of tries to restyle games to appeal to Western gamers will fail against the Western competition, and then they'd lose both crowds.
Existing User Log In
New User Registration
Register for a free account to gain full access to the VGChartz Network and join our thriving community.
